Latest news with #BassamAlHassan
Arab News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Ex-Syrian commander claims Assad ordered execution of missing US journalist Tice: BBC
LONDON: A former Syrian commander who allegedly oversaw the detention of missing American journalist Austin Tice claims that ex-President Bashar Assad personally ordered Tice's execution, according to a BBC investigation released over the weekend. The report centers on Maj. Gen. Bassam al-Hassan, a former commander in the elite Republican Guard and one of Assad's most trusted advisers. According to the BBC, Hassan spoke to FBI and CIA officials about Tice's fate during at least three meetings in Lebanon, one of which reportedly took place inside the US embassy compound. Hassan, who also served as chief of staff of the National Defense Forces — a pro-regime paramilitary group previously linked by the BBC to Tice's abduction — allegedly oversaw the facility where the journalist was held. Sources close to Hassan said that in 2013, following Tice's brief escape attempt, he was instructed to execute him. According to the sources, Hassan initially sought to dissuade Assad but ultimately relayed the order, which was then carried out. The detail of Tice's escape attempt aligns with prior reports, including a Reuters investigation citing witnesses who recalled seeing 'an American man, dressed in ragged clothing' attempting to escape through the streets of Damascus' upscale Mazzeh neighborhood — believed to be Tice's final sighting. Tice disappeared in August 2012 while reporting on Syria's civil war in the Damascus suburbs, just days after his 31st birthday. A former US Marine captain who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tice was working as a freelance journalist while studying for a law degree at Georgetown University. He was abducted while preparing to leave the country to go to Lebanon. For years, the Assad regime has denied any knowledge of Tice's whereabouts or involvement in his disappearance. However, the BBC previously reported that classified documents obtained during its investigation supported long-standing suspicions by US authorities that Damascus was directly involved. The latest investigation suggests that Tice was held in the notorious Tahouneh prison, a regime-controlled facility in Damascus. Hassan is also said to have provided the US officials with possible locations for Tice's remains, though efforts to verify his claims are ongoing. 'There is not anything, at least at this time, to corroborate what (Hassan) is saying,' a source familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post. 'The flip side of it is, with his role in the regime, it's hard to understand why he would want to lie about something like that.' Despite the recent developments, skepticism persists. Western intelligence officials expressed doubt that Assad would have issued a direct kill order, noting that the Syrian president typically relies on intermediaries to insulate himself from such decisions. Speaking to the BBC during a recent trip to Lebanon, Tice's mother, Debra Tice, said she believed Hassan may have told US officials 'a story they wanted to hear' to help close the case. 'I am his mother. I still believe that my son is alive and that he will walk free,' she said. A former NDF member also told the BBC that Tice was viewed as a valuable bargaining chip for possible negotiations with Washington. According to the report, Hassan fled to Iran following the collapse of the Syrian regime in December. He was later contacted by phone and invited to Lebanon to meet US officials, who assured him he would not be detained. The BBC revelations come on the heels of an interview published by The Economist with Safwan Bahloul, a three-star general who previously served in Syria's external intelligence agency and was tasked with interrogating Tice. Bahloul, who speaks fluent English and has lived in Britain, said Hassan assigned him to question Tice and handed him the American's iPhone. His mission was to determine whether Tice was 'merely a journalist' or 'an American spy.' Bahloul also said Hassan orchestrated the recording of a video, released on YouTube in September 2012, that showed Tice blindfolded and surrounded by armed men. US intelligence later concluded that the video had been staged by the regime to suggest that Tice was being held by Islamic militants.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
US journalist Austin Tice was executed, claims ex-Syria commander
The man accused of being responsible for holding the missing American journalist Austin Tice has claimed that ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ordered his execution, security sources have told the General Bassam Al Hassan is a former commander in the Republican Guards who was part of President Assad's inner circle. He was also the Chief of Staff of the National Defence Forces (NDF), the paramilitary group that a BBC investigation uncovered was responsible for holding Mr Tice after his abduction in discovery was made as part of an upcoming BBC Radio 4 podcast about the disappearance of Austin American journalist vanished near the Syrian capital of Damascus in August 2012, just days after his 31st birthday. He had been working as a freelance journalist and was leaving Syria when he was abducted. The fallen regime consistently denied knowing of his whereabouts - the BBC investigation showed that was false and that Mr Tice was being held in Hassan, who is subject to UK, EU, Canadian and US sanctions, oversaw the facility where Mr Tice was held. Earlier this year, he is said to have met with US law enforcement at least three times in Lebanon. Sources claim that at least one of those meetings was in the US embassy complex. During these conversations, he is said to have told investigators from the FBI and CIA that the now-ousted President Assad ordered the execution of missing American journalist Austin Tice. Sources familiar with the conversations told the BBC that Al Hassan claims to have initially tried to dissuade President Assad from killing Mr Tice, but that he eventually passed on this order and that it was carried out. Al Hassan is also understood to have provided possible locations for the journalist's body. Sources familiar with the FBI investigation have said that efforts to confirm the validity of Al Hassan's claims are ongoing, and that a search is intended to happen of the sites where Mr Tice's body could intelligence sources familiar with the details of Al Hassan's claim that President Assad gave the order to kill Mr Tice are sceptical that he would directly give such an instruction, as he is known for having mechanisms for distancing himself from such BBC accompanied Mr Tice's mother, Debra, to Beirut as the 13th anniversary of her son's disappearance approaches. Upon finding out that Bassam al Hassan had spoken to US officials, Debra Tice attempted to meet with Al Hassan herself and contacted the US embassy requesting assistance. She told the BBC: "I just want to be able to speak to him as a mother and ask him about my son." Her attempt to meet with Al Hassan was asked about the claims by Al Hassan, she said her feeling was that he "fed the FBI a story that they wanted to hear" to help them close the Tice has led a tireless and determined campaign to bring her son home and remains committed to finding him. She told the BBC: "I am his mother, I still believe that my son is alive and that he will walk free."Separately, a former member of the NDF with intimate knowledge of Austin Tice's detention told the BBC "that Austin's value was understood" and that he was a "card" that could be played in diplomatic negotiations with the Al Hassan was considered one of President Assad's most trusted advisors. After the Syrian regime's collapse in December, Mr Al Hassan had fled to Iran. Sources close to him have told the BBC that while in Iran, Al Hassan received a phone call and was asked to come to Lebanon to meet with US officials. It is believed that he was given assurances that he would not be years, consecutive US presidents have said that Mr Tice, a former US Marine captain, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a law student at the prestigious Georgetown University in Washington, was alive. In December 2024, then President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that "we believe he's alive," and that "we think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet".
