As part of a years-long investigation featured in the new BBC podcast: Where is Austin Tice? the BBC has reviewed a detailed record of a meeting between Hassan, FBI and CIA representatives, and Lebanese security officials, where Tice’s case is discussed.
In it, Hassan is offered “residency”, “protection” and help securing his “living needs” in return for information, primarily about Tice.
Sources with knowledge of the arrangement confirmed this was the case, and described to us how Hassan receives money from the US authorities through an intermediary, making it harder to trace. Hassan is sanctioned by the US government.
Yet people connected to the Tice investigation say they have seen little evidence it has significantly advanced since Hassan began providing information as part of this agreement. The deal is believed to have been struck in the spring of 2025.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation have expressed concerns that Hassan’s arrangement with the US could continue indefinitely, at significant expense but with little gain.
Hassan is not the only Syrian regime official whose connection to the Tice case has seemingly afforded him financial payments or assistance for living abroad.
One former regime member said he had received money from the FBI multiple times in exchange for his co-operation on Tice’s case. It was “not in his interest to share all the information all at once,” he told the BBC, “in order to be able to drag out how long he can continue to receive payments from them [the US authorities]”.
Another former regime member connected to the Tice case claimed he was living in Lebanon under the “patronage” of the US authorities, citing this as the reason he could not speak to us about Tice.
The BBC spoke to a former senior Lebanese intelligence official who confirmed that Lebanese intelligence does have arrangements with the Americans, and that these types of payments have and do take place when both agencies have overlap in cases, but said he had no knowledge of payments involving the Tice case.
