{"id":1458377,"date":"2022-04-29T15:45:01","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T19:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458377"},"modified":"2022-04-29T15:45:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T19:45:04","slug":"how-the-biden-admin-is-protecting-syrias-assad-from-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-the-biden-admin-is-protecting-syrias-assad-from-sanctions\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Biden Admin Is Protecting Syria\u2019s Assad From Sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-the-biden-admin-is-protecting-syrias-assad-from-sanctions%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458377&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/\">National Security<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Congressional report on Assad finances &#8216;late, lackadaisical, riddled with errors&#8217;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tSyrian president Bashar al-Assad \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/adam-kredo\/\" title=\"Posts by Adam Kredo\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Adam Kredo<\/a> \u2022 April 29, 2022 3:30 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Biden administration is trying to shield Syrian president Bashar al Assad from sanctions via a congressionally mandated report, according to lawmakers who say it is &#8220;late, lackadaisical, and riddled with errors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The State Department was required on Tuesday to issue a report to Congress detailing the Syrian dictator\u2019s financial empire but failed to meet that deadline. After requests for information on the report from the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> and a pressure campaign from Republican foreign policy leaders, the State Department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/report-to-congress-on-the-estimated-net-worth-and-known-sources-of-income-of-syrian-president-bashar-assad-and-his-family-members-section-6507-of-the-national-defense-authorization-act-for-fiscal-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">posted<\/a> the report late Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The final report contained several errors, little-to-no new information about Assad\u2019s empire, and left Republican lawmakers livid over what they say is the Biden administration\u2019s bid to withhold critical information that could help Congress craft sanctions on Assad\u2019s family and financial allies, including his benefactors in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the report&#8217;s release, Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> that the Biden administration was withholding the report in order to avoid irritating Iran amid negotiations over a new nuclear agreement. They expected the report, which was legally mandated in bipartisan legislation passed last year, to provide details on Assad that would help Congress target the illicit financial channels that have enabled the dictator\u2019s mass human rights crimes in Syria.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What was released was late, lackadaisical, and riddled with errors,&#8221; Rep. Pat Fallon (R., Texas), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;One cannot help but to think that this may have something to do with the erroneous negotiations taking place with Iran.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fallon said the administration\u2019s &#8220;trend of failing to apply the rule of law to its fullest degree to terrorist regimes such as this is deeply troubling&#8221; and called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to &#8220;immediately issue a full and robust\u00a0report.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The report\u2019s inadequacies are fueling concerns about the Biden administration\u2019s efforts to roll back pressure on Assad and legitimize his regime. The administration has already <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/biden-admin-seeks-to-waive-sanctions-on-assad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">floated plans<\/a> to unwind sanctions on Assad to facilitate an energy deal with Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. Lawmakers expected the report would unmask the financial pipelines that connect Assad and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.), who authored the provision mandating the report, told the <em>Free Beacon <\/em>it is clear the State Department rushed to publication and omitted information on the Assad regime\u2019s illicit drug trade.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not only did the Department of State fail to deliver the report on time, but when it finally did deliver it, the report was clearly rushed,&#8221; Tenney said. &#8220;I am particularly disappointed that it did not discuss at length the Assad regime\u2019s increasing involvement in drug trafficking through the illicit Captagon trade, which is generating increasing revenue for the Assad regime and its proxies, such as Hezbollah. The Department undoubtedly could, and should, have comprised a much more comprehensive report on Assad\u2019s illicit and corrupt activities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Captagon, an illicit amphetamine, has been a prime source of revenue for Assad and his family members. While the report notes that Assad\u2019s brother, Maher, is involved in the &#8220;smuggling of the amphetamine captagon,&#8221; it does not provide any details about these networks and relies only on material that has already been published.<\/p>\n<p>A majority of the report relies only on &#8220;open-source information&#8221; published in the media and by NGOs. While a classified annex accompanies the report, lawmakers and senior congressional sources who spoke to the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> said the State Department\u2019s reliance on previously published information shows that it spent very little time researching the report and fulfilling the law.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It seems they began writing this report 9 a.m. the day after it was due just to get it done,&#8221; said one senior Republican congressional official who works on foreign policy issues. &#8220;They did such a bad job on it that they are basically sheltering Assad and his wealth. There are much better reports out there in the open source by reporters and journalists with information about the Assad family\u2019s wealth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The report pegs the Assad family\u2019s net worth at around $1 to $2 billion but claims &#8220;this is an inexact estimate which the [State] Department is unable to independently corroborate.&#8221; Several paragraphs later, the report claims that Assad\u2019s cousin, Rami Makhlouf, is worth $5 to $10 billion\u2014a discrepancy that was immediately noted by Republican lawmakers who reviewed the report.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m disappointed that the report was, at best, the bare minimum of what was required,&#8221; Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;Sadly, this is a weak, sloppy, and clearly rushed report that shelters the Assad regime from scrutiny.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Former Trump administration officials also took aim at the final report.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don\u2019t see anything substantial or new here,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MatthewZweig1\/status\/1520028381571600388\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tweeted<\/a> Matthew Zweig, who served as the senior sanctions adviser in the Office of the Special Representative for Syria Engagement. &#8220;The Assad wealth report is a missed opportunity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Security Congressional report on Assad finances &#8216;late, lackadaisical, riddled with errors&#8217;  Syrian president Bashar al-Assad \/ Getty Images  Adam Kredo \u2022 April 29, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}