Sources consulted by NR are split on whether State delegated it to an intern or to a graduate-school-level analyst.
Sources consulted by NR are split on whether State delegated it to an intern or to a graduate-school-level analyst.
A fter initially ignoring a congressionally mandated deadline, the State Department publicly released a report detailing the net worth and illicit-business practices of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his family yesterday. But some GOP officials and Syria experts suspect that State only started working on the report amid public pressure that crested after the deadline had passed — and that the final product is full of potential errors.
Although the report states that the total net worth of the Assad family is approximately $1–2 billion, it also asserts that the total wealth of one specific Assad family member, Rami Makhlouf, is around $5–10 billion. This apparent discrepancy suggests that the report was not thoroughly vetted before publication.
Representative Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) proposed the Assad wealth-report provision, which passed as part of last year’s National Defense Authorization Act. The measure required the State Department to publish a publicly accessible version of the law by Tuesday.
“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,” Tenney told National Review, also pointing out that it made only a glancing mention of the Assad regime’s involvement in the mass production of an illicit drug called Captagon, which the Syrian military and Hezbollah sell in large quantities. “The Department undoubtedly could, and should, have comprised a much more comprehensive report on Assad’s illicit and corrupt activities,” Tenney added.
Earlier this week, lawmakers and experts plugged into Syria-related issues said they suspected that the State Department declined to release the Assad wealth report out of a desire not to disrupt the ongoing Iran nuclear negotiations, as the Syrian regime is a key Iranian proxy. But State seemingly caved to pressure from lawmakers, such as Representative Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), who tweeted about the forthcoming report on Monday, and from media scrutiny.
Even State’s most trenchant critics are still encouraged by the fact that there is now an official U.S. government assessment of the extent of the Assad family’s wealth — official acknowledgment of wealth amassed by a kleptocratic business empire in Syria. The report also details some of the dealings of Assad’s cousins, such as Makhlouf, who reportedly play a key role in running major industries in the country, such as telecoms.
But that’s where their praise for State’s work ends. The report is notably brief, clocking in at just under 2,000 words, and repeatedly cites media reports.
“Was this written by an intern who cribbed from Google?” asked a senior GOP staffer, who also pointed out that a 2012 article in the Guardian, which appeared in some search results about Assad’s net worth, estimated that figure to be in the range of $1–1.5 billion.
Karam Shaar, a Syria watcher and nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute, told NR that he suspected that State had delegated the report to a “graduate analyst” at the last minute, instead of to a team of more seasoned staffers. “I wouldn’t even call it a report,” he said, adding that it is “just a commentary.”
Regarding the apparent discrepancy on the Assad family’s total wealth, Shaar said that although it is possible that State treated Makhlouf’s net worth separately, the wording of the law indicates that any discussion of his wealth would still be treated under that of the broader Assad family. (Makhlouf had a falling out with Assad in recent years.)
Shaar also noted a significant omission. In a section that discusses Syriatel, a telecoms company in Syria, the report mentions that the Damascus Securities Exchange suspended trading of the company’s shares. It fails to add, however, that trading in Syriatel shares has since resumed.
Over the course of multiple email exchanges with National Review, a State Department spokesperson did not provide comment on the reason for the report’s delay, the potential errors it contains, or when the department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs began working on it.
One additional aspect of the Syrian regime’s corruption that the report failed to mention is the Assad family’s connections to illicit-finance networks in Russia. Makhlouf in particular is reported to have real-estate holdings in Moscow. Representative Joe Wilson, ahead of the report’s release, told NR that it “may shed light on the Assad regime’s dealings with Vladimir Putin in Russia and oligarchs connected to his regime.”
Although the administration has made a concerted effort to go after authoritarian kleptocracy, particularly in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, it may have once again let what it describes as a critical strategic priority be overtaken by its negotiations with Tehran.