Eli Lake, Columnist

The Syrian Defector Who Got Congress to Act

Six years after he smuggled out photos of the regime’s atrocities, the U.S. will impose new sanctions.

December 18, 2019 at 2:30 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Caesar testifies before Congress, July 2014. — Caesar testifies before Congress, July 2014.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images North America

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For anyone looking to prevent Syria’s Bashar al-Assad from securing a final victory in the civil war he started in 2011, it has been a dispiriting few months.

President Donald Trump abruptly ordered a full withdrawal of U.S. forces in northern Syria in October, and then gave a green light to Turkey to occupy the territory. Even though the U.S. sent troops back to guard Syria’s oil fields a few days later, the president’s declaration that he was ending the “endless war” in Syria was a boon to Syria’s strongman and his Russian and Iranian patrons.