Joby Warrick - Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and Americas Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general

Susana Malcorra, UN Secretariat chef de cabinet

Angela Kane, UN high representative for disarmament affairs

Ahmet zumc, OPCW director-general

ke Sellstrm, scientist, leader of August 2013 Syria investigation

Scott Cairns, Sellstrm mission and OPCW team leader

Diarmuid ODonovan, security adviser to Sellstrm, Joint Mission teams

Sigrid Kaag, special coordinator, OPCW-UN Joint Mission to Syria

Julian Tangaere, Joint Mission deputy leader, OPCW operations chief

Abdullah Fadil, Joint Mission deputy leader, UN official

Jerry Smith, head of field operations, Joint Mission

Edmond Mulet, head of OPCW/UN Joint Investigative Mechanism

Barack Obama, president, 20092017

Donald J. Trump, president, 20172021

Susan Rice, national security adviser

Benjamin Rhodes, deputy national security adviser

Tony Blinken, deputy national security adviser

Denis McDonough, chief of staff

Laura Holgate, senior director on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) terrorism, NSC

John Bolton, national security adviser

Chuck Hagel, Defense Secretary

Ash Carter, Deputy Defense Secretary

Major Gen. Jay Santee, deputy director, Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Col. John D. Cinnamon, chief of plans, DTRA

Andrew C. Weber, assistant secretary for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs

Rebecca Hersman, deputy assistant secretary for countering weapons of mass destruction

Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of the coalition against ISIS in Syria and Iraq

Gen. Joe Votel, commander, U.S. Special Operations command

Gen. James Mattis, Defense Secretary

John F. Kerry, Secretary of State

Thomas Countryman, assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation

Robert Ford, U.S. Ambassador to Syria

Samantha Power, UN ambassador

Wael Alzayat, senior policy adviser to UN ambassador

Brett McGurk, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS

Tim Blades, director of operations, Chemical Biological Application and Risk Reduction

Rick Jordan, master mariner and captain, MV Cape Ray

Navy Capt. Richard Dromerhauser, mission leader and commodore, MV Cape Ray

Vladimir Putin, president, Russian Federation

Qasem Soleimani, commander, Quds Force, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian supreme leader

Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi prime minister

Torben Mikkelsen, Danish naval commodore in charge of maritime task force to Syria

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, commander, WMD defense regiment, UK (ret.)

Vitaly Churkin, Russian UN ambassador

Azamat Kulmuhametov, Russian ambassador to Syria

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, caliph and commander, Islamic State

Suleiman al-Afari, Islamic State chemical weapons scientist

Basil Hassan, ISIS coordinator of Australian airliner plot

Khaled Khayat, leader of Australian airliner plot

Bashar al-Assad, president, Syrian Arab Republic

Walid al-Muallem, foreign minister

Hassan al-Sharif, Syrian brigadier general, liaison to OPCW-UN Joint Mission

Faisal Mekdad, deputy foreign minister

Bashar Jaafari, Syrian ambassador to the UN

Kassem Eid, Syrian activist and blogger

Houssam Alnahhas, Syrian physician, chemical weapons defense group coordinator

Mamoun Morad, physician, Khan Sheikhoun, Syria

DAMASCUS, SYRIA. 1988

He was known to the CIAs clandestine service as the chemist, and few at headquarters would ever know his real name. A professor and a gifted scientist, he had been perfectly positioned for spy work, with a job that entitled him to privileges not accorded to ordinary Syrians, including a broad latitude to travel and to meet with foreigners in the crowded souks and smoke-filled cafs of the old city. He drew little attention to himself as he moved about, a small, clean-shaven man in his late thirties with owlish glasses and gray-flecked hair, in a modest suit that might have belonged to a salesman or bureaucrat. Only when he spoke English was there a hint of something exotic: a distinct American accent. It was the only detectable residue from a youth spent partly in the United States, where he attended school, ate cheeseburgers, played sports, and even joined the Boy Scouts, all before returning to his homeland to become an expert in making chemicals designed to kill human beings.

He was proud of his professional workso proud, in fact, that analysts suspected at times that his spying was motivated less by patriotism or greed than by a compulsion to boast. His first attempt at establishing contact had occurred at a scientific conference in Europe, where he had asked a friend to pass along a note to an American at the U.S. embassy. Many months passed before the CIA followed through, yet he seemed unsurprised when a stranger approached him after one of his evening lectures at Damascus University.