Slashdot Mirror
Syrian Open Source Developer Bassel Khartabil Believed Executed (www.cbc.ca)
TheSync writes: The Syrian open source developer, blogger, entrepreneur, hackerspace founder, and free culture advocate Bassell Khartabil was swept up in a wave of military arrests in March 2012. A CBC report states that his wife wrote on Facebook late Tuesday that she has received confirmation that security services executed Khartabil in October 2015 after torturing him in prison. Before his arrest, his most recent work included a 3D virtual reconstruction of the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.
At the time of his arrest, Khartabi was 30 years old -- after which he started a blog called "MeInSyrianJail" and a Twitter account called "Live from my cell." Though he spent the last three and half years of his life in prison, he once tweeted that "Jail is not walls, not the executioner and guards. It is the hidden fear in our hearts that makes us prisoners." The latest tweet on his feed says "Rest in power our friend."
Thursday the Creative Commons nonprofit described the developer as "our friend and colleague," and announced the Bassel Khartabil Memorial Fund, "which will support projects in the spirit of Bassel's work."
At the time of his arrest, Khartabi was 30 years old -- after which he started a blog called "MeInSyrianJail" and a Twitter account called "Live from my cell." Though he spent the last three and half years of his life in prison, he once tweeted that "Jail is not walls, not the executioner and guards. It is the hidden fear in our hearts that makes us prisoners." The latest tweet on his feed says "Rest in power our friend."
Thursday the Creative Commons nonprofit described the developer as "our friend and colleague," and announced the Bassel Khartabil Memorial Fund, "which will support projects in the spirit of Bassel's work."
The open source movement includes not just programming but a general dedication to open content and the ability to share and modify that content. A classic example is Wikipedia. Bassel was particularly involved in things related to Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/2017/08/01/bassel/. This is all the same ethos. It is true that this sort of approach started with a focus on source code and programs but the movement is far larger than that.
He worked on the Aiki Framework. Check https://github.com/aikiframewo... - he's got over 500 commits in the history changing actual code. He was a real software developer.
I don't know what you're mouthing off about.
USA backed Syrian rebel forces, until Trump switched to backing Assad due to his Russian links.
I sure hope the U.S. does not "back" me anytime soon given what they did to Assad under Trump.
If you want to see someone who truly supported Russia, look no further than Obama (who ignored them shooting down a commercial passenger jet) - or Hillary (who sold them oodles of uranium's secretary of state).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
For all those winers out there that are always complaining the U.S. is a fascist dictatorship - this is what real fascism looks like.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No, the other choices were Muslim Brotherhood - the only longstanding opposition in Syria not only during this president's reign, but also during that of his father, Hafez al Assad. As well as Jabaat al-Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate, and other myriad Jihadist parties all over the country that united under the Islamic Front banner, and had allegance to the Saudis. The Kurds were a local force in the NorthEast, and in any case, running into problems w/ the Turks, who fear that an independent Kurdistan would just inspire their own Kurdish population in the East to either revolt or secede.
Also, this Assad was a moderate, and started off as a reformer. His father, Hafez al Assad, was a real terrorism backer throughout the region. He came to power in 1970, made Syria the successor state to Nasserite Egypt as far as being a Soviet ally went, and backed terrorist organizations throughout the region. For the longest time, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had major offices in Damascus, which they only closed when this civil war started. Hafez Assad also stood out in being one of 2 Arab regimes to support Iran in the 8 year long Ira war b/w Iran & Iraq, and did all he could to make Lebanon a de-facto part of Syria, including assassinating their president elect Bashir Gemayel. Only in 1991 did relations w/ the US improve, b'cos Syria supported the allied side against Iraq, due to Assad's personal enmity w/ Saddam Hussein.
When his son came to power in 2000, he was a novice, and decided to start a perestroika like process in Syria. Which went on well until the Arab Spring started. Once regimes in Tunisia, Egypt & Libya started falling, the Saudis decided to inspire a Sunni insurrection in Syria that would disrupt Iran's Shi'ite Crescent of Iran, Iraq, Syria & Lebanon, since that would fall under the guise of the 'Arab Spring'. Except that unlike Egypt or Tunisia which have homogeneous populations and where none of them stood to be massacred should regimes change (except the hapless Copts), in Syria, that had lethal implications for the Alawites, whom Sunnis and even some Shi'ites regard as heretics. The Baathist coalition of Alawites, Shi'ites, Christians & Druze feared that they'd be massacred if the Assad regime fell, which explains why the insurrection turned into a civil war.
Also, if one notices some of the activities of the 'rebels' during this war, there had been ethnic cleansing of Christians and Alawites from cities like Aleppo, Homs, and so on. In fact, after the first Iraqi 'democratic' Shi'ite regime came to power, the persecution of Iraqi Christians by the Shi'ites started, causing them to flee to Syria. In Syria, they joined their religious comrades, and again found themselves driven out into Lebanon. So the idea that it was just Assad who by releasing the terrorists, contaminated the 'freedom loving' pool is just hogwash. That made sense for Saddam to do in 2003, but not Assad: releasing Sunni terrorists would just increase the ranks of his enemies.
Anyway, fact remains that even w/o ISIS - which was essentially remnants of Zarqawi's al Qaeda spinoff - all the 'rebels' in Syria were Sunni Jihadists who during their campaigns massacred or drove out the ethnic peoples they opposed. If Assad were to get overthrown, it's they who would come to power, and make Syria an even greater bloodbath than it already is. Israel, which never was a friend of Syria's, made it a point to stay neutral but root for Assad: the last thing they want on the Golan border is a Hamas like Muslim Brotherhood regime like Morsi's. Egypt, which was w/ the rest of the Arab League & OIC in expelling Syria due to the war, recently decided to re-open channels w/ Syria, b'cos like Syria, they know the pitfalls of falling under the Muslim Brotherhood. Even though al Sisi is no friend to Iran or Hizbullah.