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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."
his wife wrote on Facebook late Tuesday
And the CBC report is from Thursday.
Today is Sunday, Slashdot. What took you so long to put up this story?
"Slashdot: old news for nerds, stuff that once mattered."
I only interacted with him a small amount, but he seemed like a nice guy. He was clearly very dedicated to all sorts of open-source projects and his dedication was combined with a cleverness and willingness to listen to those around him. He will be missed.
g h i j ...
The various Kurdish forces, and the moderate Syrian forces (back before their decline because no one was backing them).
Nah, that's a false dichotomy. USA backed Syrian rebel forces, until Trump switched to backing Assad due to his Russian links.
So he's currently ended CIA training of Syrian Rebels.
We could also have stayed out of it till ISIS and Assad had fought to the end, then knocked out the now weakened winner. But that option was stopped when Putin came in to 'fight ISIS', i.e. bomb the crap out of Syrian Rebels under cover of boming ISIS.
Trump's choices are similar to the Ukraine thing, GOP platform is to provide Ukraine with weapons. Trump's rep Manasfort (as the newly chosen Republican candidate) convinced them to change that to 'non-lethal' weapons. Again due to his Russian links.
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
http://www.al-awa2el.com/%D8%A... http://www.al-awa2el.com/%D8%A...
We could also have stayed out of it till ISIS and Assad had fought to the end, then knocked out the now weakened winner.
Hillary Clinton could also have not assassinated Qaddafi, which left Libya a failed state and a terrorist haven. Qaddafi was not one of the good guys, but he was keeping all the local terrorism in check.
Intelligence sources brought the opportunity to Hillary while she was SOS, and also noted that killing him would be a bad idea and predicted the rise of terrorism and [something similar to] ISIS if he was killed.
Hillary overrode that decision and had him killed anyway(*).
Nah, that's a false dichotomy. USA backed Syrian rebel forces, until Trump switched to backing Assad due to his Russian links. So he's currently ended CIA training of Syrian Rebels.
He doesn't like Assad one bit (he's said as much), but he's also trying to stop the terrorism. Lesser of two evils and all that.
You know - the terrorism that was enabled by Hillary's assassination of Qaddafi.
(*) My personal view is that she did it because she wanted a "win" during here stint as SOS - something that would show leadership and decision making in her upcoming presidential run. Boy, *that* decision sure turned out to be a bad move for the rest of us!
This guy just died, and YOU are JOKING about it, jackoff.
Ah, social justice.
We're now living in a post-joke society.
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
False dichotomies FTW, amirite?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
No crime is so severe that it justifies a government sanctioned murder.
And on the Eighth Day, Man created God.
... for stories to sit in the firehose for days.
It used to be Slashdot breaking these kind of stories.
c d e f ....
Any number of rebel jihadist factions such as the infamous "white helmets".
Non ISIS Jihadists are still Jihadists. Even during good times, they'll attack not just Christians, Yazidis, Kurds & Druze, but also Muslims of sects other than their own. If they are one of the Saudi-backed Islamic Front groups or the Jabaat al-Nusra, they'll attack Alawites and other Shi'ites. If the McCains and other warmongers had their way, Syria would resemble either Morsi's Egypt, or Qatar. Even Egypt, which previously supported the insurrection in Syria, now supports Assad b'cos they're both threatened by the Muslim Brotherhood. Which countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Emirates, Bahrein, Israel, Syria, Iraq & Russia all outlaw, but Western countries can't bring themselves to accept that they are Jihadists.
The Kurds are today powerful enough to hold their own. But they don't have territorial ambitions beyond where they live. So they'd happily take places like Kirkuk & Kobani, but they wouldn't be interested in Raqqa or Mosul. So it doesn't make sense to look at Kurds as the overall solution
Besides, this year, the Kurds in Iraq will hold a referandum on seceeding, and will likely be joined by their Syrian comrades. So Arabs ain't likely to look at them as partners in anything
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.
Interestingly enough, that 'golden age' only occurred at the beginning of Iran's conversion to Islam: some of the people usually lionized had unknown origins, and were clearly converts to Islam from something else - be it Zoroastrianism, Christianity or Judaism. Iran did have a great culture during the Sassanid dynasty, and that didn't collapse overnight. The Samanids, who aside from Islam, were proud of their Iranian heritage, continued to patronize that for a bit, but once their empire collapsed, it went south from there.
Aside from that, there is also the fact that a lot of the 'achievements' were imports from the east - be it China or India. They love boasting about the 'Arabic' numerals, ignoring the fact that those things, and the number zero, originated in India, and was at one time called either 'Hindu numerals' or at worst 'Hindu-Arabic numerals'. Other works were translations into Arabic or Farsi, which, while noteworthy, is not the same as being an original creator.
Also, if all these achievements were products of Islam, why wasn't that replicated anywhere else in the Islamic empire? There were a myriad number of Muslim sultanates and emirates throughout history, from Mali to Brunei. So why weren't there more Islamic scholars from these various kingdoms who contributed meaningfully to culture? Reason is that 'bida', or innovation, is considered verboten in Islam, which is why it's rarely done.
He was allowed to blog and tweet from prison... in Syria? All the while being tortured and eventually executed. The world is indeed a peculiar place.
Yeah, tell that to the Copts, who were shit scared during that time. Or Israel, which expected its 30 year long peace treaty w/ Egypt to come to an end. The Muslim Brotherhood is the parent organization of al Qaeda & Hamas, and Qatar is one of the few Muslim countries that recognizes it as mainstream.
The al Sisi regime ain't murderous, unless one happens to be a Libyan ISIS guerilla who beheads Copts, or launches attacks on Egyptian forces in the Libyan desert
If it wasn't for the massive power vacuum that would be left behind, I'd say send an assassin in to kill Assad. I think even Adolph Hitler would have been taken aback by what that monster is capable of. But the power vacuum left behind would actually be worse in the long run. There needs to be a smooth transition of power, with Assad locked up the rest of his unnatural life, and a real functional government, that isn't slaughtering it's own citizens, in place.