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The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

bbc.com

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Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#31

Post by duxup »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #23
yieldcrv wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m actually not overwhelmed or see it as partisan > There are widespread calls across Syrian society on social media for former senior officials to be held accountable > Syria's Attorney General, Hassan al-Turba, told the BBC the government had launched a lawsuit against Luka, accusing him of "premeditated murder, torture, and death resulting from torture". Syrian administration is using the court system and these a…

Partisan in the sense of - there is a clear bias for the new regime, and against the old one. Not the literal sense. Note the weasel words from the first few paragraphs: - "dictator" - "henchmen" - "conducted from the shadows" - "regime" - "brutal crushing" - "pro-democracy uprising" - "rebels" One paragraph is almost entirely weasel words: "But his most egregious action in the city, many argue, was his alleged invol…

Those words have meanings, are they untrue?

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#32

Post by duxup »

mhh__ wrote: post #3
duxup wrote: post #2

I always wonder how reporters get folks who have these tangential connections to powerful / terrible people to talk after they refuse. It's an impressive skill.

I assume it's often parallel construction

I don’t know how that relates to what i said.

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#33

Post by DigiEggz »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #24
stevenwoo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was reading book by Sue Black on forensic anthropology , Written in Bone, and she recalled incident where she was an expert witness for commission in Qatar, she confirmed the veracity of eyewitness and photo evidence of Assad Syrian regime of torture - for Arab instigated investigation. Not just Western values.

Again: why do you care? Mind your own business, let them prosper or decline. Not my concern, nor yours. You can point and laugh, as I do, when I watch the invasion of Europe and the zombie fentanyl apocalypse in the US. We call it karma, and it's well deserved.

Hardships any country faces always affect innocent people. For example, immigrants were affected by the opioid crisis, so how does the flimsy, sad idea of "group karma" hold up here?

Sharing uphelpful, embittered opinions like this only spreads pain that wraps back around and bites you, in the end. Treating the suffering of people as a sport or spectator event, by proverbially pointing your finger and laughing, is repulsive and puts you exactly in the same league as the people you detest.

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#34

Post by EA-3167 »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #19
EA-3167 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't know much about it then why are you making accusations about what is and isn't true?

I know as much about it as every geopolitics expert who's responded to me - in that I have seen news stories. What of it? Do you take every news story you read at face value? I don't. Hence - no opinion; unlike all the experts on modern Syrian history we have here who have no doubt great amounts of knowledge on the civil war, finer points of ideologies, accurate death counts from third party sources, et. Also, do you…

So because you deem others to be speaking in ignorance, you decided to follow their example, but with a contrary position? What a waste of everyone's time.

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#35

Post by stevenwoo »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #24
stevenwoo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was reading book by Sue Black on forensic anthropology , Written in Bone, and she recalled incident where she was an expert witness for commission in Qatar, she confirmed the veracity of eyewitness and photo evidence of Assad Syrian regime of torture - for Arab instigated investigation. Not just Western values.

Again: why do you care? Mind your own business, let them prosper or decline. Not my concern, nor yours. You can point and laugh, as I do, when I watch the invasion of Europe and the zombie fentanyl apocalypse in the US. We call it karma, and it's well deserved.

I was neutral and responded to your comment. The approach portrayed in the book is pretty clinical and she sticks to things that she can back up in court as factual to the best of her knowledge, it was kind of surprising to come across anything in the book that was remotely topical.

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#36

Post by LAC-Tech »

EA-3167 wrote: post #34
LAC-Tech wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know as much about it as every geopolitics expert who's responded to me - in that I have seen news stories. What of it? Do you take every news story you read at face value? I don't. Hence - no opinion; unlike all the experts on modern Syrian history we have here who have no doubt great amounts of knowledge on the civil war, finer points of ideologies, accurate death counts from third party sources, et. Also, do you…

So because you deem others to be speaking in ignorance, you decided to follow their example, but with a contrary position? What a waste of everyone's time.

I didn't take a contrary position. I admitted my ignorance, and took a neutral position.

Propaganda is propaganda. I've even seen propaganda I agree with.

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#37

Post by podocarp »

DigiEggz wrote: post #33
SanjayMehta wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again: why do you care? Mind your own business, let them prosper or decline. Not my concern, nor yours. You can point and laugh, as I do, when I watch the invasion of Europe and the zombie fentanyl apocalypse in the US. We call it karma, and it's well deserved.

Hardships any country faces always affect innocent people. For example, immigrants were affected by the opioid crisis, so how does the flimsy, sad idea of "group karma" hold up here? Sharing uphelpful, embittered opinions like this only spreads pain that wraps back around and bites you, in the end. Treating the suffering of people as a sport or spectator event, by proverbially pointing your finger and laughing, is re…

No, I get their point if you ignore the stuff about karma. It does stoke anger when you say "we know better than you" and try to fix other nations' governments though. This is the same kind of shit where the government says "we know better than you how to live your life", and starts meddling in citizens affairs.

Furthermore, let's be real. All such cases of "help" have never had altruistic goals in mind. I have never heard of a nation stepping into the affairs of another and actually "helped" and left with nothing in return. In ancient times it's mostly just an excuse for invasion. More recently, Osama started out as "help" against the Russian invaders. Saddam Hussein being installed and then toppled was also "help". Iran, was also due to "help" against the monarchy. I can't find a single instance where the help actually worked or was even meant to be true help. We cry for democracy but how many South American democratically elected governments have the leader of the free world toppled? Again, since ancient history the "help" part of the action is always just propaganda and an excuse to go forward to take advantage of some current crisis.

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#38

Post by SanjayMehta »

DigiEggz wrote: post #33
SanjayMehta wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again: why do you care? Mind your own business, let them prosper or decline. Not my concern, nor yours. You can point and laugh, as I do, when I watch the invasion of Europe and the zombie fentanyl apocalypse in the US. We call it karma, and it's well deserved.

Hardships any country faces always affect innocent people. For example, immigrants were affected by the opioid crisis, so how does the flimsy, sad idea of "group karma" hold up here? Sharing uphelpful, embittered opinions like this only spreads pain that wraps back around and bites you, in the end. Treating the suffering of people as a sport or spectator event, by proverbially pointing your finger and laughing, is re…

My views are shared by the majority of the "third world" or "the global south" or as I prefer it: the global majority.

Why does this matter? As the formerly colonised catch up and surpass the West, what do you think will happen? Take a look at China?

What you condescendingly call "embittered," is reality.

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#39

Post by SanjayMehta »

podocarp wrote: post #37
DigiEggz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardships any country faces always affect innocent people. For example, immigrants were affected by the opioid crisis, so how does the flimsy, sad idea of "group karma" hold up here? Sharing uphelpful, embittered opinions like this only spreads pain that wraps back around and bites you, in the end. Treating the suffering of people as a sport or spectator event, by proverbially pointing your finger and laughing, is re…

No, I get their point if you ignore the stuff about karma. It does stoke anger when you say "we know better than you" and try to fix other nations' governments though. This is the same kind of shit where the government says "we know better than you how to live your life", and starts meddling in citizens affairs. Furthermore, let's be real. All such cases of "help" have never had altruistic goals in mind. I have never…

Your comment about "the stuff about karma" is an example of what is annoying about "western culture."

You push your desert cult's evangelism and whine when governments push back on your funding evil missionaries (see the latest brouhaha about FCRA, for example). Senators and even JD Vance are now screeching from their pulpits.

But the US has FARA and that's good? You can push your desert tribalism and that's good?

Learn about karma.

Re: The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding

#40

Post by EA-3167 »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #36
EA-3167 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So because you deem others to be speaking in ignorance, you decided to follow their example, but with a contrary position? What a waste of everyone's time.

I didn't take a contrary position. I admitted my ignorance, and took a neutral position. Propaganda is propaganda. I've even seen propaganda I agree with.

It's interesting how every single person replying to you here has the same impression of what you're saying, except of course for the other person saying the same thing as you, but louder. I'm not going to suggest anything by that, other than the fact that if your communication style is so readily misunderstood, and the topic involves a regime who's mass graves are literally still being disinterred, why do you feel such a strong need to wade in and announce your... ignorance? Your susceptibility to propaganda?

It's a strange choice at best.

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