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The phone book that led us to Assad's spy chief in hiding
- duxup 2mo agoI 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.
- mhh__ 2mo agoI assume it's often parallel construction
- duxup 2mo agoI don’t know how that relates to what i said.
- chneu 2mo agoThey just keep trying. It's not uncommon for people to talk after 3 or so attempts. Humans want to talk.
- mingus88 2mo agoI block numbers at that point. I don’t get how anyone would decide to open up after repeated attempts on their number.
- cocoa19 2mo agoEmergencies. If you are responsible for children or needy adults, and they are not with you, you better respond after multiple tries. At least that's what a regular Joe like me would do, I don't know what high in power people do.
- zxexz 2mo agoNot relevant at all, but I find that interesting and funny. As a rule of thumb I tend to accept unknown callers after 3 missed calls in rapid succession. Everybody I know closely knows this, and its come in useful. Though tbh I’d it’s a recognizable localish area code I usually pick up on the 2nd call in rapid succession.
- Sam6late 2mo ago[dead]
- LAC-Tech 2mo agoIs anyone just overwhelmed by the propaganda and partisanship as you read this? I have no great opinion on this Syrian regime or the previous - like basically everyone on HN when it comes to geopolitical topics, I do not know much about it - but the bias in the article is almost comically ham-fisted.
- aplummer 2mo agoThese are allegations of war crimes / criminals it’s not bias to describe them accurately.
- SanjayMehta 2mo agoEvery US president has been a war criminal. Deal with them first. The entire western world is based on crimes against humanity. Punish your own first.
- aplummer 2mo agoWhataboutism? Also I’m not American
- PeterHolzwarth 2mo agoIt is distressing to hear someone on hacker news describe this, and the history of Syria over the last couple decades, as something that might be "propaganda" and "partisanship." My god, man - do you even slightly follow the news? Are you really that unaware such that you feel there is some degree of question over just how horrific the Assad regime was for Syrians?
- SanjayMehta 2mo agoWhy do you care? It's their country, let them mess it up as much as they want. That's the problem with you Westerners, you stole and genocided people around the entire world, and when you were finally thrown out, you come back to pass judgement and impose your own dubious morals on other people.
- pseingatl 2mo agoThe story is: they find the guy, call him and he doesn't talk. All they've discovered is that he, like many in the Assad regime, are now in Russia. Duh. This is a non-story.