back to article Mozilla Foundation and EFF join hunt for Syrian open source developer

The open source community and human rights organizations have joined forces to find a software developer who has been missing for months following the recent civil unrest in Syria. Bassel Khartabil, a 31-year-old computer engineer, was the project leader of Aiki Framework, an open source tool for building web applications. He …

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  1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    I hope I'm wrong, but with a country like Syria, I can't help wondering if raising the guy's profile might actually put him more at risk.

  2. asdf
    Thumb Down

    that stinks

    The guys' only flaw was bad luck by being born in the worst kind of crap hole in a horrible region. That part of the world doesn't care how they destroy their best and brightest for the next generation. Probably why the west can steal so many successfully.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Graham Wilson
    Unhappy

    Hell I get pissed off when I read human rights abuse stories such as this. They hit home even more when we learn some background about the person involved as with Bassel Khartabil. I can only echo the same sentiments of Will Godfrey and asdf and hope he's released soon.

  5. G.Y.

    and now Syria is applying for a permanent seat on the UN human rights council

    1. FrankAlphaXII

      Why not?

      Syria will probably get it.

      Zimbabwe and North Korea are on it, as is Cuba and the PR China. And all four of those countries have such stellar records.

  6. toadwarrior

    I hope he's alright and they find them. It's a shame to see anyone innocent get caught up in conflicts like this.

  7. FrankAlphaXII
    Unhappy

    I hate to say it

    But knowing Syria under the Assads, he's probably dead.

    Syria's secret police are trained by the Iranians and the Pakistanis. People die in custody or get disappeared all the time.

    If he was arrested by the normal police, he stands a chance of being alive but lost in their system, which is very reminiscent of Iraq's system immediately following the Invasion in 2003. Our forces had the damnest time trying to locate people, mainly Kurdish Peshmerga militiamen and Shiites caught providing intelligence to foreign powers or the UN but not executed. We knew they were alive but scattered across the country.

    If you want to make some noise, email Al-Jazeera. They're the only news outlet that matters globally which is likely to care.

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