
Software developer and free speech activist Bassel Khartabil executed in Syria - carlosrg
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40795739
======
RangerScience
Here's what looks to be his main project, which was digitally recreating parts
of the ancient city of Palmyra. Parts of the ruins were being destroyed by
ISIL in 2015-2016 (from what I can tell?), but it sounds like that's stopped?

[http://www.newpalmyra.org/](http://www.newpalmyra.org/)

Otherwise, can anyone find more of his digital ghost? I looked for a GH but
didn't find one.

~~~
blacksmith_tb
The site itself is on GH[1], but I don't see commits from him, at least, not
obviously. His death is terribly tragic, always grim to see nation-states
killing their best and brightest.

1: [https://github.com/newpalmyra](https://github.com/newpalmyra)

~~~
mlinksva
AFAIK (friend of a friend) most of that work was offline, some of it recovered
from hard drives etc after his detainment, and restarted on GitHub from that.
His account used for some other projects was
[https://github.com/bassel](https://github.com/bassel)

~~~
RangerScience
Neat, but there's no activity from that account.

~~~
mlinksva
Hmm, not sure why they aren't showing from the account timeline thing, but
some visible from
[https://github.com/search?q=author%3Abassel&type=Commits&utf...](https://github.com/search?q=author%3Abassel&type=Commits&utf8=%E2%9C%93)
... probably more under email addresses not associated with the account or
off-GitHub.

------
oconnor663
> But he was moved from the prison to an unknown destination in October 2015,
> and supporters had until now held out hope he might be alive.

Similar to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Without_the_right_of_correspon...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Without_the_right_of_correspondence).

------
forkLding
There should be a website for those activists and people executed for unjust
reasons as a memorial so that people can remember and pay their respects, this
should not be forgotten.

As well RIP Bassel.

~~~
justinlilly
As opposed to those people who are executed for just reasons? Who decides?

~~~
pmarreck
I would add to this, people who are justifiably executed (at least
"justifiably" in the era they existed) but for whom later evidence emerges
which exonerates them

------
chickenfries
Very sad. I first read about Khartabil in 2015 (the year he probably died, we
now know), because of his work to digitally preserve Syrian historical sites:

[http://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-
entertainment/blog/2015/1...](http://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-
entertainment/blog/2015/11/10/mit-media-lab-new-palmyra-project/)

------
hit8run
This makes me so sad and angry at the same time. It shows clearly how fucked
up humans can be.

~~~
throw2016
The latest round of reckless 'interventions' in the middle east from Iraq to
Libya to now Syria have left hundreds of thousands dead, destroyed entire
countries and societies with them, and left millions of lives in disarray.

Perhaps for those who care about humanity the time to be angry and sad at
other human beings has long past and it's time to get angry at people closer
to home orchestrating these violent aggressive self serving actions for nearly
2 decades now.

~~~
srtjstjsj
This is wholly offtopic in a thread about Bassel Khartabil , who has never
been "orchestrating these violent aggressive self serving actions"

------
pmarreck
This is what happens when you base actions against others on beliefs (of harm,
of heresy, of treason, etc.) instead of on evidence (of harm, or of secular
ethical violations)

~~~
dionian
"secular" violations are always based on a shared moral code, no different
than religions

~~~
camus2
> "secular" violations are always based on a shared moral code, no different
> than religions

The difference is whether citizens acknowledge the fact that morals are man
made or not. All morals are man made, just like religions.

Using a "divine" authority to deny others the right to contest morals is what
separate religion from secularism.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
I don't know about that. On the news, from time to time I see groups of
secular people who are trying really hard to deny others the right to contest
the secular group's morals...

------
youdontknowtho
Oh my god. That's terrible. This shocked me more than I can really say.
Definitely like...that could be me. It's actually really frightening when you
look at the kinds of software that some regimes consider subversive. You don't
actually have to be an activist in some parts of the world to get in trouble
for writing software.

~~~
pmarreck
This guy could have been any of us. It hit me in the stomach due to that, as
well.

------
patrickg_zill
Maybe they killed him for some other reason, but what, exactly , did he do
that ticked the authorities off? The article doesn't say.

Recreating the ancient city of Palmyra doesn't seem like something that would
engender anger...?

~~~
mlinksva
65k+ people have been disappeared in Syria, and it's common to not know why,
one article about that which also mentions Bassel's wife
[https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-
professionals...](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-
professionals-network/2017/jul/04/families-syria-disappeared-demand-answers-
un)

In part, it's a racket [https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/syria-
government-u...](https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/syria-government-
using-thousands-disappeared-people-cash-cow-new-report)

~~~
pcthrowaway
For perspective, that's roughly 1/3 of 1% of Syria's population. I can't
imagine what life would be like in the western world if 1 out of every 300
people I knew went missing.

------
honestoHeminway
Activists need a labour distribution- a spokesman and a brain, seperated by a
TOR Layer.

