caro still living the dream (interviewed by NPR!)

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > caro still living the dream (interviewed by NPR!)

Lutha Mahtin: Oct 10, 2010; Your brokebrain sin is absolved...go and shitpost no more!

sigh

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/08/1062319970/held-in-a-syrian-prison-a-u-s-citizen-and-a-british-doctor-made-a-pact

quote:

A U.S. citizen, described as a misfit adventurer, spent years in a Syrian prison and is now suing. At the same time, he's fulfilling the pact he made with his fellow prisoner.

(transcript follows)

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have a story now of two men who met in a Syrian prison. One of them is an American imprisoned there. And we're about to hear his story for the first time. The other is a British doctor who was on a humanitarian mission. Because it is a story of a Syrian prison, we should warn you that this story, which lasts about seven minutes, includes descriptions of torture. But in that nightmare, the two men grew together and made a pact.

NPR's Deborah Amos reports.

DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: Maybe you've heard of Kevin Dawes. After he was released from a Syrian prison and handed over to U.S. officials in Moscow in 2016, he was headline news.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: The Syrian government has freed an American freelance photographer.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: He's identified as Kevin Dawes.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: We can confirm that a U.S. citizen was released by Syrian authorities.

AMOS: He's not spoken publicly about his ordeal until now.

(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)

KEVIN DAWES: Hello. Deborah?

AMOS: When I reach him in San Francisco, Kevin Dawes answers from his car.

DAWES: In a parking lot, commensurate with my homeless status - there are actually two turkey vultures here, amazingly enough.

AMOS: Mostly homeless since his release in 2016, he says he struggles with the physical and mental aftermath of horrific torture.

DAWES: I have permanent nerve damage in at least one foot and both my wrists. As far as being permanently disabled, that's a good question. I don't know. Certainly, everything does seem harder.

AMOS: As the Arab Spring unfolded a decade ago, Dawes joined an unofficial band of freelance journalists, adrenaline junkies and medics - first in Libya and then in Syria.

DAWES: I thought I'd show up with a camera and go all the places nobody else did. And indeed, I found I could. I broke many rules and was not well-liked.

AMOS: Professional journalists were wary of him and his changing roles - part-time war photographer, self-taught medic. In an interview with NPR in 2011, he said he fought with rebels for weeks. When the story moved from Libya to Syria, Dawes moved too. In October 2012, he arrived at a Turkish hotel near the Syrian border, lugging a helmet, a bulletproof vest, medical supplies and hope that his luck would hold. A day after crossing into Syria, he disappeared. Soon after, he was listed as missing on the FBI website. Dawes describes his capture at a checkpoint by Syrian regime loyalists. Hooded and handcuffed, he was quickly transferred to a political prison in the Syrian capital.

DAWES: Remember, these cells are all underground. There is no sunlight.

AMOS: Interrogations were cruel and constant.

DAWES: Well, let me see if I can imitate my interrogator.

You are CIA. Who runs you? - he would yell, and then he would beat me.

AMOS: He became an unwilling witness to barbarous treatment inside the Syrian prison system.

DAWES: I saw awful things. I saw them actually torture children. I think they let me see that because they were certain they were going to be able to kill me.

AMOS: He wasn't the only foreigner held in a Syrian prison. A few months after he was nabbed, a British citizen, Dr. Abbas Khan, was detained 48 hours after he crossed into Syria. Khan, an orthopedic surgeon and father of two, was moved by the plight of injured Syrian children, says his sister, Sara Khan.

SARA KHAN: Syria was kind of the talk at that time.

AMOS: She says her brother worked in a Turkish border hospital but then decided to cross into Syria to work in a rebel field hospital in the winter of 2012.

KHAN: He got in on November 20, and he was then obviously arrested on November 22. But within those 48 hours, I think he worked at four different field hospitals.

AMOS: Khan was also moved to Damascus, to a military prison. And that's where he met Kevin Dawes.

DAWES: We met each other when we were in adjacent cells. We able to speak to each other under the door. They would scald him with hot water and beat him. They did the same to me.

AMOS: These two desperate prisoners who could only whisper in the dark made a pact. Whoever got out first would get news out of the one left behind.

DAWES: The Syrians were concealing the fact they were holding me at all.

AMOS: Sara Khan picks up the story.

When did you hear about Kevin Dawes? When did you know that he was in the picture?

KHAN: That was when my mother flew out to Damascus in July.

AMOS: In 2012, Fatima Khan was determined to find her son. And remarkably, she did. She was allowed to talk to him in person and even observe his court hearings. On Kevin Dawes, Sara Khan says her brother kept his word. He insisted his mother alert the U.S. Embassy. Suddenly, Dawes' treatment improved. The torture stopped.

DAWES: They put me in a lit cell, as opposed to the pitch-black lice dungeon I had been kept in until then. I owe Abbas a lot.

AMOS: But Khan's treatment only got worse. In December 2013, Khan's mother was invited to Syria. Officials assured her her son would be released and home soon. Sara got updates by phone.

KHAN: She's bought gifts for everybody - flowers. You've got biscuits, chocolates, everything. A man comes out in a white lab coat and says to her, I need to give you my condolences. And she's like, I don't understand. And they're like, your son killed himself this morning.

AMOS: Syrian government officials insisted Khan was depressed and had hanged himself, which made no sense to Dawes.

DAWES: In these cells, there's no way to hang yourself. There is nothing to hang yourself on. He had no reason to commit suicide - no reason to. He was going home.

AMOS: Khan's body was eventually shipped back to Britain, where an official inquest concluded that Abbas Khan had been killed by the Syrian regime. Dawes was released three years after Khan died. In October, Dawes filed suit against the Syrian government in a U.S. district court in Washington, D.C. He's alleging torture and mistreatment. The Syrian government hasn't responded to the lawsuit, nor to NPR's request for comment.

But even with no response, Dawes is still eligible for compensation from a U.S. fund set up in 2015. It's the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, says his lawyer, Kirby Behre.

KIRBY BEHRE: So it's created an opportunity for the victims of this horrible, horrible, nightmarish treatment to actually get some compensation for what they suffered.

AMOS: The Khan family plans legal action, too, against the Syrian regime in a British court. And they now have a key witness.

DAWES: I am his last witness. I know he was tortured. I can tell them all about the prison we were in.

KHAN: Kevin's testimony is the only one that we have, in terms of actually somebody seeing him or hearing him being interrogated.

AMOS: Kevin Dawes, drawn to the Middle East to launch a journalism career, will finally have his most important reporting role in a U.S. and a British court.

Deborah Amos, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF OCOEUR'S "STAY")

# ? Dec 9, 2021 03:55

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 22:56

Seth Pecksniff: May 27, 2004; can't believe shrek is fucking dead. rip to a real one.

Goon project: get caro a home

# ? Dec 9, 2021 03:58

BUG JUG: Feb 17, 2005

Seth Pecksniff posted:

Goon project: get caro a home

We aren't so good with houses around here....

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:15

liquid courage: Aug 12, 2011

I don't know what's more aggravating: that NPR has never bothered to do any research on Caro and just take him at his word or that he'll be receiving money from a fund intended for victims of terrorism.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:17

Lutha Mahtin: Oct 10, 2010; Your brokebrain sin is absolved...go and shitpost no more!

i felt like this article did a decent job of hinting that he was a dingus who didn't know what he was doing. but yeah i wish they had done more research or brought somebody in who has followed him for years

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:29

Julius CSAR: Oct 3, 2007; by sebmojo

Wait, didn�t NPR ALREADY gently caress up a thing with Caro, or was that Vice or something?

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:32

ChunTheUnavoidable: Sep 27, 2021

I am terrified that Syrians will imprison me and I deserve a cut of this fund

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:34

Funky See Funky Do: Aug 20, 2013; STILL TRYING HARD

liquid courage posted:

I don't know what's more aggravating: that NPR has never bothered to do any research on Caro and just take him at his word or that he'll be receiving money from a fund intended for victims of terrorism.

The guy is severely mentally ill and homeless. Who cares where the money that helps him comes from?

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:38

Smeef: Aug 15, 2003; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!; Pillbug

The Best and Brightest :911:

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:41

The Walrus: Jul 9, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

this is just really dark and sad. It's an amazing thing this Khan did, and got killed for, just for a dumb gently caress american kid that put his own self in harms way.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:41

William Bear: Oct 26, 2012; "That's what they all say!"

God needs to give this guy's guardian angel a raise.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:47

kntfkr: Feb 11, 2019; GOOSE FUCKER

jesus, i assumed he was dead.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 04:58

Justin Godscock: Oct 12, 2004; Listen here, funnyman!

Ah yes, Caro, the literally most insane story I have ever been a part of on the Internet.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:00

Mordja: Apr 26, 2014; Hell Gem

Who'd have thought caro would outlive Lowtax?

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:01

Good soup!: Nov 2, 2010

Yeahhhh, not sure if I think of "misfit adventurer" when I think of Caro, tbh

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:01

Rime: Nov 2, 2011; by Games Forum

Imagine going back and telling someone circa 2012 that Caro would outlive Lowtax. :hmmyes:

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:09

kntfkr: Feb 11, 2019; GOOSE FUCKER

anyone else misread the thread title as Charo at first glance

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:15

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Wasn�t part of his saga just guessing how to give first aid in Libya and actual medics yelling at him?

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:29

Lutha Mahtin: Oct 10, 2010; Your brokebrain sin is absolved...go and shitpost no more!

Hyrax Attack! posted:

Wasn�t part of his saga just guessing how to give first aid in Libya and actual medics yelling at him?

this was a general pattern with caro, not limited to first aid

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:30

meat police: Nov 14, 2015

Seth Pecksniff posted:

Goon project: get caro a home

Kickstarter: We finally get Qualcomm to stop calling Caro a "gooftroop"

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:33

Chinatown: Sep 11, 2001; by Fluffdaddy; Fun Shoe

Seth Pecksniff posted:

Goon project: get caro a home

nah

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:49

Muscle Wizard: Jul 28, 2011; by sebmojo

i wonder if he ever won that sniper duel

# ? Dec 9, 2021 05:59

EorayMel: May 30, 2015; WE GET IT. YOU LOVE GUN JESUS. Toujours des fusils Bullpup Fran�ais.

Either you are a troll who has become unfunny or are psychotic but either way you are no longer a member of these forums.
Requested By Invicta{HOG}, M.D.
Approved By Fistgrrl

Caro posted:

Every single last one of you is retarded. I really have had the cops boot my door multiple times. It was in the loving paper. It isn't crazy if it is really happening and I can count on you retards to just shove me full of drugs rather than examine any of my evidence or the facts.

All of you can go straight to hell. I've seen too many of you just fall into line as a collaborator. Drugging somebody with anti-psychotics to convince them that a police investigation isn't happening when in fact one IS happening is so far out of your ethical boundaries that I hope you all are horribly tortured. I hear boiling is good. With IV fluids you can keep somebody going for *days*

And wow, thanks for that fun list of /antibiotics I might use to treat otherwise fatal infections that may arise if infrastructure is severely disrupted like has happened several times in the US over the past decade leading to deaths/ - you're right, I must be completely insane.

It's the warship motherfucking voyager. Those of you who are collaborators, who are now using your prescription pads as weapons as I have seen you use them as such before, know that you will pay. You aren't gods. You're barely competent, most of the time. So help me god you will pay.

edit: What about beta blockers / albuterol inhaler (beta agonist, different uses, both helpful)

(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

# ? Dec 9, 2021 06:00

coronatae: Oct 14, 2012

This is not what I expected to hear when my half-asleep rear end started up the car to drive to work this AM

# ? Dec 9, 2021 06:07

Smeef: Aug 15, 2003; I posted my food for USPOL Thanksgiving!; Pillbug

EorayMel posted:

Either you are a troll who has become unfunny or are psychotic but either way you are no longer a member of these forums.
Requested By Invicta{HOG}, M.D.
Approved By Fistgrrl

dude was way ahead of his time, and by his time, i mean cspam

# ? Dec 9, 2021 06:10

BUG JUG: Feb 17, 2005

Unban keep it real. And Caro. And put them together in their own posting arena for our entertainment.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 07:02

Vim Fuego: Jun 1, 2000; Can't post for 47 hours!; Ultra Carp

Awesome!

# ? Dec 9, 2021 07:05

Vim Fuego: Jun 1, 2000; Can't post for 47 hours!; Ultra Carp

Still amazed he outlived Lowtax

# ? Dec 9, 2021 07:06

Wizard Master: Mar 25, 2008; I am the Wizard Master

It's not actually that interesting.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 07:07

Vim Fuego: Jun 1, 2000; Can't post for 47 hours!; Ultra Carp

Wizard Master posted:

It's not actually that interesting.

lol yeah sure

# ? Dec 9, 2021 07:19

Darth Brooks: Jan 15, 2005; I do not wear this mask to protect me. I wear it to protect you from me.

kntfkr posted:

jesus, i assumed he was dead.

Same.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 08:09

Bloody Hedgehog: Dec 12, 2003; 💥💥🤯💥💥
Gotta nuke something

Uhh, could you guys keep it down. I'm trying to have a sniper duel here.

*bullet goes nowhere near target*

# ? Dec 9, 2021 09:31

Charles Bukowski: Aug 26, 2003; Taskmaster 2023 Second Place Winner; Grimey Drawer

I recall that one of the shittiest goons I've ever had the displeasure of speaking to paid for his plane ticket to Libya.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 09:39

BigBadSteve: Apr 29, 2009

Seth Pecksniff posted:

Goon project: get caro a home

it might be better to get him a job.

ARO
OG
OUS

# ? Dec 9, 2021 10:10

The Walrus: Jul 9, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

as horrible as it is, the story with this Khan guy taking Caro at face value and literally dying for him - or maybe he saw what Caro was and knew he'd die for it but did it anyway - is what would push this story over the edge into a really really good, horribly dark but also funny movie. Someone get like, Taika or Armando on the line. Edit. no wait, chris morris maybe.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 15:50

Chief McHeath: Apr 23, 2002

I wonder if when caro tuggs he calls it caro syrup.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 17:36

Jailbrekr: Apr 8, 2002; A TOWN LEVELED BY AN EXPLOSION? DOZENS LIKELY KILLED? OH GOD LET ME SEE THAT SWEET VIDEO OH MY GOD I'M CUMMING

Chief McHeath posted:

I wonder if when caro tuggs he calls it caro syrup.

freedom fluid.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 17:44

STABASS: Apr 18, 2009; Fun Shoe

caro is america's secret weapon in the war on terror. I would appreciate it if you all treated him with a little more respect.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 17:48

Play: Apr 25, 2006; Strong stroll for a mangy stray

Holy poo poo I literally just heard this interview sitting on the toilet at my place of employment

Had no idea it was Caro. Apparently he's homeless but may be eligible for a bunch of money through a fund for victims of state sponsored terrorism.

That's one way to do it I guess

# ? Dec 9, 2021 18:06

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 22:56

Yaldabaoth: Oct 9, 2012; by Azathoth

William Bear posted:

God needs to give this guy's guardian angel a raise.

It sounds like the guardian angel is keeping him alive but poor and homeless, which makes sense because Jesus said you have to give up all your worldly possessions to follow him. He's clearly been chosen to enter the kingdom of heaven.

# ? Dec 9, 2021 18:12

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