I’m a freelance journalist roaming around the Bilad al-Sham of yore. My most recent day job was at Newsweek, covering international politics for their website from the mundane comfort of a New York cubicle. Before I landed there, I was at the Reuters bureau in Buenos Aires, courtesy of an Overseas Press Club fellowship in 2007. Last year, I ran off to Syria for year-long Fulbright fellowship to study the impact of web connectivity among young people. I’ve stuck around the region watching my hypothesis unfold around me ever since, doing work with Human Rights Watch, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the Los Angeles Times, and Newsweek/The Daily Beast. I have a B.A. in history from Vassar College, focused primarily on the Middle East.
KATIE PAUL
Freelance journalist. Body in Beirut. Heart in Syria. Holler at me.
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Friends back home have been writing me to ask what is going on in Syria. As of this morning, I still thought the protests would probably fizzle after some concessions by the government, but what happened in Daraa today appears to be very bad. Rumors are everywhere, while the country’s reliable journalistic eyes and ears are disappearing into prison, including those of a friend. Some say 6 died today, some say 9, some say 13, some say 31, some say 150. Al Jazeera’s coverage was heroic in Egypt, but here can barely be called reporting. In addition, it’s hard to get a feel for whether or not fears of sectarianism are founded when different groups are so willing to exploit them for political purposes. Meanwhile, on the streets of Damascus, the honk squad is back.
This is from Reporters Without Borders:
The Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Centre said journalist, writer and activist Louay Hussein was arrested yesterday after a raid on his home in the Damascus district of Sahnaya. A political prisoner from 1984 to 1991, Hussein had issued a call on the Internet for solidarity with the demonstrators in Deraa who were the victims of a heavy-handed crackdown last weekend.
Employees of Orient TV, a privately-owned satellite TV station that broadcasts from the United Arab Emirates, have been threatened by senior Syrian security officials because of its coverage of the anti-government demonstrations in Deraa and other cities. The station also interviewed opposition figures. Reporters Without Borders has been told that three employees resigned after getting threatening phone calls. As a result of the harassment, the station’s management announced that it would no longer cover events in Syria.
Also, this:
Reporters Without Borders has learned that the journalist, poet and novelist Mohammed Dibo was arrested on the night of 18 March at his home in Al-Annazah, in the northwestern city of Baniyas, where demonstrations were held earlier in the day to demand reforms.
Dibo writes for various newspapers including Jordan’s Al-Dustour and many news websites such as Al-Waan (run by the Association of Rational Arabs), Bab el Moutawasset (MediterraneanGate.net), which covers the various cultures of the Mediterranean basin, Lamp Of Freedom (http://lampoffreedom.com/) and Shukumaku (http://www.shukumaku.com/Default.php).
- "We love you, we love you, we love you!"
They’re feeling the love in kite form today over at the Facebook group that’s sprung up in support of the president. The big finish at the tail says: “We love you, our leader Bashar Al-Assad. God, Syria, Bashar, and nothing else.”
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…………………..♥منحبك يا قائدنا بشار الأسد والله سوريا بشار وبس - A request for non-violence
Bassam Al-Kady, the head of the Syrian Women’s Observatory, is another Syrian voice worth hearing. He calls for an end to the violence being practiced by both government forces and protestors alike, as well as an end to the sectarian rhetoric weaving its way into discussion of the unrest. You can tell from the issues he address what some of the concerns and fears are here if the protests should continue.
A Syrian voice worth hearing. Read.
Syria is slipping, bit by bit….
Syria, the pride of the Arab lands, the symbol of resistance, dignity. The land which may be impoverished, yet is a land true to its people, and wears that truth like a badge.
Yet today I witness the collapse of everything Syria used to represent. While others…
The view from my window at about 1:30 a.m. last night. They came around five or six times total (honestly, I lost count). Did the same thing last month before the “days of rage” that never came to be, but these are bigger and louder.
You can see boys hanging out of the car windows holding Syrian flags and framed photos of the president. They’re also chanting “bi rouh, bi dam, nefdik ya bashar” and “allah, suriya, bashar wa bas,” which mean “in soul, in blood, we sacrifice for you, Bashar” and “God, Syria, Bashar, and nothing else.”
Most disturbing video yet out of Daraa, seeming to show protestors being mowed down by machine gun fire from helicopters. I saw it for the first time yesterday, not sure if it was filmed then or Friday.
UPDATE: I may have been speculating too much on that helicopter bit. There were definitely videos of helicopters circling, and this sounds like machine gun fire, but I’m wondering if the link was just a rumor. Nothing confirmed yet. Still disturbing.
In Daraa on Friday, they chanted “freedom” and “there is no fear.” Today we wait to find out what happened last night.
Demonstrations expanded beyond the capital for the first time today. This video is from Banyas, on the coast between Tartus and Latakia. According to the title, it shows the city’s sheikh making demands from the balcony of the state security building.
Syrian Interior Ministry on Wednesday announced that while some families were submitting written requests to visit their relatives arrested for different crimes, a number of instigators tried to exploit this event to call for demonstration through uttering some provocative slogans in al-Marja Square.
“Owners of the shops at al-Maraja square, Damascus downtown, rushed and spontaneously confronted the instigators, chanting national slogans and rejecting any attempts to spread chaos and destabilize the homeland,” General Mohammad Hassan al-Ali said in a statement.
The official take from SANA (Syrian Arab News Agency). Extra, extra, read all about it.The only known photo from the sit-in yesterday. It was tweeted out by a Lebanese activist, so I don’t know its origin. But as far as media goes, this may be it. Even the Youtube video I linked to last night has already been taken down.
Just to give a sense of how difficult it was to record anything today, this is the only clip available so far on Youtube. Whoever filmed caught only the pro-government chanting, which means it was later in the game, then clearly had to tuck the camera away from prying eyes.
- The view from Marjeh Square
The kingdom of silence grew a little noisier this afternoon.
Yesterday’s protests were a surprise, the result of kids following Facebook pages without a connection to established opposition groups. In fact, when I told one activist that’d I’d run smack into the protest on my way to meet him, he didn’t believe me at first. The last time anyone tried to organize online, for February 4 and 5, the only people who showed up for the supposed days of rage were mukhabarat—swarms of them. I think most people expected yesterday’s attempt to meet the same fate.
Today, it happened the old-fashioned way, with recognizable activists and targeted demands. Political prisoners’ families wrote a statement asking for their relatives’ release, then planned a sit-in at centrally located Marjeh Square, where the Ministry of Interior is located. Like seemingly every protest, it was scheduled to begin at noon. At the last minute, they decided to gather on a side street a half hour early, which may have been a grave mistake. The early start gave security time to gather itself, while isolating any stragglers who may have joined and given the movement more steam.
Security came prepared. Because they were off the main square, I didn’t even see anyone staging a sit-in, just mustachioed men starting to run and snatch people up. As far as I could tell, their first catch was a woman with long, straight black hair, who wailed and writhed as about five men rushed her over to the other side of the square. Another woman followed shortly thereafter. From there, they simply stuffed people into white vans, shoving them on top of one another. One van I saw must have had 20 people in it, falling on top of one another.
As they cleared each area of the protestors holding photos of detained family members, they moved in with their own protestors holding photos of the president. Journalists for state TV with big cameras perched on their rushed to cover these. One pro-government demonstrator had a little girl perched on his shoulders. She, too, was promising to sacrifice for Bashar. Around the square, the leather jackets stood in clusters, lining the barricaded side streets. There were hundreds, at least. Some are reporting 2,000. Amid each outburst of pro-government fervor from the hired hands would emerge one or two protestors, who then would quickly be carted off.
Most alarming were the arrests of the bystanders. One woman in a white hijab was standing by herself near the entrance to a side street. Three men approached her and opened her bag. Finding a document they didn’t like, they began to grab at her and drag her away from the square. Her brow furrowed worriedly and she began to cry out, then disappeared quickly out of sight.
I don’t really know where any of this goes from here. Some of the biggest cowboys in the activist community—including firebrand Suhair Al Atassi—went down with the ship today. According to one activist keeping track, the tally is now at 36, but I suspect it could be higher. Hopefully, they’ll all be released within a few hours, as often happens, but the most outspoken among them may be in there for a while longer. The opposition in Syria isn’t organized the same way it was in Egypt, nor does everyone in it think that noisy revolution, rather than reform, is the answer. The best case scenario, I think, is for some kind of negotiation between the government and opposition figures in the coming weeks that will fast-track a few key reforms. In the absence of functional, organized opposition groups, the fuel for demonstrations is the adrenaline of these revolutionary times alone, and that is not enough. Against a state in which the army and the party are still very much united, anything more dramatic than that would likely take years of prep time. Perhaps this sounds pessimistic, but I don’t actually think it is. For a president seen by many Syrians as a reformer pushing back against an old guard, this is a moment rich with opportunity.
Damascus is a city that swallows its sounds, and with them, its news. As I strolled through the old city today, just blocks from the most momentous civil unrest Syria has seen in years, the only sensory input I was receiving were the smells of the spice market wafting into my nose. It wasn’t until I reached the end of Straight Street and headed out into the new city that I got my first sign something was amiss.
I turned right and headed toward Hamidiya, then noticed the gaggle of men with leather jackets and dark moustaches up ahead. They were waiting on the sidewalk in front of a mosque—the same mosque that had been in the background of videos from the Hariqa protests a few weeks ago. As I passed in front of them on the opposite side of the street, I started to hear the chanting. I looked right, and there they were: a block of people, stretching the width of the street, pumping their fists, shouting in unison, and advancing straight toward me. At first, I thought they were chanting “bi rouh, bi dam, nefdik ya Bashar,” the same classic pro-Assad line the last set of Hariqa protestors had embraced. In a way they did, but with a twist. Instead of shouting “Bashar,” they’d substituted “Syria.”
I kept walking, lest I get caught up in the thick of it. Shopkeepers stood on their stoops, gawking. When I felt I’d made it a safe distance ahead, I turned back. The protestors made it to the main road, shouting something about freedom. When they waded into traffic, security descended.
Pedestrians peeled off from around me and began running toward the epicenter, apparent insta-cops. A frazzled traffic cop, armed only with his baton and whistle, tried in vain to keep cars moving through the crowded street. Before long, three men in plain clothes rushed past me dragging a man in a patterned vest who looked to be in his 50s. They seemed to be taking him toward Hamidiya. When they reached an open space, they pushed him down to the pavement on his hands and knees. I turned away for a few moments to gauge whether the protestors were coming any closer. By the time I turned back, he was gone.
Minutes later, so were the rest of the protestors. Security had turned them back into the Hariqa market from the main road. Some lingered around the square a block inside, but most dispersed, swallowed back up by the city. All that was left were lines of white vans full of security personnel, and on the street, endless groups of leather jackets.
Remember when the Sound of Music took over the Antwerp train station? If you don’t, you should. Anyway, the Lebanese now have a dabke-filled answer to it, and even if they are shilling for something as random as duty free, it’s still pretty fun.
(h/t grumpy Seleucid)
Does it make you sick yet? How about now?In a reversal of the direction these things tend to flow, Syrian security authorities just announced they intercepted a big cache of weapons on their way into the country from Iraq. The bust supposedly happened March 7 at the Al-Tanf border crossing. State-run SANA has the scoop and the photos.
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Tweets
- Dearest tweeps: I'm getting concerned messages, so I'm reemerging to assure y'all I am safe & sound in Beirut. Thanks for worrying about me!
- @diplomasyeh I am indeed, still in the Sham. Where are you based?
- @diplomasyeh I'm still here, thanks so much for checking. Very frustrated not to be tweeting.
- Please note the Burberry purse on the desk at 1:29. That is all. http://youtu.be/vjleYAA3dKs
- @wissamtarif Wissam, I'd like to DM you, could you please follow? Many thanks.
- Names? Foreign or Syrian? RT @wissamtarif: Three journalists arbitrary detained in #Damascus few minutes ago. #Syria #Daraa #March15
- Well, that's an interesting way of putting it, Russia. http://bit.ly/gb53nk
- Reliable source. RT @abdulhaykal: Martial law in #Syria will be lifted within hours. Confirmed (and wonderful!) news.
- Should be up and running again soon.
- Guys, I've gone dark while figuring some things out. Please follow @LaurenBohn for yesterday's updates and @RulaAmin for Al Jazeera's takes.
- All of Syria is holding its breath right now.
- @Seleucid In Aleppo, too, eh? Went until like 3 am in my neighborhood, then started up again at 7 am or so. Lots of rouh and dam.
- Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. RT @Seleucid: Got the Shaaban video guys! http://youtu.be/pyh78vF5Xzk
- @Seleucid Oof, never mind. Bah.
- The lack of media in Syria today, especially in Daraa, is deeply troubling. Even internationals aren't writing for fear of being kicked out.
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Halab
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Info
- SummaryReporter with web, wire service and magazine writing experience. Comfortable with multimedia projects and social media. Available for freelance assignments.
For the past few years, I covered international affairs for Newsweek.com. Prior to joining Newsweek, I was at the Reuters bureau in Buenos Aires, courtesy of an Overseas Press Club fellowship in 2007. Last year, I went on leave from Newsweek for a nine-month Fulbright fellowship to study web connectivity and the youth economy in Damascus, Syria.
Since leaving Damascus at the end of April, I covered the Syrian uprising for Human Rights Watch out of their Beirut office. More recently, I have been covering Syria with the Los Angeles Times and conducting research for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Versed in HTML, CQ5.
Working knowledge of Arabic, knowledge of French and Spanish.
Please be in touch: katie.l.paul [at] gmail [dot] com.Experience- May 2011 - PresentJournalist / FreelanceHRW, IWPR, Los Angeles Times. Responsibilities at HRW included conducting interviews, building source networks, preparing memos and press releases, compiling research and data, and writing sections of reports. For IWPR, I conducted research in Tunisia and wrote a 15-page report assessing the organization's pre-election journalism training programs.
- Sept 2010 - Apr 2011Fellow / U.S. Fulbright ProgramA nine-month Fulbright fellowship to study web connectivity, entrepreneurship, and the youth economy in Damascus, Syria.
- Jan 2008 - Apr 2011Reporter / NewsweekWorking primarily for Newsweek.com, I reported, wrote, and produced daily coverage of international policy and politics, including by launching the Wealth of Nations blog on global affairs. I also produced feature essays and multimedia projects, including photo essays, interactive maps, audio, and video.
- Jun 2007 - Nov 2007Intern/Freelancer / Reuters, Buenos Aires Bureau
Education-
2003 - 2007Vassar CollegeB.A. in History
Activities: Miscellany News, Vassar College Choir
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Honors:2010 SPJ Deadline Club Award for San Joaquin project; 2010 ASME National Magazine Award nomination for San Joaquin project; 2007 Sophia H. Chen Zen Prize for best Vassar thesis in History; 2007 Overseas Press Club’s Irene Corbally Kuhn Scholarship; 2006 Vassar’s Evelyn Clark Fellowship for Thesis Research
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portfolio
Foreign Policy:
Daily Beast:
Dueling tales of Syria massacre
Syrians flee to Lebanon as regime forces finish 'cleaning' operation
Bab Amr's last stand: the final days of the Syrian rebel stronghold
Tribe by tribe, unrest reaches Aleppo
Los Angeles Times:
Syrian opposition march comes under fire near president's palace
Crisis takes toll on Syrian economy
Russia, China veto new U.N. resolution on Syria
Syria capital hit by massive bombings
Syria President Bashar Assad pledges iron fist against opponents
In Syria, reported killings in Homs spread fear of sectarian war
Syria doctors risk their lives to secretly treat protesters
Activists say scores killed in assault on Syrian valley
Syrian activists declare 'humanitarian disaster area'
Syrian violence continues Friday despite peace pact
Human Rights Watch:
Syria: Crimes Against Humanity in Homs
Syria: Mass Arrest Campaign Intensifies
Syria: Shootings, Arrests Follow Hama Protest
Syria: Crimes Against Humanity in Daraa
Syria: Targeted Arrests of Activists Across Country
Syria: World Should Impose Sanctions on Leadership
Newsweek:
Syria: The Republic of Fear
Recent protests in Syria have brought brutal government crackdown--and renewed paranoia among dissidents.San Joaquin: The Valley of Shadows
A Newsweek.com project on the environmental and economic struggles of California's central valley, an vast exercise in American hubris. I reported it, wrote it, recorded the audio, and conceived the interactives. It snagged a nomination for an ASME Digital Ellie (National Magazine Award) and a win for an SPJ Deadline Club Award in multimedia.Silent Warrior
She's faced down the mob and genocidal dictators. So why is Carla Del Ponte barred from discussing her own book?
Muddled Messaging
Why the U.N. is at war with itself over Sudan.
Pakistan to the Internets: Shut Up!
The Pakistani government's decision to shut down Youtube is sheer absurdity.
AIPAC's Week on the Hill
There are some problems with the group's three talking points. Here's why.
Labor Shortage
In Haiti, children called restaveks are regularly loaned to other households, and the unluckiest are treated like slaves. (NPR interview on restaveks).
A Farewell to Victory
Wars once ended with winners and losers. Then it got complicated.
An African Domino Theory, Examined
Uganda isn't the only star of the antigay show in East Africa anymore. Is its fervor spreading?
Bolivia's Revolution
President Evo Morales and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, are comrades in a self-proclaimed socialist revolution. But their standing at home couldn't be more different.
The PEPFAR Paradox
Widely considered a jewel of U.S. foreign policy, the AIDS-treatment program is on track to post less impressive results—and that might be a good thing.
Here to Stay
Critics slam Ban Ki-moon for being charmless and ineffective. They'd better get used to it, because they're stuck with him.
Old Habits Die Hard
Some political parties stay in power for what seems like an eternity. Here are a few that were finally knocked off.
Travel Advisory
The reasons Hillary Clinton is in Africa, country by country.
Spitzer to U.S.: "Serve Subpoenas"
A Q&A on the Cuomo Report with the man once known as "Lord High Executioner" among the Wall Street crowd.
Make Stuff, Not War
As the UNDP Human Development report shows, the Arab world needs to figure out what it's good at economically.
Argentina's Next Power Brokers
On Francisco de Narvaez and the rise of the anti-Kirchner Peronists
The Bloodiest War
Civilians from the eastern Congo tell their stories.
The Road from Gitmo
The emerging ways the U.S. might handle its suspects in the war on terror.
Opium Wars
Afghanistan's narcotics trade is back with a vengeance. Washington's latest antidrug plan is unlikely to curb it.Reuters:
Argentina begins trial on infamous torture center
Argentina power couple draws Clinton comparisons
Small change causes big hassles in Argentina
Latin American aviation falters as traffic soars
Bargain nip and tuck draws tourists to S. America
