Syria Undercover: Live chat

The defining characteristic of Syrian politics, ever since the country gained independence, has been paranoia. While its leaders have lived in fear of military coups, Islamist revolts, and Western meddling, its citizens have dreaded arbitrary arrest, indefinite imprisonment, and torture at the hands of the state. PBS Frontline’s new documentary, "Syria Undercover," provides a ground-level ...

The defining characteristic of Syrian politics, ever since the country gained independence, has been paranoia. While its leaders have lived in fear of military coups, Islamist revolts, and Western meddling, its citizens have dreaded arbitrary arrest, indefinite imprisonment, and torture at the hands of the state.

The defining characteristic of Syrian politics, ever since the country gained independence, has been paranoia. While its leaders have lived in fear of military coups, Islamist revolts, and Western meddling, its citizens have dreaded arbitrary arrest, indefinite imprisonment, and torture at the hands of the state.

PBS Frontline’s new documentary, "Syria Undercover," provides a ground-level look at the paranoia that has seized the country during the current uprising, which has dragged on for the past eight months, at the cost of more than 3,500 lives. The two-part series tracks correspondent Ramita Navai as she travels around Syria to meet with the protest organizers and defected officers that have emerged during the revolt – at one point, she hides in a protest organizers’ safe house while militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad ransack an apartment next door. It also features insights into what motivates the Assad regime from New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid. "This was Syria of the Assads," he wrote, in an exclusive essay for PBS. "[R]endered in their image, haunted by their phobias and ordered by their machinations."

At 1 pm, I will help moderate an exclusive live chat with Navai and Shadid about the current state of the Syrian uprising. Please tune in using the chat module below!

 

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