Theo Padnos

Here's my new website! Looks nice to me? What do you think?

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

Did you ask him why he so loves to torture and kill his fellow citizens? And your journalist colleagues? I assure you, he does not know. All the interesting questions he cannot answer. 1/2

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

@HalaGorani @deborahamos This is painful to listen to. So al Shara and his friends promised not to kill people as they rolled south from Idlib? Will the fox promise not to gobble up the chickens? Yes. Only Deb Amos thinks promises like these mean something. What if your life depended on their word?

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

@joshua_landis Shouldn't this disqualify you as an observer? Imagine a witness in Germany around the time of Kriatallnacht. The important thing then was to read the writing on the wall. In the case you cite here it would seem the problem is just blank inability to read anything that matters.

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

Please. They’re not idiots. My captors in Syria believed the same things and did the same things. Presumably you were there to understand? Great. So shed light. Insulting other people is pointless. https://t.co/qBrOTgiyMj

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

@KMooreGilbert @Elizrael My captors in Syria did and said everything this woman's captors did and said. Wouldn't it be better to try to understand them? Calling them idiots--even thinking of them in this way--badly misses the point, particularly if you'd like to write about your experience.

[RFI en Español @RFI_Es]

Dibujando y escribiendo historias de amor: así sobrevivieron años en las celdas sirias https://t.co/sqM1Iq7Fqp

[Kinan @KinanabuNidal]

Article de @TheoPadnos, journaliste freelance américain, qui a été l'otage d'al-Nousra avant de s'échapper de leurs geôles, dans The Spectator.
Regard décapant sur le nouveau maître de la Syrie au regard de son vécu comme captif de celui-ci.

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

ambassador. Could he refrain from banging on about matters about which he doesn't have a clue? That would be the decent thing to do. Could he be honest about his support for Jolani? No and no. https://t.co/795EmmajDO

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

So much Uriah Heep-like weaseling and waffling. Each one of these tweets would drive any sane person up a wall. Now imagine you're an American mom looking for her kid who's been lost in Syria. That's the situation my mom was in when she went to see @fordrs58 He's the US

[Robert Ford @fordrs58]

actually it was my idea to put Nusra Front on the terrorism list in 2012, and my State Department team and i shepherded the decision through the American government bureaucracy. old history. read Michael Gordon, for ex.

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

When I knew these guys they were singing about their triumph in bringing down the World Trade Center ("with civilian airplanes we did it!") . So went a line in one of their favorite nasheeds/hymns. https://t.co/795EmmajDO

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

@ricwe123 This guy was an American diplomat? Isn't he supposed to be concerned about the welfare of American citizens? Why did Jolani hold an American journalist, namely me, for two years for no reason at all? Apparently Robert Ford doesn't worry about such things. https://t.co/795EmmajDO

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

That's how brave he was. I think he was trying to tell me that everything would be ok?"

The people who were in charge of this jail are now in charge of all of Syria.

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

The sister of a guy with whom I was in prison in Syria recently sent me a Facebook message. Did I know anything of her brother, she asked? Her family has been looking for him for 11 years. She sent me his pic and told me his name. I wrote out my reply in English...

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

I told your brother my actual name. He told me his. I said 'I'm an American.' I could see the shock in his eyes. He was so afraid for me--or all of us?--that he didn't know what to do or say. After a few seconds, he got up, kissed me on the forehead. "God keep you," he said.

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

@im_PULSE @RollingStone Thank you for reading my article! But did you read it? Somehow I suspect you did not. If you did I cannot imagine you'd find anything to disagree with. As for reparations : I m against guns generally. I wish all gun dealers would be made to pay the victims of gun crime.

[Sheri Laizer @SheriLaizer]

@TheoPadnos Exactly, al-Sharaa issues new edicts that reflect his true state of mind. Dress laws for women, Awqaf edict to kill the Alawites, Druze . The West only cared about achieving regime change - just as with Iraq. They will reap the consequences of al-Sharaa being left in control.

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

Hopefully the second part of this essay will be coming along soon.

[Theo Padnos @TheoPadnos]

https://t.co/eNcL3YNcxP