Posted on 04/08/2016 6:56:54 AM PDT by GIdget2004
The Syrian regime has freed an American freelance photographer who was abducted after traveling to the country in 2012, according to two U.S. officials.
Kevin Patrick Dawes, 33, from San Diego, was released following many months of negotiations, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details of Dawes's release have not yet been made public.
Dawes was recently allowed to call his family and receive care packages, a signal to officials that the Syrian government was moving toward releasing him. The U.S. State Department had taken the lead on winning Dawes's release. It's unclear if American officials talked directly with the Syrian government or through an intermediary.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Story isn’t clear - was he abducted, or was he detained for violations of the law?
The first sentence of the story uses the word “abducted”.
I wonder if this is the same guy: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/24/141646227/u-s-aid-worker-took-up-arms-with-libyas-rebels
People should look him up in search engines. Either crazy or a leftwing nut.
And the third paragraph indicated it was the government, and not some militia that had him.
Guess I need to find a better source than your WaPost article to figure out what really happened.
“Guess I need to find a better source than your WaPost article to figure out what really happened.”
Yes, probably. I wasn’t trying to be a smartass, and I don’t know anything about the situation.
Here’s a story that GQ Magazine did about him earlier this year:
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/syria-isis-kevin-dawes
OK, it looks like he may be a sniper who worked for the CIA or similar agency under a ‘freelance journalist’ cover.
The FBI even put out a ‘most wanted’ poster on him as a missing person at one point. https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/kevin-patrick-dawes/view
Before going to Syria, he worked in Libya.
Thank you. My gut says he was trying to harm the Assad regime, and he was not really a hostage, but that is just based on cursory searching.
Yes, it looks like he was with one of the rebel groups and got captured by the Syrian government forces. Since he worked with the anti-government forces in Libya as a ‘journalist’ then medic, then sniper, it appears that the detention was probably justified.
A foreign civilian that took up arms against the legally recognized Libyan government responding to an illegal insurrection.
Terrorist, unlawful combatant, and criminal. He should be dangling at the scaffold.
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