Bizarro Damascus, Syria (BP)- Syrian military courts, under the orders of President Bashar Assad, are cracking down on nefarious hackers posting vital state secrets online.
"We will not tolerate this betrayal of the Syrian public," said information minister Omran al-Zoubi on Syrian state television. "These men are no whistleblowers. They are radicals who seek to aid our enemies."
The four Syrian men charged with espionage recorded what appears to be warheads detonating over villages outside of Damascus on Wednesday. Subsequent videos portrayed a number of dead and dying civilians, including many children. Jean Pascal Zanders, an independent researcher in the field of nerve agents, said that the effects were not consistent with VX or sarin. The condition of bodies seen on the leaked videos suggest death by asphyxiation.
Only two of the men arrested have been identified thus far. Julin Al-Assange, 42, is a self-described independent journalist interested in releasing classified information obtained illegally, asserting that it is "within the best interests of the global citizenry" to have access to state secrets. Brahli Al-Manning, 25, a defected Syrian soldier, could be facing as much as 90 years in prison for his role.
"They are not sorry for what they have done, only that they have been caught doing it," said anti-regime activist Muhammad Rhaman. "[Al-Assange] has exposed blatant evidence of murder in cold blood of non-combatants, and nobody responsible will be punished."
The position of the Assad regime is that the attack was supposed to be carried out in secret in order to end a "terrorist threat" to the citizens of Syria. Assad's spokesmen express concern that the Syrian military's exposed act of indiscriminate murder could be used to recruit new insurgents and harm global perception of Syria unfairly.
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