Christiaan Triebert
@trbrtc
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Visual Investigations at @nytimes. Previously with @Bellingcat, @Airwars. DMs open.
Joined June 2009
The bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh came from the approx. position of an Israel military vehicle — most likely fired by a soldier from an elite unit. It was one of 16 bullets fired into the direction of 5 clearly marked journalists. Our investigation:
nytimes.com
A New York Times investigation found that the bullet that killed a Palestinian-American journalist was fired from the approximate position of an Israeli military vehicle.
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According to the investigation below, last December, Rebels nearly intercepted Major General Kamal Hassan, who was then Head of Military Intelligence. On the night Damascus fell, before fleeing #Syria, he went to the Intelligence HQ to retrieve money and files. Then, while
When Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed in Syria, many of the officials who enabled and enforced his brutal regime disappeared. Our reporting uncovers who they are, what they did and where they fled.
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One week into the ceasefire, violence is plaguing the Gaza Strip. Hamas is attempting to reassert control, but militias operating from Israeli-controlled areas told us they will fight to the end. New report with @SamDoak5 and @celinealkhaldi
news.sky.com
Experts say Hamas is attempting to reassert its authority, but members of three anti-Hamas militias told Sky News they have no intention of laying down their arms.
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Also, our reporting project page is available in Arabic. Paywall-free: https://t.co/swLfuV1T4o
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What's striking is that for many of these folks, we have no idea how they look like. Take Abdul Salam Mahmoud, head of Air Force Intelligence's branch at Mezzeh military airport. He's on the @FBI's most wanted list. And there's is not a single known photo of the man.
When Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed in Syria, many of the officials who enabled and enforced his brutal regime disappeared. Our reporting uncovers who they are, what they did and where they fled.
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There are a hundred crazy moments in the reporting, but my favorite is this discussion of a high-level Assad official escaping to Moscow, linking out to a video of him zooming around on a scooter with a goofy smile on his face.
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Our investigation continues. While we have found the fates of some of 11 of these officials, the current activities of the others remain unknown. We're looking for more info on how they're living and operating now. You can contact us securely via
nytimes.com
The New York Times is providing ways to get in touch and share materials with our journalists confidentially.
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Read the first installment of this reporting project here, paywall free. This is work from many: @ErikaSolomon @heytherehaley @ahmadmhidi @danny_makki @markscheffler @NeilCollier @devonjlum @ishaan_jhavs Aaron Byrd, Lily Boyce, Josh Williams and others
nytimes.com
As Syria’s regime collapsed, the world’s eyes were on Bashar al-Assad’s getaway flight. Behind him, officials key to his brutal rule made a mass exodus, virtually undetected.
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Not everyone vanished from Syria. When we knocked on the door of Amr al-Armanazi, the former head of Syria’s chemical weapons program, he answered himself wearing a bathrobe and speaking to us through the door window. He declined to be interviewed.
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Several of these fugitives eventually ended up in Russia. Moscow was critical in orchestrating the escapes for those that were close to them. Assad's own brother, Maher, for instance, live a life of exiled luxury.
حددت بدقة المكان الذي ظهر فيه ماهر الأسد لأول مرة منذ سقوط نظام الأسد. (فيديو ظهور ماهر بالتغريدة التالية) المكان: مطعم في منطقة موسكو سيتي الفخمة، حيث يُعتقد أن عائلة الأسد تعيش هناك المكان الأكثر تحديداً: مطعم يسمى Мята Lounge، يقع ضمن "مول" واسمه afimall city moscow russia
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Bassam Hassan slipped right through a rebel checkpoint because fighters didn't recognize him. His escape was enabled by a lifetime of near-anonimity, as described above. Bogus photos have circulated for years, and even US and UK governments used the wrong DOB and name spelling.
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Ali Mamlouk, the feared national security director, was attacked in an ambush as he tried to flee. He escaped unscathed in an armored vehicle and raced to the Russian Embassy, where the aforementioned Kamal al-Hassan was also hiding.
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@QalaatAlMudiq Another intelligence director, Hossam Louka, waited until 2 a.m. before fleeing. He ordered the headquarters’ safe opened and took an estimated $1,360,000 in cash. Louka abandoned his 3,000 officers — waiting for a counter-attack order that never came — without a word.
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@QalaatAlMudiq Passengers on that Yak-40 included some of the regime's most notorious figures, seen here on archival photos: the air force intelligence director, two former defense ministers and the military chief of staff accused of facilitating torture. https://t.co/mCYo8ca4Bp
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@QalaatAlMudiq Assad's inner circle then executed their own mass exodus. At the Ghuzlaniyah side of Damascus' airport, a small Yak-40 jet filled with the regime's elite, seen here on satellite imagery before and after the fall. They scrambled to Russia's Khmeimim base.
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@QalaatAlMudiq The stories of those whose escape routes and destinations we were able to confirm are pretty wild. We know that, just hours after they still believed Assad had a plan, his senior aides discovered he was gone. Panic spread through frantic phone calls: “He’s gone.”
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As @QalaatAlMudiq pointed out, we located 11 of the 55. 9 of those are in Russia, 1 is in Syria, and 1 is in Lebanon.
#Syria: this is one of the most widely debated issues of the post-Assad era: where did the top Regime figures flee after Assad's fall? Out of 55 senior Officials investigated, 13 were located. And almost all (11) ended up in Russia. Among those located in Russia are: - Suhail
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This is the page for the 55 Assad enforcers who did the bidding for the regime, and vanished when it was overthrown. https://t.co/rwcKQZK2H2
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Some other clues we found unwittingly left behind in haste: an expired credit card, a utility bill with a full name, family portraits but also relatives still living there — each providing insight, however small, about who our subject were and where they may have gone.
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