Kassem Eid
Kassem Eid
Kassem Eid is a Syrian media activist and public opponent of the Bashar al-Assad regime. He is known for his interview with Brooke Baldwin on CNN where he praises Donald Trump for the 2017 Shayrat strike. [6] [5]
Background
Early Life
Kassem photo.
He was born and raised in Moadamiyet, a town in southern Syria. Due to the civil war that emerged in the country many of his family members have scattered throughout the Middle East. [19]
He has nine siblings.
Growing up he has always been critical of the regime for all of the things that he's seen over the years.
The spirit of a revolution in Syria was only a breath away from happening.
He had always kept his opinions about the government to himself and also kept a low profile.
With the burning desire to suppress spreading the word about the
horrors of war, he decided to look after his mother and siblings to worry about.
During the peaceful protests of 2011 that launched the 2011 Syrian revolt, he snuck into the protests on his own and avoided his friends. [20]
In his hometown, members from Al Qaeda arrived to scout for recruits and left after a day for he concluded that the people form his home town are "Apostates". [20]
He is a former hotel worker.
Airstrikes -Syrian Chemical attack
Kassem at a UN hearing.
Kassem smokes a cigarette.
At around 4:45 a.m. on August 21st, 2013, several neighborhoods south of Damascus were bombarded with chemical weapons. He woke to find himself in a day of horror and challenges. The bombings dropped. The smoke from the impact blending into the dusty air like a giant wave soon invaded Kassem's lungs. He struggled to
They gathered what they could and placed damp rags over their mouth and nose.
A woman approached the men asking for help with three unconscious children to safety The children also appeared to have breathing problems.
Kassem pounded on the kid's chest to help them breathe again.
One of the men ran to get the car in order to transport the boy, and the rest seem to just spread into their own amongst the pandemonium.
When his friend returned with the Range Rover to transport the child. They emerged into the world to find an apocalyptic display of chaos in the streets. As they arrived to the nearby hospital to get some help, Kassem became unconscious and fell from the back of the vehicle. He was also transported to get help inside. [20]
He was left for dead by the doctors after they discovered that his heart was not beating at all.
After about 45 minutes, one of his friends saw Kassem move as he was lying amongst the rest of the dead bodies.
The doctors spent about 30 minutes treating Kassem until he finally regained consciousness.
He would spend the next couple days helping his friends who were part of the Free Syrian Army to keep soldiers from the regime at bay. He was going back and forth from the hospital to war zones. [20]
The airstrike became a scandal and one of the deadliest ever experienced in the region.
Newshour Inteview
Days after the airstrikes and the conflict that proceeded it, U.N.
Investigators arrived and toured the town.
Kassem helped them as a guide.
BBC's Newshour were looking to do an interview with a survivor who could help them with the report. Kassem was registered as an English speaker after his time with the U.N. Investigators and eventually did his first interview with the BBC. [20]
He would be connected with other journalists looking to get a reliable source to their stories.
Numerous outlets began seeking information from Kassem.
These included: The Daily Telegraph, the Associated Press, The Daily Star (Lebanon), The New York Times, amongst many more. He spoke with more than 100 journalists.
He also became a regular guest on Arab news channels like Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, the two prominent Gulf-based satellite networks. [20]
Starve And Surrender
Kassem was around when the Assad regime used the "Starve and Surrender" tactics, and how it affect the entire group of fighters, children and everyone in Moadamiyet. He held infants with malnutrition. The Assad Regime blocked food, medicine, and humanitarian help. [21]
He fasted for more than 33 days.
He initiated a hunger strike himself to garner international attention about the conflict, and he did.
US Congressman Keith Ellison also fasted for a day due to the issue at hand in Syria. Other regimes then began looking for ways to get rid of Kassem. [21]
Escape to the United States
During his hunger strike which followed international attention from the media, the Assad regime were looking to place Kassem under control.
They were looking to get rid of him.
Kassem entered into negotiations and managed to fool Ghassan Bilal, the chief of staff of Maher al-Assad, into making him believe that he would work for them.
Fooling the enforcer of Assad regime, his brother, bought Kassem enough time to escape into Lebanon. From there he fled into Turkey, for a clear passage to the United States as a refugee. [18]
After arriving in the U.S., he traveled throughout to Universities to give talks about the attacks on Syria and his experience during Assad's sarin gas attack in 2013.
He felt compelled to tell his story in the hopes that he may actually convince the White House to take action and stop Assad. [4]
Interview with CNN
Kassem wears a hat that says, "Make Syria Great Again".
After the Syrian regime's sarin gas attack on civilians in Khan-Sheikhoun, in which Donald Trump responded with a Shayrat strike, CNN and other publications took to make sense of this decision from the White House and the president himself. Kassem was interviewed by Brooke Baldwin, who was part of CNN's effort to spin and navigated the narrative to their favor by getting Kassem to critique, but instead, they got something else from Kassem. [7] [5] [8]
Here's a response from Kassem for the Shayrat strike:
"And if you'll just give me a few seconds just to tell President Trump, once again.
Please sir, what you did was amazing. What you did was a powerful message of hope for a lot of people inside and outside of Syria.
Please don't stop on this.
Please. Help Syrians stay in their country!
Please take out Assad's air forces so they won't be able to commit more atrocities using traditional weapons... 500,000 people were killed with traditional weapons -- just so people can know what we've suffered in the past six years."
As a follow up to his response to CNN about the airstrikes in which he thanks US President, Trump, he went on to publish a written response on the Wall Street Journal. The article, once again thanks president Trump, and urges Americans to help the people of Syria, and to dismantle the Assad government. [4]