DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — When Ellie, a British-Iranian living in the United Kingdom, tried to call her mother in Tehran, a robotic female voice answered instead.
“Alo? Alo?” the voice said, then asked in English: “Who is calling?” A few seconds passed.
“I can’t heard you,” the voice continued, its English imperfect. “Who you want to speak with? I’m Alyssia. Do you remember me? I think I don’t know who are you.”
Ellie, 44, is one of nine Iranians living abroad — including in the U.K and U.S. — who said they have gotten strange, robotic voices when they attempted to call their loved ones in Iran since Israel launched airstrikes on the country a week ago.
They told their stories to The Associated Press on the condition they remain anonymous or that only their first names or initials be used out of fear of endangering their families.
Five experts with whom the AP shared recordings said it could be low-tech artificial intelligence, a chatbot or a pre-recorded message to which calls from abroad were diverted.
It remains unclear who is behind the operation, though four of the experts believed it was likely to be the Iranian government while the fifth saw Israel as more likely.
Only the second most terrifying story I’ve read today
Hatred is a failing, not something that should empathized with or rationalized. We know there’s situations that will make people hate, but it’s like someone abused as a child becoming an abuser as a parent. We know it happens but it’s not a thing where we should empathize with the abuser and rationalize their actions so it seems reasonable or legitimate. Sure I try to understand hatred, but in a similar way as I try to understand mental illness. Something that needs treatment, not something that should be spread out of a weird sense of empathy.
“Either you must choose ‘gradual death’ in hellish life in shelters or save your lives from the 24-hour missile rain and flee as soon as possible from the lands usurped by your ancestors, so that you may survive.” https://iranwire.com/en/news/142321-irgc-says-it-fired-2000-kilometer-range-missiles-at-israel/
I guess more propaganda and not intent? This is part of Operation “True Promise” They’ve been promising to wipe Israel off the map… so more propaganda.
Iran keeps promising to ethnic cleansing of Jews, and every thing they say seems to be “seriously, me mean it, it’s we’re making are promises come true now.”
And even if you’re sure that you trust them to be lying, what about the potential for someone that grew up with this propaganda and is a true believer to someday take power?
Hamas was in power in Gaza for a much shorter period of time and the indoctrinated young men to be capable of doing some extremely horrific things in that time. I’m sorry but the propaganda isn’t a nothing burger whether you believe it or not. Some people will believe it and may do horrible things in the future.
The regime will immediately start rebuilding their nuclear program if they remain in power. The infrastructure helps keep the regime in power.
Well prepare yourself, the Ayatollah will use violence to try to remain in power, and that could be a really violent conflict. The Syrian civil war was horrific, over half a million people killed, torture dungeons, mass killings, really terrible things. Hopefully a potential Iranian civil war wouldn’t be so bloody, and maybe with air support for a rebel group it’ll be more like the Libyan civil war. But that’s still tens of thousands dead and Libya is still in a mess today.
I think all of the other ways have been tried, it’s not just Israel that would welcome a regime change in Iran. I don’t think military action should be a thing anyone should be supporting (it’s not a sports team) but sometimes military action is necessary. It would’ve been better if the JCPOA not been cancelled by Trump and the Ayatollah just decided to quit being supreme leader and let Iran decide things democratically. But that’s not the world we live in.
The intent seems pretty clear to me: leave Israel so Israel ceases to exist. They’re not saying, “we’ll kill you wherever you flee,” that would be genocide, they’re saying, “as long as the Israeli state exists, we will attack it and make life suck for everyone who chooses to stay.”
I think if they had the chance, they’d make good on that threat.
I never claimed the propaganda was a nothing burger, I claimed it’s directed at the Israeli state, not Israelis or Jews themselves. Even if Israel were completely secular, there would still be opposition, because Muslim extremists don’t care what religion occupies the Holy Land, as long as it’s not Muslim, it is the same.
Agreed 100%, which is why Israel’s strike is dumb. The power proper solution is regime change, and giving the people there a reason to support their government isn’t the way to achieve that.
Unfortunately, I think that’s the best possible outcome in Iran. Iran used to be prosperous when they were friendly with the west, and I’d love for them to do so again. But that can only happen with a regime change.
The JCPOA was a step in the right direction, a D we should’ve followed it up with trade deals. IMO, the best way to fight against extremism is through prosperity and trade, so we should be making very attractive deals with countries in exchange for not having or eliminating nuclear weapons (prosperity in exchange for peace). Unfortunately, that’s impossible with Trump in power, and I doubt Iran’s leadership is interested after the US broke the trade deal.