Theo Padnos

Theo Padnos is the author of the memoir, Blindfold. His captivity in Syria is the subject of the 2016 documentary, Theo Who Lived

The jihadist I knew: my life as a prisoner of Syria’s president

As Washington rolls out the red carpet today for the former al-Qaeda chieftain and now Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s minorities continue to live in terror. An army of destruction, half Mad Max, half Lollapalooza is rolling through the desert somewhere south of the country’s capital, Damascus. Who has ordered these militants into action? No