Assad And Me

Praise

Issam Khoury is a Syrian patriot and expatriate.  His book “Assad and Me” is a unique truth-telling of how the Assad regime, aided by Russian forces, has struggled to imprison and expel millions of Syrians who want nothing more than a decent life for their families.  We need to understand his story as we struggle to come to grips with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and find pathways to avoid similar catastrophes elsewhere.

– Cameron B. Hume, United States Ambassador to Algeria (1997-2000), South Africa (2001-2004), and Indonesia (2007–2010), and author (United Nations, Iran and Iraq: How Peacemaking Changed, Ending Mozambique’s War, and Mission to Algiers: Diplomacy by Engagement), May 2022
Issam Khoury, a well-known freelance journalist, and civil rights activist, has faced consistent threats from the Syrian regime for more than a decade as the result of his work.

-Newmark J-School
As a Syrian Christian, Khoury was also pushing back against Assad's insistence that he was helping protect the country's religious minorities. Khoury said he has been unable to separate his anti-Assad activism from his journalistic work. He sees his role as standing up for those the government tries to repress.

-VERONIKA BONDARENKO, BUSINESS INSIDER
The fact Issam Khoury has a reputation as a knowledgeable reporter on what is going on in his native Syria, in particular, and in the Middle East, in general, is very well-deserved. 
Khoury had engaged in the civil rights movements during the early 2000’s and ran afoul of the Assad government’ secret service.  Eventually, he had to leave the country, and arrive in New York in 2013.  Here, he has carved out a thriving media operation that chronicles the ebb and flow of the civil war based on reports from a dedicated stable of correspondents in Syria, many of whom he himself trained.  Its output of videos is distributed to local TV stations and interested parties as a way of keeping the tragedy of Syria in the public eye.

-Veteran journalist Charles Weiss, regional correspondent for VOA
Issam writes a riveting synopsis of the real story on the ground in Syria. An insightive Autobiography coupled with a clear narrative on how complex the landscape is. A must read. - Oz Sultan, a researcher, strategist, board Member at Homeland Security Foundation of America, and a regular on i24, Newsmax. Aug 2022
Issam writes a riveting synopsis of the real story on the ground in Syria. An insightive Autobiography coupled with a clear narrative on how complex the landscape is. A must read.

– Oz Sultan, a researcher, strategist, board Member at Homeland Security Foundation of America, and a regular on i24, Newsmax. Aug 2022
Issam Khoury has been detained, interrogated, beaten and tortured, and forced to flee his country because of his journalism and political activism over the last 15 years in Syria, a country torn apart by revolution and the reprisals of a brutal regime led by Bashar al-Assad.
Hundreds of articles, many on freedom and human rights, and two novels that Khoury wrote put him in the radar of al-Assad and his secret police and provoked a series of interrogations throughout the years that ended with his detention in 2012.

-LOUMAY ALESALI, MEDILL REPORTS CHICAGO
Khoury, a Syrian freelancer, faced constant threats from the government of Bashar al-Assad for more than a decade before protests in 2011 spread to his hometown of Latakia, a stronghold for regime supporters.

-The Committee to Protect Journalists

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