Boy sends 600 holiday cards, nearly 4,000 treats to dad’s National Guard unit in Syria; KCRG, December 25, 2025

Jocelyn Peshia, KCRG; Boy sends 600 holiday cards, nearly 4,000 treats to dad’s National Guard unit in Syria

"Oliver Young hasn’t seen his dad, Sergeant First Class Robert Young, in seven months - that’s when his National Guard unit was deployed to Syria.

It’s Sgt. Young’s second deployment since Oliver was born and his third in his 20 years with the Iowa Army National Guard...

To brighten up the Christmas season, Oliver decided to send cards and treats to his dad’s unit.

Oliver enlisted help at church and went to the Monticello library and local businesses with his grandmother asking for help signing cards and donating money for treats. He wanted to ensure every soldier felt loved.

“He raised his hand and asked if anybody in the congregation would like to help with his cards or any treats that they wanted to throw in the box and that they would ship them off with our stuff,” said Kelly.

The goodies totaled out to 600 cards and 3,800 snacks, which Kelly shipped overseas as two gifts for each service member in the company for Thanksgiving and Christmas...

When they distributed the gifts throughout the company, Kelly said the servicemembers were “shocked.”

“They were not expecting a large gift bag, let alone two,” said Kelly. “If they know people haven’t been getting mail, they’ve worked with the chaplain to make sure those soldiers received a few extra snacks.”

Oliver said it feels good knowing he’s helping make his dad and his dad’s fellow soldiers smile.

“They have been very happy knowing that people care about them,” said Oliver. “We did that so they can have a little bit of Christmas with them, even though they’re not with their families."...

Oliver said he was driven by pride for his father and a need to make all of the service members to know they’re in the hearts and minds of people back home.

His message - after a shy look up at his mom...

“Merry Christmas, soldiers.” 

A Merry Christmas - and another day closer to a family being together again."

Inside Syria’s Most Fearsome Prison Tens of thousands of Syrians were thrown into Sednaya during the Assad regime. The New York Times created a 3-D model of the prison.; The New York Times, August 29, 2025

Christina Goldbaum, Charlie Smart, Helmuth Rosales, Anjali Singhvi and Reham Mourshed, The New York Times; Inside Syria’s Most Fearsome Prison: Tens of thousands of Syrians were thrown into Sednaya during the Assad regime. The New York Times created a 3-D model of the prison. 

[Kip Currier: This story about Syria's brutal Sednaya prison is a difficult one to read and view. It's shocking to see how monstrously the people -- activists, artists, politicians, writers, citizens of all kinds -- warehoused to languish and die in this savage place were mistreated, tortured, and murdered.

But it's also an important one to digest and contemplate and not look away from. To think about all of the human beings who were impacted by this horrific prison. And to reflect on the human beings -- the leaders with power and privilege -- who sanctioned the existence of such a barbaric place and system for so long.

The sermon of an Episcopal priest I was fortunate to hear yesterday encouraged the parishioners to pray for individuals who are in prisons, as well as for humane treatment of the imprisoned by those who are charged with looking after them during their incarceration. We were reminded by the priest that some people are also imprisoned unjustly. Just as the 1st century Apostle Paul was imprisoned by the Roman Empire, merely for speaking and evangelizing.

Specifically, too, we were asked to pray for detainees in an ICE facility in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania.

We mustn't become indifferent to the injustices and suffering that people in this world experience. Or to the dignity, respect, due process, and rule of law to which every person is entitled, no matter their economic circumstances or legal status.]

[Excerpt]

"NO PLACE IN SYRIA was more feared than Sednaya prison during the Assad family’s decades-long, iron-fisted rule.

Situated on a barren hilltop on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, Sednaya was at the heart of the Assads’ extensive system of torture prisons and arbitrary arrests used to crush all dissent.

By the end of the nearly 14-year civil war that culminated in December with the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, it had become a haunting symbol of the dictator’s ruthlessness.

Over the years, the regime’s security apparatus swallowed up hundreds of thousands of activists, journalists, students and dissidents from all over Syria — many never to be heard from again.

Most prisoners did not expect to make it out of Sednaya alive. They watched as men detained with them withered away or simply lost the will to live. Tens of thousands of others were executed, according to rights groups."

Tears of joy and sadness as ‘disappeared’ Syrians emerge from Assad’s prisons; The Guardian, December 8, 2024

 Bethan McKernan, The Guardian; Tears of joy and sadness as ‘disappeared’ Syrians emerge from Assad’s prisons

"s Syrian rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured city after city on the road to Damascus, forcing Bashar al-Assad to flee the country, they also opened the doors of the regime’s notorious prisons, into which upwards of 100,000 people disappeared during nearly 14 years of civil war...

Verified videos from Damascus showed dozens of women and small children being held in cells, the rebels opening the doors telling them not to be afraid...

The photos and videos of reunited families are bittersweet. The stories of the prisoners are astonishing; they will take years to be told in full, further grim evidence of the crimes the Assad family committed against so many of their own people...

Raghad al-Tatary, a pilot who refused to bomb the city of Hama during the uprising against Hafez al-Assad in the 1980s, was freed after 43 years; Tal al-Mallouhi, 19 when she was arrested in 2009 for a blogpost criticising state corruption, was found alive."