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
Motherfucker: who started the war
Are greater power responsible for the actions of their proxies?
Before you answer, remember the answer to that question applies to both sides in this conflict.
What proxy? Israel bombed Iran unprovoked directly, no proxy there.
Is Iran responsible for what Hamas does with the weapons and munitions they supply them?
Is the US responsible for what Israel does with the weapons and munitions they supply them?
Do you have the same answer for both of these questions?
Yes, Iran is responsible for supplying weapons to Palestinians in their legitimate right of violent defense against an occupying force. Don’t you like international law or what?
Yes, the US is responsible for keeping the weapon deliveries to a genocidal apartheid state.
Are you, by any chance, trying to somehow equate Israeli genocidal violence to Palestinian militant defence against a genocidal occupying force?
So Iran is complicit in massacring villages and taking hostages on October 7. Do you think masscring villages is not an act of war?
No I don’t equate massacring entire villages(what Hamas did) with taking military action to free hostages taken by terrorists (what Israel is doing).
No, it’s not an act of war, it’s violent resistance against an occupying force. As much as you probably believe Ukrainians have a right to defend themselves from Russian invasion, more so do Palestinians.
Bullshit genocidal propaganda. No wonder you get banned, you Nazi scum
Sorry but I can’t trust your judgement on matters concerning genocide when you believe massacring villages is a legitimate act.
But fundamentally you consider massacring villages a bad thing… when some people do it.
Go to hell, zionazi
Yes to both.
The most prevalent proxies are the houthis and Hezbollah, which Iran has been arming, financially supporting, and influencing for about two decades now so they can attack Israel without getting themselves into an all out war with Israel and the USA, which they know they would likely lose.
Argue all you want about whether or not Israel should have bombed Iran, but calling it unprovoked is extremely disingenuous.
By that logic, half the world has the right to bomb the USA for arming proxies all over the world, though.
Also, why are you jumping to defend the actions of a state currently committing genocide against Palestinians?
I’m not defending Israel. I’m answering this guy’s question, like wHaT PrOxIeS??
You can straw man all you want, but not once have I defended Israel’s actions. Just because Israel is shit to gazans doesn’t mean that Iran is not also shit to Israel. Straw man.
If we want to have a legitimate conversation about morality then we start by agreeing on facts.
Trying to claim Iran did nothing wrong is not factual.
The Houthis and Hezbollah are the only people in the world with a spine to attempt some fight against the 21st century Nazis, Iran arming them is a moral thing. The Nazis weren’t defeated with nice words in the previous century, and they won’t be in this one either.
Hamas is also an Iranian proxy. They attacked Israel in a very big way.
Hamas is an Israeli product that attacked itself on purpose. They couldn’t have done it without help from Papa Yahoo.
Well since we’re just putting random words together, two can play at that game! Netanyahu is a Hamas product! Netanyahu wouldn’t be Prime Minister if it weren’t for Hamas! Switcharoo, I win!
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_support_for_Hamas
So you consider Israel doing any negotiation with Hamas to be support for Hamas?
So Israel should continue this war until every last member of Hamas is dead, otherwise they’d be “supporting Hamas”?
You don’t like that Israel made deals to send humanitarian aid into Gaza? So you want all humanitarian aid to be cut off from Gaza because that could be considered support for Hamas?
Hamas got into power because a plurality of Palestinians voted for them. Like all fascists, they didn’t hold elections after they got power, so we really don’t know how much support they have from the Palestian people living in Gaza. But there have been times when Israel (hostage deals) has to deal with them since they are the government. Some people characterize making any deal with Hamas to be “supporting Hamas” because they don’t want Israel making any deal with Hamas.
So you’ve provided me with some opinions from other people. But do you think Israel making a hostage deals with Hamas should be considered as Israel supporting Hamas?