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
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?