New York Times

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This weekend, the New York Times ran a fascinating story about how a director of operations at a North Texas-based telecommunications company became--for a few months anyway--the interim prime minister of an alternative government opposing the Assad regime in the Syrian civil war. Ghasson Hitto grew up in Syria, in a Kurdish family. His older brother was imprisoned for 14 years for voicing opposition to the government of Bashar al-Assad's father. At 19, Hitto moved to America, married a midwestern woman, and had four children, at least one of which played varsity football in high school. A year into the conflict, Hitto's oldest son, then 24, moved to Syria. Hitto started his involvement by volunteering to work on humanitarian aid projects in the fall of 2012.