76 Silenced and Split like these that proved that fear of widespread surveillance was “not paranoia,” as Hussam Ayloush, a Syrian American activist, emphasized. When his parents were told by officials in Syria that Hussam should stop going to his local mosque in Texas because anti-regime persons were in attendance there, he knew that “one of their informants was either at the mosque or at the college.” Moreover, Syrians who had been summoned to the London embassy recalled that they had been questioned over matters that could have only become known to officials through local informants. The regime also repressed the diaspora through their gatekeeping functions, as when respondents were forced into permanent exile after emigrating to the United States and Britain for speaking out, or even for being perceived simply as too pro-democracy. Some interviewees found themselves blacklisted after protesting or participating in covert anti-regime meetings abroad, meaning that returning home would likely result in being seized at the airport and imprisoned. Assia attested that after her father and his friend attended an NFSL meeting in the United States, her father’s friend “returned to Libya and was jailed immediately” as a result of having been informed upon; her father was forced into exile thereafter. The regimes also held sway over students on state-sponsored scholarships, as when Libyan officials coerced students to demonstrate in support of Gaddafi during his speech at the United Nations in 2009 by threatening to withdraw their scholarships (Hill 2011). 3.1.1 Fear and Fragmentation The threat of transnational repression spread fear, mistrust, and division because fraternizing with the “wrong” Libyan or Syrian could pose a serious danger. Fear was particularly pervasive among Libyan dissidents since exiles had been targeted directly in the past. Assia, the daughter of an NFSL activist, recalled ruefully, “We were very distrustful of Libyans we didn’t know. We didn’t mingle with Libyans we didn’t know, and my mom would tell us, don’t talk to a Libyan you don’t know because you don’t know their alliance.” She continued, “If we heard Libyans speaking in the US and we don’t know you, we don’t talk to you. Can’t risk that. It was a real danger.” Respondents also concealed their Libyan identities from others out of fear. M., another NFSL descendant, described the situation: We couldn’t really say that we were Libyan a lot of the time, for safety precautions. So my parents were always on their toes, always looking over their shoulders, who could that be? Is that somebody that we trust? So when you meet another Arab, they never said that they were from Libya. They said that they were from Egypt or Tunisia, you know, so that way it doesn’t put us in any kind of unsafe situation. Adam from Virginia also recalled that when he was very young, “My dad would pull us aside and be like, look, if anyone asks you where you’re from, say you’re from Jordan.” https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press