From an editorial in today's New York Sun:

The moment the news came over the wires that Syria's interior minister had committed suicide in his office in Damascus, we found ourselves thinking of a wonderful movie that came out some years ago called "Colonel Redl," about an officer in the Hapsburg empire who got into trouble.

Yes, nothing says "Syrian Mid-level Bureuacratic Suicide" like the hilariously incorrigible "Colonel Redl" of the Hapsburg Empire. I mean, who doesn't make that connection?
Suicide in Syria? [NY Sun]