Secret Assad emails lift lid on life of Syrian leader’s inner circle

The Guardian reports: Bashar al-Assad took advice from Iran on how to handle the uprising against his rule, according to a cache of what appear to be several thousand emails received and sent by the Syrian leader and his wife.

The Syrian leader was also briefed in detail about the presence of western journalists in the Baba Amr district of Homs and urged to “tighten the security grip” on the opposition-held city in November.

The revelations are contained in more than 3,000 documents that activists say are emails downloaded from private accounts belonging to Assad and his wife Asma.

The messages, which have been obtained by the Guardian, are said to have been intercepted by members of the opposition Supreme Council of the Revolution group between June and early February.

The documents, which emerge on the first anniversary of the rebellion that has seen more than 8,000 Syrians killed, paint a portrait of a first family remarkably insulated from the mounting crisis and continuing to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.

They appear to show the president’s wife spending thousands of dollars over the internet for designer goods while he swaps entertaining internet links on his iPad and downloads music from iTunes.

As the world watched in horror at the brutal suppression of protests across the country and many Syrians faced food shortages and other hardships, Mrs Assad spent more than £10,000 on candlesticks, tables and chandeliers from Paris and instructed an aide to order a fondue set from Amazon.

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5 thoughts on “Secret Assad emails lift lid on life of Syrian leader’s inner circle

  1. rosemerry

    Surely you don’t believe this story. It came from the SNC. Read Angry Arab’s take on it today.

  2. Robert Consoli

    Angryarab thinks, without adducing any evidence, that the e-mails are ‘absurd’. That doesn’t make them absurd. I have no opinion as to their veracity but the dissociation of the al-Assads is all too believable. At least the Guardian was able to check some of the e-mails; something which Angryarab wasn’t able to do at all. Angryarab seems to hate the SNC. Good for him. That’s not evidence that the e-mails are faked.

  3. Norman

    So, who is Robert Console? Will the real one stand up? There seems to be a number of them, one being dead. Is he an actor, a businessman, an impostor? Even though he says “he has no opinion to their veracity”, he still believes in them. His less than complimentary comment toward Angryarab, rather puts a question mark on Mr. Consoli’s own comment.

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