Assad’s private emails leaked
SYRIA: President Bashar al-assad has taken advice from Iran on countering a revolt against his rule and joked about his reform promises, emails taken from the personal accounts of Assad and his wife show, a British newspaper reported yesterday.
One of the estimated 3000 emails, which The Guardian said it obtained from an unnamed Syrian opposition member, indicated that Assad was urged to quit Syria in January by a daughter of the emir of Qatar, one of his sharpest Arab critics.
The Guardian said the emails, which portrayed an Assad family insulated from the uprising that threatens to pitch Syria into civil war, came from the private accounts of Assad and his wife.
The newspaper was confident they were genuine.
The emails were intercepted from June last year until early February as Assad cracked down on opponents in a revolt that the United Nations estimates has killed 8000 people.
Some emails showed that Assad’s British-born wife, Asma, was arranging for the purchase of an Armani lamp from London’s Harrods store, placing orders for jewelled necklaces from Paris and chasing up on a furniture delivery to Damascus.
However, an email Asma sent to her husband in late December gave an indication of the strain on the couple as international pressure grew on Syrian authorities to halt the violence.
‘‘If we are strong together, we will overcome this together ... I love you,’’ the email read.
The emails appear to show that Assad received advice from Iran or its militant proxies.
Ahead of a speech Assad gave in December, his media consultant prepared a long list of themes, reporting that the advice was based on ‘‘consultations with a good number of people in addition to the media and political adviser for the Iranian ambassador’’.
‘‘I believe the language must be powerful and violent because the people need to see a powerful president defending the country’’ and to show appreciation for support from ‘‘friendly states’’, the adviser wrote.
The memo also advised that Assad’s government should ‘‘leak more information related to our military capability’’ to convince the public that it could withstand a military challenge. The emails revealed that the family’s concerns focused more on obtaining the Deathly Hallows Part II film than addressing the issue of loyalist paramilitaries slitting the throats of women and children fleeing artillery bombardments.
The family spent tens of thousands of dollars on gold and jewellery, while Assad mocked the reforms he had promised to defuse the crisis, calling them ‘‘rubbish laws of parties, elections, media’’.
Other emails showed Assad sidestepped extensive United States sanctions by using a third party with a US address to make purchases of music and apps from Apple’s itunes.
The email purportedly sent by the emir of Qatar’s daughter was sent to Asma Assad, the paper said, and indicated Qatar’s capital Doha could be one place Assad could seek refuge with his family.
‘‘I only pray that you will convince the president to take this as an opportunity to exit without having to face charges,’’ Mayassa alThani, daughter of Qatar Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-thani, wrote on January 30.
‘‘Looking at the tide of history and the escalation of recent events we’ve seen two results, leaders stepping down and getting political asylum, or leaders being brutally attacked. I honestly think that this is a good opportunity to leave and restart a normal life,’’ the email said. ‘‘I am sure you have many places to turn to, including Doha.’’
Assad has ruled out leaving power under duress and branded his opponents as ‘‘terrorists’’ and ‘‘armed gangs’’ who he says are tools of a foreign conspiracy to overthrow him.
Some emails indicated that Assad was briefed in detail about the ‘‘illegal’’ presence of Western journalists in the Baba Amr district of Homs, the battered epicentre of the uprising, and urged to ‘‘tighten the security grip’’ on the city in November.
Advisers told him the government should ‘‘be in control of all public spaces every evening’’.
The Guardian said it had made extensive efforts to authenticate the emails by checking their contents against established facts and contacting 10 individuals whose correspondence appears in the cache.