Documents shine light on Assad regime

Thousands of documents purportedly found in abandoned Syrian government offices during the country’s civil war reveal the reach of President Bashar Assad’s shadowy security agencies that sought to eliminate dissent at all costs, according to a rights report published yesterday.

The documents obtained by the Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Center, show the agencies spied on the populace at large, sought to eliminate dissidents through detention, intimidation or killing sand systematically persecuted the Kurdish minority even before the onset the 2011 uprising against Assad.

The report, titled ‘Walls Have Ears, An Analysis of Classified Syrian Security Sector Documents’ and based on a sample of 5,000 documents, presents some of the most damning evidence of state involvement -in the bloody crackdown on protesters, dissidents, and foreign journalists. The documents also offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Assad’s security agencies.