• Messages
show Bashar al-Assad took advice from Iran
• Leader
made light of promised reforms
• Wife
spent thousands on jewellery and furniture
 |
| Bashar al-Assad apparently made light of reforms he had promised in an attempt to defuse the Syrian crisis. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images |
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.
The
Guardian has made extensive efforts to authenticate the emails by checking
their contents against established facts and contacting 10 individuals whose correspondence
appears in the cache. These checks suggest the messages are genuine, but it has
not been possible to verify every one.
The emails
also appear to show that:
• Assad
established a network of trusted aides who reported directly to him through his
"private" email account – bypassing both his powerful clan and the
country's security apparatus.
• Assad
made light of reforms he had promised in an attempt to defuse the crisis,
referring to "rubbish laws of parties, elections, media".
• A
daughter of the emir of Qatar, Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani, this year advised Mrand Mrs Assad to leave Syria and suggested Doha may offer them exile.
• Assad
sidestepped extensive US sanctions against him by using a third party with a US
address to make purchases of music and apps from Apple's iTunes.
• A
Dubai-based company, al-Shahba, with a registered office in London is used as a
key conduit for Syrian government business and private purchases by the Syrian
first lady.
Activists
say they were passed username and password details believed to have been used
by the couple by a mole in the president's inner circle. The email addresses
used the domain name alshahba.com, a conglomerate of companies used by the
regime. They say the details allowed uninterrupted access to the two inboxes
until the leak was discovered in February.
The emails
appear to show how Assad assembled a team of aides to advise him on media
strategy and how to position himself in the face of increasing international
criticism of his regime's attempts to crush the uprising, which is now thought
to have claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Activists
say they were able to monitor the inboxes of Assad and his wife in real time
for several months. In several cases they claim to have used fresh information
to warn colleagues in Damascus of imminent regime moves against them.
The access
continued until 7 February when a threatening email arrived in the inbox
thought to be used by Assad after the account's existence was revealed when the
Anonymous group separately hacked into a number of Syrian government email
addresses. All correspondence to and from the two addresses ceased on the same
day.
The emails
appear to show that Assad received advice from Iran or its proxies on several
occasions during the crisis. Ahead of a speech 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".
The memo
advised the president to use "powerful and violent" language and to
show appreciation for support from "friendly states". It also advised
that the regime should "leak more information related to our military
capability" to convince the public that it could withstand a military
challenge.
The
president also received advice from Hussein Mortada, an influential Lebanese
businessman with strong connections to Iran. In December, Mortada urged Assad to stop blaming al-Qaida for an apparent twin car bombing in Damascus, which
took place the day before an Arab League observer mission arrived in the
country. He said he had been in contact with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon who
shared the same view.
"It is
not out of our interest to say that al-Qaida organisation is behind the
operation because this claim will [indemnify] the US administration and Syrian
opposition," Mortada wrote not long after the blasts. "I have
received contacts from Iran and Hezbollah in my role as director of many
Iranian-Lebanese channels and they directed me to not mention that al-Qaida is
behind the operation. It is a blatant tactical media mistake."
In another
email Mortada advised the president that the regime needed to take control of public squares between 3pm and 9pm to deny opposition groups the opportunity to
gather there.
Iran and
Hezbollah have been accused throughout the year-long uprising of providing
on-the-ground support to the regime crackdown, including sending soldiers to
fight alongside regime forces and technical experts to help identify activists
using the internet. Iran and Hezbollah both deny offering anything more than
moral support.
Among
others who communicated with the president's account were Khaled al-Ahmed, who
it is believed was tasked with providing advice about Homs and Idlib. In
November Ahmed wrote to Assad urging him to "tighten the security grip to
start [the] operation to restore state control and authority in Idlib and Hama
countryside".
He also
told Assad he had been told that European reporters had "entered the area
by crossing the Lebanese borders illegally". In another mail he warned the
president that "a tested source who met with leaders of groups in Baba Amr
today said that a big shipment of weapons is coming from Libya will arrive to
the seashores of one of the neighbouring states within three days to be
smuggled to Syria."
The emails
offer a rare window on the state of mind of the isolated Syrian leader,
apparently lurching between self-pity, defiance and flippancy as he swapped
links to amusing video footage with his aides and wife. On one occasion he
forwards to an aide a link to YouTube footage of a crude re-enactment of the siege of Homs using toys and biscuits.
Throughout
2011, his wife appears to have kept up regular correspondence with the Qatar
emir's daughter, Mayassa al-Thani. But relations appear to have chilled early
this year when Thani directly suggested that the Syrian leader step down.
"My
father regards President Bashar as a friend, despite the current tensions – he
always gave him genuine advice," she wrote on 11 December. "The
opportunity for real change and development was lost a long time ago.
Nevertheless, one opportunity closes, others open up – and I hope its not too
late for reflection and coming out of the state of denial."
A second
email on 30 January was even more forthright and including a tacit offer of
exile. "Just been following the latest developments in Syria … in all honesty
– 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 this is a good opportunity to
leave and re-start a normal life.
"I
only pray that you will convince the president to take this an opportunity to
exit without having to face charges. The region needs to stabilise, but not
more than you need peace of mind. I am sure you have many places to turn to,
including Doha."
The direct
line of reporting to Assad, independent of the police state's military and
intelligence agencies, was a trait of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled
Syria for three decades until his death in 2000 ushered the then 36-year-old
scion into the presidency.
Assad Sr
was renowned for establishing multiple reporting lines from security chiefs and
trusted aides in the belief that it would deny the opportunity for any one
agency to become powerful enough to pose a threat to him.
His son has
reputedly shown the same instincts through his decade of rule. The year-long
uprising against his decade of rule appeared to be faltering this week as
forces loyal to Assad retook the key northern city of Idlib.
Much of
Assad's media advice comes from two young US-educated Syrian women, Sheherazad
Jaafari and Hadeel al-Al. Both regularly stress to Assad, who uses the address
sam@alshahba, the importance of social media, and particularly the importance
of intervening in online discussions. At one point, Jaafari boasts that CNN has
fallen for a nom-de-guerre that she set up to post pro-regime remarks. The
emails also reveal that the media team has convinced Twitter to close accounts
that purport to represent the Syrian regime.
Several
weeks after the sam@alshahba.com email was compromised in February, a new
Syrian state television channel broadcast two segments denying that the email
address had been used by Assad.
Opposition
activists claim that this was a pre-emptive move to discredit any future
leaking of the emails.
The US
president, Barack Obama, signed an executive order last May imposing sanctions
against Assad and other Syrian government officials.
In addition
to freezing their US assets, the order prohibited "US persons" from
engaging in transactions with them. The EU adopted similar measures against
Assad last year. They include an EU-wide travel ban for the Syrian president
and an embargo on military exports to Syria.
Related Articles:
 |
Fawaz
Akhras apparently gave his son-in-law and Syrian president,
Bashar al-Assad,
advice via email on how to handle the media during
the uprising. Photograph:
Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images
|
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.