• Messages show Bashar al-Assad took advice from Iran
• Leader made light of promised reforms
• Wife spent thousands on jewellery and furniture
By Robert Booth, Mona Mahmood and Luke Harding
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with his wife Assmaa
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
Mr and 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.
-This article published in the Guardian on 14/03/2012
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