Assad’s personal emails mock opposition, rave about iTunes
The Guardian has obtained roughly 3,000 emails allegedly exchanged between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his wife Asma, and a group of personal friends and advisers.
In the emails, brought forward by a Syrian activist, the al-Assads hatched plans to delete imposter Twitter accounts (including @firstladyasma, @bashiralassad and @FirstLadySyria), discussed military strategy, and mocked the opposition with a series of flippant emails.
In a year where over 8,000 Syrians have been killed by al-Assad’s brutal regime while many others faced food shortages, the trove of emails also indicate that The First Family continued to live a life of extreme luxury, spending thousands of dollars over the Internet on designer goods, jewellery, and a fondue set from Harrods. They also sidestepped U.S. sanctions in order to purchase the following American products online:
• The Steve Jobs biography
• The Harry Potter movie Deathly Hallows Part II
• Several Harry Potter-related apps
• An iPhone game called Real Racing 2
• A number of songs from iTunes, including Right Said Fred’s “Don’t Talk Just Kiss,” The Cover Girls’ “We Can’t Go Wrong,” Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now,” and LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It”
Rather than communicating in Arabic, al-Assad and his wife opted to primarily correspond in English. In an email, al-Assad pokes fun at several reforms he promised, responding to his wife returning home at 5 p.m by sarcastically writing:
"This is the best reform any country can that you told me where you will be, we are going to adopt it instead of the rubbish laws of parties, elections, and media."
http://blogs.canada.com/2012/03/15/assads-personal-emails-mock-opposition-rave-about-itunes/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/14/assad-emails-lift-lid-inner-circle
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