Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Assads: An iron-fisted dynasty


One powerful, tight-knit family has controlled Syria for four decades.

Al-Jazeera

"....Like father, like sons

Images of tanks rolling into what appear to be often unarmed protesters and reports of towns under siege have drawn parallels between how the Assad brothers (Bashar and Maher) are responding to the uprising to how their father, Hafez and uncle, Rifaat, dealt with the the Muslim Brotherhood party in the early 80s.

Indeed, the actions of the younger Assad brothers appear to closely mirror those of the elder Assad siblings 30 years ago.

The Assad family's response to the months of constant and sustained protest in Syria starting in March 2011 has garnered international criticism.

The European Union in May announced sanctions against 13 Syrian officials, and the list includes Maher as well as several cousins and other relatives.

Indeed, Maher's leadership of the Presidential Guard's 4th Armoured Division is seen as the driving force behind the violent crackdowns against the protesters.....

"The savagery right now... think about it, the images they are playing in the heads of the women they kill is so ugly, these images are hard to eat, hard to swallow," Erdogan told the Turkish Anatolia news agency.

Bashar has kept a relatively low profile during the months of unrest, speaking in public only a handful of times, when he's blamed the uprising on foreign elements and compared the protesters to "germs."

In December 2011, Assad denied culpability for his government's crackdown on protests, saying he had never given an order for security forces of whom he was commander-in-chief "to kill or be brutal".

"They're not my forces," Assad told the US's ABC television network when asked about the crackdown.

"They are military forces [who] belong to the government. I don't own them. I'm president. I don't own the country. No government in the world kills its people, unless it is led by a crazy person.""

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