Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Gilded lifestyle continued for Assad coterie as conflict raged in Syria


Bashar al-Assad appears to have emailed his wife song lyrics and video clips, while she shopped for shoes and chandeliers

Robert Booth and Luke Harding
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 March 2012

"As the international community struggled to absorb the bloodiest episode yet in Syria's brutal crackdown in Homs, Bashar al-Assad was in Damascus composing a private email to his wife, according to a cache of what appear to be emails from the Syrian first couple obtained by the Guardian.

It was 5 February 2012, and the previous day the president's artillery had pounded the restive city as never before, killing several hundred civilians and blowing up a makeshift hospital, according to opposition activists. In the capital, government forces reportedly took the lives of about a dozen mourners at a funeral. The UN security council was drawing up plans to act against the dictatorship.

But Assad's email, using the pseudonym Sam, reflected none of the bloody turmoil or diplomatic jeopardy facing his country. In a bizarre message apparently from the Syrian leader, he sent his wife the lyrics of a country and western song by the US singer Blake Shelton,, and the audio file downloaded from iTunes....."

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