“Assad-Leaks”

Along the lines of the US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks, which struck a blow to international diplomacy it is yet to recover from, whilst also revealing a rare window into the thinking of some countries and their politicians, as well as what is said behind closed doors; we now have the leaked emails of Bashar al-Assad and those closest to him. These emails also represent a rare window into aspects of the thinking and private life of al-Assad, and of course, the manner in which he is running his operations against the Syrian revolution. I am naming the story of Bashar al-Assad’s leaked private emails “Assad-Leaks” because this will have the same impact as WikiLeaks, whether in Syria or Lebanon or even Britain and the US. This is because some of these e-mails reveal who is in al-Assad’s inner circle, some of whom are present in the geographic regions mentioned above. This has led some British newspapers to call for the need of getting rid of what they describe as the al-Assad regime’s “fifth column” in London. We can also expect the “Assad-Leaks” to reveal other issues, and it is clear that there is another collection of these e-mails that has yet to be revealed, particularly as there are a huge total number of these leaked e-mails, which have been divided into several groupings, pertaining to family, scandals and politics, as well as more complex issues such as how to avoid the economic sanctions that have been imposed on Syria, even on an individual level. The “Assad-Leaks” reminds us of a strange but important irony, namely that it seems that every tyrant will see their scandals exposed before their rule comes to an end, as they lose the false prestige that was previously afforded to them by the public. This is due to these tyrants losing touch with reality and believing that they are more clever than all those around them. Here we see the al-Assad regime, on all levels, witnessing its unexpected secrets and scandals being revealed. Prior to this, who, in Syria, for example, would have dared to think about the personal life of the ruler of Damascus? This is something that also previously happened to Saddam Hussein, as he saw US soldiers sitting in his throne at the presidential palace, whilst Muammar Gaddafi also saw – with his own eyes – images of Libyan rebels swimming in the pool at one of his children’s palaces, whilst we now have the “Assad-Leaks” story, which is following the same pattern, although it may be even more exciting! Of course, what concerns us with regards to the “Assad-Leaks” is the political aspect. After the US warned Baghdad of allowing Iran to provide assistance to the tyrant of Damascus via Iraq, one of al-Assad’s leaked e-mails reveals a report that talks about a meeting that was held in Damascus between al-Assad regime officials, and Iranian and Iraqi officials. This meeting was to discuss ways of providing Iranian assistance – via Iraq – to the al-Assad regime, and aiding it to overcome the economic sanctions that have been imposed against it. One of the proposals was for Iranian companies to urgently proceed in paving a road network between Iraq and Syria, in order to facilitate the delivery of Iranian aid to the al-Assad regime. What is astonishing is that this e-mail reveals that his tripartite Iraqi – Syrian – Iranian meeting took place at the same time that Iraqi Prime Minister [Nuri al-Maliki] was visiting Washington late last year, during which he even met with US President Obama! Therefore, it seems that the “Assad-Leaks” will provide us with many scandals which will allow us to see who is truly conspiring against the Syrian people!