The Guardian has gotten their hands on Bashir al-Assad’s private emails between him, his wife and some of their closest friends. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot new or shocking in them. They buy expensive shit. They share YouTube videos. They hate the peasants and want to crush them under their bootheels. One interesting find is that the daughter of the Emir of Qatar told them to bail and seek asylum, which made the Assads take her off their Christmas list.
It’s worth noting that this big document dump was not released to Wikileaks. I can’t remember the last time a big document dump came out that wasn’t in some way associated with Wikileaks, but perhaps I’m missing one.
c u n d gulag
I hope the reason they decided not to seek asylum, is that the family is deciding in which palace to make their last stand?
Or, at least, a better drainage ditch than Gaddafi did.
Schlemizel
Ah, wouldn’t that be their Eid list?
My apologies if that joke is offensive, I just am amused at the thought of them having a Christmas list. The former Sen. from Minnesota, Rudy Boshwitz once said in an interview he though we could settle our differences with Iran (I believe at the time) if we just sat down and had a few beers together. I thought, yeah and a nice BLT to with it.
Linda Featheringill
@Schlemizel:
“Christmas list” was a joke.
Decided Fencesitter
But it gets at some of the problem “a few beers” is the American perspective. And shows minimal awareness.
Shocking I know.
mistermix
@Linda Featheringill: You’re right. It was either that or saying that the Assads weren’t going to invite her over for Sukkot but I thought that was too obvious.
Schlemizel
@Linda Featheringill:
GOt that, I was uping the punch line 8-{D
Schlemizel
@Decided Fencesitter:
Yeah, I thought it was particularly sad that Rudy was Jewish and making that comment. He lost to Paul Wellstone largely because the Friday before the election he sent a letter to many in the Jewish community claiming Paul was not a “good Jew” but that he was.
Back in the 80s it was Rudy, as the head of the GOP Senate campaign committee who sent out the memo on how to campaign. It suggested the plaid shirt, rolling up your sleeves as a a show, conspicuous wiping away sweat – all the BS you see cheap politicians use today. The old plywood peddler know how to market but he gave obtuse a bad name.
Brachiator
Not that surprising. This info seems to come from sources that the Wikileaks crew cannot access as easily.
I wonder what the reaction to these revelations are within Middle Easter social networks.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
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