The Syrian opposition has reportedly intercepted a cache of personal emails between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his wife, and the correspondence reveals some surprising details about how the couple has spent the past year. Among the revelations, reported in The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday, were that the Iranians have given Assad advice concerning how to put down the uprising in his country which began in March 2011 and briefed him about the presence of Western journalists in Homs. According to the report, Assad expressed contempt for reforms he himself had proposed, calling them rubbish laws of parties, elections, media. In addition, while citizens of her country were suffering food shortages and being killed, Asma Assad apparently spent more than 10,000 British pounds ($15,664) on luxury goods ordered over the Internet, including candlesticks, tables and chandeliers from Paris. In addition, the cache of more than 3,000 emails indicates that a daughter of the emir of Qatar advised the Assads to consider seeking political asylum in Doha. One of the oddest revelations was that Assad had used a fake name and address to circumvent sanctions and order music and applications through iTunes. For instance, on Feb. 5 of this year, the day after the shelling of Homs began, Assad sent his wife an iTunes file of Blake Shelton singing God Gave Me You. The lyrics include Ive been a walking heartache / Ive made a mess of me / The person that Ive been lately / Aint who I wanna be / But you stay here right beside me / Watch as the storm goes through. Meanwhile, offline, the Syrian military continues its focused attacks on rebel strongholds. A newspaper that supports the regime reported on Wednesday that following a three-day assault the army has once again seized control of the city of Idlib on the Turkish border in the countrys north.
