From Damascus with love

Yet it is the sheer banality of the e-mails that has most insulted Syrians. Mr Assad comes across neither as a benign reformer trapped by circumstance nor as a brutal dictator, but as an immature man married to a shopaholic, both of whom are utterly detached from the revolt and violent crackdown that is pushing their country into chaos.

The e-mails contain references to the uprising—rarely in salutary terms. Mr Assad was briefed on the presence of Western journalists in Homs, for example. In one message to his wife, Mr Assad belittles his own much-touted reforms as "rubbish laws of parties, elections, media". When international observers were let into the country, he circulated a YouTube video which mocks claims that the regime hid away tanks in Homs, the city that has borne the brunt of the crackdown ("Hahahahahahaha... OMG!" responds the second of the two dutiful media advisors.)

But there is some sage advice amid the fluff. Shortly after two bombs exploded in Damascus in December, Hussein Mortada, a Lebanese businessman with links to Mr Assad's backers Iran and the Lebanese political-cum-militia, Hizbullah, warned Mr Assad that blaming al-Qaeda was a "tactical media mistake" because it gave cover to the Syrian opposition. Mrs Assad's father, Fawaz Akhras, a London-based doctor, warned his daughter of the bad taste of throwing a party on New Year's Eve. A daughter of the emir of Qatar wrote to the Syrian first lady after her offers of a new home in Doha were rebuffed: "Looking at the tide of history and the escalation of recent events, we've seen two results, leaders stepping down... or … being brutally attacked." Perhaps the most astute of the lot is an e-mail to the president containing links to retailers of bullet-proof clothing.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2012/03/assads-e-mails