Après sam@alshahba.com le déluge

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer dictator.

Turns out that Basher al-Assad and his wife got their private email hacked by the Supreme Council of the Revolution, Syria’s chief opposition group.  The hack was exposed when Anonymous launched an attack on Syrian government sites and inadvertently exposed the Supreme Council’s back door.  (Big oops, there, Anonymous.)

The Guardian has been combing through the big stack of emails, which give us the idea of Mr. and Mrs. Après-moi-le-déluge at home, happily insulated from the brutal madness they are inflicting on their nation.  Madame Assad spends tens of thousands on chandeliers and candlesticks (and a fondue set from Amazon) while her husband— “sam@alshahba.com”— chats with media consultants, downloads iTunes, and receives advice from Hezbollah and the Iranian government.  (Big surprise, there.)

Assad also refers to his own promised reforms as “rubbish laws of parties, elections, media…….” (Another big surprise, I reckon.)

What the emails show, if anything, is Assad’s absolute mediocrity.  No one would find this man interesting if he didn’t happen to rule a nation. Badly.

Is he as delusional as Saddam Hussein and Moammar al-Gaddafi?  Are his palaces as ludicrous?   Probably not, or anyway not yet.  (The fondue set is not, after all, gold-plated.)

Another few years cooped up in the palace, though, and the megalomania is bound to take hold.  Then the fondue set will not be enough, and the platinum sous-vide cooker will arrive.

Unless his ass gets flung out of Damascus before that happens.  Which, I’m thinking, is probably the way to bet.