Revelation of Documents; 'Widespread Espionage' Among Assad Family Members in His Crumbling Regime

Thousands of documents obtained from the intelligence apparatus of the ousted Syrian government show that members of Bashar al-Assad's family were spying on each other. Following the advance of the 'Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham' forces led by Ahmad al-Shar'a, known as Abu Muhammad al-Julani, from Idlib to Damascus, which lasted 11 days, Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia on December 9, marking the end of his 54-year rule and that of his father. British and Israeli newspapers are among the media outlets that have published details based on intelligence documents revealed by the newly empowered rulers in Syria. According to Maariv, these documents indicate that close relatives of Assad did not trust each other and were engaged in espionage and informant activities against one another, monitoring economic activities, movements, and every visit among family members close to the regime leader and among factions of the family. The report states that on Sunday, January 1, a large portion of the 'intelligence' documents from Assad's era relates to the regime's efforts for survival and suppression of protests since 2011, highlighting the high level of suspicion among officials and operatives of this apparatus towards each other. Reports from the early days following Assad's flight, including investigations by Reuters, indicated that Bashar al-Assad concealed his decision to leave Syria from his younger brother Maher, a key military commander. The Kremlin stated that reports regarding Asma Assad's divorce request are incorrect. Several close relatives of Assad have recently spoken to the media about the family's ignorance of Bashar's decision to flee and their unawareness of the precariousness of his regime until the last moments, accusing him of betrayal even towards his family. Hafez Mander Assad, Bashar's cousin, told BBC World last week: 'Bashar deceived the world and the entire family... this is betrayal by any standard...' According to Maariv, aside from the espionage among Assad's relatives, operatives of Assad's secret security apparatus were also suspicious of each other, with everyone spying on one another. According to the 'intelligence' documents, wiretapping, computer hacking, monitoring citizens' activities on the internet, dispatching agents for physical confrontation, and compiling reports on the minutest details regarding 'suspects' was a normal process, and many citizens, including children in schools, were under surveillance, with some teachers reporting against students to the intelligence apparatus. In the spring of this year, 12 students in a school in Homs were arrested on suspicion of tearing a photo of Bashar al-Assad. A teacher who saw the torn photo in a trash can had reported it. The number of operatives in Assad's intelligence agencies is unknown, but according to The Times, the vast volume of documents indicates a large number of undercover security agents in his regime. Yedioth Ahronoth reported on January 1 that the Israeli army, which regularly bombed targets related to Iran and Hezbollah in Syria during Assad's regime, sent messages via WhatsApp to senior Syrian officials, such as Ali Abbas Kamel, the then Minister of Defense, to relay to Bashar al-Assad. This report indicates that Israeli intelligence had the phone numbers of Assad's highest-ranking officials. Yedioth Ahronoth also added that once in 2019, after Syria blocked a route for a military shipment from Iran to Syria, Bashar al-Assad was supposed to meet with Yossi Cohen, the then head of Mossad, at the Kremlin in Moscow, but Assad backed out. Financial Times reported on January 1 that war crime investigators, Syrian civil society, and human rights groups are working to preserve evidence of Bashar al-Assad's regime's crimes, and many of them, including families of the missing, do not trust the rebel group 'Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham.' According to this report, millions of documents including countless files from prisons, detention centers, intelligence facilities, and military hospitals have been obtained, but some documents were also burned in the chaos of the early days of Assad's regime collapse, raising concerns that some of Assad's loyalists were also ordered to destroy documents. According to Financial Times, experts are concerned that the chaos may jeopardize the prosecution of Assad's regime operatives and make it more difficult for families to trace the missing. Following the collapse of Assad's regime, about 24,200 people were released from prisons, but according to Syrian human rights organizations, at least 112,414 people are still missing. William Wylie, executive director of a non-governmental organization that has been gathering evidence from Syria since 2011 to achieve justice and hold Assad's regime accountable, states that part of the documents has been transferred to safe locations and that a major digitization project of the files will soon commence.