Interesting interview Mr. Bowen had with Assad.
"If You Kill the People They'll Be Against You"An interview with Bashar al Assad
By Jeremy BowenPhoto: JOSEPH EID / Getty Images
Bashar al Assad gives interviews in a library in a guest house in the grounds of the presidential palace in the west of Damascus. The palace looks down on the city from a crag; the guest house is a discreet half-mile or so from the main building, just off the spine of the hill, at the end of its own long, straight drive. Gardeners keep the lawns and trees neat. But outcrops of rock and scrub hint at what this once was—a windy, wintery Syrian hilltop on a high mountain plateau, coveted over the centuries by defenders or invaders of Damascus. Perhaps because I have been across the front line to the suburbs held by armed rebels, no more than five miles or so from the palace, I have a sense of the war pressing in, and the weight of history of this ancient country. The palace is a workplace; the Assads live elsewhere. The marble guest house is built in the style of a small hotel; the library leads off a central majlis, or sitting area, with perhaps 30 armchairs. The fountains at the corners of the majlis were dry when I visited on February 8. It felt as if the place had been opened up for our benefit.
In the library the section containing books in English has a copy of the autobiography of King Juan Carlos of Spain, inscribed affectionately by the author. Next to it, unsigned, are Known and Unknown, Donald Rumsfeld's memoir of his time at the Pentagon, and Piers Morgan's The Insider: the Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade.
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Bashar Al Assad Interview Syrian Army Doesn t Use Barrel Bombs The New Republic-
"If You Kill the People They'll Be Against You"An interview with Bashar al Assad
By Jeremy BowenPhoto: JOSEPH EID / Getty Images
Bashar al Assad gives interviews in a library in a guest house in the grounds of the presidential palace in the west of Damascus. The palace looks down on the city from a crag; the guest house is a discreet half-mile or so from the main building, just off the spine of the hill, at the end of its own long, straight drive. Gardeners keep the lawns and trees neat. But outcrops of rock and scrub hint at what this once was—a windy, wintery Syrian hilltop on a high mountain plateau, coveted over the centuries by defenders or invaders of Damascus. Perhaps because I have been across the front line to the suburbs held by armed rebels, no more than five miles or so from the palace, I have a sense of the war pressing in, and the weight of history of this ancient country. The palace is a workplace; the Assads live elsewhere. The marble guest house is built in the style of a small hotel; the library leads off a central majlis, or sitting area, with perhaps 30 armchairs. The fountains at the corners of the majlis were dry when I visited on February 8. It felt as if the place had been opened up for our benefit.
In the library the section containing books in English has a copy of the autobiography of King Juan Carlos of Spain, inscribed affectionately by the author. Next to it, unsigned, are Known and Unknown, Donald Rumsfeld's memoir of his time at the Pentagon, and Piers Morgan's The Insider: the Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade.
Continue reading at:
Bashar Al Assad Interview Syrian Army Doesn t Use Barrel Bombs The New Republic-
