On the day when Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock first broke the 600 mark more good news has come the company’s way. It seems that maligned Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is a big fan of the company’s products. The purchase of large quantites of Apple products was discovered after Rebel groups in Syria gained access to thousands of emails from Assad’s personal accounts and have found his love of Apple right across the board. The emails showed that Assad has managed to get around the sanctions imposed on him since last year and still continue to purchase these products. He is using a back alley United States website to get his hands on them. He is also an avid consumer of iTunes downloads.
The image painted of Assad is a man sitting in an Ivory Tower in Damascas playing fruit ninja on multiple iPads while his people suffer in civil war around him. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) should take as a compliment the man’s fandom. He is known for his discerning luxurious tastes. The dictator could perhaps be invited to appear at Apple’s demonstration of their new iPhone, expected this summer, with any luck he’ll be searching for a job by then. Assad appears to be playing angry birds before going out and trying the real thing. Not only has he accepted Apple he has also embraced tween internet speak like a fish accepts water. Commenting on a video sent to an adviser he wrote “Hahahahahahaha, OMG!!! This is amazing!”. The video was a parody of the siege of Homs reenacted using toys.
This is not the first time a dictators eccentric quirks have been revealed to the American public. One is of Muamar Gadaffi’s slightly unsettling obsession with former Secratary of State Condoleeza Rice. The dictator gave Condoleeza rice a scrapbook on her visit to Libya and had an original song composed for her.. The pair met in 2008. The song entitled “Black Flower in The White House” is available on Youtube.
The emails were retrieved last June after a mole in the Syrian regime provided the Rebel organisation with email passwords and user names for Assad and his wife. The group has since claimed that they were using the information mainly to avoid the Militaries attacks and out do them strategically. However a separate attack on a Syrian government server resulted in the accounts being closed down. The Anonymous group was responsible for that attack. Since then the emails were leaked the the British newspaer the Guardian.
