It is evening, and in a large house in a leafy, upmarket district of Damascus, a trio of siblings have gathered in the home of their mother, Anisa Makhlouf al-Assad, the reclusive former first lady of Syria. Along with her son Bashar, the country's current president, his younger brother Maher, commander of the brutal Fourth Division, and their formidable older sister, Bushra, she pores over the latest reports from officials across the country, as Bushra's husband, Asef Shawkat, the president's chief of staff and former military intelligence chief, looks on.
How many people came out on the protests? What did they chant? How many were killed? The family debate, perhaps, over what more can be done to put down the protests, and argue over what reforms to offer, or where next to direct the extensive security forces at their disposal. The subtext to the gathering is clear: under no circumstances will they release their grasp on the country they have ruled for more than four decades.
Is this how they happen, the family gatherings of the house of Assad, whose brutal response to the wave of popular uprisings in Syria since January has reportedly left nearly 3,000 people dead? Only whispered reports have emerged of how the country's ruling family are co-ordinating their response – most journalists, of course, have been banned from Syria since the uprising began – but the many rumours of these meetings chime with the image, long-established, of a tightknit and power-hungry cabal that rules in secret, presided over by the steely family matriarch.
"It's a mafia; the family rules as a family," says someone who was formerly allowed glimpses into the Assad regime's inner sanctum. "No one knows the exact workings, but they are closing ranks more and more." » | Nour Ali and Esther Addley | Tuesday, October 11, 2011
