Bashar Assad emails leaked, tips for ABC interview revealed

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/bashar-assad-emails-leaked-tips-for-abc-interview-revealed-1.411445

By Barak Ravid
07.02.12
Haaretz.com

Hundreds of emails from Syrian President Bashar Assad's office were 
leaked on Monday after an attack by the hacker group Anonymous. One of 
the email files, which Haaretz has obtained, was a document preparing 
Assad for his December 2011 interview with ABC's Barbara Walters.

The attack took place overnight Sunday and the target was the mail 
server of the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs. Some 78 inboxes 
of Assad's aides and advisers were hacked and the password that some 
used was "12345". Among those whose email was exposed were the Minister 
of Presidential Affairs Mansour Fadlallah Azzam and Assad's media 
adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban.

Assad's TV interview with Walters was memorable for his repeated denials 
that Syrian citizens were being killed. "We don't kill our people ... no 
government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy 
person," Assad told Walters.

About 10 days before the interview, Sheherazad Jaafari - a press attache 
at the Syrian mission to the United Nations - sent a long email to 
former Al Jazeera journalist Luna Chebel, who now works in Assad's 
bureau. She also sent the email to an aide of Shaaban's. Jaafari, who 
was involved in arranging the interview with Walters, also happens to be 
the daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Dr. Bashar Jaafari.

[...]


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