Epstein Secrets

y assured, however. Despite popular notions of a rich, privileged Alawite class dominating Syria, the

icers in the Syrian army. The rise of Alawites in Syrian society throughout the 1960s was assisted by political infighting among the Sunnis and the Baath Party coup of 1963, which united working-class Alawites and Sunnis under one banner. Although Sunnis initially tolerated the growing clout of the Alawite

The judges based their ruling on the Hadith: "A rich man's delay in payment is an injustice. "In lin

reasonable bargain: they could have safety and be left alone so long as they led apolitical lives. He once gave away the crux of his worldview to a Baath Party functionary. People have "primarily economic demands," Assad said—they aspire to a plot of land, a car, a house. Those demands could be satisfied "

turn, are EFTA00586502 15 running down as the rich world recovers and Asia puts on a remarkable gro

e case in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Syria is a paradox in this Arab season of revolt. It has an authoritarian regime dominated by a corrupt Baath Party - a relic of the age of dictators that is being swept away in so many other countries. But President Assad, relatively young at 45 and wrapped in t

are still determined to defend tax cuts for the rich and undo desperately needed financial regulations

the Turks. Yet decades earlier, Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez -- a man of supreme cunning and political skill -- had ridden the military and the Baath Party to absolute power, creating a regime in which power rested with the country's Alawite minority. The marriage of despotism and sectarianism begat th