The Guardian newspaper has obtained what appears to be a trove of more than 3,000 emails downloaded from the private accounts of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma. The emails show Assad took advice from Iran or its proxies on ways to handle the uprising against him as well as mocking the reforms he promised to put in place in response. They also show Assad was briefed in detail about the presence of Western journalists in the Baba Amr area of Homs. The emails, which were intercepted by opposition activists, include messages from a daughter of the emir of Qatar advising the Assads to leave Syria and perhaps find exile in Doha. They show Assad’s wife spending thousands of dollars in online purchases while Assad skirted U.S. sanctions by buying music from iTunes. The Syrian leader also forwarded a link to a YouTube video that used toys and biscuits to reenact the siege of Homs. The United Nations estimates more than 8,000 people have died in Assad’s crackdown against the year-long uprising.