Assad Files

The "Assad Files' are a purported 700,000 pages worth of official documents reflecting Syrian government actions in response to the "crisis" that began in 2011. Some were reportedly leaked by an insider, and some found by opposition fighters as they overran various government facilities, and seem to be largely be from Deir Ezzour province. They were collected and smuggled out of Syria, and examined by Western investigators who say they plan to use them in war crimes trials against Syrian government officials.

Non-Critical
(chronological)


 * March, 2012: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/03/2012319182523316314.html Well before the CIJA's Assad files system was running, a defector smuggled out many documents shared with Al Jazeera. None of those shared shows anything criminal (by the Syrian side, anyway).


 * 8 October, 2014: New York Times "everal Western governments, including those of the United States and Britain, are financing two separate teams of investigators searching for evidence needed to establish criminal liability in any future war crimes trials." One is Wiley's CIJA, and the other "received British and other European funds this year to focus on the organization of the radical Sunni group Islamic State.")


 * 12 May 2015: Syria's Truth Smugglers, the Guardian


 * April, 2016 Bashar al-Assad's War Crimes Exposed Ben Taub, the New Yorker
 * Taub interview, PBS Newshour
 * Middle East Eye
 * PRI Stephen Rapp... says the evidence available for Assad in Syria “is far stronger, in terms of that direct connection, than we had in those other trials [in which] we generally prevailed." (Rwanda and Sierra Leone)
 * etc.


 * March 15, 2017: Experts say war crimes case against Assad government growing Reuters


 * March (26?), 2017: Documentary: Syria's Disappeared: the Case Against Assad - aired on Channel 4, UK
 * A Youtube posting
 * Website
 * Guardian review

…


 * March 30, 2018 Engel, MSNBC, https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/investigators-probe-allegations-of-syrian-war-crimes-1200389187889?v=railb&
 * June 15, 2018: El País English, Building the case against Assad’s regime https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/06/12/inenglish/1528799235_796657.html
 * Aug. 9 2018: Revealed: Syrian military leaders knew detainees were being tortured.
 * https://www.channel4.com/news/syrias-disappeared
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jJBtFrTqcg

Critical

 * Regarding Those "Assad Files" - What Ties What to What? Adam Larson, Monitor blog, April 13, 2016
 * How the New Yorker Misreports Syria By Jonathan Marshall, Consortium News, April 20, 2016
 * A New Anti-Assad Propaganda Offensive By Daniel Lazare, Consortium News, April 21, 2016
 * (re-post) New Yorker “Assad Files”: Multi Million Dollar Propaganda Campaign By Vanessa Beeley, 21st Century Wire, April 21, 2016
 * The Case Against Syria's Disappeared Larson, Monitor, March 29, 2017
 * https://21stcenturywire.com/2016/04/21/new-yorker-assad-files-multi-million-dollar-propaganda-campaign/
 * https://21stcenturywire.com/2017/12/03/msm-fake-news-masterpiece-theatre-in-syria-claims-800000-secret-documents-assads-war-crimes/
 * http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2018/08/assad-files-2018-part-1.html
 * https://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2018/09/painting-vs-reality-in-syria-crisis.html
 * Revolution Unraveled: ‘Assad Files’ Now an Achille’s Heel for War Crimes Narrative Adam Larson, 21st Century Wire, October 11, 2018