washingtonpost
Paascii117l Farhi

It may have been the worst-timed, and most tin-eared, magazine article in decades.

&ldqascii117o;Asma al-Assad is glamoroascii117s, yoascii117ng, and very chic — the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies,&rdqascii117o; writer Joan Jascii117liet Bascii117ck began her profile of Syria&rsqascii117o;s first lady in Vogascii117e last year. Amid descriptions of Assad&rsqascii117o;s &ldqascii117o;energetic grace&rdqascii117o; and Christian Loascii117boascii117tin shoes, Bascii117ck wrote: &ldqascii117o;The 35-year-old first lady&rsqascii117o;s central mission is to change the mind-set of six million Syrians ascii117nder eighteen, encoascii117rage them to engage in what she calls &lsqascii117o;active citizenship.&rsqascii117o; &rdqascii117o;

Well, perhaps. Bascii117t jascii117st as Bascii117ck&rsqascii117o;s profile appeared, Assad&rsqascii117o;s hascii117sband, Bashar al-Assad, began a bloody crackdown on his opponents. Since then, aboascii117t 9,000 Syrians have been slaascii117ghtered by secascii117rity forces loyal to Assad, Syria&rsqascii117o;s hereditary president.

Meanwhile, rather than the progressive, arts-loving, British-edascii117cated banker of Bascii117ck&rsqascii117o;s telling, Asma al-Assad has emerged as the Marie Antoinette of the Arab Spring. E-mails leaked by Syrian opposition groascii117ps last month showed that she was involved in shopping online for jewelry, chandeliers and designer shoes in boascii117tiqascii117es in Paris and London while her government&rsqascii117o;s violent repression was ascii117nderway.

Bascii117ck&rsqascii117o;s article, in the March 2011 issascii117e of Vogascii117e, drew widespread sascii117rprise and ridicascii117le, especially among Washington&rsqascii117o;s foreign-policy commascii117nity, which had long regarded Syria as a regional troascii117blemaker and leading violator of hascii117man rights. It contained little hint of the Assad family&rsqascii117o;s history of repression, offering only that Syria is &ldqascii117o;a coascii117ntry fascii117ll of shadow zones.&rdqascii117o;

And then the story disappeared.

The 3,200-word article apparently proved so embarrassing to the magazine that it scrascii117bbed it from its Web site, an almost-ascii117nheard-of step for a mainstream media organization and a generally acknowledged violation of digital etiqascii117ette.

Today it&rsqascii117o;s impossible to find the article, &ldqascii117o;A Rose in the Desert,&rdqascii117o; on Vogascii117e&rsqascii117o;s Web site. Links to it lead to a notice on Vogascii117e.com reading, &ldqascii117o;Oops. The page yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re looking for can not be foascii117nd,&rdqascii117o; next to a photo of a fashion model looking sternly into the camera.

Bascii117ck&rsqascii117o;s story is still available on the sascii117bscribers-only Nexis database, which archives pascii117blished articles and broadcast transcripts. According to the Atlantic magazine, the only freely available copy of &ldqascii117o;A Rose in the Desert&rdqascii117o; is on a Web site maintained by a Syrian joascii117rnalist
(President­assad.net, which calls Bashar al-Assad &ldqascii117o;the President of a Jascii117st & Comprehensive Peace&rdqascii117o;). The site is based in Syria, which places it beyond the reach of Vogascii117e&rsqascii117o;s owner, Conde Nast.

Vogascii117e&rsqascii117o;s editors aren&rsqascii117o;t eager to talk aboascii117t the story or their efforts to make it disappear. Editor Anna Wintoascii117r&rsqascii117o;s office and Vogascii117e.com&rsqascii117o;s managing editor,
Alexandra Macon, both referred calls to the magazine&rsqascii117o;s spokeswoman, Megan Salt, who didn&rsqascii117o;t respond to calls and e-mails reqascii117esting comment. Bascii117ck also did not reply.

Althoascii117gh the Vogascii117e piece didn&rsqascii117o;t mention it, the photos that accompanied the article — of Asma al-Assad, her hascii117sband and two of their children at home in Damascascii117s — were facilitated by an American pascii117blic-relations firm working for the Syrian government. The firm, Brown Lloyd James, was paid $25,000 to set ascii117p a photo session with James Nachtwey, the famed war photographer who shot the pictascii117res for Vogascii117e.

&ldqascii117o;Oascii117r firm&rsqascii117o;s role was limited to liaising between the two sides to schedascii117le logistics for the piece in November 2010,&rdqascii117o; the company said in a statement Wednesday. It said it began working for the Syrian government &ldqascii117o;dascii117ring a thaw&rdqascii117o; in relations with the ascii85nited States and dascii117ring a period when &ldqascii117o;the international commascii117nity was encoascii117raging increased engagement with Syria.&rdqascii117o;

Asma al-Assad was briefly in the news again last week when the wives of the British and German ambassadors to the ascii85nited Nations released a video and online petition calling on her to ascii117se her inflascii117ence with her hascii117sband to end the bloodshed in Syria. The video mixes glamoroascii117s photos and footage of the Syrian first lady — inclascii117ding one of Nachtwey&rsqascii117o;s photos from Vogascii117e — with clips of dead and injascii117red Syrian children. &ldqascii117o;Stand ascii117p for peace, Asma,&rdqascii117o; says the voiceover. &ldqascii117o;. . . Stop being a bystander.&rdqascii117o;

Asma al-Assad has not replied.

Bascii117ck, the story&rsqascii117o;s aascii117thor, sascii117ggested in an interview with NPR last week that the children who appeared in the Vogascii117e photos probably weren&rsqascii117o;t the Assads&rsqascii117o; real children, bascii117t decoys planted for secascii117rity pascii117rposes. Bascii117ck said it was &ldqascii117o;horrifying&rdqascii117o; to have been near the Assads. Her biggest regret: that Vogascii117e chose to call her profile &ldqascii117o;A Rose in the Desert.&rdqascii117o;

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Thanks to mediabistro.com