Dearest beloved, I am a Baathist crony needing help in smuggling out my cash. Send me your bank PIN number.

It is only a matter of time before you will be getting spam from Syrians looking for business partners to help them smuggle out their kleptocratic wealth. Growing numbers of Batahists seem to smell the coming end of the regime, under pressure from President Bush's drive against Middle East terrorism. Some of the Baathist rats are hiding their cheese outside the country.

The Reform Party of Syria, which oppose the Baathist regime, has obtained information indicating that large sums of money have been transferred in the last two weeks from Syria to various countries around the globe but mostly to Cyprus, Turkey, and France.

Rami Makhlouf, Assad's cousin and business partner, has transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to these countries under the cover of front companies. Makhlouf had recently invested $280 million in a cellular license in Pakistan. The RPS alleges that most of this wealth comes from corrupt practices such as selling Syrian oil outside the government channels, drug and arms rafficking, and counterfeiting.

Other Syrian top intelligence officers have been using "pigeons" on their behalf to transfer their wealth outside Syria.