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Update Wednesday, 5:24 p.m. As my colleague Bill Carter reports , Barbara Walters said on Tuesday that she tried to help one ofPresident Bashar al-Assad's press advisers get an internshipat CNN and a place at Columbia University after the young womanfacilitated Ms. Walters's interview with Mr. Assad in December. Ms. Walters told The Daily Telegraph that she wrote to Piers Morgan, the CNN host, and a professor atColumbia's journalism school on behalf of the Assad aide,Sheherazad Jaafari, after the interview. The Telegraph also published e-mails from Ms. Walters's account concerning her efforts to help Ms. Jaafari, which the newspapersaid it had obtained from an unnamed Syrian opposition group. Aftershe was confronted with the hacked e-mails by The Telegraph, Ms.Walters said Ms. Jaafari "contacted me looking for a job. Itold her that was a serious conflict of interest and that we wouldnot hire her," Ms. Walters said. "I did offer tomention her to contacts at another media organization and inacademia, though she didn't get a job or into school. Inretrospect, I realize that this created a conflict, and I regretthat." Scheherazade,Barbara and the dictator. A modern tale of the ArabianNights. t.co/ieCyqYw4 Hisham Melhem (@hisham_melhem) 5 Jun 12 Previously leaked e-mails show that Ms. Jaafari, who is also thedaughter of Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, helped arrange the interview with ABC News and coached Mr. Assad on how to make a good impression on American viewers. In one of the e-mails published by The Telegraph, Ms. Walters wroteto Ms. Jaafari the month after the interview: Dear Sherry: I wrote to Piers Morgan and his producer to say howterrific you are and attached your resume. I am not sure if theyhave an opening. Are you still planning to apply to Columbia Schoolof Journalism? Do you want me to do anything on that? Do let meknow your plans when you return from Syria. Be safe. Hugs. Barbara The next week, Ms. Walters wrote to Richard Wald, a professor atColumbia whose son is the producer of Piers Morgan's talkshow: She helped arrange my interview with Assad. She is only 21 but hadhis ear and his confidence. I have recommended her as an intern toyour son for Piers Morgan. She is applying to Columbia School ofJournalism. She is brilliant, beautiful, speaks five languages.Anything you can do to help? In response, Mr. Wald explained to Ms. Walters that Ms. Jaafari wasnot applying to study journalism at Columbia, but internationalaffairs. But, he said, "I will get them to give her specialattention. I am sure they will take her." In the end, Ms. Jaafari was not accepted into the graduate programat Columbia. In an e-mail to The Lede on Tuesday, Mr. Waldconfirmed that "the e-mails from Barbara to me and my replyseem genuine." He added that his response to the note fromMs. Walters was routine. "I would forward any such requestfrom a prominent journalist." If an e-mail obtained in February by the hackers known as Anonymousis genuine, Ms. Jaafari played a central role in Mr. Assad'spreparations for the interview with Ms. Walters, writing a long briefing paper with suggested talking points . The central message of the briefing was that the "Americanpsyche can be easily manipulated," by a politician strikingthe right notes. Before Ms. Jaafari began to advise Mr. Assad on his image, sheworked for Mike Holtzman, a partner at the British-American publicrelations firm Brown Lloyd James. As The Washington Post reported , in 2010, months before the uprising in Syria began, the firm waspaid by the Syrian government to arrange a Vogue photo shoot ofAsma al-Assad, the country's first lady, to accompany aflattering profile of her in the magazine. Ms. Jaafari apparently kept in touch with her former boss at thefirm as she tried to help cast Mr. Assad's crackdown in apositive light. In an e-mail to the Syrian president in January — which was later obtained by Syrian activistsand published by The Guardian — Ms. Jaafari forwarded part ofher correspondence with Mr. Holtzman to Mr. Assad. The exchangewith Mr. Holtzman was initiated by Ms. Jaafari to draw hisattention to a surprise public appearance by the Assads at a pro-government rally that month in Damascus. During theirdiscussion of the event, Mr. Holtzman mentioned that reports of therally in the American press had suggested that Mrs. Assad lookedlike she might have been medicated during that rare appearance inpublic with her husband. Mr. Holtzman described the report as"unbelievable." According to his professional biography , Mr. Holtzman, who served in the Clinton administration, is wellversed in advising authoritarian leaders. In recent years, he led"a campaign on behalf of Iraqi Governing Council member AyadAllawi, who went on to become Iraq's first post-Saddam primeminister," and "managed the successful global campaignon behalf of China s bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games." * This post was revised to clarify the context of a comment made byan American public relations executive, Mike Holtzman, in an e-mailto Sheherazad Jaafari, a press adviser to Syrian President Basharal-Assad. Mr. Holtzman wrote to The Lede on Wednesday to say thathe used the term unbelievable to describe a specific reportabout Syria s first lady, Asma al-Assad, and was not referringmore broadly to negative coverage of the Assads. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Digital Quran Pen Reader Manufacturer , China Electronic Reading Pen for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Digital Quran Reading Pen.
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