Another opposition source confirmed to me that sam@alshahba (who supplies sim cards on the side) is not, and can't be Bashshar Al-Asad. He added: "Technically and from a security point of view at least, Bashshar--and all the other officials especially in the hicher security and military echelons--use an "internal server" (not linked at all to the internet) to communicate amongst each other." Much of what is known on that subject came from Mu'nis Kayyali who was in charge of information security in all Syrian security agencies, including the presidency, until he left Syria three years ago to work for the Russian government. Don't get me wrong: if you still need sim cards, please feel free to write to Bashshar.