In mid-March, what had started out as a modest protest for Syrian political reform became a full-fledged uprising because Bashar al-Assad decided that 15 young boys sprayed anti-regime graffiti ought to be arrested. According to Der Spiegel, 'Their fathers and the local sheikh went to the provincial intelligence chief, Atif Najib, a cousin of the president, to plead their cases, arguing that those arrested were just children. Forget them, Najib allegedly said, and send me your wives so that I can make more children for you.'