this is bbc news. will have the for you at the top of headlines for you at the top of the hour which is this programmei i'm stephen sackur. the total collapse the total collapse the regime which x? if“ a... if”: ztortured ”t at: 7:77 77: tortured and systematically tertureé and its own population. systematically tertureé and is its own population. systematically tertureé and is striking in population. systematically tertureé and is striking is population. systematically tarts-fast arts! is striking is the jlation. what is striking is the relative calm that is the country

characterised the country since. new rulers since. syria's new rulers was regarded as extremists are ragarslssl as sstrsmists'afs'" " ” ” ' ” '” justice respect promising justice and respect for human rights. my guest is a syrian american who created the campaign for syrian american who created the campaignfor in campaignfarfreedamiqtha s , ,. , a--. ,, .. ,, days of rule. is darkest days of rule. is optimism about plus plus optimism about syria plus plus future justified 7 syria's rule.

100%. absolutely. on a new path that i think isn'tjust important for syria itself. its reverberations on europe will be incredibly positive. and it's rare, you know, in this time and day, to see good triumph over evil. yeah, it's interesting, you're

even talking with a smile on your face and yet i am also deeply conscious of the fact to further the process of accountability for all of the terrible crimes committed by the assad regime. you went to one mass grave site, where it is believed of murdered syrians. 0h, "surreal" is not a good enough word to describe it. i mean, i'm still, to this day, processingjust being at those sites and everything that's happened. mass graves we visited, one is called qutayfah, an area called qutayfah, where the third division of the assad regime forces was. family members and friends. children and elderly.

it reminds you of things like horrible moments or some of these locations where horrific things, and so, you know, after thinking... identifying it by working with the gravediggers, the mass grave workers that that dug and worked on these mass graves that the assad regime has all over the country. and to have caesar kind of walk me through the location of bodies tortured in

the most horrific ways. and accountability. i'm going to stop you there, mouaz, cos there's a lot our audience will have noticed you referred there to caesar, which is the code name of one particular photographer who was working for the assad regime, inside the killing machine, if i can put it that way. he was tasked with taking photographs of dead bodies, which had been transported from prison sites to military hospitals, and he escaped from syria, and he wanted

i believe you've seen them. many other investigators have access to those files. qitlyoa.rllate.antpzfiaress beloved missing uncle? oh, you know... i know that, 99.99% chance, my uncle is gone. he sacrificed his life for this beautiful revolution that live on that 1% chance. have the burial, you don't have the dna evidence,

and if you love someone, you live on the tiniest chance that you may see them again. unfortunately, i was able to find information, documentation within the intelligence branch in to exhume these mass graves, to utilise rapid dna testing is so key to allowing people to move on, but also beginning that important what about living witnesses? to protect a number of key witnesses who, if there

still chaos of today's syria — how can you assure the safety so, first of all, these key witnesses, whether it's caesar, and the bulldozer driver and the excavator driver, these are people that worked on multiple mass graves. we've brought them to testify before parliament in the uk, in congress in the united states and the united nations completely anonymously, without showing their faces time, and the safety concerns for a long time, apparatus and his allies, iran and russia and hezbollah and so on.

it is free of russia with a major geopolitical defeat to an adversary of democracy everywhere. until they are ready to make theirselves public, but in terms of your question on inside syria — post the fall of saddam, the looting, the complete the terrorist attacks and other things that happened. in syria, we saw none of that.

we did not see massive looting by any means. you know, by fighters or anything. there was no displacement of civilians. and it's really an homage not just to those revolutionaries people as a whole. "single one of those responsible, "starting with bashar al—assad," and you mentioned iraq in your last answer. very brutal justice. to see bashar al—assad brought to justice.

face a court? and with the doors of the international criminal court, the icc, closed off to syria because syria wasn't a signatory to the rome statute, and every time we tried to get the un security council to refer syria and then, even in... syrian civil society, syrian revolutionaries, so universaljurisdiction, dual nationals, all these things were used.

general... are going to give him up. again, i'm thinking of the future of syria and the sense of accountability. brought to justice? so, number one, you know, what happened in iraq court in terms of... i'm not a legal, you know, super expert on this. assad is a liability for vladimir putin. he no longer gives him his warm water port in syria, he no longer buys his weapons or backs his worldview,

and somehow russia is not imperialist and it is just trying to protect itself. assad up is something that is very realistic and can be done. apartment in moscow. i want to see him come back to damascus, where, horrific genocidal massacres that he's perpetrated. world as a jihadist terrorist, a man associated with and willingness to move forward with a free syria, committed to equal rights for all? well, first of all, it's not just now, all of a sudden, you know, he's somehow changed

hats and overnight he changed. that's not what happened. i've watched ahmed al—sharaa and hts rule the management of only one group that's part of the joint i get that point, but the truth is hts is now in control in damascus. it is ahmed al—sharaa

who has chosen... ..i guess we can call it an interim government, and in that government, he has appointed a host of loyalists, whose position and loyalty sits directly with him. there is not the diversity which might reflect syria's so, i would say a couple of things. of time, if you compare it to economically, but the governance of idlib at the time isn't the same... you know, it wasn't perfect, it wasn't a western democracy by any means, but as we saw hts now kind of, you know,

but one of the reasons that you saw the placements of people that they trusted in these locations, it's because there's a lot of fear, a lot of fear of a counter—revolution, of a potential military up or not, and how? and what we have seen is an incredible effort, city by city, village by village, to talk and kurdish, and shi'ite, and alawite communities, they were kids as they were bombed out by iran with the leadership of the new damascus government ethnic, religious sect,

minority at all. everyone�*s part of a national conversation... well, you're clearly an optimist. changes in syrian textbooks which really pointed islamist worldview, not one that reflected the when i looked back through...

and is being responsive to what the syrian people are demanding until we get to a representative government. but it was mostly taking out the indoctrination of, "assad is the dear leader, "his dad is..." god knows what, and so on. that's not the case. all right. well, that's your view. and the geopolitics of syria because, for 13 years or so, you've worked very hard to get us lawmakers and administration in ways that you felt the american administrations over successive presidents failed to do.

of national intelligence, a woman you have accused in the past of being far too close to vladimir putin is going to pursue a syria policy that will please or support his normalisation, but we saw very the reason i advocate against tulsi gabbard's appointment is for the sake of the united states, for the country that gave me a home after leaving syria when i was young, and for the sake of our allies. just say very optimistic this is a person that does not believe in the same worldview as democracies and actually as democracies and actually supports the worldview supports the worldview of tyrants and authoritarians. of tyrants and authoritarians. and i'm confident... and i'm confident...

..or not confident, but let's ..or not confident, but let's just say very optimistic that the senate will not confirm her, that she will not become the director of national intelligence. but let's look at the trump administration now in terms of their policies in general. president trump put out a statement as soon as assad fell. his statement was way more positive than the initial statement of president biden. the biden white house put out a statement that said, "these are terrorists. "we have nothing to do with this "and we call on de—escalation." de—escalate what?

of the new syrian government. the trump administration, i would say, has a lot in getting the ceasefire... incoming "administration is going to be good on syria," to lift sanctions on syria, to end the designation of hts as a terrorist organisation? who were displaced, who fled from syria — and we're yes. number one, there are sanctions

and designations, both state designate sponsor of terror and the fto — foreign terrorist organization — designations on people like sharaa and hts. all the way to 1979. sponsor of terror designations. why? hafez al—assad. positive statements, will support people that are calling for democracy, liberty, freedom, and trying to get rid of their authoritarian regimes and tyrannies? and then when the tyrant goes away, when the authoritarian

is gone, then we debate whether we lift these these sanctions must be lifted. and gone, by the way, without the help of and i asked you, finally, if the displaced syrians can safely return, and i guess it's a very personal question. you're clearly a man very well connected in washington, but ultimately, you were born a syrian. yes, sir. some are in germany, some are in turkey, countless friends

are going home. a matter of a week. you know, the people that are in germany, there are hundreds of: theusagds. i know a family in philadelphia that i was meeting on my way up here, i saw randomly, and i was like, "hey, what's your plan now?" for the first time... ..oh, in decades, syria's now safe.

in the wrong place, or the guy wants a bribe. corruption has been... the country dissipated. thank you very much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you. hello. compared with some of the rather turbulent weather things for the next few days look a good deal quieter. but a fair amount of cloud. as this ridge of high pressure builds in behind it. tending to clear away. it may linger for some of these eastern and southeastern coasts for a good part of the day, and we will keep a fair bit northern england up into scotland. but there will be some sunny spells. the best sunshine, i think, through the day will be found northern ireland.

scotland not doing badly either, temperatures now, during friday night we will see this zone of clear across central and eastern parts of england. there could be some mist and murk around as well, ireland later in the night. now high pressure to the east of us, frontal systems trying for the weekend. of cloud across the central and eastern parts of england, some misty conditions for a time as well. but remember, that weather front will be running into this

so watch as we go through saturday night and on into a band of clouds and bits and pieces of rain, but nothing too significant. for example, northwest scotland, also central eight, nine degrees will not feel too bad. weather around once again. the north and the west, but many places seeing some decent spells of sunshine.

live from london.

this is bbc news. and we're here to assure the american people that we are —:= 7 z to going to going to leave ahiha th ahiha th liahehh " ' unturned ahiha th ahiha tngahehh " unturned in ahiha th ahiha th liahehh " ' unturned in this stone unturned in this investigation. we are going to conduct a of this thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the years — in sight of the nation's capitol. along the potomac river. we begin with breaking news — investigators have recovered