>> following a series of tweets saying, the capitol looks beautiful tonight, rep giffords returned to washington to support the bipartisan bill. >> throughout america, there isn't a name that stirs more love, more admiration, more respect, more wishing for our daughters to be like her, than the name of congresswoman gabby giffords. thank you for joining us today. >> watch her return to the house online at the c-span video library. it's washington, your way. >> the c-span networks, we provide coverage of politics, public affairs, books, it's all available to you on television,

radio, online and on social media networking sites and find our content any time at the video library and we take c-span on the road with our digital bus. the c-span network now available in 100 million homes. created by cable, provided as a public service. >> yes, senator, that is

correct. >> live now to the senator foreign relations committee, holding a hearing on ambassadorial nominations. sitting there chairing this part of the hearing is senator casey. >> over the past few days, scores have been killed in hama, the same location of a devastating attack by government forces in the year 1982 which killed an estimated 10,000 syrian civilians. despite this sustained assault by government forces, syrian activists continued to demonstrate in very large numbers a testament to their courage, their cause, and their desire for the most basic elements of human rights and human dignity. the horror taking place in syria today has led me and many others in this body, the united

states senate, to be very clear about the conclusion that we've reached. this is a regime that is not capable of real reform. it has lost all legitimacy. we must be direct and i believe unequivocal in our message to the dictator of damascus. bashir al assaad must step down. the syrian people should not have to bear the brutality of this regime any longer. let's not forget how these demonstrations in fact started. these demonstrations started with children. on march 6 of this year, the syrian authorities arrested 15 schoolchildren in the city of darra for spray painting anti-government slogans. these children were reportedly tortured while they were in

fact in custody. their parents and members of the community demonstrated and calls for their release. the police used force on the parents and community leaders and within a week had killed 55 people. today, after months of courageous demonstrations and of course that's a dramatic understatement, there's no other way to adequately convey the courage and valor of these people, after all of the demonstrations some estimates are that the death toll has reached maybe as high as 2,000 but at least more than 1,600. some think of course that even 2,000 would be too low. we don't know for sure. but it is unacceptable for us to stand by any longer and just watch this. the terrible reach of this regime has directly affected

constituents in my home state of pennsylvania. dr. hasim hallah is a naturalized american citizen from syria and a respected oncology researcher who lives in marion park, pennsylvania, just outside of philadelphia. in maye, his brother, sakur, who was also a doctor, visited the u.s. to attend a medical conference. upon his return to syria, he was missing. his wife contacted the authorities who confirmed that he was in their custody but would be released shortly. the next day, sakur's wife and daughter were interviewed by the authorities who again confirmed he would be released. two days later, his body was discovered in a village 20 miles south of the area. the authorities then denied that he was ever in their

custody and claimed that they found his body in a ditch by the side of the road. his body was subjected to brutal torture. his bones were broken and his body was mutilated in unspeakable ways. sakur was not a political active it and was not involved in the demonstrations, his sole ofens is going to the medical conference and visiting with his brother. we honor his memory, sakur's memory by calling for democratic change in syria. we know that our allies across the arab logan in turkey league and in turkey have the pressure

mr. assad. they have economic and diplomatic ties with syria that the united states does not have. i support these efforts to leverage these relationships for a comprehensive regional approach through this crisis and applaud our allies who have rejected the assad regime. in a concerted diplomatic push more can be done to pressure syria. we need to maintain pressure at the united nations human rights council and continue to pursue a resolution at the u.n. security council condemning the syrian government's behavior. on monday this week, germany called for a security council meeting on syria, which i hope will result in a strong resolution. though some security council members remain resistant especially in the wake of recent

violence. it is unacceptable for the united nations to continue ignoring the courage of the syrian people and the carnage brought about by the syrian regime. we must also continue to pursue efforts to constrict the ability of this regime to conduct business abroad. i welcome the new european union sanctions on syria this week which imposing travel bans on government officials. we must be willing to examine expanded sanctions on the banking and energy sectors. i want to applaud the work done by our diplomats in damascus, led by robert ford. the ambassador's recent trip was a testament to his commitment to representing the interest and values of the united states. due to the draconian measures imposed on the media, ambassador

ford has been one of the few people who has traveled within syria and borne witness to the truth of the terrible crimes taking place across that country. president obama was right to send ambassador ford to syria last year. i look forward to supporting his confirmation when it comes before the full senate. mr. ford has shown that an american ambassador is not a gift to host countries but a representative to actively pursue american interests and american values. the most basic american value, the right to democratic representation is at stake in syria and much more, of course, is at stake. and i know that ambassador ford has been a stalwart advocate for this principle of democratic representation while he has served in damascus. ambassador ford, welcome back to the senate foreign relations committee and this is your second welcome today.

but i thank you for your decades of service that you and your team have undertaken in damascus and i look forward to the answers you will provide to our questions. i wanted to open up with just an assessment, your assessment of the violence in the current state of the -- not just the violence and the scale of it, but also what you can tell us about the opposition and how they're doing and how we can be most effective and most helpful. we, meaning the united states congress. >> thank you very much, senator. it's nice to see you again. first, if i may, i am very fortunate to work with a small but very dedicated team at the u.s. embassy in damascus, both americans and syrians and one of my team is here and interrupted

her vacation to help me during these few days of meetings i have in washington, d.c.,. i would like to introduce jonne couplings and works -- cummings. there is a deteriorating situation all of our staff live without their families and it's a super team and it is a team effort. >> thank you as well on our behalf. >> senator, with respect to the violence, it's getting worse. the syrian government's constant brutality, its refusal to allow peaceful marches. is insistence on widespread arrest campaigns and atrocious portrait of the reports that you read about the detention

conditions are just ghastly and fostering more violence. we saw that in the third largest city two weeks ago and this weekend, too. i visited a city on a government-response order trip in june and i wandered away from the crowd and it's clear what happened. there was a peaceful protest on a friday. syrian security forces shot some of the protestors. at the funeral on saturday, the next day, the people got quite emotional because they had lost loved ones and they then attacked and killed a lot of syrian security people. that paradigm, that cycle is repeated over and over again. the cycle starts with syrian government violence against peaceful protests.

need to be very clear. the syrian government was saying there are armed groups. i went there. i didn't see a single gun. the most dangerous weapon i saw was a sling shot. we need to be clear about what the nature of the violence is and where it comes from. the responsibility lies with president assad and his government and let me again reiterate the call by the president on july 31, the secretary yesterday, the syrian government needs to stop that slaughter. would you like me to discuss briefly the opposition? >> yes. thank you. >> i spent a fair amount of my time getting to know them inside syria. the secretary today met a group of syrian opposition members that are living outside of syria and i was able to join that meeting as well. couple of things i would say

about them. it's a diverse group. they're not well organized. that is not surprising. the syrian government, for decades, would not allow any opposition party to exist, much less meet and much less organize. they are trying to do that now. very frankly, they have a long way to go. it is important for the syrian opposition to develop their ideas, syrian ideas about how the democratic transition in syria, which we think is under way. street protests as i said in my opening statement, are growing. the democratic transition is under way. the syrian opposition needs to identify how that transition should proceed. that should not be an american responsibility. this is a syrian issue that syrians should decide. how about if i hold there,

senator? >> thank you very much. i know americans are outraged by this violence. but i'm afraid when you open up the newspaper day after day and it's in the context of instability in a lot of places and a lot of change in the middle east, that it might be -- that the level of outrage might be more muted because it's in the context of so much other news and so much other change in the region. it's always a region of a lot of volatility. but lately, it's been that much more difficult. i think it's difficult sometimes for many americans to sustain their focus. but it's my opinion that not only should mr. assad step down, but he should stop trying to deliberately mislead the world

where he -- his forces engage in an act of violence and it seems it's always followed by some fraudulent promise that they are going to reform and then that cycle gets repeated as well. and i know part of the impediment here is developing a broad enough coalition of nations, governments to support us. and i know we are trying to get an even broader coalition. and one of the challenges we have is engaging russia and china and they are two of the most vocal opponents. i don't know why. i can't understand, but we have to acknowledge it. two of the most vocal opponents against any kind of resolution in the security council. what can you tell us about efforts to engage there and what the latest is.

>> senator, there have been intense discussions today up in new york, again, about some kind of u.n. security council action. my understanding from colleagues up in new york couple of hours ago was that the most recent syrian government repressive measures in the east and in hamma in the west have had an impact and that the members of the security council who had opposed security council action are potentially now more open to some kind of action. discussions are under way. my understanding is even as we speak here. we think it is important -- i want to underline this -- we think it is important the united nations security council take

action. we think it is important that the international community recognize the courage and the efforts of the syrian people to effect change, to push for freedom and dignity and that the international community should support them. >> one of the challenges we have when i mentioned that sometimes it's hard for americans to sustain a focus on violence, even violence at this level and the kind of brutality, one of the limitations we have is not just the events that interfere or prevent that focus from being intensified. one of the challenges we have is lack of information because of the syrian government's ability to censor or limit information. i spoke earlier of the estimates

of the number killed. even beyond that number which we never are sure is accurate, you obviously have concerns about this, but are there ways we can circumvent or get around the censors that are in place now, the ability of the syrian government to prevent the free flow of information? >> senator, one of the big topics that i have had in my discussion with officials of the syrian government over the last several months is the importance of allowing in international media. i don't know how many times i have raised that with the foreign minister, with my foreign minister, with close advisors to president assad himself. the syrians have a refrain which is that the media coverage is

unfair and i told them, you need to let the media come in and let them draw their own judgment. i will say after my last conversations with that, cnn was invited in, national public radio and we got a couple of british news agencies in. they were still kind of tracked and monitored in the country. they didn't have nearly the kind of freedom i would have liked to have seen, we would have liked to have seen. n.p.r. just got back in again. you are right, censorship is a huge problem. and one of the reasons i have moved around the country is to get a sense myself of what's going on. it's terribly frustrating to not really understand. you can watch youtube videos,

but there is a certain utility using your own eyes to see things. i have been encouraging my allies to get out of damascus and visit parts of the country. the french ambassador is quite active. and we then need to help the syrian people themselves, the activists learn how to make the best use of technologies so that they, too, can use the internet to get the word out. they are quite ingenius doing this. colleagues of mine at the embassy tell me the syrians understand some of the technology better than we do. there is a lot there. the fundamental problem is that the syrian government will not allow the free flow of information, and that should stop. >> in some ways, that's one of the -- at least the way i would

make a determination about legitimacy, that's one of the measurements, if you are not allowing the free flow of information. i think at a minimum, questions arise about the implications of that. i wanted to return, i wanted to ask you before when you were talking about the opposition and i know this is difficult to do especially where you are in the vortex of this much more so than i am, but to the extent you can step back a little bit and provide a percent pecktive based on -- perspective based on recent events. this is my opinion, but one of the most significant factors in how the transition took place in egypt, for example, was the fact that you had a military which showed some measure, not -- i

don't want to be categorical about this, but some measure of foreberns. and you had a number of folks who were in the ruling elite who also showed some forebearance or measure in the way they responded and that allowed a kind of transition compared to some other places, we may not be hoping would replicate itself. is there any -- in syria, is there any element within the government at a high level, either within the government or senior leadership of the military where you see some, even unrealized potential at this point for some balance and maybe even some forebearance where they may not cross a certain boundary, some of the top saying this has gone too far and we have to pause -- i'm not

expecting anyone at the highest levels to agree with me about mr. assad stepping down, but is there any potential for someone to, at the highest levels to show that kind of forebearance at some point in the near term? >> i'm going to be very frank. i have heard from a number of officials in damascus, messages of good intent. i have to tell you that what matters is change on the ground. and an end to the shooting of peaceful protestors and end to these sweeps where hundreds of young people are rounded up without any kind of judicial process and held for months, often in barbaric conditions. there are still political prisoners. change on the ground.

and i have listened to these messages of good inat the present time and when i come back to them and say, what about changing this and changing this today or tomorrow, i don't get much back. a few things here and there, but not very much. and our conclusion is that this regime is unwilling or unable to lead the democratic transition that the syrian people are demanding now. it doesn't matter now, what we are interested in, the syrian people are interested in and that's the change on the ground, positive change on the ground. the incidents over the past few days leading up to ramadan shows there is no positive change on the ground. >> and i think if anything, that

should be -- that should be testimony that equates i guess to exhibit a as to why wife to maintain pressure and think of other ways to provide or to impose i should say even greater pressure by developing and strengthening alliances through engagement and efforts that are made in the way of sanctions and other pressure, because my sense and i think you just confirmed it, this is not a regime that's going to get tired of doing this, unless they have a countervaling force against them that will make them change. i wanted to explore some of those other pressure points. there are some commentators, some with a significant degree of experience who think we

should be turning up more pressure and imposing more economic pressure by way of the energy sector. i wanted to get your thoughts on that in terms of a -- another approach here. >> senator, it's an excellent question. on the energy sector, we have, for years, had sanctions against american companies doing business there. and so unilaterally, additional american measures, unilaterally probably are not going to have that big of an impact. the companies that are working in the syrian petroleum oil and gas sector in syria are mostly european and canadian. and so we would look to find ways to work with our partners

to enhance those sanctions. and frankly, we have had discussions about that and that's under way. european and canadians are watching what is going on in syria and the syrian government's latest actions will help trigger action, frankly speaking. >> and how -- a lot of what drives fervor for change can be often rooted in economics as it is in anything else. how would you assess the syrian economy prior to maybe at the beginning of this year than the way it looks now in terms of its significance as an issue in this conflict? >> the violence and the unrest

in syria, lack of stability is really hurting the syrian economy. it started off slow, but it is snowbaling. tourism represented a growing part of the economy, the tourism industry is completely dead. the hotels which normally would have occupies si rates are down to 0% to 10%. hotels are laying off staff. the country is draining slowly but steadily its foreign exchange reserves. business throughout the economy has slowed dramatically whether it be production of pharmaceuticals or textiles. whatever it is, the demand among syrian consumers has dropped off. people are afraid to buy because times are so unsettled.