mr. al assad, for good reasons, but then again, we cannot be in him away. he will be in syria for some time. we cannot solve the issue, politically, there will be an ongoing civil war in syria for years to come. >> there has been a lot of talk about the arab world finding solutions to its own problems. is that a possibility? >> in theory, yes, but in practice, it would be the first time in the arab league since immediately after world war ii. the arab league is too weak to immediately affect things on the ground, but it could be the first step for an international political mission to get involved in serious affairs. so far, it has not happened because neither the russians nor the chinese -- the closest allies of president al assad -- want this to happen for fear this series of false into the western field, so to speak -- for fear that syria falls into the western field. >> israel has to step up security in a town outside jerusalem where thousands of demonstrators are gathered to protest against religious zealots. tensions have been building over the last f

minister target al hashimi is very much against the government of bashar al assad has voiced support for the opposition in syria whereas mr nuri al maliki is against it hears voices support for bashar assad and he's very much in terms of supporting bashar al assad's standing with iran so there are other players new players and existing players who've got a much bigger if i can tell you rocky of america position is quite dilute very interesting here franco to you i mean everything we just heard we do everything we just heard here is that there are mobile there more than one iraq so it sounds like to me go ahead. yes i'm sorry what i wanted to know and i think it's extremely important from my colleague in tel aviv is the united states one of the most important impacts what happened in any. of the u.s. invasion as the united states has ignited sectarian tension and conflict in the middle east which is having profound effects ripple effects throughout the region i think syria is a critical piece here so is saudi arabia of course iran is the one positive thing as is as the united states withdraws even though we had a very bloo

many of the words shouted words to the president bash ash ar al assad. >>> mr.tmas vacation for a week, due to the wrangling over the payroll tax cut. an hour after landing in honolulu the president and first lady went out to dinner to one of their favorite restaurants. the first family is expected to stay in hawaii until early january. >>> south carolina plans to fight to restore its controversial voter i.d. law. the justice department rejected the law friday saying it discriminates against minority voters. now, it would have required votes to show a government issued identification at the polls. this is the first to be rejected by the justice department in two decades. >>> even though it is saturday, here's a sunday story for you. a truck overturned in indiana on friday spilling 40,000 pounds of ice cream! yep, it took the workers hours to scoop up the mess. police had to set up cones rerouting the traffic. >>> time for weather. lonnie quinn is off today but john elliott from wcbs joins us. that is quite a mess but a tasty one at that. >> i got them both. bett

mr. turner. >> i hope these hearings will find a proactive policy toward the removal of bashar al-assad. i yield back. >> the gentleman from new york, mr. higgins. >> thank you for holding this important hearing. i'm pleased to see that president obama and leaders from the world have called on bashar al-assad to step down. the oppressive regime has terrorized the syrian people for far too long. there brutal actions threaten humanity and the need to be stopped. our country, along with the european union, has the right to issue strong sanctions against syria, to deny them revenues for use to finance their abuse of the syrian people. we must remain steadfast in our efforts to give the syrian people what they want and deserve, that being a government representative and responsive to the will of the people. i look forward to hearing the testimony of the witness today engaging on how we can help syrians, who have been oppressed for too long, to finally have a government they want and deserve. >> thank you. the gentleman from nebraska. >> thank you. in the interest of time, i will yield back. th

al assad and they want to topple the regime so every mediation. by the arab league or by any effort inside the country the american they were not fired and today the statement from mr goldman to the foreign affairs indicated clearly what the intention of the american propaganda. as you say that america has a heavy hand in this this is what you're saying but there's been an attack on the monitoring mission in the city of homs certainly one of the flashpoints in the country who do you think could be behind it who might try to undermine the mission of the arab observers at that point i suppose to the extent of benefiting from undermining their mission. well obviously the opposition they're undermining all mission because of the people saying what they saw on the street and they said this the situation is under control and there is no severity to the situation and it's not the way how they characterize it and everybody was mad mr b. because he said that they were not happy with the head of the mission of the observer because actually in a way supported the version of the government somebody try to blame everything when you have like. ten of thousands are paid by major

mr. obama win by attacking the rich? facebook.com/carolcnn. i will read your comments later this hour. >> thank you. after nine months of crack downs in syria, he is now denying he ordered any of it. al-assadaims the opposite. hear what he tells barbara walters. >> there was no command to kill or be brutal. >> people went from houses to houses. children were arrested. i saw those pictures. >> to be frank, how do you know? you have to hear and see. we do not see this. it depends on what you hear. >> i saw pictures. >> how did you verify those pictures? that's why we are talking about false allegations and distortion of reality. we don't kill our people. nobody, no government in the world kill its people unless it's led by a crazy person. i became president because of public support. it's impossible for anyone in this state to be ordered to kill. >> do you feel guilty? >> i did my best to protect the people, so i cannot feel guilty when you do your best. >> the u.n. estimates that more than 4,000 people have been killed in the uprisings inspired by the arab spring, both the arab league and turkey have also sanctioned syria. is he crazy? lying? playing with semantics. joining us to talk about