how much impact will that have on damascus and assaad? >> it is very important. i am sure, again, that assaad and those around him are shaken by the fact that they have lost turkey's support. the president essentially washed his hands of the assaad saying anything he guns will be too little -- does will be too little, too late. unless he is foolish enough to allow kurdish separatists to come across the border and commit violence. if the syrian economy collapses, who will bail them out? even iran seems hesitant. >> thank you very much for coming in. in other news, the united nations has warned of a possible resurgence of the dead the bird flu virus, h5n1. migrating birds have brought the virus to previously unaffected countries. president obama has nominated a new economic advisor to bring down the unemployment rate, alan krueger, from princeton university. this selection signals a fresh attempt to make good on his process to focus on the u.s. economy and jobs. she was the storm that brought some of america's largest cities to standstill. today, the cleanup from h

with so much evidence of slaughter, why has it taken so long to call for assaad to go? aides say the president needed to enlist european allies, and the real game changer, saudi's king abdullah who met withes a sat earlier this week. asked the fbi to investigate with syrian diplomats are harassing syrian americans and are retaliating against their families in syria. still the administration is rejecting republican demands that the u.s. ambassador to syria, robert ford, be brought home. they argued the american ambassador is the best link to the dissidents and the only way to know the real extent of the crackdown. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. >>> back here in this country, an incredible story of heroism is emerging tonight after that awful accident at the indiana state fair when a powerful wind gust ahead of a thunderstorm blew over a concert stage killing five, injuring dozens more people. turns out in the middle of that panic was a 3-year-old girl who had been injured. he was there with her mother. both are alive tonight thanks to a human chain of helping han

not just call for assaad to step down at the same time.ey real have you and especially russia which is still selling weapons to the regime is still selling sanctions. >> i'll put on my political hat which i wear most of the time anyway. how much of it -- obviously a ramping up of violence during ramadan in syria since august 1. >> i don't think the vacation had anything to do with it. i think there was actually a move in the works, it was trying to make sure that you have the saudis last week t king who's one of the most discrete diplomats in the world. warning syria to stop the killing machine, pull back or face chaos. that you have the europeans willing to take tough actions and the europeans are really the most important buyers of syrian oil. so this sanctions move will have an impact, but the europeans really are critical of the next step. >> mike, you mentioned, we were talking about next steps, do we have any sense, let's say assaad steps aside. do we have any sense of what syria looks like then? >> we have just seen the -- try to re

. -- not the right time to target president assaad with sanctions. >> these unverified pictures apparently filmed on tuesday seemed to show opponents chanting against president assaad poes a violent act -- crackdown. the european members of the eron security council -- u.n. security council have called for sanctions. they want to freeze his assets and institute an arms embargo on syria. russia and china have the power to veto any proposal and thus far, moscow has opposed sanctions. in a statement, russia's ambassador to the un said we hope to see progress and we hope to see dialogue established in syria. we think it should continue to work within that unified position. a key regional player is turkey. refugees from syria have been fleeing across the border to camps on the turkish side for some time. now the prime minister has called on mr. saw to end the violence. quex a want to see the blood shed stop. one cannot achieve prosperity by cruelty. those will drown in the blood they shed. >> until now the syrian opposition was fluid. unable to agree on unified positions. at a meeting of activi

s condemnation of providing assistance inside damascus to keep assaad in power. there is no outside power that should be helping to murder his own people. the syrian people should be able to determine their own future and assaad is standing in the way with iranian help. that is the only way he is still there. iran itself is very problematic. do you have heard me mention it time and time again as we talk about the greatest countries in the region and have may have-- you may have picked up on the theme. libya, sudan, bahrain, latin america, there destabilizing influence can be seen. the centrifuge continues to skin. regimes have isolated their country. they have ignored the u.n. resolution to abandon enrichment opportunities. it is interesting to look at the u.n. security council resolution. how often do you see china, russia, france, the u.k., japan, austria, the u.s., and others all voting together on an issue? how often do you see something like that? how could we have passed economic sanctions with that group of countries all voting the same way? it says someth

chanting against syrian president assaad. it is a brave act of defiance. at least 25 demonstrate fors have been gunned down by the government in just 48 hours. 2,000 human rights groups say have been killed since march. the syrian government says it is facing armed rioters and considering what is happening in syria to london's recent outbreak of looting and vandalism. >> reporter: but few believe that. some syrian military officers are defecting and pressure on the syrian military is building from the united states, turkey and saudi arabia. >> we'll have to see a lot of bloodshed happening for the next few weeks, perhaps months. >> reporter: as syria is rapidly becoming a pariah state. richard engel, nbc news. >>> still ahead as we continue on a friday night, the fight back, that's what they calling the recovery, the citizen's uprising against thuggery in london and throughout the british countryside tonight. >>> nbc news can confirm tonight after a week of raging fires, riots, looting in the streets of london and beyond, bill bratton, former chief of poli

i hope it is clear that many in this body share secretary clinton's statement that president assaad has lost legitimacy to lead. as it relates to turkey, i'm concerned about recent events about what this weekend's resignation in military leadership really means, about the tension between the secular and military traditions in the modern turkish state and the increasingly islamist tendencies of some in the current administration and i'm concerned about turkey's relationship with israel. bam doss dor -- ambassador, you've chosen a particularly interesting post to return to, whether it's relations with cyprus work greece, the ongoing challenges in iran, in syria, the relationship with israel, there's plenty we could dedicate our time to. i mean no disrespect to ambassador eisen who serves with one of our closest and best allies but turkey presents a lot to pursue. your point about the choices they must make is something i strongly support and appreciate senator casey raising the issue. i think it's important we engage turkish business. i'm grateful for your leadership in the u.s.-turkey bu

if turkey says it, if king abdulla says it, if other people say it, there is no way the assaad regime can ignore it. we don't have very much going on with syria because of a long history of challenging proks with them, so -- problems with them, so i think this is smart power and i talk a lot about smart power where it's not just brute force. it is not just this unilateralism. it is being smart enough to say we want a bunch of people singing out of the same hymn book and want them singing a song of universal freedom, human rights, democracy, everything we have stood for and pioneered for over 235 years. that's what i'm looking for us to be able to achieve. >> before we close, i want to ask you about one other place, specifically about the kind of coordinated assistance that your two gigantic departments are working on. >> who says they're gigantic? >> what you see depends on where you stand, right? >> we may be small but there are those who love us. >> i'm talking about somolia and the gut-wrenching famine that is brought to homes every night. this can and should be a model for how the

assaad lacks to me like someone who may well survive.ople. al qaeda's on the other side as it is in libya, we are aligned with al qaeda, because they want the ouster of these folks. i think the united states's best belt is, i think, something approaching what mark said is to stand up for what we believe is right and true and condemn as wrong, but not get ourselves involved or intervened in these places at all militarily. >> mick, what can you tell us about is arrivthe arrival about decision at the white house and secretary of state hillary clinton to come out and sell assaad that's time to go? what led up to yesterday's announcement? >> quite flankly i'm not sure, but there was a little bit of frustration on the part of many that the president himself did not step up and make that declaration, although obviously secretary of state hillary clinton represents the united states, the white house, the president. but it seemed that to many, who foug fought -- the president sort of handed it off to hillary clinton and one of the big fears about

they want -- they blank out elements in the assaad and we would like to address ways of making that more interesting. >> president olague: thank you. how much time do you think you will need? >> can i have five minutes? >> president olague: locating -- ok. negotiating time here. >> this is an after one of our proposals. we're looking at graphics and landscape treatment along the retaining wall. in place of the windows, we're proposing that you have some screens that would have colored panels, maybe glass that would glow and night as well as during the day to add some warmth and texture to the project. you're coming to the main entrance. along masonic. there will be new revolving doors. there is a bus stop at that location. we're proposing to have the target cafe animate that corner. back to that corner of masonic, looking up. the corner had display windows that were closed off. we're trying to reanimate the corner and can see this thing of canopies and fins. we wanted to give the building which is pretty banal, some rhythm and texture. once again, you can see the corner cafe that we're p

through his own actions, president assaad is ensuring that he and his regime will be left in the past and the courageous syrian people who have demonstrated peacefully in the streets will determine its future. we have said that syria will be a better place without assaad as i just mentioned, and he has lost legitimacy. the most important thing that we can do right now isn't sure that our actions back of our words. a democratic transition would be better for syria, the region, and the world and we intend to help the syrian people achieve the dignity and freedom they have demanded and for which too many have died. we continue to call on the regime to halt its campaign of violence and arrests, police security back, for lease the many thousands of detainees, and to respect and act upon the clear demands of the syrian people for peaceful and democratic transition. we will keep the pressure. we will work in accordance with our international partners -- partners and i think it has been noted by all of you that pressure is increasing every day. >> you will not say whether or -- president obam

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 unacceptab

we can come to any kind of further development in syria without also having in direct channels to assaad and his advisers right now and talk with them. this is always the case. you also need to communicate that to a certain extent to your public. in order to avoid any kind of misinterpretations on that side, i would say. >> you asked a compelling and tough question. when she was answering the question about our interests, if you step back from nato, what is the purpose here? we are a community because we share the values and interests of free-market democracy that bind us together. i think if you think about how that applies in our international relationships and the engagement, there are times we will have to do deals and business with odious folks that exist in the world. the reality that we are accepting and the transformation in the middle east as half -- helping us _, a long term interests are served by our long-term values. they are served by seeing norms of democracy, free-market, the universality of these norms take root. so that when we have the opportunity to play a supporting

the transition has begun, and it is time for assaad to get out of the way. as president obama said, no outside power can or should impose on this transition. they are dedicated to have been the rights of all citizens regardless of ethnicity, sex, or gender. we understand that no foreign country should intervene in their struggle, and we respect their wishes. at the same time, we will do our part to support, and we will stand up for their universal rights and dignities by pressuring their regime and a saab personally to get out of the way of this -- end assad personally to get out of the way. we have backed up our words with actions. it will take both words and actions to produce results. we have to impose strong financial sanctions on assad and dozens of his cronies. we have level bilateral efforts to isolate the regime, from keeping them off the human rights council to achieving a strong presidential statement of condemnation of the un security council. the steps president obama also will further tighten the regime. the executive order immediately freezes a

many, many countries throughout the world have called for president assaad and his leadership team to make those changes. we would hope that the violence would stop immediately and that those changes would be initiated. clearly there -- this is not a very stable part of the world, and more unstable countries would not be helpful. being here in iraq, obviously a direct neighbor, there is concern in iraq with how things turn out in syria. so again, we would like to see the violence stop immediately and that president assaad take steps to resolve the issues that are clearly being raised internally by the syrian people, and shoes which call for substantial change. [inaudible question] >> there is no indication whatsoever that we would get involve directly with respect to this. politically and diplomatically we want to bring as much pressure as we can to effect the change that so many countries are calling for. >> i wanted to ask you, sir, about the group that was involved in many of the attacks here against u.s. forces. looking back, hundreds of these members were held in u.s. facilities,

increasing condemnation of assaad's behavior. but not by everyone. that is a crucial factor in what the west can do in this case. we could save lives in libya but it is more dangerous to intervene and save lives in syria. although more lives are being lost. libya is our hit man when the syrians blow up a disco in berlin, we bombed libya. and libya is a place where we have taken an active intervening role. they were reluctant to do so. because of the repercussions this might have in the rest of the arab world. ethnicity and religion. -- ethnicity and religion are both the visit factors. even when the country is the same ethnicity, the division's go down the next level. -- the divisions go down the next level. that is not coming through, either. is that coming through? ok. all those good things i said are lost? so, ethnicity is very divisive and religion is divisive. there is nothing more divisive than the drive for religious unity. and the fact that they are muslim in this part of the world merely opens it up to different interpretations. a couple wee

increasing condemnation of assaad's behavior. but not by everyone. that is a crucial factor in what the west can do in this case. we could save lives in libya but it is more dangerous to intervene and save lives in syria. although more lives are being lost. libya is our hit man when the syrians blow up a disco in berlin, we bombed libya. and libya is a place where we have taken an active intervening role. they were reluctant to do so. because of the repercussions this might have in the rest of the arab world. ethnicity and religion. -- ethnicity and religion are both the visit factors. even when the country is the same ethnicity, the division's go down the next level. -- the divisions go down the next level. that is not coming through, either. is that coming through? ok. all those good things i said are lost? so, ethnicity is very divisive and religion is divisive. there is nothing more divisive than the drive for religious unity. and the fact that they are muslim in this part of the world merely opens it up to different interpretations. a couple wee