bashar al assad was never meant to be president. his father had ruled his nation with an iron fist for 30 years and had groomed another son to lead. but after that son was killed in a car crash, the president summoned bashar, then an eye doctor in london. told him, come back to damascus. do you sometimes wish that you were still an opt moll gist? >> you cannot look back to see yourself as a doctor. it's an important position. >> reporter: and indeed he does. just last month, an independent united nations commission who interviewed more than 220 syrians, issued a report, stating that the syrian government committed, quote, crimes against humanity, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against protesters, including children. do you acknowledge what the u.n. said? >> the concrete evidence that you have and we'll see if that's true or not. you have a lot of allegations now. >> reporter: did the u.n. not send up these documents? nothing at all. they don't even have the names. who are the raped people, the tortured people? who

bashar al-assad and his piggish band of crooks, torturers and killers of children will gladly go back to the way things were. as we in the united states contemplate the end of the bashar al-assad regime, events are giving many others pause in their enthusiasm. the syrians to be replaced this tierney may not be jeffersonian democrats. they're apt to be those who are organized around religious beliefs. these men and women are not likely to consider themselves our natural allies. this fact is not necessarily imply that they are or need be our enemies. in the years to come, a great experiment will likely take place throughout the middle east to see whether democratic norms can coexist. some may doubt it. it often seems to me that the conflict between moscow and state -- that those who find the conflict between mosque and state to be unresolvable seemed to also heighten the war between church and state in our own country as well. we see a number of islamic nations outside the arab world have a number of governments that while not perfect our democratic and down by the rule of law. it would

justification for the government in syria is doing. >> i think you have to understand the mind of bashar al assad, just as his father maintained his reign by conquering and defeating the city of hamma 20 years ago, i think bashar al assad is determined to defeat the city of homs. he wants to make sure there can be no benghazi. >> no free zone. >> exactly. became the free zone and liberated libya, homs cannot liberate syria. and the demography is complicated. >> there's a specific geography of the fear that you see. the aloui neighborhoods are spared, the sunni neighborhoods are shelled. the bread, electricity is all cut off from the sunni neighborhood. you see the terrible logic of this regime. >> which is basically pushing it towards sectarian conflict. >> that's from the playbook of bashar al assad, that's what he would love to do in fact. because if he makes the sectarian, he corners his own aloui community, they stick to him, they have to become basharists. >> he cannot win, but they cannot win, either. there's right now this back and forth. >> absolutely. i think we've talked before about sy

look, bashar al assad is a very -- on the surface of it, is a very well-mannered man. he's speaking good english. this is his third language, because he was educated in arabic and french before he was educated in english. he really believes that, in many ways, he's a man much misunderstood. and the decision to go public, if you will, the decision to go to barbara walters, to bring barbara walters and talk to her, you bring barbara walters because, in fact, as we know, bashar al assad is a creature of the order of power in the arab world. she had once interviewed yassar arafat. so you come because you believe you have a good story to tell, and you tell an incredible story. and here you are the dictator, you are basically almost the owner of this country, syria. but now you disown the forces of order, you disown the killers, and you make yourself, you know, the innocent man on the scene. >> he's essentially saying, no one really controls the the army, no one's in charge, that i'm not the one making -- dictating stuff. he's a dictator. he just says, i'm the president. he'

>> i think bashar al assad think that the laws of gravity don't apply to him. and he also believes what happened to gadhafi in tripoli and what happened to hosni mubarak will not happen to him. he believes that he's really immune to this fury. and he believes that his community will really actually fight for him and keep him in power. and i think in this kind of, you know, in this parallel universe, as you described it, it makes perfect sense for bashar al assad think that he could ride out the storm. for example, the arab league imposes sanctions on him. guess what he says. he said, we had 35 years, 40 years of sanctions. we can live with sanctions. the arab league again, in way, tries to corner him, he has nothing but contempt for the arab league. the united nations human rights council issues a report accusing him of war crimes. what does he say? he has no regard for the united nations. and when pressed, does he not think much of the united nations? he thinks -- he says, we only play the game that we are members of the united nations. this is a man who is re

premier vice president vice prime 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 obama administration has said bashar al-assad must go. tomorrow secretary of state hillary clinton will meet with syrian exiles in geneva. and tomorrow on this broadcast, we will have more from inside syria. clarissa linked up with those uo have taken up arms to fight the assad regime. some of them defectors from the syrian army itself. elsewhere in that part of the world, iran claims it has captured one of america's most sophisticated spy planes. u.s. intelligence is spying intensely on iranian sites believed to be developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. bob orr tells us an unmanned u.s. drone did vanish over the weekend. >> reporter: the secret stealth drone-- nicknamed the beast of kandahar-- is one of america's most sophisticated intelligence tools. for the past four years, the r.q.-170 has flown high-altitude surveillance missions over the battlefields in afghanistan and its border with pakistan. on the night of the bin laden raid, one of the radar-evading unmanned aircraft monitored the navy seals' assault. ict now u.s.

to bring about changes of bashar al assad to leave power will all of syria's problems disappear once president assad has left the scene or is that just the first step. well i don't personally think it's any step at all and i think that the us is out of place calling for any other government to to step down in the us is acting as though it's some kind of world emperor that orders governments in and then orders them out. i think that the assad government has been very clear that it wants to resolve the internal conflict it's been working from day one that these protests began to negotiate a solution to implement reforms that president bashar assad has been very clear that there will be reforms in the country that one of the main problems inhibiting those reforms are impeding them has been the uprising of armed civilian militants who are fighting against government forces and that's what's caused so many of these casualties that have been taking place so many of the the deaths that have occurred over the past several months so i think that the really the solution is not whether or not ba

in rare television interview with barbara walters, the syrian president, bashar al-assad, flatly denied he ordered the use of brutality. instead blaming the violence on others. paul would starts the coverage -- paul woods starts the coverage. >> day after day unarmed syrian protectors have come out to face machine guns, snipers, and army vehicles. the costs so far is 4000 dead mom. . but in his abc interview, bashar al-assad did is killing his own citizens. >> we do not killer on people. no government in the world kills its own people, unless it is led by a crazy person. i became president with public support. it is impossible for anyone in this state to be ordered to be killed. >> we saw a different picture in a week of traveling inside syria. the city of homes, catalogs her losses. her son was shot dead and protest the explains. then her grandson was killed by a sniper while all getting brett. -- while out getting bread. a few days after talking to us, she, too, was shot dead. >> i do not own the country. >> no, but you have to give the order? >> no. >> the crackdown was without your

the uprising began last march, a revolt against the 40-year dictatorship of bashar al-assad and his father before him. assad has tried to conceal his crackdown by banning independent reporting. but, cbs news correspondent clarissa ward was able to slip into syria. tonight, she speaks to a growing army of rebels fighting for their freedom. >> reporter: it was not a long drive, but our guides were taking no chances. past a government checkpoint, the car twisted along dark back roads outside the capital city damascus. after a certain point, we were blindfolded to protect the location of the safe house where we would find members of the free syrian army. they are former syrian soldiers. they say they refused orders to fire on their own countrymen and so decided to take up arms against the assad regime. the commander spoke off camera for his own security. he told us "we are fighting for those who have made our children orphaned and our wives widows." he claimed that his men have carried out attacks on military targets around the capital-- the heart of assad's power base. no one knows just how l

sanctions continue to pile on damascus over alleged civilian abuses by forces loyal to president bashar al assad. islamize parties claim to win edges first post revolution election and it frustrates them in the streets as many believe their voices are not heard. in the russian capital you're watching r t r marina joshua welcome to the program now it's a big day for voting in the world's biggest country with people deciding on a fresh board of lawmakers for the lower house of parliament. well the may intrigue rest in the ruling united russia party and whether it retains its overwhelming support among the population as its rivals pledge to offer a tough competition well forward now crossed over spawn and sarah firth is in sandro moscow where we're watching the voting process roll out over russia's nine time zones and now the polling station doors of open in moscow what do we know so far. as these polling stations that must get out of the eight then they in the eight say that it will russia a huge country and placed in some of the eastern regions of a she's already underway it's been going on for t

there are certainly people in syria who are protesting legitimately against the government of bashar al assad and from the beginning as well that those types of protests started the government of bashar assad and president assad himself was very clear that he wanted to initiate reforms in the that had to be done in a democratic and peaceful way it can't be done in a way where it's being you know where the government is being terrorized and it's a situation where there's an armed conflict that's not how democratic change can come about speaking of a libya where nato intervened could we see a similar situation in syria where this there's going to be this push for nato to intervene and if nato does intervene what would their motivation be. the motivation is to provoke regime change there's really no other motivation beyond that and of course well the the reason they would want to provoke regime change is to put in place a government that would be friendly to us and its allies interests and of course to enable those interests to control strategic resources in syria and throughout the region which

they said we're going going to give up bashar al assad.re never going to give up fighting, we'll die to the last person. we've seen a sectarian war nothing like we've seen in the middle east, at least in my time. >> explain what you mean, bob. >> well you've got the sunnis are dug in. they're preparing for a civil war against the aloites who control the military and the security services. the aloites are a branch of shia islam but they're looked at by many sunni as apostates, fallen away. so it makes this a much more difficult conflict than even libya, yemen or egypt. because these are sectarian divisions and as the fighting goes on, it gets worse and worse. the fact is, and we have to acknowledge the opposition in the rebels are killing regime figures, they are singling out aloits and murdering them and vice versa so this is very much a two-sided war which we can't forget. >> robin, the opposition here wants the other governments of the world to step in and do something about this. why can't they? what's keeping the u.n. and other countri

is moving right on down its checklist of foreign enemies next stop syria for bashar al assad is clinging on to power we'll ask if syria is on its way to becoming a libya two point zero. the friendship with him coming wins big in body the two are getting along with the opposite sex sort of. and as protests happen around the world and leave it to the mainstream media to miss the real headlines like these outlets are more concerned with getting the story out first over getting it right. is wednesday december fourteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you're watching our team well this week marks the tenth anniversary of the u.s. withdrawal from the anti-ballistic missile treaty and to that. one ten years ago the bush administration withdrew from the a.b.m. treaty a cornerstone of cold war agreement which limited the superpowers ambitions to beef up their nuclear arsenals by guaranteeing that neither would develop means to defend against a missile attack so we want to talk about what this step has meant for global security and also about the more recent push by the us of establi

is moving right on down its checklist of foreign enemies next stop syria where bashar al assad is clinging on to power will ask if syria is on its way to becoming a libya two point zero. the friendship with him going to grow embody the two were getting along with the opposite sex sort of and as protests have been around the world leave it to the mainstream media to miss the real headline looks like these outlets are more concerned with getting out the story first over getting it right. it is wednesday december fourteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you watching our team. well let's start off with the person that time magazine deems is the person of the year this year where there were whispers that would be steve jobs but no this year time chose the protester kind of an interesting visual for the protester but in many ways the choice make sense from the arab spring to the crisis in the euro zone to occupy wall street the protester has come to embody much of what two thousand and eleven has been about fighting whether violently or not for a change so we want to take a look a

is moving right on down its checklist of foreign enemies next stop syria or bashar al assad is clinging on to power we'll ask if syria is on its way to becoming a libya to point out. the solution to the uprooting penguins who grew up in the body which we're getting along with the opposite sex sort of covering fluff and not real news as protests happen around the world leave it to the mainstream media to miss the real headlines looks like these outlets are more concerned with getting the story out first and getting it right. putting up their guard for us sure likes to tell the idea of a nuclear free world but it isn't practicing what it preaches so ten years after the u.s. pulled out of the anti-ballistic missile treaty with russia what's up with disabilities apapa see. it is wednesday december fourteenth seven pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you watching our team. well let's begin with the person time magazine deems as person of the year for this year two thousand and eleven there were whispers it would be steve jobs but no this year time chose the protester had an interesting v