former president how for the less said we are actually when bashar assad came into what i said succeed his father there is a. few months when he'll arpan. call the house some or put it but it got openings and allowed for some activist actually to write big decisions and thought to form some forms to ask for political change i was an activist at that period and i formed with other activist the syrian human rights are. being active as a human rights activist since i left syria in october two thousand and seven later on the syrian government issued. a travel ban and it should worry. arrest warrant against me in in february two thousand and eight what was the reason why did you leave syria its except to be a senior figure to us an issue to be denied bekim professor visiting professor at harvard university and now a george washington university well the syrian opposition very subtle and there are small council there they called national council and the a.t.m. is to continue the fight against the regime they claim to represent i quote all communities and all representative of national politi

fourteen years but today and spied by revolutions in tunisia and egypt syrians want to oust president bashar assad. what's the most probable scenario for the syrian crisis here's the executive director of the syrian center for political and strategic studies at ziad. trying to hold on to power president assad is introducing some political and economic reforms meant to change the election process and local governments fight corruption and give more freedom to the media but protestors have little faith in this rhetoric saying just nice words with no real meaning behind them the syrian ministry of defense has imposed serious restrictions on communications introduced a complete ban on internet access in some areas of the country. while the welcome to the show thank you for having me thank you for coming. here in the studio first of all i wanted to i want to check what people especially when the when they publish interviews with you or your articles in the press they label you as an opposition leader one of the one of the members of the opposition so you do you do you do you agree that they're there di

the uprising is going on but you mentioned that the president bashar assad is in the state of denial he did nani's there his days in office are counted and he still has two tries to stick to power well syria's deputy foreign minister mr feisal mig done he claims that i quote the killing was initiated by extremist religious groups that are financed from outside syria and the unrest. is comes from the same place and these groups do not want to achieve reform in syria and who is any foreign government involved in today's unrest uprising in syria can you confirm it's a quick has been now three months and this serious tear mediated beating every day the killings are actually done by the armed gangs nobody you know who are actually behind these armed gangs or who is all of this on gangs and why these on gangs today don't try are born in a city they how caracas why did it not show up in this city they don't have brought this like any people and this is why it it it's here if this year in government do we leave on why will not our open the country for the international media to have an acces

it has turned into food are praising president bashar al assad for his company prove we did emergency power was more constitutional risk. uhm how were only to the month he decided on the seaview down and the police stepped up the violence against the opposition plainly june syrian human rights organizations estimated some thirteen hundred people have been killed and more than ten thousand arrested escape in their own wrist refugees have been crossing the border into turkey more than twelve thousand syrians are housed all seeking shelter in turkish refugee camps in early june president assad announced the junior minister for political prisoners however his concessions have neither the opposition nor stalk the e.u. and the u. worst from imposing sanctions some experts speculate syria may fall into a virtual civil war. or do you think that the syrian scenario can follow the example of libya as we just heard about i mean well the degenerating into into a full scale civil war look syria it's a different than any via the civil relation in secret syria to twenty two million in libya in any w

thousand people dead and months of protest against the presidency of bashar assad that's the political reality for today's syria. day from the syrian center for political and strategic studies discuss what lies ahead for the troubled country spotlight coming up next. well. bringing you the latest in science and technology from around the world. we've got the future covered. with. paolo yellow welcome to spotlight the interview show part of the pile i'll do you know already today my guest on the show is about the one zero. four months of protestant syria have left over

troops loyal to bashar assad are cracking down on antigovernment demonstrators and others try to escape to turkey. we have the latest. a warning now: some of the pictures burr to see are graphic >> reporter: video gradually

to the resistance to him because bashar assad like his progress. notwithstanding need attention and part of these very reason the united states to undermine sovereignty and independence in syria polluted with them every critical instance and the bashar al assad regime is not different in that respect it's a repressive regime every time however there is a general uprising against these repressive regime is there not been a closet leader openly supported by imperialism who is seeking to control the out. in syria as in libya in libya gender is not dissimilar because initially the uprising against gadhafi who plays in the town or restaurant who funded part of the workers in keeping with the uprising in egypt and in tunisia it's important to point out to conduct the backbone in an hour. and that was the opportunity or seized as such by nato and the imperial powers to launch in general intervention using the as a pretext as they had saddam hussein in iraq but their agenda is to carve up the country and seize it spoil even as in syria and inject interest

lebanon for years hizbollah found an ally in syrian president bashar assad and so it's no surprise they want him to stay in power but if he goes and those who pressurising him to do so would do well to remember this the regional impact could be terrifying syria are like libya is part of an alliance and that alliance is very wide it begins in iran some elements in iraq's government are part of the syrian regime has what are in lebanon are how martin. western intelligence reports suggest hizbullah has already started moving some of its advanced weaponry from its warehouses in syria to its forces in lebanon for fear that assad will be toppled just getting rid of him is one thing dealing with the consequences quite another situation in syria like walls are dangerous but a collapse of syrian government gender group. that could include a new war between lebanon and israel already the weapons hizbullah has in its position are able to strike almost any corner of the jewish state and you stockpiles of lebanon would only aggravate an already tense situation as far as you know hizbullah has now it

does bashar assad what the west thinks i do moment when he's getting is a very ambiguous uncertain. form of form of confused formulation of words that he interprets as a form of support so he thinks the west want him to stay israel wants him to stay because israeli said to the girl you know whatever. the west the israelis the arabs have not told him yet what the in a clear way that his time is up he thinks that he has a license or a car to belong to do whatever he wants or kind of a license to kill. and do what it takes to remain in power because they want him to remain in power because not beyond him but that's what's needed mr ambassador i go to you in london it's interesting when i said is it we're is yemen between libya and iraq is that a good way of looking at it i think human is a special case to certain extent because in being on the just very close it's chairs about three thousand kilometers of border with saudi arabia and the saudis and the g.c.c. have asked you know the west and our friends in the west. to be given a chance to sort of sort of the. saw shots are being calle

they say iran is supporting other potential leaders in sear you in case the dictator, bashar assad. he spoke today in damascus but for those that hoped he would change direction he made it clear he's got nothing to offer except the same reform he's been making and breaking for years but he blamed the chaos on what he described as a virtual army of rampaging criminals and said there are about 64,000 dangerous fugitives in syria. imagine, he said, what damage could be caused if a few thousands wanted to carry weapons and engage in sabotage. look at that statement. "keeping them honest," syria is a police state and has been for decades. 64,000 anti-government thugs have been wandering the streets for years leading up to this is impossible to believe and, of course, asad offered no evidence. the notion is because thousands of syrians were somehow able to get weapons and launch attacks is not only unproven, totally contradicted by every piece of video we've seen for months. we've seen government tanks. soldiers and security officials shoot at unarmed protesters. look at these protesters

>> bashar al-assad is a traitor. he should give us all freedom. >> such open dissent was almost unheard of in syria. this is perhaps a sign that the brutality, far from crushing the rebellion, is actually fanning the flames. >> we want to pick up from where matthew was saying. he said that far from crushing the rebellion, this is actually standing it. is that true? >> we have seen hundreds of not thousands of people across syria. they're not scared. their relatives have been taken and tortured. they have been relentless in their demand that they wanted to change the government. i think despite everything, the monetary crisis that we've seen across the country, people are crossing into turkey. in terms of 10,000 people that are arrested and detained despite everything. their seriousness and it is a matter of time before we see some kind of change. >> there clearly up against a formidable opponent in the form of bashar al-assad. there are the huge numbers of people turning out and the government having to cave. that ha

bashar assad has compared this uprising to an infection and called it 6400 criminal thugs that's what he said at large in syria. the it is absurd 6400 much less 64,000 murderous criminals can be wandering around in a police state as repressive as syria. it's a police state that has fired on people not even fighting the regime but simply trying to flee into turkey. turkish officials say nearly 12,000 syrians have crossed the border, others are still on the syrian side. troops have burned their crops. they've destroyed the sole bakery supplying bread to one of the camps. today the european union expressed grave concerns about syrian military activity near the border and called for "maximum restraint". remember just a few days ago bashar assad made a speech calling for national dialogue and urging refugees to return home saying "there are those who tell them or suggest to them that state will take revenge against them. i assure them this is not true. the army is there for their security and the security of their children". you might want to tell that to the family of this 13-year-old boy

will president bashar al assad step down? and a very disappointing jobs report is weighing heavily on the white house and the president's lee election bid. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." host: could switchco ally save you 15% or more on car insurance? did the little piggy cry wee wee wee all thy home? piggy: weeeeeee, weeeeeee, weeeeeee, weeeee weeeeeeee. mom: max. ...maxwell! gg mom: you're home piggy: oh,cool, thanks mrs. a. anncr: gei. mutes could save you 15% or more. i thought it was over here... ♪ [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there... ... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪ we devote every second of every day figuring out how to give our clients a better mortgage. maybe that's why j.d. power and associates ranked us "highest in customer satisfaction in the united states." so, we thought we'd take a little time to celebrate. ♪ all right, then, back to work helping clients. individual attention from our highly-trained mortgage professionals. one more way quicken loans is

assad is set to address the nation. >> reporter: it's a glimpse of exactly how bashar al-assad imposes his special terror on the syrian people-- army troops using tanks and a fleet of military buses rolled into the town of bdama today, making dozens of arrests and burning the homes of people thought to be disloyal. message received. if shooting into crowds doesn't stop the protesters, perhaps the roundup of their families will. we heard this story repeatedly from syrian refugees sheltered in camps in turkey. in cell phone videos done for cbs news, protesters wounded during the demonstrations, this man shot in the shoulder, this man in the stomach, this man shot three times in the leg, were all certain that if they were identified their homes would be destroyed and their loved ones would pay the price. 34-year-old samir, a demonstrator who was shot in the leg three weeks ago, helped cbs news tape the video. "they are afraid to show their faces" samir says "because they know the syrian government will kill their families and their children." when samir was shot and unable to walk, he never even considered being treated

other words, will we start to see one side against another in syria. >> how much support does bashar al assad have from the rest of the arab world right now? we know so many of the arab countries turned against gadhafi in libya. are they turning against bashar al assad or are they more cautious? >> they are not. turkey's prime minister saying what's happening in syria constitutes in certain cases atrocities. we are starting to see some old friends, now there is a split between syria and turkey right now. so there is now clearly a cooling of those relations. the question is, if we start seeing cracks, as you said, among the security forces, what will the countries around syria start doing? but the western powers, as far as they're concerned, have only reached the level of verbal condemnation and even a u.n. security council only has the support of a few of the permanent members of the security council. >> i want to remind our viewers here in the united states and around the world, the syrian regime is not letting international news media in. we can't get a personal eyewitness account of what's

he is being cruel. >> ( translated ): may god tear bashar assad into pieces. we would be starving if turkey did not help. >> brown: turkey's former justice minister visited the camps today, and said his nation would continue its open border policy. >> ( translated ): we are doing every humanitarian thing that is necessary for the people who have sought asylum in here and had to come here out of despair. we hope the need for crossing the border from the syrian side will become unnecessary. >> brown: the turkish prime minister, recep tayyip erdogan, used stronger words, calling the syrian crackdown "savagery". he said turkey could no longer support assad. >> ( translated ): his secret service is heading towards a massacre. it will trigger the u.n. security council, and it is already preparing a case against the regime. >> brown: and the assault by syrian forces on civilians extended countrywide today, as troops fired on demonstrators after friday prayers. there were large protests-- in daraa, where the uprising began; in idlib, in latakia, in homs, and, notably,

as late as june 1, she was saying the bashar al assad regime has nearly run out of legitimacy.re was no room and no need for the word "nearly." we never really were very much -- we didn't really understand the stakes in syria and we were not into the game. >> let's move a little bit west to libya where the notable event in the last few days, even though attention's been elsewhere, is that the magnitude of nate yo bombing on tripoli ss to have expanded almost exponentially. why is there unity within the nato alliance? >> there's no unity within the nate yeso alliance. something remarkable happened, gates preparing to leave, he could afford great honesty, and ended up saying several members within nato are not committed to this war. singled out poland, singled out turkey, germany, the netherlands. then we are witnessing that you have small countries like denmark and norway that are carrying more of a load. and you have president obama giving the presidential medal of freedom to angela merkel but merkel said she will help only when the war comes to an end so there is division on t