. >> published a stanford business networks in syria is written by bassam haddad, who was head of the middle eastern studies program here at george mason university. professor haddad, is there a black market in syria? >> are you looking to invest? right now, there's no market in syria at this point. before him, absolutely. one of the ways the networks, which is a good part of the book, one of the ways the networks actually a committed so much capital in the '70s and '80s is through the black market and through illegal trade. because certain power centers and power, you know, individuals could actually enforce transgression so to speak. and allow for this kind of market to grow almost indefinitely, creating new kind of social groups that were beholden to the state, which is why these networks were quite solid for about two decades. and he even took a while before the uprising actually began to break them down. and they didn't even break them down at the highest level. a broken bat at the lower levels when people thought that the regime might not actually make it. the business network m