syria now, it helps to know about the strange regime built by the current dictators late father, hafez al assadafez al assad was the most machiavellian leader in a region full of brutal dictators. >> reporter: he rose through the ranks of the syrian air force, but it was hardly that straightforward. the man thrived in the backrooms of syrian palace intrigue where according to most accounts betraying friends, killing and banishing enemies puts you on the fast track. in syria there were more than 20 successful and unsuccessful coups between 1949 and 1970 when hafez al assad took power. he himself was involved in three of them through the '70s, '80s, and '90s he played the middle east power game like a fiddle alternating fighting and negotiating peace with israel while keeping america from being a full-fledged enemy. that was the contradiction, he stayed in power by torturing and killing his enemies from within, by making friends with terrorist groups like hezbollah. but in 1990 and '91 when president george bush needed to build a coalition against saddam hussein, look who was on his side. >> bush

syria now, it helps to know about the strange regime built by the current dictator's late father, hafez al assadst cut throat cunning leader in a region full of brutal dictatodictators. >> reporter: hafez al assad rose through the levels of the syrian air force. he thrived in the back rooms of syrian palace intrigue and where according to most accounts betraying friends, killing and banishing enemies put you on the fast track. in syria, more than 20 successful and unsuccessful coups between 1949 and 1970 when hafez al assad took power. he was involved in three of them. through the '70s, '80s and '90s he played the middle east power game for a like fiddle negotiating and fighting peace with israel while keeping america from being a full enemy. that was the contradiction. hafez stayed in power by torturing and killing enemies from within. by making friends with terrorist groups like hezbollah. in 1990 and '91 when president bush needed a coalition, look who was on his side. >> bush met with syria's president assad, despite the fact that the u.s. considers syria a haven for terrorists. >> reporter:

still considers syria a haven for terrorists. >> reporter: how did the dynasty unravel after hafez al assad'sse the assads ruled so brutally as a minority, part of a muslim sect over majority sunnis who resented them and bashar al assad's had other difficulty changing the old ways of his father. >> hafez al assad stabilized syria through a closed system, people couldn't travel or communicate very well, international news was very limited. when bashar came to power, he lifted restrictions on travel and allowed people to read newspapers and satellite television and the internet and it opened syrians' minds. how do you control this system and how do you basically perpetuate authoritarianian rule? >> reporter: he was warned he couldn't do that. analysts say when bashar brought the internet into syria it was against the advice of his security staff who were his father's old crone nis. they told him it would be dangerous and he would have trouble controlling it, right. joe? >> what do we know about the personal relationship between father and son? >> very interesting, the people that know the regim

al-assad took control of syria, it was called the damascus peace of spring. assad was widely known as mild, unassuming and in favor of modernization, a sharply different image than his father hafezl-assad using chemical weapons against his own people. >> there is a mafia like charter to the assad family. >> reporter: bashar al-assad was different. growing up he was a polite boy who never lorded his status over his friends. >> the family growing up live in a very sort of typical, modest three-story home in damascus, residential building where they lived on one floor of that building. for most of his childhood, he still lives on one floor of that very same building to this day. >> reporter: assad studied eyes in london. in london he met a glamorous investment banker who would later become his wife. in 1994 assad was suddenly called back to syria after his older brother was killed in a car accident. he was now next in line to rule, and took over in 2000 after his father died. but the hopes of the damascus spring didn't last long. >> many from the so-called olgar in leadership positions came to him and said, listen, son, this isn't how we do things here. this will undermine our legi

strike against syria which they had not been supporting earlier largely because the regime both hafez al assad and bashar al assad despite all the rhetoric about resistance and this and that have actually been very useful to israel kept the occupied golan heights quiet kept the border secured and kept the palestinians in syria under very tight control so this has been a very useful regime for israel as a neighbor and only now when there is this threat because of the language of so-called red lines that israel has weighed in saying you can't not respond militarily to a red line being crossed in syria because if you do it wrong you get the idea that a red line can be crossed on their side and we won't respond militarily the problem is again it comes back to what's going to have. when the day after syria or iran have enormous possibilities for retaliation against the united states against israel against u.s. allies in the region there's no talk in washington about what comes next we can talk all we want about this being a small scale limited war a limited attack but when and if syria or iran or s

al-assad. three people in all of history. >> he studied optometry in london for a couple years and trust into this job when his dad died hafez al-assad. someone who studied bashar al-assad, is he another hitler? >> no, i don't think so the way we understand it. i think secretary kerry is trying to make the case to the american people, and if you compare somebody to hitler that's the worst comparison you can have and trying to influence the debate on this and congress and polls and american public. you compare someone to hitler or saddam hussain, it's someone you cannot accept or compelled to over throw. i know it's hard to reconcile this person that many of us knew at one time and many of us thought was something of a hope for syria and had a different type of background as you said, a licensed ophthalmologist and he was always -- he was considered by everyone who knew him as humble and unpretentious. how did this happen? i think the key is is that he became much more comfortable with power, which is not bad. if you become more comfortable with power and authoritative, maintaining that particular system, i think all on us ma

and we remember hama and your father, hafez al-assad. uthlessly set out to eliminate the muslim brotherhood. are you simply being your father's son here? >> al-assad: i don't know what you mean by ruthlessly, because... >> rose: you know what happened at hama. >> al-assad: i've never heard the war... soft war. have you heard about soft war? there is no soft war. war is a war. any war is ruthless. and when you fight terrorists, you fight them like any other war. >> rose: so the lessons... >> al-assad: sorry. >> rose: you have here are the lessons you've learned from your father and what he did in hama, and which it is said and influenced you greatly. >> al-assad: said what? sorry. >> rose: it is said that what your father did at hama influenced you greatly in terms of your understanding of what you have to do. >> al-assad: good question, what would you do as american, if the terrorists invading your country from different areas and started killing tens of thousands of americans? >> rose: you keep saying these are terrorists, but in fact, i

is this a different juncture this time around, hafez al assad back then. this is his son. they're not a whole lot different when you see what they did to their people. >> that's right, i'm not exactly in with the crime network that they created. christiane is absolutely right. it's an extraordinarily difficult procedure. the first thing is you got to have the security council draw up a resolution authorizing it. that in of itself, the french are taking the right steps. it not only speaks to the rights of putting inspectors but what right do those inspectors have with the material they bring with them. you also have to have an identification of where the weapons are. this is something that both the russians, the u.s. intelligence community and syrians have got to come forward very quickly with a list of that. and in the end, what makes this so difficult you're inserting inspectors in an an going civil war. you know, inspectors not very good at telling who is shooting at them. all they know, someone's shooting at them and they'd like to get out of the way. you're going to ha

in 2000, hafez al assad, and his son who was an eye doctor who was not supposed to leave syria but his father had chosen him in the late 1990s because an older brother died in a car accident. so second choice, bashar al-assad, took power, pledged to modern eyes syria but instead maintained his father's ideolo y ideology, brutal tactics and russian connections. >>> two years ago bashar al-assad's government responded harshly in syria. first, they comment killed and kidnapped family members of protesters including children and troops began opening fire and civilians started fighting back. the fighting escalated from there and became a civil war. >> talk a little bit about these rebel groups. why has it been so difficult and so tricky for the united states to support it >> the rebels in syria have been joined by jih a dists who see an opportunity to get rid of the secular government and replace it with sharia law. many are affiliated with al-qaeda, the group responsible for 9-11. >> secretary of state john kerry said sarin gas used by assad's forces. why does president obama want to get i

al assad biographer, live with me from san antonio, texas. david lesch, i want to just take a look at the assad family photo. here you have hafez.her, predecessor. standing left to right that is mahar, bashar and bazel. and we are all led to believe that bashar was not his father's first choice to succeed him. tell me about that, david. >> well, bazel was the first to succeed. everyone believes that to be the case. until he died in a car accident in 1994. as is usual in the arab world, the second eldest son then takes over or is groomed for the family business. that's what bashar was in the mid to late 1990s. he was elevated in the state apparatus in a number of ways very, very quickly. in almost a race against time to build a credible base of power before his father, who was in ill health, died in 2000. >> and let's throw the picture back up. i want to talk more about the brother, mahar assad. he commands syria's ruthless fourth infantry division. there are rebels who believe mahir is in charge and bashar is more of a figure head. is there any truth to that? >> not to my knowledge. my understanding of the situation, many syrian