now the recently been approached by the king of jordan to spearhead a diplomatic offensive against assad william hague the foreign secretary is now met with opposition leaders is this the preamble to another libyan style intervention. it could be i mean we can't be sure and i think it's dangerous it might be i mean they're trying to hague's message to the opposition is to get your act together unite on a common platform in other words to turn yourself much more like the libyan opposition who the government also talked to and then eventually recognized as the official government of libya so i think it is the first stage to trying to recognize the opposition. and there are hints more from france than from britain at the moment that there would be some kind of foreign intervention i mean the french foreign minister and i should pay has just called for humanitarian corridors to be opened into syria with or without the syrian government's permission and damascus when he was asked does that mean who would protect these corridors would that be military protection he said of course so in other w

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 large the free syrian army is. the number of defectors appears to be growing. in this vi

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

clearly they want for assad's regime to be overthrown. but more broadly speaking, this is really a battle for freedom and i spoke to one young man and he said something that really stuck with me. he said "the main purpose of this, all we really want is to be able to speak our minds without being afraid." >> pelley: you were traveling alone, linking up with the opposition. tell me a little bit about what that was like. >> it's incredibly challenging because all of the opposition activists who i was with are wanted by assad's forces and what you don't necessarily see in that report are that just outside the capital there are checkpoints every other block and if these activists get stopped at one of those exec points it means certain arrest. >> pelley: clarissa ward, thank you very much. 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 who have taken u

al-assad. today they buried the dead in the city of homs as many as 60 civilians were apparently kidnapped and murdered in the last two days. in geneva, secretary of state hillary clinton met with syrian exiles and called them courageous in their commitment to freedom and democracy. 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 f

that he's sort of they've had intermittent talks with assad but. they've never reached a peace agreement is not just because of the israeli line is also very are hardened so both sides of where they found it impossible to agree does the international community genuinely not see then the dangers of civil war in syria or is that merely outweighed by the need for influence an intervention in syria well i think very problematic cynical. look at libya we don't know exactly how many people were killed in libya. people say thirty thousand people died six months or so that it took to topple gadhafi and well they're sort of saying well. that's worth it if you can bring in a different regime which will be obviously more progress than at least initially if it's had western support to topple the regime jonathan steele thank you. i know. it's all designed to keep you close in your own small world as a prison. you know you leave somebody in there for a couple hours like that in a stress positions. you have this fear of the unknown in this stress sort of building

. >>> sear kwan president assad is denying having ordered a bloody -- syrian president assad is denying having ordered a bloody crackdown. he calls the up u.n.'s report of 4,000 killed not incredible. -- >> reporter: for the lead are of a country in so much turmoil syria's president assad appears calm, soft spoken and confident. confident he's doing the right thing for syria, the u.n. says more than 4,000 have died in the past nine months in an interview with barbara walters he distanced himself from the bloodshed. >> do you think that your forces cracked down too hard? >> they are not my forces. they are military forces belong to the government. i don't own them, i'm president. >> reporter: assad did admit mistakes have been made but doesn't feel guilty because he says he's doing his best to protect his people. few have been allowed in. amateur video, cell phone clips on line most sent out by the opposition which says they show syrian security forces killing peaceful protesters. assad says while some of the protests have been peaceful his forces are fighting militants, dug smugglers an

the assad family has ruled syria for 41 years. first hafez al-assad and now his son bashar. they have suppressed all opposition and in 1982, the regime killed tens of thousands of civilians. ossad has been under growing pressure since the roansformation known as the arab spring. dictators have fallen in egypt, tunisia, and libya. president obama has called on assad to step down and syria's neighbors, turkey and jordan, are also calling for an end to ahe regime. while the assad government blamed al qaeda, our independent reporting shows that opponents ed assad are not islamic terrorists. syria does not allow reporters to work freely, but recently cbs news correspondent clarissa ward slipped into the country and met the rebels. we can't show you their faces, they risked their lives to talk to us. >> reporter: late one night we were blindfolded and taken to meet members of the free syrian army, soldiers who have defected from syria's feared military. hey say because they refused to fire on protesters. they admit to carrying out attacks on government security forces. "our milita

is there any chance that the assad regime survives? >> our view is that this regime is the equivalent of dead man walking. the real question is how many steps remain? i think it is very difficult to predict or project how much time this regime has. the more time it has, the worst for syria, the worse for the region. that is very clear. no, i do not see this regime surviving. >> i would strongly agree with you. my view has always been in the end, the street went. how long it takes is sometimes measured in a lot of blood. what is there that we or others could be doing to speed up the demise of the regime that we are not doing right now? >> one of the tasks that has been assigned to me by the secretary of state is at reach to the syrian-american community. at reached to syrian-americans of the various faiths -- outreach to syrian-americans of the various faiths, various political beliefs. one of the things members of this committee can do, i am sure each and everyone of you as a syrian-american constituents. each and everyone of you is aw

moreover i challenge anyone who would defend the assad regime declaring that assad is nearly quelling an international land and internal insurrection to show the assad sirri and it, excuse me. to show the syrian people by what free and fair means bashar assad or his father maintain power. this regime has declared war on the syrian people and the syrian people have a right to fight back. we must stand with them in this struggle. as helpful as international consensus may be, the outrageous and indefensible veto by russia and china of a u.s. security resolution against syria does not inspire hope that the broader international community will be galvanized to any kind of consensus in time to stave off more death and the outbreak of civil war. in this uprising began, many in washington were fond of pointing out that unlike his father who murdered over 20,000 of his own citizen to quell an up -- uprising bashar al-assad does not have the stomach or such brutality. they were wrong. it is time for us to face the facts that there are nodes deaths for which the assad regime will not resort to r

while the assad government blamed al qaeda, our independent reporting shows that opponents of assad are not islamic terrorists. syria does not allow reporters to work freely, but recently cbs news correspondent clarissa ward slipped into the country and met the rebels. we can't show you their faces, they risked their lives to talk to us. >> reporter: late one night we were blindfolded and taken to meet members of the free syrian army, soldiers who have defected from syria's feared military. they say because they refused to fire on protesters. they admit to carrying out attacks on government security forces. "our military operations are well organized" the leader told me. "but our main essential task is to protect civilians." today the free syrian army denied any connection to the bombing. the regime has called syria's pro-democracy activists terrorists and thugs, but in a damascus apartment, we met young men and women killed by caffeine and cigarettes and a thirst for freedom. >> i dream about a country where i can stand up and say my opinion. that's the main thing. >> reporter: it may

. >>> sear kwan president assad is denying having ordered a bloody -- syrian president assad is denying having ordered a bloody crackdown. he calls the up u.n.'s report of 4,000 killed not incredible. -- >> reporter: for the lead are of a country in so much turmoil syria's president assad appears calm, soft spoken and confident. confident he's doing the right thing for syria, the u.n. says more than 4,000 have died in the past nine months in an interview with barbara walters he distanced himself from the bloodshed. >> do you think that your forces cracked down too hard? >> they are not my forces. they are military forces belong to the government. i don't own them, i'm president. >> reporter: assad did admit mistakes have been made but doesn't feel guilty because he says he's doing his best to protect his people. few have been allowed in. amateur video, cell phone clips on line most sent out by the opposition which says they show syrian security forces killing peaceful protesters. assad says while some of the protests have been peaceful his forces are fighting militants, dug smugglers an

this has been a target of the assad regime. because this is the place where the free syrian army is making its stand. it's interesting the report we just listened to and watched. there is a man named abdul razad, the defector, his uncle was one of the pillars of the assad regime. he was a companion of old man, hafiz assad, so it tells you of the splits within the elite and the fight for the new syria. >> a group like this, if the regime really wanted to move in with tanks and stuff, they could try to retake this neighborhood. >> i think that's exactly what is, look, we live in a world where nations dwell alone. i mean in fact we can look at say that the bosnians were saved in 1995. but they were saved after 30 months of bloodshed. they were saved after 150,000 people possibly were killed. the rue wand ans were never saved and now the syrians are in the crossfire. i think what thee this he have witnessed and know about their situation, is the solitude of the syrian people. because if you take a look at the geography of syria, th

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 bashar al assad should be president of syria it's whether or not syr

diplomatic pressure against the assad regime continued. as secretary of state clinton met with syrian opposition leaders yesterday in geneva. >> obviously, a democratic transition includes more than removing the assad regime. it means setting syria on the path of the rule of law and protecting the universal rights of all citizens regardless of sect or ethnicity or gender. >> brown: and the u.s. ambassador to syria, robert ford, returned to damascus today. he had left in october after threats to his security. deborah, thanks for joining us. what was their reaction to assad's comments from people you were able to talk to today and who did his intended audience seem to be? >> i got more reactions from people outside syria than in syria. people in syria really didn't notice much. i think that his audience is actually not an international audience but a dough midwest i can audience. i think important thing for assad is that that interview will play on syrian state t.v. he was important enough, legitimate enough for barbara walters and abc telev

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'

is assad right? >> well, he was taken by the security forces, returned after one month with four bullets in his body. and his testicles were cut off. and they went to meet the president, who told them that he personally will follow up the investigation. that was around six or seven months ago. nothing happened out of that. >> assad is also saying that most of the victims of the violence have been syrian troops and syrian regime supporters, and he described the videos that we've been seeing for months of security forces opening fire on civilians as, quote, false allegations and distortions of reality. what do you say to that? >> this is absolutely not true. if he's saying that all the videos shot by, i mean, what do you call, activists, that are using their mobile phones are faked, then okay, fine, let the media go inside. let cnn, bbc, al jazeera, al arabiya, everybody go inside the country and let us know what is going on. this is absolutely not true. who is killing right now in syria is the securit

moreover i challenge anyone who would defend the assad regime by declaring that assad is merely quelling an international and internal insurrection to show the syrian people -- to show the syrian people by what free and fair means, bush r. us al-assad or his father attained and maintain power. this regime has declared war on the syrian people and the syrian people have a right to fight back. we must stand with them in the struggle. .. face of the brutal crackdown is tantamount to asking them to commit suicide and i fear that doing so may eventually put us against a legitimate opposition instead of against an illegitimate regime. and i now yield to the gentleman from new york the distinguished ranking member from new york for five minutes. for selecting our excellent witness today. >> think it is worth considering tougher u.s. policy has moved and in the right direction since late july when we met with the obama administration officials to discuss the situation and syria as well as iran. the central policy questions regarding syria were and what i united states finally and explicitly call

that he's sort of they've had intermittent talks with assad but. they've never reached a peace agreement is not just because the israeli line is also very are hot and so both sides of the two possible to agree jonathan stay on thank you.

while the assad government blamed al qaeda, our independent reporting shows that opponents of assad are not islamic terrorists. syria does not allow reporters to work freely, but recently cbs news correspondent clarissa ward slipped into the country and met the rebels. we can't show you their faces, they risked their lives to talk to us. >> reporter: late one night we were blindfolded and taken to meet members of the free syrian army, soldiers who have defected from syria's feared military. they say because they refused to fire on protesters. they admit to carrying out attacks on government security forces. "our military operations are well organized" the leader told me. "but our main essential task is to protect civilians." today the free syrian army denied any connection to the bombing. the regime has called syria's pro-democracy activists terrorists and thugs, but in a damascus apartment, we met young men and women killed by caffeine and cigarettes and a thirst for freedom. >> i dream about a country where i can stand up and say my opinion. that's the main thing. >> reporter: it may

>> 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

nine months into their uprising,t( president assad's opponents can'tt(fá oust him, n protests. but their efforts have had a heavy human9 cost. such asp, killing of children, beatingçó or shooting during demonstrations, brearw3 -- arbitrary deÑitension, torture and il lfert treatment. >> delegates wereÑi given a chilling report the >> our message is firm and clear. to the people of syria, the ou and we will not ignore yourxdçóÑifá plighn face of on going violence. to the government, the time has comet( to lx"át continued violations ofÑi civil rights of your peoplet(qxdçói]t(w3r >> they were unhurt. but, to the ambassador's horror, they face aid much bigger problem. he'd sent his nonessential staff to a different compound to be stephen a. but the protesters had gone after them as well. >> one had pressed a safe against the iron door, put a bed against the safe and braced himself there. but they came for him as well the you could imagine what it's like. he kept them out for about 45 minutes, but in the end the door was broken around him and there was nothing he could

that is why they believe assad's regime could have been actually behind the blasts. listen. >> this has all the finger prints of a regime trying to continue to control the message that they are the ones that are responding to terrorists and at the end of the day they are trying to say, well, if we lose assad we will end up with al qaeda and they are just creating fabrications. >>jonathan: that narrative is one that the regime has been pushing. this is all about terrorism, not democracy. >>gregg: what is the reaction from american officials? >>jonathan: the state department spokesman issued a statement today condemning the violence, not pointing fingers at anybody in particular and saying it is crucial that the attack today not impede the critical work of the arab league monitoring mission to document and deter human rights abuses with the goal of protecting civilians. so, some fairly strong words condemning the attack but many of the activists that you just heard from think the u.s. should be doing a lot more to bring about the fall of the regime of president assad g

but they believe it's assad, the father's cronies are now running the country and assad is simply a puppet. there's no question in their minds and most in the minds of the people i talked to outside of the country as well, it isn untenable situation for assad to stay in power. at some point he clearly has to leave. there's such a huge disparity between what he's talking about and betwn wh i saw on th ground. >> charlie: each day becomes more difficult to leave. >> of course. >> charlie: the options to leave as it did for qaddafi shrink. >> solutely, absolutely. at this stage he's almost committed himself to staying until death. >> charlie: the die has been cast. >> exactly. >> charlie: that is an interview barbara walters to her credit, she got the remarkable opportunity to go this week and interview assad and here is a portion of that interview, courtesy of abc news. >> do you think that your forces tracd down -- >> they are not my forces. they are military forces that belong to the government. i don't own them. i'm president. i don't own the country >> charlie: no but you have to give th

in assad's syria saving lives can be a crime. "we just do what we can, he said." syria is a country of grieving families. this many told us his 21-year- old son was shot by security forces while attending a demonstration. despite the risks, he took his son to a government hospital. "they didn't even let us in," he told us. "they said they wouldn't take injured civilians." he said his son bled to death. "he was just a normal young man, very quiet, very obedient." ( crying ) he was very loved. >> reporter: across the city, we saw signs of a different kind of suffering. syria's economy has been crippled by tough sanctions. basic necessities are scarce. people line up for cooking gas. so we've just had another blackout. now, the government has been keen to stress all along that here in damascus life goes on as normal, but certainly since i've been here the last few days, electricity has been in and out. abu ahmed has no doubts about what would happen if the government discovered his stockpile. they would kill me, he said, simply. but he says that he is ready to die fo

what is the end game for al assad? can he lie his way and everybody will turn their attention elsewhere? >> no, john, i think the statement is despicable and untrue but it's manipulative. this is classic assad. it's crumbling around him. his arab allies abandoned him. it's beginning to become unglued for him. this is his ability to distance himself from his troops. he saw the discussion unfold, regards libya and holding gadhafi and his son accountable and the international criminal court. as he sees his own control crumbling he doesn't want to be held accountable. i think the statement is dissdee and cowardice. >> happy to add despicable and cowardice to the list that includes lying, reprehensible and more. 4,000 people, at least, killed, the united nations say, some think the number's higher. fran, you make the point about assad looking around the region and seeing regimes crumble and listen here, he thinks i still have much popular support. >> i don't have problem. both public support, the most important thing. when

they said we're going going to give up bashar al assad. they'll never 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 lifetime. >> 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 to is makes it a difficult conflict than libya, yemen or egypt because these are these 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. >> what is keeping the u.n. and other countries from stepping in and saying enough already? ? with libya, you had first a consensus among the arabs themselves and then it went to t