force intelligence service for them in the. law and according to al bruni the witness was able to provide detailed testimony. is one which officers serve there. how interrogations were conducted and how the general conditions were there. to get. well. the fact that a dictatorial regime makes people disappear and provides no information for the family is a form of terror it is political terror that is used deliberately it's an organized set up the fact that obeyed the whole family are in the dark about the fate of patrick and mars then is the decision of the bash al asad regime and that's what we're trying to say it's organized and it's had its. doings there are orders involved here to say it was planned this way or effects a policy. the next day and while bernie arrives in paris as does the witness from germany who did not wish to be filmed because he still has relatives living in syria. revealing his identity would put them at risk of reprisals potentially fatal from the regime. that fear also complicates the work of investiga

head of the air force intelligence service is considered the most brutal official and likewise stands accused of involvement in the violent suppression of the civilian population the german prosecutor has two objectives. so next to my fifty inversely you see those people who are parties to these crimes. for those who were responsible for torture and work crimes and crimes against humanity is the kinds that we want them to know that germany is not a safe haven. and to the victims we also want to give them a clear message that they're being taken seriously our aim is to investigate the suffering they were subjected to and also to look at the perpetrators provided they're here in germany or europe and make them accountable. that is the hope for the syrians the hope for justice and a life in freedom. how we can. get. that. to happen. in syria. and for the so so i think it's very important just to sort of culpability our cost structure. here in the myself. i hope for the. blood oath. happy. with my choice i hope the source my children their truth will become a friend. and that really. i go

air force distinguished service medals, and three distinguished service medals for national intelligence. more recently, he is the author of "fax and fears: hard truths from the life of intelligence." he joins us now by phone. director clapper, you actually learned about this i understand in realtime while you were watching the white house briefing today about them trying to take away a security clearance from you. i'm wondering what went through your mind when you heard that and now that you've had some time to digest that, where are you at with all this? >> well, yeah, that's how i learned about it, just like everybody else. i had no prior official notification that my clearance was under consideration for revocation. so it was quite amazing. i didn't know what the make of it at first and was a bit speechless, to tell you the truth. i think after having reflected on it, to me, i think this is a real abuse of the clearance system, just to use it to attack political opponents or people that have been critical of the president, and is that now going to become a criterion for obtaining a c

cadre, people like retired four-star air force general mike hayden, retired three-star air force general jim clapper who has served for decades in the service of our country. he wants to use the apparatus of the state to punish them even though he's only hurting his own administration when gets advice from former officials, because that's the way he exacts retribution on his political critics. >> anyone uncomfortable at the white house with this? was there talk about whether they should announce this before they did? was there talk afterwards, hey, maybe it's not a good idea to have this look? >> this is rand paul's suggestion at first, about the security clearances. he had raised the idea and said he wanted to talk to the president about it and the house seized on it, saying this is a good idea, let's pursue this, at least let's talk about it. we saw sarah sanders yesterday at the podium announce it, drawing sharp rebukes from both sides of the aisle. >> some republicans. >> some republicans. that it's being done specifically to people who have criticized the president. yet this seems l

intelligence services and he hinted at what he was trying to do. he said there is no point looking at the past if you want to build a future relationship. you have to look forward. in effect, that is standard practice in most cases, if you think of barack obama and cuba. he admitted to some extent that there was a fault on the us side about the relations with cuba and you must look forward, which isn't as radical as you might imagine. he seems slightly surprised that he handed over the football. he came out of it very well in terms of the optics, as they say, in terms of this press conference. but whether he will come out of it any better in terms of policies is another matter. the united states has given heavy weapons to the uk in, committed to this force. there are 12 russians have been indicted, an indictment the president was on. whether in terms of the relationship, this is a success. certainly a publicity coup for him. certainly it appears that he has divided opinion in the united states against trump, perhaps united opinion against trump. th