Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

I'd been at the Western for a year as a junior ophthalmologist.

And we had a Middle Eastern doctor.

His name was Bashar.

He came to work in a big black car every day,

he's dropped off at the steps of the Western.

He was obviously of wealthy Middle Eastern background.

So, it was only an afternoon clinic

and a lady was called in, Middle Eastern dress.

Popped her chin in the slit lamp.

She looked up at his face and...

..sudden expression of surprise.

Started speaking very quickly and very excitedly in Arabic,

and sort of touching his hand, and got the rest of her family in,

and Bashar was very embarrassed by this

and saying, "No, please, please..."

The other members of the medical team and the nurse said,

"Bashar, what's going on? What was that about?"

And he said, "Oh, I hadn't told anybody,

"but, my father, he is President of Syria."

I mean, that is the enigma.

It's hard to really place that junior doctor

where he is in the context of the world now.

Many have wondered how this former eye doctor and his British-born wife

ended up running a regime accused of war crimes.

Of gassing their own people.

I know the man behind the presidency.

I know the father he is to his children,

and I know the husband that he is to me.

And more importantly, I know that he's a man who cares.

The answers lie with their family.

A dynasty that has ruled Syria for over 40 years.

Understand their saga,

and you'll understand why their country now lies in ruins.

This is really a family enterprise.

This is a family that requires 100% loyalty.

It is always dangerous.

There was this princess aspect,

and she wanted to be the First Lady of Syria.

Power became very important.

You ask yourself, "How does this mild-mannered eye doctor...?

"How does he end up killing hundreds of thousands of people?"

I think it's an amazing photo.

It is an amazing photo.

You can hold it and look at it, and look at it, and look at it.

Amazing.

Cannot do a lot of analysis about this without being emotional.

There's a Mafia-like character to the Assad family itself.

The eye doctor.

This middle, effectively unloved child.

Bashar wanted to be loved by his people, he craved attention.

The older brother.

Bassel al-Assad was the one

who was destined to become the future leader.

Bassel reminded me of a wealthy athlete.

The father has certainly made a good choice.

The mother.

You had a very tough, manipulative mother.

The strong figure in this family was Anisa, the mother,

and she was known to crack down even harder.

And Bashar's father, the man who started the dynasty,

Hafez al-Assad.

He has extraordinary eyes that seem to look into your soul.

Hafez al-Assad was an old-fashioned dictator.

At his military parades,

soldiers were forced to kill puppies in front of him.

Female soldiers were made to bite off the heads of snakes.

You would do whatever you were told to do.

That's what this is about.

Also, the leader is watching you do it, so you don't have a choice.

ANNOUNCEMENT IN ARABIC

Dennis Ross was the man the American Government sent

to deal with Hafez.

I developed a kind of interesting relationship with him.

Now, did he trust me? No.

They didn't trust anybody.

This is a guy who lives in a world of conspiracy and paranoia.

Anything I would be proposing, he would always look for,

what's the hidden? What's the hidden trick here?

What's the trap here?

And again, it's in keeping with a guy

whose whole worldview was conspiratorial.

The story of how Hafez rose to power is remarkable.

One of 11 children, he was born into extreme poverty

and fought his way out.

He joined the army with his younger brother, Rifaat,

always by his side.

Together, they worked their way up the ranks with a combination

of bravery in battle and extreme political ruthlessness.

In 1970, they masterminded a coup...

..and threw the previous military leader in jail.

And that is how the Assad family got control of Syria.

I was the junior political officer in the embassy.

My job was to understand Syrian politics.

Well, it was a socialist military dictatorship

but, actually, there was a sort of live and let live approach.

John Sawers would go on to be the head of MI6.

But, in 1982,

he was a Foreign Office diplomat travelling through Syria.

It was a tightly controlled society, but one where Western diplomats,

for example, could move around fairly freely.

We could travel to Aleppo, to Palmyra,

up to the far north-east, without, really, any difficulty.

If you didn't bother the Syrian regime,

they weren't going to bother you.

But if you did bother the Assads, their response could be devastating.

In 1982, in the town of Hama, the Muslim Brotherhood,

a group who wanted an Islamic government, rebelled.

Hafez and Rifaat ordered that the town be bombed.

20, 000 people were killed.

How long do you think your regime can survive battles in the streets

of your cities like this?

TRANSLATION: This is rather a strange question.

The question ought to have been, have our enemies enough power

to survive fighting us?

The wound of Hama ran very deep in Syrian society

and there was a lot of sympathy for the victims,

many of whom had nothing to do with political opposition.

Hafez made his home in the hills high above Damascus.

He hired a Japanese architect,

and spent over a billion dollars creating the family palace.

For his summer palace, he chose a place near where he grew up,

on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea.

Built for security,

it would also allow the family a fast escape by water.

Hafez would spend his summers here with his five children.

Syria was moving from coup d'etat to another coup d'etat.

We only had stability in Syria after 1970,

when my father became president.

There was a complete separation between politics and family relation

in our house.

My parents were very keen to make us live as normal a life as we can.

Bashar was the second son to Hafez and wasn't expected to take power.

As a young student,

he decided what he wanted to do with his life.

I was excelling in science at school, that's why I chose medicine.

I liked the idea of working in the humanitarian sector,

so the medicine is the best in that regard.

The question that I asked my father,

"I would like to be a doctor. What do you think?"

He told me, "It doesn't matter what you do.

"The most important thing is if you succeed or not.

"So, whatever you do, just make sure that you succeed."

I can feel it coming in the air tonight

Oh, Lord.

Whenever you travelled, to be in contact with another culture,

you open your horizon, you know what's happening

in the rest of the world, you make dialogue.

He came across as a very friendly, unassuming type of person.

He expressed his interest in learning modern techniques

which they don't have in Syria and so on.

He read a book about blindness and the treatment of blindness,

and I think the psychology behind being blind, many years ago,

and it impressed him so much that he thought that he wanted

to become an eye surgeon.

He absolutely loved London.

He liked music.

I think Phil Collins was one of his popular people.

And I think he spent some time listening to that to relax.

It's no stranger to you and me

I can feel it coming...

Across London, at the same time

Bashar is studying at the Western Eye Hospital,

another student is working for her computer science degree.

But I've been waiting for this moment

For all my life

Oh, Lord.

Every day, Asma Akhras travels from her home in Acton

to King's College.

I was born and raised in London, to Syrian parents.

I know the Central Line extremely well,

whether it was going to school, going to university,

or later on going to work.

Asma's mother works in the Syrian Embassy in London,

and so she knows that Bashar is in town.

The mother of Asma al-Assad is a very ambitious woman.

And it would be inconceivable

for her not to think there is an opportunity.

Power and money and privilege and recognition.

You're going to the top.

If it was the lottery,

it was the best lottery there is.

I received a British education.

What I did have, though,

was a Syrian environment within our family.

So I was very aware of Syrian values and cultures and traditions.

But I was always brought up with a notion that one day

we would all come back to Syria, to try and help Syria,

to try and work for Syria.

The reason Bashar is able to pursue his life in London

is because Syria's next president has already been lined up.

The next president will be Bashar's elder brother, Bassel.

I remember this picture was taken

a few years before I met Bassel, I think.

Bassel almost never dressed like this.

Bassel was the one being prepared to be president.

So when you prepare, you have to have that charisma.

You cannot be a president without charisma.

You cannot be... "I don't know what, I have to ask,

I. ..have to take advice."

You have to take a decision, you are a man, you lead an army!

Hafez al-Assad had a number of sons.

Bassel al-Assad was the eldest, the spoilt one,

the one who was destined to become the future leader.

And he was licensed to do anything, really.

Bassel was a champion horse rider.

In 1993, one of his rivals beat him in a competition.

Bassel had him arrested and put in prison.

I lost a lot of Syrian friends

when they found out that I was tutoring Bassel al-Assad.

They stopped visiting me, they didn't want to be around me.

I could sense that they were afraid.

He loved cars.

There were two that he preferred, I think, to others,

and those were the Porsche and the BMW.

And I had the pleasure of riding in several of both.

I would sit in the front seat with him.

But there were guns.

I mean, there was a machine gun at my feet,

and there were pistols to the side, and I once looked at him and said,

"You know, Bassel, this machine gun is,

"like, bouncing under my feet."

And he looked at me and he started laughing and he said...

HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC

And I said... You know, "Do you get scared?"

And I said, "Yes." And he said, "I don't."

Like that.

And I once, also, met Bashar.

I met him as he was coming into the home,

and he didn't make eye contact with me.

He just kind of was looking down at the ground,

and stuck his hand out, and that was it.

I thought, well, you know, the father has certainly made

a good choice in choosing Bassel as his successor.

My brother was a very ambitious young man.

So he was very popular,

and he was very much involved in public affairs.

He had a lot of ambitions for the country.

I supported him.

Back in London, Asma has now met Bashar.

I know the family a long, long time ago,

since I was a child, actually.

He's very calm, he's very thoughtful, and always polite.

But probably one of the best things about him

is that he is so easy to talk to.

You can talk to him about anything and everything.

And that's great.

I turned on the news, and I saw that Bassel had been killed

in a car accident.

It was one of the most shocking...realisations for me.

I was devastated by the news.

The expected successor to President Hafez al-Assad died

when he crashed his car in heavy fog in Damascus on Friday.

The chief of staff in the military,

and the head of the Republican guard,

two of them come to see him.

No-one has told him that his son is dead.

This is 1994, he's been in power since 1970.

And his question to them is, Is it a coup?"

He has, you know, an iron grip on the country...

..and his question is, Is it a coup?"

Bassel was 31 when he died.

Not only has President Hafez lost his eldest son,

but also the man he had groomed to be his successor.

The longer he waits to appoint a replacement,

the more vulnerable the regime will be.

We have to understand here another factor,

which is the wealth of the family.

So you cannot preserve the wealth of the family

unless you have a successor from the family that can protect,

preserve immunity and impunity.

So Hafez has to choose a member of his family to succeed him.

It can't be his daughter,

even though he clearly has a high regard for his daughter.

I think he thinks his daughter is stronger than Bashar.

But in his society, it can't be his daughter.

Majd is a drug user with mental health problems.

Maher is the mother's favourite,

but he's hot-headed and too young.

Hafez's brother, Rifaat, would like to take over,

but he's blown his chance.

Back in the 1980s, when Hafez had a heart attack,

Rifaat tried a coup, to take power from his brother.

But it didn't work, and he was exiled.

Rifaat was really his right-hand man.

This was about raw power.

It is quite Shakespearean.

It is all about loyalty and blood ties and plots and secrecy.

Rifaat was never allowed back into the heart of power.

Which leaves Bashar, the eye doctor.

He was never meant to be involved

in the brutality of the family business.

But now he's the oldest son,

and he's looking like the only option.

PHONE RINGS

A friend and a relative called me to say, "There was an accident,

your brother."

They didn't tell me whether he was dead or not.

So I didn't have any information.

It was just right after the accident.

I came back the same day, to Damascus.

At that time, I felt that I have to go back to Syria forever.

He's suddenly dragged back from London and all his plans,

whatever they may have been for his life, are completely ripped up.

He's put into the spotlight.

And he has to immediately start showing his credentials,

he has to prove himself - not just to his father.

Bashar's uncle, Hafez's brother, Rifaat,

returns from exile and appears at the funeral.

At the graveside, Rifaat throws himself on to the coffin

to show his grief.

But it's seen as a sign

that he wants to be the next president himself.

That's the last thing Hafez wants.

When they took the body in the plane,

it was directly decided from Hafez

that he's going to present Bashar as the next president.

Done!

Hafez gives Bashar a crash course in how to be a Middle Eastern dictator.

First, he fast-tracks him through the military.

Bashar wasn't planning to be an army leader,

to fight a war.

It was reflected even by the way he stands,

he talks, the shy, how he covers his mouth.

How he doesn't look at your face like this hawk in front of you,

totally different.

Bashar then gets a course in international diplomacy,

Hafez al-Assad style.

I joined President Assad in expressing my pleasure

that our two governments are today

re-establishing diplomatic relations.

Hafez has seen off six US presidents,

always giving them the hope

that he'd be their ally in the Middle East...

..but, at the last minute, not delivering.

It's a technique they call the hamburger trick.

This...this joke about the hamburger sandwich seller.

When the customer will take the bread,

he just finds that the vendor has withdrawn the hamburger.

And he's eating just bread.

The game is how to sell somebody something

he feels he's getting a good deal,

then you just withdraw the hamburger.

This is a model of his thinking.

With Bashar now in line to be president, Asma appears in Damascus.

Just one question to begin, I saw you coming from your car.

You are very involved, you are a very active woman.

Do you have a busy day, actually?

God, that's an understatement.

Asma had been working as an investment banker for JP Morgan.

She was then offered an MBA at Harvard.

When I did get accepted to Harvard,

it came at the time when I found the man I loved.

So it was almost not a choice.

Who would choose Harvard over love?

No way.

She had maybe the thought

that she could empower and change Bashar al-Assad in a way.

And I think, we all, as women, we had hope that,

you know, we can change, influence,

and I think that could be in the mind of Asma.

Of course...

I am sure, yes.

Of course he does.

What human being doesn't have any faults?

Without any public announcement or fanfare,

Bashar and Asma get engaged.

A whole Syrian generation has known no other leader

and they're bound to be nervous about the future.

The newsreader on Syrian state television broke down

as he announced that President Assad had died

at the age of 69.

Members of the Syrian parliament wept as they were told.

President Assad of Syria has died after three decades in power.

And so Bashar becomes the leader of his country.

Most important, the army is backing Bashar.

Elite Republican guard troops are around the hospital

where President Assad died.

They have been ordered to arrest Rifaat if he tries to come home.

And delegations from across the world arrive,

ostensibly to pay their respects...

..but also to get in the ear of the new president.

The Iranians.

The Palestinians.

The Americans.

The French.

The Russians.

And the British.

They all want a piece of him.

I met Bashar twice in the aftermath of his father's death.

Each time, I felt he was going out of his way

to try and prove how smart he was.

And there was a lot of unknowns about him,

and it wasn't just us who had the unknowns.

Everybody had the unknowns.

And there was a lot of speculation at the time,

real powers would be behind the scenes,

and that he wouldn't be his own man.

Nobody really knew.

Tonight, as Bashar lays his father to rest,

many hope the son will forge a new beginning.

Meanwhile, Asma is doing something rather extraordinary.

Like a princess in a fairy tale,

she decides to travel through the country incognito...

..and speak to the Syrian people

before moving in to the presidential palace.

I wanted to get out, I wanted to talk about the issues,

but talk about the issues, as I said, on my own terms.

So what did you do?

You went out in jeans and mingled with the people?

Absolutely, absolutely, and they had no idea who I was.

And that's where the frankness came in,

and that's where the dialogue came in.

And that's a rapport I continue today.

Bashar is just 34 years old...

..and the constitution says that the president must be over 40.

So the constitution is changed...

..and an election is held with only his name on the ballot.

Syria went through very tough times.

There was this unwritten deal that we would forgive

about the past if we start a new page -

if we turn the page.

The hopes were so high.

People were eager for change.

THEY CHANT

Bashar would drive the change.

He would push for it.

THEY CHANT

So now the world wants to know who he is.

Former Tory MP Brooks Newmark

travelled to Syria a number of times and got to know him.

I would go back probably about twice a year,

and it went on for about five years.

It was quite strange for me to sort of go into the lion's den,

but he was quite civilised,

and his English was very good.

He was softly spoken, and we actually got into,

I thought, you know, a good conversation.

I remember talking to a childhood friend of his.

Who, when Bashar got a jet ski,

I think it was for his birthday,

who says, "Oh, I hear you've got a jet ski,

"this is great, you know, I'd like to use it.

"Can I use your jet ski?"

And, of course, Bashar, you know, can't say no, says,

"Yes, of course you can use my jet ski,

"absolutely - no problem at all.

"You know, use the jet ski."

The person leaves the room

and Bashar immediately turns to one of his aides and says,

"Whatever you do, do not let so-and-so touch my jet ski."

It's a small anecdote, but I think it says a lot about Bashar.

That he's a people-pleaser,

he sort of can't say no to people to their face

but, on the other hand, I suspect the little child

still sits within Bashar today -

that he wants his own way.

Bashar starts his presidency by pushing through some reforms.

He promises to fight corruption, and he opens up the media.

For the first time,

the Syrian press is allowed to criticise the regime.

One of the key journalists in this new world is Ibrahim Hamidi.

I was the first Syrian journalist to interview him.

The leader of Syria wouldn't see Syrian journalists.

Would see American, British, French journalists -

not Syrian journalists, because there's no journalism here.

So, for me, it was a breakthrough.

When you meet with him, when you talk with him,

he is like any other Syrian.

He's like you.

At that moment, it was amazing.

There is a transition.

The regime's opening up.

He gave us peace for the society to breathe.

There was no limit for the dream

and the hopes of me and my generation.

Six months after Bashar is sworn in, he marries Asma.

There's one thing we both changed

and that is that we both drive our own cars.

The President drives himself around almost everywhere, as do I.

And, again, it's just that...

It's just to try and feel normal, to try and be as normal as possible.

After 100 days in power,

I decided to write a story about that.

I tried.

I spoke to some officials and they refused.

And they said, "We're different and we're not judged -

and will not be judged - after three months."

And I did not write the story.

So that was one of the indications that you are facing the reality,

rather than your wishful thinking.

A big catastrophe for the whole region.

SIRENS

The main perception is that the region will be entering into wars,

and that the United States will shake the regimes in the region.

By destruction, by wars, by blood, by many things.

I can hear you.

The rest of the world hears you and the people...

CHEERING

..and the people who knocked these buildings down

will hear all of us soon.

CHEERING

As America and its allies move armies into the Middle East...

..Syria's position, right at the heart of the region,

gives it a key strategic importance.

Now Bashar has to decide whose side he's on in the war on terror.

A Prime Minister visiting anywhere is a big deal.

The first ever visit by a British Prime Minister to Syria

was an even bigger deal.

Bashar drove Tony Blair personally

down the middle of the main souk - Souk Al-Hamidiya - in Damascus.

The symbolic gesture of doing that

and then conducting him around the mosque,

all that part of it was very positive,

and the press corps, who were with Tony Blair,

were impressed by all that.

St John the Baptist is one of the prophets

who is accepted evenly and equally as by the others.

In private, Bashar promises Blair and the West his support.

I very much welcome the strong statement of condemnation

that you've made to me.

I think that is important, that the entire world knows

that the world community is united in condemning what happened

on the 11th of September as an atrocity.

But in front of the press, Bashar takes a different tack.

That was another...

He thinks, I think, that this is the way

smart politicians should play. It's not about building trust.

It's not about building mutual interest, it's about buying time,

it's about camouflage, it's about hiding,

and it's never a trustful, reliable relation.

While the international focus is on Bashar,

Asma is adjusting to her new life as First Lady of Syria.

How hard has it been to go from West London to Syria?

From a personal perspective, it hasn't been too difficult

because, ultimately, my private life,

my family life, hasn't changed very much,

but I take a lot of the skills that I picked up in the UK,

whether it was the British education that trained me

in analytical thinking, creativity, teamwork,

or whether it was the rigours of working in the City,

and working to the highest professional standards,

these are all skills that I use today to make a positive impact.

She gives birth to a son,

who they call Hafez, after Bashar's father.

At this time, she had to be accepted by her in-laws

and, I think that she was struggling in this hostile family.

She was not the girl they would have liked Bashar married.

I think they regarded her as. .. um, as an outsider,

as someone perhaps that had other intentions.

We would hear rumours about tensions,

both with the mother, as well as Bashar's sister, Bushra.

With America and Britain gearing up for war with Iraq,

Bashar and Asma are invited to London

to try and get them onside.

The feeling at the time, I think,

was that Syria, from the British side,

was that Syria would be a useful interlocutor,

and therefore, keeping in with them would be a good thing.

Broadly speaking, they were keen that the visit

should be, you know, sufficiently prestigious,

if I can put it that way...

You know, he should get the right level of attention so that,

for example, tea with the Queen was an important thing.

The President of Syria and Mrs al-Assad, Your Majesty.

Hello. Good afternoon. How are you? Hello. Very nice to meet you. Hello.

You sound as though you've been having

a very busy time since you've been here.

It's wonderful to be back. I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

I used to be here as a doctor.

I used to work in Marylebone, but for a while I used

to have a course in King's College. Yes.

I used to pass by this...

Pass the house. Yes, indeed.

Back in Syria, rumours are spreading

of the forthcoming Iraq War.

Bashar's chosen journalist

finds out about Syrian preparations for the war

and writes the story.

As a journalist, I reported about the Syrian government

is preparing itself for a war,

and they are building refugees' camps

next to the Syrian-Iraqi borders and they did not like the story...

..the wizara said.

And then they accused me of spreading false information.

The wizara said, because I published authentic information...

..it was more psychological punishment, more than physical.

Solitary confinement for almost six months.

Working as a journalist in a country like Syria,

part of the qualification is that...

..mentally, physically, you need to be prepared for being arrested.

That is the price.

MUSIC: Planet Telex by Radiohead

And so begins the double life of Bashar and Asma al-Assad.

On the one hand, they are friendly to the West

and promise a new Syria...

..but the reality of their government

is just like his father's.

For Bashar, 9/11 was a golden opportunity...

..to forget about the reform process.

You can crush it but it's always here...

The political system, or the political regime

of al-Assad's family at that time was on the edge,

and they needed someone like Asma al-Assad at that time.

They needed someone who was liberal, who was beautiful, who was British,

in order to show the world that Syria is changing.

Everything is...

Asma and her family must have been overjoyed, thrilled.

I think she must have felt, "I've made it."

She must have had that in mind.

If she is going to marry the president,

she's going to come back as the princess to Britain.

At this hour, American and coalition forces...

GUNFIRE AND YELLING

..are in the early stages of military operations...

..to disarm Iraq, to free its people...

Slow down! Regroup!

..and to defend the world from grave danger.

No-one quite knew what would happen after Iraq,

and I think the Syrians were concerned

the next stop might be Damascus,

especially if the invasion of Iraq had been a big success.

The invasion of Iraq was really the turning point for Bashar.

That's when he realised that, for his own security,

his own future, he had to be more like his father.

At this point, Bashar does something that will change history.

He secretly releases Islamic fundamentalists from his prisons,

arms them and sends them over the border

to fight the Americans.

MUSIC: Angel by Massive Attack

The Muslim prisoners that Bashar released and sent over the border

are a major reason that America and Britain get bogged down in Iraq.

There's no doubt that the fundamental security problems

arose because extremists sympathetic to Al-Qaeda

were fuelled with weapons, ammunition and support from Syria.

So the task of stabilising,

especially the west and north of Iraq, became vastly more difficult

because of the actions of the Syrian regime.

We have information that shipments of military supplies

have been crossing the border from Syria into Iraq.

We consider such trafficking as hostile acts

and will hold the Syrian government accountable.

He knows that they know.

It's about a Mickey Mouse game.

It's a Mickey Mouse game.

To try to understand what lies behind Bashar's actions,

the CIA turns to Jerrold Post -

a psychiatrist who studies the minds of dictators for them.

This is really a family enterprise.

And the power of Hafez...

..his kids grew up seeing this giant figure,

and that had to have a very powerful impact upon them.

I think that was particularly true for Bashar.

A way of thinking about this

is your father sitting on your shoulder...

HE TUTS

A father who admires strength and virility.

So, underlying all of Bashar's leadership,

there has to be a fundamental insecurity.

Hafez was this sort of modest,

brutal, cold leader,

thoughtful and pragmatic how he applied himself.

Bashar has this impulse - he acts on impulses.

In a few years' time, the Muslim fundamentalists

that Bashar released will cross the border back into Syria...

..and try to set up an Islamic State there.

There were lots of rumours about Asma being in seclusion.

There is no way back for her.

Now, for her, it's the battle of survival.

Bashar al-Assad had increasingly problems with everyone.

His mother would say, "Grow a pair of balls, be a man."

And then there is another brother, who's even worse.

And that's Maher, who does the real killing.

A massive car bomb has exploded

in the centre of the Lebanese capital, Beirut,

killing the country's former Prime Minister.

Would you have ordered such an assassination? No.

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