Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

O mio babbino caro...

Bashar al-Assad, a former eye doctor in West London,

is now president of Syria.

It's a role he never expected.

His older brother, who had been groomed for the job,

had died in a car crash.

A comperar l'anello...

His wife Asma, a British-born Syrian who studied computer science,

is now First Lady.

Si, ci voglio andare...

Together they dream of reforming Syria,

making it a respectable country on the world stage.

They have built an opera house, and tonight is its opening night.

Andrei sul Ponte Vecchio...

14 years later, their country will be in ruins.

Over ten million will have fled their homes,

and half a million people will have been killed.

SONG CONCLUDES

APPLAUSE

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

It's always dangerous.

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.

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

You ask yourself, how does this mild-mannered eye doctor,

how does he end up killing hundreds of thousands of people?

In 2004, wars are raging in the Middle East.

GUNFIRE

Watch out!

GUNSHOT

America and its allies are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

And in Iraq, they have toppled Saddam Hussein.

The Assads have little desire to help

with the so-called War on Terror.

But Syria is right next door to Iraq,

and the West wants their support.

No-one quite knows which side they're on.

They have Western instincts but Middle Eastern roots.

It's clear, though, that they dream of being accepted

as reputable leaders on the international stage.

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

It sounds as though you've been having a very busy time

since you've been here.

OK, so you were a schoolgirl in West London.

You were an investment banker.

You are now one of the most powerful women in the Middle East.

How have you coped with that transition

to life in the public eye?

Of course, excuse me for saying this, but the media thought

that this is another woman who's going to be oppressed,

and is not going to have an active role in the Middle East.

That wasn't the case.

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

Asma wants to be the epitome of a modern First Lady,

a beacon of female progress for the Syrian people.

But she's got a problem.

Her in- laws don't share that vision.

None of Asma's in-laws are easy to deal with.

Bashar's sister Bushra.

Bushra reputedly was her father's favourite.

I mean, she'd got her father's steely sort of will.

Bushra was a better choice for president,

but she hasn't been chosen because she is a woman.

Her husband, a charismatic military leader, who may have eyes

on the presidency himself.

Assef was one of the strongest officers inside the Syrian Army -

and maybe he could challenge Bashar.

Bashar's brother, a man with a violent temper,

Commander of the Republican Guard.

Maher is completely crazy, as far as I'm concerned.

They're all bad, but I think Maher is more on the Saddam Hussein side

of evil people.

And then there's the mother-in-law, said to be the toughest member

of the family.

Since her husband's death in 2000, it's said she favours

maintaining the regime's hard line -

but she only expresses her views behind closed doors.

And what are you seeing here in Syria in terms of women's equality,

things are moving forward?

Absolutely, but we have a strong base to go on.

Women in Syria have had the vote since 1953.

Um... We have the highest percentage of female parliamentarians

in the region.

So, yes, we are moving forward, we're trying to close that gap,

the gender gap, and the environment as a whole is very encouraging.

Asma came from a totally different mind-set.

She wants to be part of building

or modernising or doing or participating

at least as a First Lady.

She has a role to run.

Then she discovered, no...

..she wasn't accepted as a member of the family.

Bashar is relatively new in the job as president -

and needs his family's support.

So, he allows them to sideline Asma.

For now, she's kept out of the limelight.

Asma's problems, though, look small when compared

to Bashar's.

He's inherited from his father

not only a country with a crumbling infrastructure,

but one with a dubious reputation for human rights abuses

and funding terrorist groups across the Middle East.

So when America invaded Iraq, Bashar was worried

that Syria might be next.

To slow the Americans down, he released Muslim fundamentalists

from his prisons to fight in Iraq.

Now, though, the Americans have found out what he's been up to,

and have him on the list of countries they plan to get in line.

Syria still allows its territory to be used by terrorists who seek

to destroy every chance of peace in the region.

States like these constitute an axis of evil.

Bashar al-Assad had increasingly problems with everyone -

and it was getting worse.

He was clearly not somebody who was comfortable in his own skin.

This was partially a problem that he had inherited a country

and a regime that he had not built.

And Hafez al-Assad was a brutal man,

but as they would say in Syria, there was a logic to him -

you could understand him.

Bashar, to this day, remains the most enigmatic figure

in the Middle East.

Bashar, eager to win the world's approval,

flies in an American biographer, David Lesch,

to tell their side of the story.

Between 2004 and 2008, Lesch spends time with Bashar and Asma

and records their conversations.

He did regret the fact that he had to give up ophthalmology.

He really liked being an ophthalmologist.

You do an operation, somebody who can't see

all of a sudden sees.

It's very clear what happens, there is an identifiable result

of your action.

He said, "As president, I hardly ever get that."

He confided in me one time, he said, "I've signed 100 decrees

but only four have gone through."

He said, "And this is a dictator? " HE LAUGHS

He said, "I have much less power than most people think."

You know, he inherited a broken-down, dilapidated system.

You know, he had tried to reform some areas of government

without much success.

And the old guard came to him and just said,

basically, young man, you can't do this any more

because it's going to undermine our positions.

Too many people were there that weren't totally devoted to him.

THEY LAUGH

But Bashar's problems are about to get worse.

Not only is there a war being fought to the east in Iraq,

but to the west, another can of worms is about to be opened -

Lebanon.

It's supposed to be a country in its own right,

but Syria effectively rules Lebanon like a province.

Now, though, some Lebanese politicians have had enough

and want to get the Syrians out.

They're led by a former Prime Minister, Hariri,

and this man, Walid Jumblatt.

Jumblatt has dealt with the Assad family for decades.

Bashar, he's different from the father.

The father, when I first shook hands with him,

it was the 40th day after the killing of my father,

and I knew that he was responsible.

He looked at me, and said how much you look like your father.

But, with time, we met several times,

believe it or not, we started a kind of a friendship.

The father was much more intelligent, subtle.

Bashar, the son, he looks simple.

Sometimes, when you first meet some guy, either you like him

or you dislike him.

We disliked each other.

What Jumblatt and Hariri want is to get Syria out of Lebanon.

But that's a problem.

Controlling Lebanon was Bashar's father's legacy.

Originally, Hafez sent in a peacekeeping force

during Lebanon's civil war.

But then he kept his troops there and slowly took a stranglehold

over Lebanon's politics and economy.

He had to fight two wars against Israel to keep it.

REPORTER: Six weeks ago, the Israelis knocked down

two Syrian MI8 helicopters.

The Syrians promptly deployed their SAM-6s,

and the crisis was on.

It is Israel that wants to destabilise the situation

in Lebanon.

And when Israel attacks us,

what other option will we have but to fight?

LOUD EXPLOSION

In 2000, Israel finally retreated.

And so, for the Assad family, Lebanon is one of Hafez's

greatest victories.

The Lebanese people are still unable to exercise

their rights as a free people

to make those choices and to take those steps as a nation.

It's important to remember the requirements in that resolution,

that Syria cease interference in Lebanon's internal affairs,

and remove Syrian troops for Lebanon.

So we're quite pleased. This was a strong decision

of the Security Council.

In September 2004, the UN takes side with Jumblatt and Hariri

and issues a resolution that Syria must get out of Lebanon

once and for all.

So now Bashar has a choice - to get out of Lebanon

and destroy his father's legacy,

or ignore the United Nations and look ever more like a rogue state.

His family have strong views about what he should do.

It's almost like a Shakespearean drama playing out here.

You've got these key figures in the family that are pushing,

they're pushing Hamlet to make a decision.

A withdrawal from Lebanon would've been directly

in opposition to what Anisa wanted Bashar to do.

We're not sure if she actually favoured Bashar al-Assad

to be the next president.

When her husband dies,

she is very much trying to keep alive his legacy.

She is the driving force making sure that the regime stays on track.

At first, Bashar decides to try to tough it out

and ignore the United Nations.

He summons former Prime Minister Hariri for a face-to-face meeting.

It's said he threatens Hariri.

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

He came from that meeting totally panicked.

We met here.

I said, look, these people, this regime is dangerous.

I knew the Syrians, I knew their methods

going back to his father.

He had this sort of complex from a young age

that he was never the chosen one, the most loved one.

Bashar was buffeted by his mother probably on the one hand, saying,

you know, grow a pair of balls, be a man, man up -

and felt that he was constantly trying to prove himself

to his mother.

Here was Hariri getting too big for his boots,

and Bashar's thinking, "There's no way he would've done this

"to my father. I'm going to teach this guy respect."

Then, in Beirut, the Lebanese capital...

. .a car bomb goes off.

SIRENS

SHOUTING

NEWSREADER: A massive car bomb has exploded

in the centre of the Lebanese capital Beirut,

killing the country's former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

Hariri, the Lebanese politician at the centre of Bashar's problems,

has been killed.

It's not easy to learn that one of your closest friends

has been killed.

And I was the first one to announce to the crowd inside the House

that Rafic Hariri was killed, was dead.

Two weeks before his killing, as if he had a hint

that something will happen to him, he said,

"Look, I think they will either kill you or kill me."

They killed him.

All eyes turned to Syria.

REPORTER: The assassination sparked off a far-reaching political crisis

amidst suspicions Syria was involved.

The assassination could not have been undertaken

without the knowledge of senior figures in Syrian intelligence.

This United Nations would be seriously and significantly

undermined if we were to turn a blind eye to such activities.

The United Nations launches a major criminal investigation

and appoints a special investigator to find out who killed Hariri.

Witnesses from inside Syria's intelligence network

name Bashar's brother Maher and his brother-in-law Assef

as being behind the assassination.

Assef Shawkat, President Assad's brother-in-law,

led several meetings with senior Lebanese security officials

to plan the attack, some in the Syrian presidential palace.

Assef Shawkat was one of the most amazing figures in Damascus.

He's aggressive,

and he knew what he wanted,

and he always was a warrior.

He would fight to achieve his goals.

And you can tell that this man is very, very ambitious.

Very, very ambitious.

So now the world wants to know, has Bashar's brother-in-law

taken the matter into his own hands,

or was it Bashar who ultimately gave the order?

How did you first hear about the assassination?

Er, through the news.

I was in my office.

As you know, because you've read it and we've read it,

there are witnesses who have said that

during one of Mr Hariri's last visits to Damascus,

he was threatened by you. Did you threaten him, sir?

This is another illegal presumption.

First of all, it's not my nature to threaten anybody.

It's, er... I'm a very quiet person, and very frank,

but I wouldn't threaten.

Would you have ordered such an assassination?

This is against our principle and my principle,

and I would never do such a thing in my life.

What do we achieve? What do we achieve?

I think what happened targeted Syria, that will affect our relation

with the Lebanese people.

So we wouldn't do it because it's against our interests

and it's against my principle. I would never do it, it's impossible.

APPLAUSE

The pressure on Bashar to leave Lebanon continues to grow.

Syria, you get your troops and your secret services out of Lebanon

so that good democracy has the chance to flourish.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Suddenly, Bashar is in uncharted territory,

and he has to make a decision.

I mean, regime change was something that was very much at the top

of his mind, that he could effectively be toppled

by a US-led coalition.

He actually felt a real threat that he could go.

Then, in March, just four weeks after Hariri's death,

Bashar caves in and agrees to withdraw from Lebanon.

NEWSREADER: In response to mounting international pressure,

Syria looks set to begin pulling its troops out of Lebanon.

An announcement is expected from Syria's President Assad tomorrow.

The family response was, you've almost lost the crown jewels.

It's like you've lost the family heirloom.

His mother was upset and angered with her son.

This was part of their legacy.

He'd disappointed his mother, he'd disappointed his father.

There was no room for negotiation on this,

according to his mother.

At that moment, it was very personal.

It was very personal, and the regime was isolated.

That's when I felt that it became emotional.

And so it seems it's all gone wrong for Bashar.

He's been forced to give up his father's legacy

and, rather than making Syria look respectable,

they look ever more like the axis of evil.

I think this was the toughest period in his presidency,

because the whole international situation was hostile.

It was perceived as a direct threat to Bashar himself.

He was a man...

. .uncertain of himself.

For Asma, this is not the First Lady job as she would've imagined it.

Her in-laws and husband are the key suspects

in a United Nations murder investigation.

There were lots of rumours about Asma being in seclusion.

And she did drop out of the limelight.

I remember seeing her for the first time after the Hariri assassination,

and I could hear all of the Syrian ladies around me

saying how thin she was, and they were whispering.

And they were wondering, I think, what was going on

inside of her family, and maybe inside of her mind.

Because everyone knew that this was not going in the way

that the Asma al-Assad we had come to know wanted it to go.

I think it was the start for Asma,

that you have to fasten your seat belt.

Because you are actually going on a long struggle

with this man.

You know, when you are married, in a way you are stuck as an Arab

and Muslim woman.

There is no way back for her.

Now for her it's the battle of survival.

Her survival, her children, her husband and her status

as the First Lady.

So she stays by Bashar's side through it all...

..and then an opportunity emerges that could help them distance

themselves from the Lebanon scandal.

This morning, here in Rome, one of the most remarkable popes

of all time will be laid to rest.

They will all unite to say farewell to Pope John Paul II.

They seized this opportunity, because the Vatican cannot say no.

They can't say, "Don't come to the funeral."

Anybody who would say, "I'm coming" is welcome.

And they know that there will be 150 heads of state.

So it's a way to say, Everything is normal."

Hariri?

Us?

Come on. We're there, it's our place.

We're in the middle of the King of Spain,

Tony Blair, etc. We're like these people.

But I was really amazed by the way that Asma was moving in a way

to bump into people.

To be like a magnet to attract. Here,

you see her talking with Cherie Blair.

Tony Blair.

So the Assads are roaming, more or less, towards them and he escaped

but Cherie Blair stayed to say hi to Asma.

Because Asma is such a nice person. She is lovely, she is beautiful.

She was definitely looking for that kind of image.

I think she realises how valuable she is.

She uses herself as the asset in the crisis, you know,

to break the crisis, this is what I am going to do.

I think Bashar realised that her presence could save him

in a way, because their focus would not be only on what

he has done. The focus would be on her shoes and her dress

and her beautiful hair and her smile.

And I think that gives him confidence.

Bashar was much more powerful with Asma.

And that's why she had to be under the limelight,

to distract the world from the political dirty laundry

of the Assads.

Later in 2005, Bashar

starts to change the power dynamic

inside the presidential palace.

He gets rid of the old guard, the last remnants of his father's

advisers...

..and carefully removes power from his

problematic brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat.

And as he grabs the reins at home, he also takes

a tougher approach abroad.

He refuses to cooperate with the UN investigation

into the murder of Hariri.

And then that investigation gets waylaid...

..by some unexplained incidents.

A car bomb kills a Lebanese investigator.

A key suspect gives a statement to the UN.

But the next day, commits apparent suicide.

The star witness decides to take back his entire statement, live

on Syrian state TV.

And a spy, thought to be involved, is found at his home with a bullet

in his head.

Shot at from the sea.

The UN chief investigator quits, saying he is in fear of his life.

The case against the Syrian regime collapses.

And so if they did order the killing of Hariri, they've got

away with murder.

RHYTHMIC APPLAUSE

What the Syrian regime managed to do, is just to escape from it.

He believes that, sure, and it was repeated in many meetings

that the West are cowards.

And being able to survive it had shown him that the more

you are tough, the more you don't make any concessions,

the more you succeed.

CHANTING

He was tested.

He was tested in 9/11, tested in the Iraq war,

tested in Lebanon,

and for him he overcame

all the crisis, all the tests.

And he passed, and now he's much more confident.

He looks at himself differently, I think.

Bashar Al-Assad is under huge pressure, yet when I met him

yesterday he was calm and thoughtful, with a scholarly

precision about his choice of words.

The United States has publicly said that Syria is a member

of an axis of evil.

How do you regard that view of your country and what can

you do about it?

Everybody cares about his reputation,

but we care more about the reality.

The biggest mistake they committed in the West,

they use the labels as a base for political actions.

There is a big difference.

It doesn't matter what you label organisations or people

or countries, the most important things in politics,

do they have effects or not?

As long as they are effective on the ground,

among the people.

He is a sophisticated chap, isn't he?

He is quite impressive, yes. In fact, he's very impressive.

I used to think he might be directed by a gang of his pretty rough

father's old, sort of, cronies.

That doesn't seem to me to be the case.

As Bashar takes more control of his family,

the nature of their relationships start to change.

Bushra, Bashar's sister, starts spending more and more time

at her house in Dubai.

Which is good news for Asma.

The relationship with Bushra was very fraught.

Suddenly, you know, this weight on her shoulders,

if you like, is no longer there.

Her footing is much firmer and now she can challenge even the mother,

which apparently happened.

The mother, I think she became sidelined, eventually.

Hello.

CROWD: Hello.

Ladies and ladies.

And some gentlemen.

Good evening.

A very, very, very warm Syrian welcome to each and every one

of you who've made the trip to this part of the world.

Asma grew up in the period of PR and Princess Diana in Britain.

Princess Diana had represented an example of how somebody

can be seen to be both Royal and also close to the people.

She becomes engrossed in charity...

..championing certain issues.

223 remarkable women, by the time you ladies go home

you would have cycled over 350km.

I am an investment banker by previous profession, by the way,

so numbers to me are like milk to a baby,

it's just something I'm familiar with.

Asma is very ambitious.

She was relishing the opportunity to be seen in that light.

It fitted with who she wanted to be seen as.

There are over two million refugees living in Syria today.

1.4 million...

I think she was sincere in wanting to help.

She could have just hung out and drank tea,

and she didn't.

Education has to be relevant.

And at the pace that the world is changing, it's sometimes hard

to keep up.

But she also got a lot out of it.

She wanted to be the First Lady of Syria.

There was this other strange part of her personality which,

I think, power became very important over time.

And so Asma becomes a new kind of entity,

a modern First Lady for an old-fashioned dictatorship.

You are the first First Lady of Syria. The wife of your husband's

father never took an active role.

Have you run up against people who say Mrs Assad

should not be in the public sphere?

I genuinely believe that Syrians are committed to the process

that we've started,

whether it is me playing a role

as a First Lady, or me playing a role as an individual.

I don't want to spend any more time talking up here,

I would rather spend more of the time talking

with you ladies directly.

Anyway, thank you so much for coming.

2007 is an election year.

It's the second time his presidency has been voted on.

And although, as usual, his name is the only one on the ballot,

those that know him say that it marks a turning point

in his psychology.

There was a real contrast, I mean for me as a photographer,

but also as a Syrian,

between the first years of Bashar,

one of his main decisions was to say, "No portraits of me,

"no statues, no songs, no portrait of me.

"Enough with this."

It was a good step towards modernity.

And then, five years later, we're back to the same old story.

Portraits are back.

Songs, etc.

The young eye doctor from London has disappeared and is now tough

and clearly in charge of the country.

I was visiting Bashar to coincide with the election.

And by then, it had been clear he had won 97% of the vote

and the Bashar I thought I knew, I thought he would just pooh-pooh

the whole thing, I thought he would say, "It's mostly arranged,

I know I'm the only one on it, so what else are they going to do?"

But he said something quite different and it told me a lot

about him and perhaps the changes that occurred in him.

And he said, "they love me."

They love me.

This shows that they love me."

Was there genuine enthusiasm and perhaps popularity for Bashar?

Sure.

But not 97%.

And I just sat back and I thought to myself,

Wow, you've drunk the Kool Aid of power."

I said, "Well, you're president for life now."

A victory celebration takes place. Tens of thousands gather

in Damascus...

..wearing T-shirts with his face on,

chanting his name,

and carrying torches.

You get this reinforcement that you are right in what

you're doing, the fact that the people are adoring you.

Out in the streets, praising you.

He said to himself,

Now I understand what my father did."

Now I understand why he had to do what he had to do."

And if that countered the morality

that perhaps he brought into office,

he maybe constructed a different set of morals, where the ends

justify the means.

While the public still holds out hope for reforms,

in reality, Bashar's regime clamps down even harder

than it did under Hafez.

More and more writers and political activists are sent to prison,

often without trial.

Many facing torture for criticising the regime.

The man who keeps the Syrian people in line is Bashar's brother,

Maher.

Maher is the third boy after Bassel and Bashar.

He's the one that was always used to frighten people.

The same as they were using Rifaat, the uncle.

They always have the second man in the family,

that is the one that frightens the others.

You are all good, nice and we are open,

we forgive anyone who do any harm to us. But the problem

is, that guy is the bad guy, he will do something so bad,

he will torture you and kill you and kill all your family,

destroy all your village.

In 2008, Maher's actions start spilling out into the public arena.

GUNSHOTS

GUNSHOTS CONTINUE

When prisoners protest against torture, their revolt

is brutally crushed.

17 prisoners are killed.

And then, footage emerges of a skirmish between Maher's Fourth

Regiment and civilians.

It looks like the man photographing the dead is Maher.

MUSIC: La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaf

With the Iraq war now in its fifth year,

French President Sarkozy now invites them for talks.

At that time, I felt that they cannot isolate Syria,

because if they want to talk about the peace process,

Syria is essential.

If they want to talk about fighting terrorism,

Syria is essential.

They say it takes two to tango.

At this point the Assads go on a big publicity drive.

They hire three PR firms, commission portraits

from famous photographers...

..and give access to a French documentary team.

Thank you. Pleased to meet you.

Did we keep you waiting?

No, it's all right.

We don't like to keep people waiting.

You can turn your face, I know it is dangerous,

just to see you.

And you drive alone?

Most of the time.

Whenever I go to the palace, I only drive myself.

But it is very un-secure.

No, no, no. Syria is a very secure country, it is not bulletproof

and you can open the window.

Especially when we drive, or when we go to the beach, it takes

about three hours driving, this is the most enjoyable

thing for me.

I think what's incredible is not how he drives,

it's the fact that he can listen to all of us in the car

for three hours. I listen to the music.

So there are three kids, there's me, music, and he can put up with

that for three hours and he's still smiling when we get there.

That's the most incredible thing.

They are great actors and actresses.

So when you go to Damascus,

when you meet Bashar, when you meet his family,

you know that there is an intrigue, they play your game.

For us.

He has many faces.

He is a multi-faces man.

He looks gentle, open-minded,

then he is the tough politician,

then he is the killer.

You can be reformative and you can be conservatively

reformative, because, as I just told you, I am reformative,

so we are moving forward.

Slowly, but surely.

We have to be a stable country, especially as the problems started

after I became president.

He said, Christian, why don't we go together

to the opera?

CHEERING

Of course, all the people invited to the opera

were supporters of Assad.

So it was a big mise-en-scene.

Bashar was driving the car and he said,

"Look at that. No, I don't need any security. Here we are free,

"we move freely, we have no problems."

Security, you can see around. Come on!

They have people everywhere.

The third thing is something about me, about the way I live

as a politician, is the transparency.

Be as transparent as you can with the people.

This is very important.

Say, "I did a mistake..."

There is a division between image and reality.

Once you're fully signed up, once you can maybe separate in

your mind the horrors that are taking place and deposit

them somewhere in your brain, where you don't have to access them

on a regular basis, and convince yourself

that you are part of a different agenda,

then you'll live with that.

OK.

INAUDIBLE

One time, my children asked him,

my daughter asked him,

"What do you do?"

She was trying to understand - what does it mean to be President?

And so she asked him, she said to him,

"Papa, what do you do?

"We know you go to the office.

"And we see you on TV sometimes.

"What is it you do?"

And he said to her, "I try and help people."

There really was a sense

that Assad was going to step down.

He was using the ghost of his father as leverage to fight on.

EXPLOSION

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