Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20111229 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 December 29, 2011



military forces from streets, to stop violence from protesters. they've been on the ground about 48 hours. their initial statements are so far stunning. the chief monitor of this arab league observer force's sudanese commander. not only a commander but also the former head of foreign intelligence in the government of omar al bashir, a man wanted by the international criminal court for genocide in crimes against humanity. more on that in a moment. today, the head of the arab league team in syria told reuters that, quote, things were calm and there were no clashes in homs, which has for months seen some of the deadliest violence. he went on to say, the situation seems reassuring so far. he also said, some places looked a bit of a mess but there was nothing frightening. nothing frightening. that is not what we have been hearing from people in and around homs for months and it's not what you will hear tonight from a reporter that snuck into that city and returned. the footage he took is very disturbing. we're going to show you that in a moment as well. there's other video from homs to show you, but before we do, i want to warn you it is hard to watch. this is video claiming to show the aftermath of an artillery strike on monday in homs. the very day the monitors were arriving in damascus. the scene, destruction, several people laid dead, as always, we can't independently confirm facts because the syria regime won't let us see for ourselves. this is what others tell us is happening. in homs, the day the monitors landed in syria, the gunfire was reportedly nonstop. this is a neighborhood, the monitors visiting that neighborhood today. you heard what the chief monitor said, nothing frightening. on monday, a syrian activist described the exact opposite. >> the security forcers and militia of syrian army are using armor vehicle and aircraft and storming this area, this neighborhood. there are more than ten houses completely destroyed, and there were many bodies under the rubble there. there's now a genocide take place in this city of homs. >> you can argue about use of the word genocide, but the killings have taken on a sectarian nature. the activist in syria is desperate that someone do something to help. >> we are calling to direct intervene from the whole organization and the international community, to intervene here in syria and stop this bloodshed that's going on in syria, and in homs in particular. >> just yesterday, again with the arab league monitors on the ground, there was reported violence across syria. this video reportedly showed security forces firing on protesters in hama. remember, the monitors are in syria to verify that president assad is not attacking his people. today in dara where it all began, military defectors reportedly launched an ambush on security forces. this video purports to show it. according to an opposition group, members were killed and at least 14 other people died across syria today. what did the arab league observers actually observe in homs today? besides benign statements by their leader, we have seen this video. again, i warn you, it's disturbing. it shows apparently what is an arab league observer shown the body of a dead child. the man in the orange vest is presumably the observer. according to the logo on his vest. the little boy is said to be about 5 years old. he and his family allegedly shot by security personnel that opened fire on their van. remember, the sudanese head of this observer team said he saw nothing frightening, things seemed calm today. many are outraged that this man is leading this mission to begin with. again, he's a military commander in sudan and was head of foreign intelligence in a government which is now accused of genocide in darfur. he reported to a leader wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity. this is a man head of the observer force. the syrian opposition group is calling for that man's removal from the observer force saying his role as deputy head of foreign intelligence raises questions as to his knowledge of mass atrocities in darfur. al dabis now tasked with probing war crimes and crimes against citizens. his role characterized as a force causing little help and more harm. the situation al dabi calls reassuring and calm. the u.s. state department responded to al dabi's assessment of homs saying it's just the beginning of the mission and they've only see a small area so far. it is important, he said, that we let them get themselves squared away on the ground get their mission up and running. fair enough. syrian opposition groups report at least 14 people were killed across the country, including five people in homs. a freelance journal, who we are not naming for his security, has now left homs, spent six days there. the next days, cnn will show case his stories from the front line to the city at war. his first report is about government snipers that prowl homs, picking off civilian victims at will and randomly. >> the snipers are on basically every main street. they have checkpoints on both sides. snipers would shoot everybody who is basically crossing this street between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 in the morning. this is an unofficial curfew. the activists told me i have to meet this woman. this is the mother of a victim who got shot when she was pregnant in the seventh month. it was during the morning when she wants to go out for shopping. >> translator: her brother tried a half hour to go over the walls and roofs to get to her, but didn't manage to reach her. finally they managed to pull her away, but it took another half hour to get her to my house. >> you arrived, the situation, you arrived at the scene where a half hour ago somebody got shot, and 30 minutes later, people are crossing very normally this street. me crossing the street, i've been feeling, literally been feeling somebody is aiming. snipers are aiming on me, and it is up to him if he going to pull the trigger or not. i came to this junction and realized that somebody wanted to cross the street with a huge bag of cigarettes. i could hear the snipers shooting and he was able to cross the street and the bag of cigarettes were in the middle of the street. it is, again, one of the very impressive scenes where people have been very happily -- almost like a sport challenge to get the cigarette bags out from the sniper range. and they have been happy when they could. they started to throw it from one side to the other. they started to throw the bags. they were not able to cross. so everything they needed on the other side. they throw it over the street. >> a short time ago i spoke to that journalist by phone. again, we are not naming him, for his own security. the footage we showed of snipers basically shooting people who are trying to get supplies, cigarettes and food, is really stunning. is there any justification for what they're doing? how can they justify randomly shooting people, targeting people in the street? >> yes. it is exactly what you said, it is randomly. what we have seen in homs was especially in the neighborhoods that are exactly in the middle of the city, sounded by a lot of different snipers which are aiming to all the main alleys which are surrounding the neighborhood, and they are trying to randomly put fear into the people into this neighborhood, in order to get them quiet and not getting out of the streets to demonstrate. >> and yet people continue to turn out to demonstrate. you make the point that they have no other choice, that if world attention stops focusing on homs, if the demonstrations stop, the government will go in later on, once it is quiet, and arrest them anyway. >> exactly. so there is no other option for them, might be either keep on fighting, demonstrating uprising or getting killed bit regime anyway. >> you spent time in syria, took great risk, risked your life to get into homs. what surprised you the most? >> everybody who was enforcing every time that they are doing a peaceful uprise now start to know the point of no return is already crossed. this is not able to do peacefully. we are getting armed. we have the army. we will have to fight. >> arab league sent in a monitoring team into syria to try to assess the situation. what are people there saying about that? clearly the head of the team is the sudanese general, his track record is in question. >> the activists have been telling me about the monitoring team is that they are basically saying that this is a total show by the arab league, that arab league would want some pressure and steps against the regime, they would not need this monitor of teams which is guided by somebody, which is not really the most convincing people for the activists. >> thank you for what you've done. thank you for your footage. >> thank you. >> joining us now, senior fellow at stamford university hoover institution. when you see people being just shot in the streets, trying to toss bread across from one to another, there's no justification for the government of syria doing that. >> well i think you have to understand the mind of al assad, just as his father maintain his reign by conquering and defeating the city, he is determined. he wants to make sure there can be no benghazi. there can be if you will -- >> no free zone. >> exactly, became the free zone and liberated libya. homs cannot liberate syria. homs is very complicated. it's mostly sudanese town but substantially al wiet population. >> they support the government or traditionally did? >> absolutely. the geography. the neighborhoods are spared. the sunni neighbors are shelled. the corpses are in the sunni neighborhood. you see the terrible logic of this regime. >> which is pushing it towards civil war, towards sectarian conflict. >> that's exactly from the play book of bashar al assad, that's what he would love to do in fact. if he makes it sectarian, corners his own community to stick by him. they have to become basharists. they stay to the bitter end. in is something that he believes he can win. >> and yet they are in this situation where clearly he cannot win, but they cannot win either. there is this -- right now this back and forth. >> absolutely. i think we thought before about syria repeatedly in many ways it's an irresistible force kind of force meeting with this immovable object. the people can't go back, accept the tyranny of the dynasty. in any way, they are marked. all of the activists are known to the syrian intelligence people. they will go and pick them one at a time, so i think it is too late, if you will, for the opposition. it's too late for the regime. they must win and it is too late for the regime because that's what the regime is looking at. he is looking at, he sees what happened to gadhafi as a prelude, cautionary tale what could happen to him. >> that's an important point. it is beyond the point of return for the people that protested thus far. >> yes. >> there is no going back for them because if the world, not that the world is really paying attention, but to the extent it is, if that attention stops, the protests stop, then security forces come in the night and take you away and kill you. >> well, i think you've got it. and what's interesting, there was a kind of placards carried by some women in homs that said, all doors are closed except your doors or god. there's only god left for them. again, they look at libya and see libya was rescued by nato, and they look at their own situation, ten months into this terrible fight, no one has come to the rescue. the arab league is a joke. the arab league has always been a joke. the arab league did one decent thing on libya, and all it did was to single out gadhafi, finger him to the international community. now the arab league sends this compromise mission, but we'll see what we see. >> there are 60 observers, a redig excuse lusly small number, led by a man who is linked to the regime in sudan. >> yes. >> if you wrote it as a play, it would be laughable, but it is real. >> exactly. 60 observes for a country of 23 member peel by somebody that must be reckoned to be the godfather of the dreaded -- they sent someone to syria with this compromise, look at the arab world, no one wants this assignment. you can't send the lebanese, they don't want it. you can't send a jordanian because they border syria. you can't send an iraqi. syrians will not accept anyone from the gulf. egyptians do not want to do it. guess what, you stick the sue dannese with it. it's a terrible mission, i think the international community that's hiding behind the arab league if you will has to face at some point what is to be done about syria. >> so that's the thing, is there any answer to it? if it goes to the u.n., there's russia and china who will veto anything. >> exactly. and here's -- when -- basically the arab league says to the syrians, if you don't behave, if you don't stop killing people, we are going to internationalize the conflict. we're going to refer it to the security council. and bashar al assad said, welcome, the security council, he has russia and china. not only that, the last time security council discussed syria, not only had russia and china, had india, brazil, south africa to the return of shame on his side. >> appreciate it. let us know what you think on facebook. google plus, add us to your circles. i'm feeting tonight. coming up, stunning development less than a week before the iowa caucus. new polling showing mitt romney in the lead but support for newt gingrich dropping. we'll hear from romney, talk about what's behind gingrich's drop. and amazing pictures from north korea. have you seen these pictures today? the elaborate funeral for kim jong-il. mourners filling the streets. whether real or not, you see them there incredible to look at. we will have all of the most important moments coming up. arah will you marry me? i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. ♪ i would have appreciated a proactive update on the status of our relationship. who do you think i am, tim? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide you with proactive updates on the status of your home loan. and our innovative online tools ensure that you're always in the loop. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. in raw politicings. 78 mitt romney and ron paul are the front-runners along the participants in iowa. romney has a slight lead over paul. santorum is in third with 16% up 11 points from the beginning of december. gingrich is at 14% down 19 pointed from the beginning of the month. in just a moment i'll talk with our panel about the negative ads against gingrich are behind the plunge. first what front-runner mitt romney had to say to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >> a campaign like this, you have to have blood shoulders. if you can't take on the negative part of a primary, you're sure as heck not ready fo what's going to come from barack obama. if you can't handle the heat in this kitchen, wait until barack obama's hell's kitschen. joining me from des moines, iowa, candy crowley, host of "state of the union" and in washington, rich galen and cnn political contributor, hillary rosen. one of the interesting numbers about the survey wasn't the horse race, it was the response to the question we asked the voters who has the best chance of beating obama in iowa? romney was far and away the top pick. and in new hampshire, he had more support in this question than all of the others in the race combined. >> yeah. listen, in so many ways, can he beat president obama is the question. that, to me, is the most significant part of the poll because you can love somebody because they say exactly what you think you believe. you can like someone because they like their personal story. what a republican will wants someone to throw president obama out of the white house. elect ability is huge it's what mitt romney has been pushing saying look, you've got to have someone to stand up to president obama who can actually beat him. in the end when they go in to the poll whether it's a straw poll or a caucus or primary in new hampshire, what republicans want is someone who can beat obama. i think we're definitely talking about a winner kind of number for mitt romney. >> hillary, do you think republican voters are are rallying around romney? maybe they're not in love with him but you know maybe it's a marriage of convenience? >> well you know, this campaign has been fascinating because, clearly, democrats, we've always thought that we're going to end up with the president running against mitt romney and but yet it was in the early months of the fall where mitt romney's vulnerabilities were really obvious. you know, the fact that he is a flip-flopper, that he has no job creation record, that he has consistently been inconsistent and -- >> stop. >> wait, give me this, rich. what happened was, republicans then saw those weaknesses and started looking elsewhere. and the rest of the field isn't that attractive, either. and you know you saw the gingrich surge, he was a lot angrier about the president and so he had his surge for a moment. but i think when push comes to shove, from their perspective, romney's run a pretty good primarymp iowa may just be more reflective of the republican primary problems than it is their solutions. >> i'll let you respond to what hillary said. >> i talked to two campaigns in iowa today. candy's out there, she's probably heard the same things. they say that the santorum surge is a real surge, and that ron paul's campaign is going to -- is probably tomorrow going to turn its big guns not only advertising but people in stops where he is, the social media that the paul people are so good at, thaerl going to turn the entire operation against rick santorum and try to protect at least their second-place finnish iowa, if not pivot back and try to -- try to top romney. but they're absolutely convinced that these other two campaigns, that santorum is peaking at exactly the right time. not that he can win, but that he can really kind of surprise everybody. >> rich, why do you think it is that he has done so well just in the last couple of weeks? >> i think -- to this extent i agree with hillary, he's the last one standing whose tires haven't been kicked by the conservative wing of the republican party. they went through everybody else. >> the other issue, reason why santorum is surging, obviously, is that the evangelical vote which is 60% historically of the republican primarily, remember, pushed mike huckabee to a win in 2008. their coalescing around rick santorum and there aren't that many states where the evangelical wing of the republicans are that dominance. but if santorum does well in iowa, you know, he can also move, he's not going to do that well in new hampshire but south carolina is another early state where the evangelical vote is pretty strong. so, you know -- >> yeah i think -- >> ends up being again -- >> i think south carolina -- >> anybody but mitt and who coalesces around mitt is the strongest candidate. >> i think south carolina's going to be the two-man death match between santorum and gingrich, loser goes home. but when you get past that hillary and candy, you still have to go to florida a week later, $2 million a week state, who else has got the money and resources and the infrastructure to do all of that within 28 days starting next tuesday? >> candy, are expectations now, i mean, for romney, that if he places anywhere but first that that would be seen as a defeat? >> i think it depends -- i don't think he can place but second and not have it be negative for him. but i think he could place a strong second to someone like ron paul, simply because most republicans, though this makes the ron paul people very upset, most republicans -- >> you'll get e-mails -- >> -- yes, i know. someone who will win the

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