believe that it would have a happy ending. now syria is a much, much different picture. tonight, i'll take a close look at where the arab spring went wrong as the threat of outright war hangs over a region, that at least for a moment thought change was coming. more in just a moment. but, first, a look at the other stories that we're covering tonight. mitt romney made it official. he's running for president but with sarah palin's bus tour in new hampshire, will anybody notice? and today the only muslim in congress made a vow. >> the world will not forget for liberty and justice and for the people of syria. >> earlier he had urged the world to go into libya. where do we draw the line. then moammar gadhafi and goldman sachs, a marriage made in heaven or in hell? i'll ask matt what happened when libya's dictator mate the deal kings of wall street. syria and the story that we've been closely following over the past few nights. the 13-year-old boy who was tortured and murdered. his brutal death has em bol denned anti-government protesters and has become a rallying cry. now cnn has learned that one of his relatives saw him alive at a prison. arwa damons that the latest. >> cnn was not able to get ahold of hamza's relative and providing more chilling insight into what young hamza may have suffered. a trip was received that he was being held in one of the prisons. he went there and actually saw that hamz wachlt was athat he was alive and well. at that point he was told that the family should go to the hospital. when they arrived at the hospital, it was there that they were handed over a corps. those chilling images with authenticity we cannot verify that appeared on youtube, showing his bloated, mutilated, and horribly disfigured young body. according to the relative, his mother became hysterical. she had a nervous breakdown, alternating between sobbing intensely and then shrieking for joy that her child became a martyr, believing that hamza was brutally tortured for two days because authorities were enraged that the family was able to track him down. saying that he was the youngest of 6, just 13 but with the maturity of a 30 yearly. he was always taking part of the demonstrations to break the siege of the city. remember, his family was from outside of daraa and on some occasions he was refusing to eat because he told his parents it was unfair to have access to food when so many people were suffering because of the siege. he also had dreams to be a policeman one day. but according to the relative, he changed his mind when he saw police brutality against the demonstrators and didn't know what he wanted to do when he was going to grow up. now we do know that he is, at the very least, emerging as a symbol of the syria uprising. >> more on our headliner story as tension on the streets escalate. the syrian government forbids us from doing our jobs as journalists within our borders. therefore, we lie on voices from the inside to tell us what is actually happen. because if we're to believe what the government disseminates on their news outlet, they are all singing kum-by-ya. this was smuggled out by a few brave souls. a warning, the images you are about to see are unusually disturbing even for footage out of syria. >> what we have been doing over the past few weeks is seeking out people that were there when the city went under attack and what we found is that the security forces have killed hundreds of protesters arbitrarily arrested thousands and this was no accident. for me the most striking thing about these videos is just to see peaceful protesters coming under fire for no reason. >> we've been seeing tape like this since the violence in syria began. but how exactly are human rights workers managing to get it out of there? joining me now is the person responsible for that. he is nadeem, human rights watcher and in tunisia and joins us on the phone. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> your organization put out a report that the syrian government is committing crimes against humanity. tell us, what are those crimes? give us a sense of the magnitude and who is the victim of those crimes. >> sure. we just put out a report of what has been happening at the main protest movement since mid-march and we've documented three grave types of crimes. one, it is the shooting of unarmed protesters and those shootings have killed more than 450 people so far that we've been able to document in the government of daraa and according to some local activists, the number may be higher and the second pattern is the massive arbitration campaign and the torture of those detained and we're talking about thousands of people that lasted for 11 days on every single day, they were detaining more than 100 people, men and children in a number of cases and certainly the denial of medical care to the wounded protesters and the two cases that we've documented, the lack of medical care led to the death of the protester and they have not had a chance to live if they had been treated properly. >> i think we all understand and have seen the footage of those that have been shot and killed. i don't want you to ask you to be graphic but tell us factually what type of tortures you are talking about that you have documented in this report. >> sure. i mean, first people need to realize that this is rampant torture. this is not an individual case. this is what we've seen for the last few months. we're talking severe beatings, electrocution, be it through cattle product, a set of other means. we've also seen unusual brutality in southern syria where people have been sort of held in severe stress positions. a number of people and have died under director tur but we have seen some of the marks on the people that managed to escape syria after they were released from the neighboring countries and these were pretty shocking -- whipping on the back, whipping on the sole of the feet. toenails fell off after being subjected to beatings on the feet for hours. >> have you been able to find out who is orchestrating this systemic torture? >> you know, it's hard to know exactly who is in control but what we documented is we have a sense of the security agency that is responsible. either military security, political security, air force security, and something called general security inside syria. we name some of the high level commanders but what we have not been able to do is get down to the commander level that is responsible for this. and this is why we're calling for international investigation that would have access and that would manage to go up the chain of command and hold those responsible accountable. >> nadim, one last question. and i apologize for that. you spent several years working for one of the largest law firms here in new york city. is that correct? >> correct, yes. >> how does the quality of the evidence that you've seen that led to this report compare to what you used to see in your work for that law firm? >> look, there's no doubt, the evidence is compelling. there is clear evidence that crimes against humanity have been committed. now, we are not a court of law. we are a human rights organization working under very difficult circumstances. we are denied access and rely mostly on testimony of witnesses but we feel that the testimony is strong enough and obviously this needs to be handed over to an international investigation and we hope that this international investigation would lead to proper judicial process and that those responsible would be held accountable in a court of law. we are not a court of law. what we are doing is raising the alarm that there is some significant crimes being committed as we speak in syria today. >> nadim, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> so what next? what, if anything, can the u.s. do to stop the frightening prospect of a middle east at war? joining me is cnn's own fareed zakaria. we've got three civil wars, libya, yemen, and syria. massive uncertainty and chaos brewing. if you were secretary of state, how would you construct a foreign policy for the united states to deal with the crisis? >> i think syria is the most difficult one because we have the most leverage over them. i think the administration is being too soft from syria. i think that we should be trying to devise a policy which says, look, we don't want complete chaos there but we want to try and ratchet up the pressure in as many ways as we can so we make life difficult for them. a stable syria with a side in control has never been good for the united states. so let's remember a little bit of instability in syria if it comes with freedom, openness, pressure on the regime, that's not so bad. >> let's go back to whether the united states does or does not have -- everybody accepts two things, i suppose. one, the middle east is the most dangerous region of the world and, two, within the middle east, syria is at the center of the international affairs. explain why it's so important compared to libya? >> well, part of it is gee og graph foo and part is history. it's right next to lebanon and it has dominated lebanese politics. syria is next to israel. it's an area occupied by the war. syria has historically had a rivalry of sorts with egypt and iraq. so it's sort of at the center, literally, of the arab world. the historical part is that syria has always been a kind of bastien of repressive stability. it has been a place where the father of the current president drew a line against islamic fundamentalism where he literally killed 20,000 people to ensure that the fundamentalist movement died down. if all of that erupts, you can imagine instability in lebanon and you can imagine instability even in iraq, relations with iran get more complicated. so it certainly has broader ramifications. >> what is the downside risk and what might israel do and saudi arabia do? what do we worry about as it continues to evolve in the direction that it is now? >> the danger is that you could have a war with israel and internal civil war in lebanon. remember, hezbollah is armed with tens and thousands of rockets. >> located primarily in lebanon? >> located primarily in lebanon and has rained rockets down on israel. that would be the most likely scenario. it's more difficult to see what would happen vis-a-vis iran or iraq. if that happens, you go from civil wars in the middle east to a wider war involving israel. and that becomes a very difficult war because every arab state would have to line itself up. while its head may tell it that it is actually with israel and needs stability, it's hard -- >> now, you said a couple moments ago, we don't have that many levers against syria and we want to do what is ride, which is to say to assad, you are a brutal tyrant and should not be there. on the other hand, we're looking at saudi arabia saying, look, the united states, what you brought on, stability at least was -- there consequences of having these in play. >> you know, that saudi line is frankly absurd because it's not as though the united states actively encouraged these forces. in fact, i was in egypt. the principle complained that we supported the mubarak regime. it was not because of one phone call that barack obama made that hosni mubarak resigned. so similarly, in syria, we are not really organizing the dissent. what is amazing is that the syrian people, despite being killed by the hundreds are doing it. >> the second chapter of the arab spring, which began as a spring, a long, hot summer. it's ugly, messy, and uncertain at this point? >> this is exactly what happened in 1848 in europe. you have democratic revolutions against the monarchies. initially seeming very hopeful and then the armies came up and in many cases the armies sided with the monarchy. but the long story, the 20-year story is those ideas were infectious and caught on and i think here you might see something similar with egypt being more important. if the revolution exceeds in egypt, even if it fails everywhere else, it's not going anywhere. >> one of the unfairly critiqued speech that president obama gave a couple weeks ago was his very powerful claim, we need to help the egyptian economy, financial aid, exports from egypt to the united states, whatever we can do. is their economy moving forward and what can we do to resuscitate it? >> you're absolutely right. the president is right. if egypt is the centerpiece, the egyptian economy is going to be the centerpiece. it's right now growing at zero. it was growing at 5 to 7% for the last three or four years. there's no foreign investment. tourism has collapsed. even revenues from the suez canal. they are in very bad shape. they need help. here's the biggest problem. reform has been stigma advertised. after doing nothing for 27 years, mubarak started to do some reform and now it's tainted and no politician wants to go back and say, guess what, that stuff that mubarak did that you hated, we're going to have to do more of that. so the politics -- it's always a fascinating problem, which is, how do you get the politics to meet the economics. >> you just described egypt but it describes perfect for the united states. you have a special this sunday, the american dream, is it disappearing. maybe the one answer is innovation. nothing that is important here is the deficit and what can we do to bring back our own economy? >> well, i think there are two elements to that problem and we try to discuss one of them is the employment problem. you have to get people back to work. innovation is a crucial part of it because it's what we do well. it's how we create new jobs. what i was struck by, there's a great debate about what the government should do. >> all right. fareed, thank you, as always. i plan to watch your show sunday night. fareed zakaria, this sunday, "restoring the american dream ". coming up, mitt romney makes it official. candy crowley was there. seems like it was crowded up there today. >> reporter: it was. certainly if you were on the highways. sarah palin just happened to drop by here at -- for a clam became. right at the same time mitt romney was arriving for announcing that he was going to run for president. rudy giuliani also. three republicans not in the republican race yet and one who announced today. >> i don't believe in coincidences. we'll talk about that in just a minute with you. and later in the show, what happened when moammar gadhafi met goldman sachs? 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>> reporter: i don't think you're going to turn him into barack obama. i mean, this is not a man that emotes that way. this is a ceo. this is a business guy. listen, passion or at least showing passion has never been the number one criteria for republican nominees. bob dole, john mccain, even george bush. they were not true emoters. so it's not a hazard getting to the nomination. perhaps when you're up against somebody as gifted as president obama is, then it becomes a problem. i think when you look at what mitt romney has to offer, what they are banging on is that this country has to be about dollars and cents and jobs a year from november and they are banking that his credentials as a businessman and as a certain extent as massachusetts governor will stand him in good stead with republican voters. >> candy, he went for what i would call the economic jug gu lar. he has taken the economic model from europe. it's hard to imagine anything more critical. you're european. >> horrible. >> absolutely. >> but he went through the litany of legitimate economic data, unemployment, foreclosures, everything that has the public deeply concerned but did he given as that will touch a nerve that is sufficient? >> listen, i'll tell you two of the biggest applause lines -- and when you say answers, there were not details. but he did talk about capping government spending at 20% of the economy. he said it's about 40% now. he did talk about a balanced budget. those were huge applause lines in this group, which obviously are republicans from new hampshire and new hampshire is very focused in on conservative fiscal things. so, yes, he had those sorts of things but not in terms of -- listen, here's my eight-point plan on reducing the deficit. >> candy, i've got to say, we've got to move on to something. there's going to be a voice perhaps for his campaign but he had one line in there that i actually thought was a good line receipt for clee. my generation will pass the torch to the next generation, not a bill. you know, it's a nice concept. i just wish it were true. >> well, you know, this is -- i wish i could say, boy, i've never heard that concept before but we have from both republicans and democrats, i should add. but this is clearly a campaign that at least the obama -- i'm sorry. the romney people feel is going to be on debt and jobs, and that's where they are going to focus his attention. >> all right. candy crowley, thank you. for more of romney's big announcement, romney's spokesperson in 2008. kevin, welcome. >> great to be with you. >> first question is, why is he different now than he was back in '08? in '08 he was credentialed, experienced, buttoned down, looked the part, but kind of fizzled. why is it going to be different this time? >> well, the '08 campaign, i remember when we did that announcement in michigan. we went on a three-state tour right after that and spent a couple of days going out there and meeting the voters of ohio and new hampshire and south carolina. on the way back at the last leg of that trip, i remember getting a poll from the abc washington post and they showed us at 4%. that was a real stark reminder of the challenges that we face. that's a different f