Unrest in Syria; Violence Follows Syrian President's Speech
COOPER: Well, in Syria, an eyewitness today says more than a dozen people were killed in the city of Latakia in clashes after President Bashar al-Assad gave a nationally televised speech. This is YouTube video reportedly shot in the village -- in that town. CNN cannot independently confirm this. The eyewitness says protesters started gathering in the square after the speech, which disappointed many in the country, chanting "we want freedom." Army and security forces, the eyewitness say, started shooting. The eyewitness, who didn't want to be named for security reasons, said at least 16 people died in the violence. The Syrian government denies there were any deaths. This video certainly seems to indicate from the amount of blood on the street and the head wound that this person received at least some deaths. The eyewitness says the mood in that town is tense, quiet. There's military on the streets. People are afraid because they take today's violence as a message from the regime. Now, in his 45-minute speech today, al-Assad blamed the ongoing violence in Syria on vague enemies and, quote, "conspiracy," a conspiracy working to undermine the country's stability. As he has often said over the 11 years of his rule, he said the government supports reform and meeting people's needs, but he gave no specifics on how that's going to happen, no timetable. Al-Assad didn't mention lifting a 48-year-old state of emergency that gives the government sweeping power, and arresting detained citizens, a promise that was made just this past weekend. After the president's speech in Damascus, another tense scene as a woman approached his car. The woman was restrained, the crowd gathered closer. Look at this, on Syrian state television, the screen quickly faded to black shortly after this incident. It's not clear what the woman wanted, but it looks like she wanted to give the president some sort of piece of paper. But watch as the screen fades to black. Earlier, I spoke with Jihad Makdissi, a spokesman for the Syrian embassy in London. I should tell you, though, when I spoke to him a few hours ago, we had not yet gotten any word of reported violence after the speech, so I couldn't ask him about that. Take a look.</s>COOPER: In the past days, your government spokesperson has given a variety of explanations for what is going on in Syria, who's behind the protests. She's blamed unnamed foreign powers attacking Syria because of their opposition to Zionism and the U.S. She's also blamed Islamists, armed gangs, even Palestinian refugees. In an interview yesterday you gave, you said it wasn't outside forces; it was anarchists. And today your president pointed the finger at satellite news channels and also said that, quote unquote, enemies are behind, quote, "the plots that are being hatched against our country." Who do you believe is behind these protests? What are the plots?</s>JIHAD MAKDISSI, SYRIAN DIPLOMAT: Look, we have a problem of miscommunication seemingly, Mr. Cooper. I'm not responsible for anybody else who said what. I'm responsible for my president, what he said. If you go back, please, please go back to his speech. He said that yes, Syria is targeted, and a minority people, a small group of people tried to take advantage of this events to implement their own agenda in destabilizing Syria. But it's not all a conspiracy theory.</s>COOPER: But who is behind this conspiracy?</s>MAKDISSI: There is no conspiracy. If you are talking about the anarchists and people who are -- for instance, who killed ten security forces in Latakia by knives and by shooting at them from rooftops, I don't know. An investigation has to go through.</s>COOPER: According to eyewitnesses, though, there have been dozens of Syrian citizens who have been killed by security forces, shot by security forces, beaten to death by security forces. We've had reports from eyewitnesses in hospitals who say in some places the hospitals have been overwhelmed with citizens who have been shot to death by security forces. Do you deny that that has happened?</s>MAKDISSI: No, I don't deny that this happened at all. People died during the clashes between security forces and the demonstrator. And this is why the president, at first he wanted the gradual reform in Syria. Because Mr. Cooper, Syria is a third-world country. And you have not only to update your legislation to be a democratic country. You have to update the culture of the people, the culture of the soldier who is faced by violent demonstrator who's trying to attack him.</s>COOPER: You're saying that Syria is a third-world country, and yet this president has been in power for 11 years. His father was in power for 29 years before that. For more than 40 years, the Assad family has ruled this country. If, in fact, Syria is still a third-world country, doesn't the leadership have some blame in that? In 2005, I read a speech that your president gave, saying that computers were an enemy of the Arab people, that computers were designed to destroy the Arab people.</s>MAKDISSI: Who said that? Who said that?</s>COOPER: Your president said that.</s>MAKDISSI: The background of my president is a reformist, and he's the one that introduced before being president, introduced the Internet service to Syria. He has just recently, one month ago, lifted -- liften (ph) the ban on YouTube, on blogging, on Facebook, and you can see the Facebook now in Syria, and everything. So...</s>COOPER: In -- in 2005, he said that the Internet is a threat to Arab identity. He said that computers and technology, quote, "overwhelm the Arabs and threaten their existence and cultural identity, which has sincere -- which has increased the doubts and skepticism in the minds of young Arabs."</s>MAKDISSI: Yes, but you have to finish the sentence. He said only when it is used wrongly. So please read the whole script. He said only when it is used like spreading propaganda or, you know, spreading rumors. This is what he said.</s>COOPER: You had said just yesterday in an interview on CNN that the president had begun ending marshal law. And the government spokeswoman, Bitana Shivan (ph), also said on Sunday the decision to lift emergency law had already been made. And yet today, we heard no mention of lifting emergency law by the president. Has he now decided not to lift emergency law?</s>MAKDISSI: Not at all, not at all, Mr. Cooper. Let me explain to you that I can understand where the confusion is coming from. Because the president today, he wasn't addressing the United Nations. He was addressing his own people, and he was showing commitment and leadership and assuring them that he's committed to the reform.</s>COOPER: But those are the people who are suffering under emergency rule. Those are the people who live under emergency rule. If anyone has an interest in it, it would be his people. I don't understand why he wouldn't say directly to his people, "I'm lifting emergency rule. Here's how I'm going to do it. Here's when it's going to start." Without any kind of timetable, these are just words, no?</s>MAKDISSI: Mr. Cooper, when it comes to national security, Syria is like all other nations. You have to take the right step and have the right legislation. And that's why we see like, for instance, America, President Obama said he would be shutting down the notorious Guantanamo Bay, but it's not been done yet. You don't do it overnight. But the difference between there is the Syrian president is fully committed, and he's the guarantor of implementing his own words.</s>COOPER: I very much appreciate you coming on to talk. Thank you so much.</s>MAKDISSI: My pleasure, my pleasure.</s>COOPER: Joining me now on the phone is former U.S. ambassador to Syria Ted Kattouf. What do you make of what he said and what the Syrian president said today? Because for all that talk of reform, we've been hearing that for 11 years. When Assad came to power, there was talk of reform. In 2005, there was talk of reform. Now he's talking about reform. How much time does reform take?</s>TED KATTOUF, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SYRIA (via phone): Well, apparently, an authoritarian regime, it takes as long as the leader wants it to take. We have a president who has dropped in the polls, according to news reports today, because he can't get jobs restored, even though we had the severest recession since the Great Depression. But you're right, Anderson. This president has had 11 years, and he's talked about reform. And his reforms have been very tepid. They've been things like allowing private banks, allowing private universities, things, frankly, that Syria had in the 1950s before the Nasareths (ph) came to power and the Mubasaks (ph). So -- and if you look at Lebanon and Jordan, countries that are much more resource-poor than Syria, they have higher per capita incomes, and particularly in the case of Lebanon, a far more thriving economy, despite civil war and lack of -- almost lack of a government most of the time.</s>COOPER: What do you think today's speech by the president indicated? Because yesterday, we had talked, and you had said that, if he doesn't give specifics about a timetable and details, and if he -- you know, in this case, he didn't even really talk about lifting the emergency rule -- that it's not real. It doesn't seem real.</s>KATTOUF: It's not real. You know, I'm not saying that he couldn't come through with a couple of surprise announcements in the coming weeks or months. But essentially, this was an in-your-face kind of speech to those who want change in Syria. He's saying, you know, "I will decide what reforms are made. I will decide when they're made and how they're implemented. And, you know, you guys should just sit down and shut up."</s>COOPER: He's also using the same -- literally, the same false rhetoric that was used by Mubarak, that's been used by Gadhafi, blaming satellite news channels, blaming foreigners, blaming unnamed conspiracies. Clearly, it didn't work with Mubarak. We'll see what happens with Gadhafi. Is this government in danger like Mubarak was, or are the instruments of repression so pervasive that they can outlast these protests?</s>KATTOUF: Well, you -- you've hit the nail on the head. The instruments of repression are greater than in Egypt and Tunisia. And the reason I say that is that Tunisia and Egypt have populations that are largely homogeneous, and the army comes from the people. And these people did not want to fire on their own. Syria's ethnic and sectarian makeup is more fractured, particularly the sectarian makeup. And you have the Alawis are minorities. They were a very downtrodden and persecuted minority. And now, for 40 years, they've been in the ascendancy. And when I say the Alawis, I don't mean for a moment to suggest they've all benefited. They haven't. But he has loyal units that will do what they're ordered to do. And his brother and his first cousin command some of these elite units. And then they have about five overlapping security and intelligence services.</s>COOPER: They have a military. They have people who will fire on their protesters, unlike what we saw in Egypt. Ambassador Kattouf, I appreciate your expertise. Thank you for joining us.</s>KATTOUF: Thank you for having me.</s>COOPER: CNN, I should point out, has been applying for visas to go to Syria now for more than a week. But now we've been turned down repeatedly. Now the Syrian embassy isn't even responding to our requests. Coming up, breaking news. Radioactive levels in the seawater near Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. More than 4,000 times the legal limit. Also, new information about those heroic workers who are racing to cool down reactors. You would expect that they would be incredibly well fed, well taken care of. Well, we have learned new details about what their lives have been like while working at this plant. On top of the pressure and the fatigue, the workers don't seem to be getting much food. Crackers sometimes, that's it. Sometimes just two meals a day. More on that next. Also, Isha Sesay following other stories for us tonight -- Isha.</s>ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, the orca that killed its trainer more than a year ago is back performing at Sea World Orlando. Tillicum, the killer whale, went back to work today, performing in a show for the first time since the tragic death of trainer Dawn Brancheau. That story and much more when we come back.