Bashar al-Assad - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Bashar al-Assad Index / People Transcripts Tommy Vietor ...incredibly hopeful. Bashar [Hafez] al- Assad is a tyrant. He tortures people. He's ... Dennis Ross ...and the crackdowns that [Bashar al-] Assad was carrying out are increasingl... ...an agreement on fourteen points with Assad , and it becomes clear that Assad wil... ...with Assad, and it becomes clear that Assad will do none of them. Then Erdoğa... ...in early 2012. He said, “If we remove Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood takes hi... ...of in house. He says, “Look, I think Assad is going to go the way of Mubarak.” An... ...going to swamp them, destroy them. And Assad will say, ‘If I go, you're all dead.... ...No one initially called for removing Assad . It was Assad's response and th... ...called for removing Assad. It was Assad 's response and the brutalization o... Show more... Derek Chollet ...like the Qaddafi regime in Libya or the Assad regime in Syria to end something tha... ...lead, and saying the same thing about Assad in 2011 was the feeling that thes... ...judgment was Mubarak is going to go, Assad is going to go, Qaddafi is going to go... ...of the Alawite minority that was the Assad regime. But certainly the broader sens... ...what the administration should do about Assad in Syria, and whether you saw it at th... ...of the war in Syria to try to get Assad to end his campaign or try to give som... ...make it harder, if not impossible, for Assad 's air force to operate, could we d... ...specifically to target things that Assad values. There was never any question o... ...would we actually do anything against Assad , but it was more like could you—... ...intended effect of actually convincing Assad to do differently or do somethin... ...US military power to try to influence Assad , those were sort of the factors tha... ...about whether we use force to take out Assad or try to get Assad to the negotiatin... ...force to take out Assad or try to get Assad to the negotiating table. But it go... ...this doesn't take away the fact that Assad still—even after the military CW wa... ...after the military CW was removed, that Assad still pursued a brutal campaig... ...military-grade weapons. Essentially, Assad was making dirty bombs, which is kin... ...we could plant some seeds of doubt in Assad 's mind that our bombing of Syria coul... ...both. Clearly the ISIL—it wasn't that Assad and ISIL were friends either. And w... ...our argument is, as long as you have Assad in power or [are] prosecuting thi... Show more... Jeffrey Feltman ...that it's time for [Bashar al-] Assad to go was wise. At the time, it seeme... ...president indicate that it was time for Assad —who was not a friend, unlik... ...like that? [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and Assad earlier had quite a positiv... ...I think that there was a sense that Assad 's days were numbered, and numbered i... ...for the type of US response that, if Assad didn't go, would have encouraged him t... ...would have ipso facto led to Assad 's departure. I think it would hav... ...wanted was to raise the complexity to Assad in such a way that he would say, “Well... ...as complicated as we possibly could for Assad to crack down with impunity on his ow... Show more... John Brennan ...Arab Spring to dislodge Bashar [al-] Assad , but also how the terrorist an... ...regarding what to say and what do about Assad in Syria, but there could be othe... ...Russia was the main backer of al- Assad in Syria. I worked very closely wit... ...group of opponents to the Bashar Assad regime. You had a variety o... Robert Gates ...do that and do it quickly— [Bashar al-] Assad was on his heels at that point—it migh... Susan Rice ...And I note that the opposition to Assad are obviously much longer a trajector... ...very closely with the evidence of Assad 's use of chemical weapons agains... Chuck Hagel ...Spring and what to do about Bashar al- Assad and the civil war in Syria. I want t... ...pick up the intelligence that Assad 's people have used some form o... ...and try to make it appear that it was Assad 's troop? So we verified this throug... ...agency we had. In fact, it was Assad 's people who did it. Then after we go... ...United Nations, who agreed that it was Assad , then the president asked for options... ...different options he has to respond to Assad and Syria? The military came up with ... ...option to do this. We could take all of Assad 's precursors to chemical weapons an... ...was saying, “What's happened here?” And Assad , I'm sure, was pretty pleased with it... ...a lot of—we didn't get them all. Assad was never going to give up everything... ...the best we can to try to minimize that Assad would do this again, or in some wa... ...do this again, or in some way weaken Assad if we could. So that was the optio... ...were fighting for their country against Assad . So, yes, it was complicated. Yes, i... ...are far more dominant with assisting Assad with money, with weapons, with planes... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Democrats Democrats go to the Obama in the Senate Obama in the Senate go to the Agriculture Agriculture go to the Russia Russia go to the Education Education