Syria: Rebellion, torture and the Assad regime

Air Date: September 21, 2011

Syrian opposition leader Hassan Abdul-Azim, center, speaks during a press conference outside Damascus, Syria, on Sunday. Syrian opposition members called on President Bashar Assad's regime Sunday to end its six-month deadly crackdown or continue to face peaceful protests that will eventually topple the "authoritarian corrupt security regime." (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)

Hour 1

The Arab Spring revolutions that toppled the regimes controlling Tunisia, Egypt and Libya has also rocked Syria. The rule of Bashar al-Assad has been challenged in the streets like never before, and the regime has cracked down violently with military force, mass incarcerations and brutal torture, earning the condemnation of the United States and other nations. But the rebellion – hiding from the regime, attempting to stay leaderless and enabled by some technology even as the Assad regime monitors others – continues to gather steam. Joining us to provide an update from the Middle East is NPR reporter DEBORAH AMOS, who has been reporting on the Syrian rebellion for several months. We’ll also talk with Dr. MURHAF JOUEJATI, a Syrian-born specialist on Middle East affairs and professor of Middle East Studies at the National Defense University’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. And we’ll hear from Dr. HAZEM HALLAK, a Philadelphia-area medical researcher from Syria whose brother, Dr. Sakher Hallak, was brutally murdered in May, apparently by government forces in Syria, shortly after returning from a visit to Philadelphia.

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[audio: 092111_100630.mp3]

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