This year, the Arab world erupted as a generation of young people, no
longer prepared to suffer in silence, rose up against the hated
despots are ruled their country. By the end of February, it was
beginning to look as if revolution was easy. A generation of young
bloggers and tweeters were giving voice to democratic movements
across the Arab world. People were starting to speak optimistically of
a Arab Spring that events were now about to take a darker turn. Using
the unique film record captured by protesters and their mobile phones,
I will piece together the next chapter of the story. When we went
out onto the street, we were expecting never to come back. It
would be death or a long prison I will meet the activists who risk
their lives to expose the barbarity of their governments. The most
important thing for them is to take this and put it on YouTube say
people will see it. Eventually these are the last moment of
somebody's life. I will show how the Facebook
generation took their fight to the streets.
TRANSLATION: Even those who were filming would hold a camera in one
hand and a rocket in the other. kick-started a war that would rip
the Arab world of its most notorious dictators. Gaddafi is
destroying our country and now we can get freedom and build our
Cairo, February 2011. For the first -- second time in the space of one
month, people in the Arab world had driven out hated despot. Four weeks
earlier, Zine Abedine Ben Ali had fled from Tunisia. Now it was the
turn of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. The question was where with the
revolutionary fervour spread next. After the dramatic fall of Hosni
Mubarak in Egypt came the first stirrings of dissent across the
Egyptian border in Libya. This was one of the most tightly controlled
autocratic systems in the entire region and yet even here, the
regime would soon become vulnerable. Sandwiched between Egypt and
Tunisia, and Libya of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi could not insulate
itself from the democratic What was about to happen here would
galvanise the entire international community and show that in the age
of the internet, despots could no longer hide their outrages behind
closed doors. For 42 years, Gaddafi had run the country as a personal
fiefdom, lining his pockets and those of his relatives with oil
revenue, while running down institutions and failing to invest
in economic growth. He operated a divide and rule policy, exploiting
the tribal differences in his largely desert country. He was
notoriously paranoid about his people meeting to share ideas and
discouraged any form of public But as in Tunisia and Egypt, the
internet had become a place where young people could meet and talk.
People like Aya, a medical student, whose mother had been imprisoned by
Gaddafi, and Mimi, whose political activist father had been killed in
a Tripoli jail. We entered face but because we thought it is a way that
you can express your opinions, feelings, in a very freely way.
TRANSLATION: I started reading articles, browsing Facebook and
finding out what might be possible, how there could be a revolution. I
started to join some Facebook groups blogging about freedom.
we saw the people making those groups and just talking and they
just listen to you and it feels the same as you, we just feel that we
can do a lot through Facebook. Unlike neighbouring Tunisia, Libya
had poor communications and only 5% of people had access to the
internet. Gaddafi did not see it as a threat. What he failed to realise
is that divide and rule didn't work in the age of the internet. Social
media at the power to unite young people against him. -- had the
power. I had had enough. Things were so that so I started to
encourage young people to stand up for themselves and I used online
chat rooms in Libya. I was hopeful because I came across so many aware
and well-informed young people. The usual excuses of, we are fed up,
and, it is hopeless, were not there on Facebook. An invisible army of
young Libyans was waiting in the wings. Unemployed graduates like
Mohammed, Salim and Mohammed, who saw no prospect for themselves in
Gaddafi's Libya. TRANSLATION: Everybody was just
waiting for the first spark, especially after the revolutions in
Egypt and Tunisia. Everybody was waiting to be part of something big.
We were all waiting for someone to make the first sacrifice. This was
the problem, waiting for the first person to break the barrier of fear
and call for the regime to be toppled. It was no coincidence that
the first spark of revolution in Libya was ignited in the eastern
city of Benghazi. With Iddesleigh Conservative, the region had a long
history of rebellion against Gaddafi's dictatorship --
religiously Conservative. He had routinely rounded up political
Islamists from here, imprisoning and torturing them. One incident in
particular had left deep scars on the community. In 1996, over 1,000
prisoners had been gunned down in cold blood while being held at the
Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. Benghazi never forgot its dead.
TRANSLATION: My son was killed in Abu Salim and his father became ill
with grief and he cried so much, he lost his sight. He was 18 years old.
He was imprisoned for three-and-a- half-year so. Why was he a vested?
-- arrested? Just for praying in the mosque. For no reason? He was
arrested for nothing. As revolution spread across Tunisia and Egypt,
the Abu Salim family is now became a focal point for dissent in Libya.
Anxious to stamp out the budding protest, on February 15th, Gaddafi
arrested the family's lawyer, Fathi Terbil, who had lost his brother
and two relatives in the massacre. TRANSLATION: there were 23 or 22
security men. They came in six cars. They said, you must come with us.
Before they left, they searched the house. They took my laptop, my
mobile and some private documents. They took me to the headquarters of
News leaked out of the arrest of Fathi Terbil. The Abu Salim
families reacted furiously, gathering outside the building, the
headquarters of the national security. They wanted the release
of their lawyer. A delegation was allowed inside to meet Gaddafi's
right hand man in Benghazi, his brother-in-law, Abdullah Al-
Senoussi. TRANSLATION: He said if you go out
and demonstrate, even peacefully, even with your hands behind your
back, we will still shoot you. At the very least you will be arrested.
He was very firm, he was hard fought in the way he spoke to us.
He was not negotiating. He said, I But outside the National Security
building, the crowd was growing. The word had spread further and
there were hundreds of people on the streets of Benghazi. They were
now calling for the fall of the The face but activists could now
see that their anger was shared across the city. -- the Facebook
activists. TRANSLATION: The response was
amazing. Young people, poor people, lawyers, teachers, doctors. It
wasn't just one section of society. It was everybody. It was
extraordinary. Anger was now growing across Libya.
On 17th February, a huge crowd gathered in this square in the
eastern port city of Tobruk. Their focus was a monument honouring
Gaddafi's famous Green Books, which detailed his bizarre political
philosophy. He the activists had learned from Egypt and Tunisia that
for their revolution to succeed, they had to let the world be on
Libya know what was happening. A young chemical engineers took
action. I just tried, I take my phone, I am filming, I am forming.
So you thought, I need to capture this moment? Yes. I think it would
I see my brother here and he told me, go back to the house and upload
it quickly. He told me internet will cut soon. That night, Tawfik
knocked himself inside an internet cafe and a bloated his video fitted.
-- and uploaded his video footage. I was uploading the sections one
after the other, maybe five different videos. The internet
signal was very weak. I was praying for the upload to be complete
before they cut it off. Perfection about the Green Book of took me
about 30 minutes to upload on to YouTube. The next day, the internet
was shut down a cross Libya. Gaddafi had finally realised that
in the World Wide Web, Libyans had a powerful weapon. All of the
country's internet connections were routed through one company in
Tripoli and could be instantly disabled. Mobile phone networks
were also shut down. But Tawfik's crucial video had made it to the
outside world. TRANSLATION: two hours after I
uploaded the video, my sister called me to say the fall of the
Green Book statute was being broadcast by Al-Jazeera.
important do you think the pictures you filmed were to the revolution?
TRANSLATION: It was very important because when revolutionaries from
other cities saw it, they knew that Tobruk had fallen. The pictures had
a great psychological impact on the protesters because the Green Book
was the most hated thing in the People all over the world could now
see that the Arab Spring had not stopped in Egypt. In Benghazi, the
demonstration step -- turned into the street war, when men wearing
yellow helmets, believed to be Gaddafi henchman, descended onto
the streets and attacked the What weapons did you have? Stones,
just stones. You were just throwing stones at the police? Yes, stones
for staff TRANSLATION: Some young people were in charge of filming.
Even those who were filming would hold a camera in one hand and a
GUNSHOTS. With the internet now cut off, it
was much more difficult to get pictures out of Libya. But thanks
to old technology, it was still possible. Over the next few days,
Libyans drove here to the Egyptian border in all kinds of cars and
battered taxes, with memory cards that they handed over to friends
and supporters. They then upload it stemmed from Egypt. On 19th
February, a funeral march for those killed in the fighting past
directly in front of the Katiba, the military barracks in Benghazi,
and the seat of Gaddafi's power. TRANSLATION: We all walked down
Jamal Street and knew that once we got close to the military base,
something was going to happen. Every single a young man in
Benghazi was marching in this funeral. As the funeral march
approached the kitty but, snipers started firing from the rooftops. -
- at the Katiba. TRANSLATION: Of the snipers were charging --
targeting people who were active in the revolution. They knew exactly
who to shoot. These were professionals. They were not
ordinary people with guns. Mohammed and his friend were
TRANSLATION: A friend of mine was killed. My friend and I were
shooting a video of what was going on, with this mobile I am holding
Scores of protesters were killed, including Mohammed's friend.
TRANSLATION: What they did shocked all of Benghazi and Libya. The
regime was taking it revenge, even against a funeral. They had no
respect for the dead. The regime's attack on the furore would be
decisive. -- on the funeral. Faced with orders to fire on the mourners,
some local army and police units switched sides, joining the
The goal of the rebels was to take the Katiba. For TRANSLATION: I
remember a young men heading towards the military base without
weapons. But they were burying their chests and shouting at,
shooters. -- bearing. With a few weapons, they used whatever they
TRANSLATION: What I really loved that -- was that why we a Ba'ath
while we attacked the front, other people attacked the rear. It was a
massive invasion. Thanks to the power of our faith and our will to
live, it looked as though we were working to a plan, but there was no
Within hours, the protesters had stormed through these gates and
Gaddafi's rule over Benghazi had I was in the hospital that day. We
were under stress because we were trying to nurse the injured people.
We just heard screaming outside, screaming and gunshots, and so we
went out. We left everything that went out to see what is going on.
We saw people were really happy. We When the protesters finally got in
here, I think they must have been consumed by absolute fury, because
what they have done to this place is nothing short of brittle. They
have packed everything that they could do pieces -- brittle. You
feel that they really took their opportunity to have their revenge
in what are the way they could. -- in whatever way they could.
Gaddafi's ruled in eastern Libya was now over. But unlike Ben Ali in
Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt, he refused to go quietly. Instead, he
buried his revenge. -- he asserted But his so-called "zenga zenga"
speech backfired. This parody went via role in Libya and around the
world. -- viral. The protest movement that had started in online
chat rooms would become a full- scale civil war. Over the coming
weeks, Western governments would have to decide whose side they were
on. Like Mubarak in Egypt, the West had courted the bat -- Gaddafi.
They wanted his oil and his intelligence on Al-Qaeda. But the
triumph of democracy in Tunisia and Egypt had taught the leaders in the
United States and Europe that it could be a mistake to hang on to
their former friends. Protests were now breaking out in other Arab
countries. Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and the tiny island state of
Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. At first sight, Bahrain seemed an
unlikely candidate for revolt. As an oil-rich Gulf state, the small
monarchy was a playground for the rich and famous and hosted prestige
international events like the Formula One Grand Prix. Yet
underneath the glitz and glamour, The majority Shia population had
long harboured grudges against Bahrain's corrupt Sunni leadership.
Sheas were discriminated against and the country's claim to be a
democracy were a sham. -- this year. Situated between the Sunni kingdom
of Saudi Arabia and this year Republic of Iran, Bahrain was
pivotal. It provided a strategic outpost for the United States and
hosted its Fifth Fleet. Developments here would have
repercussions far beyond the tiny island. Inspired by the uprisings
in Tunisia and Egypt, a young Shia activist used Facebook to organise
a protest in Bahrain. On 14th February, Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima
and thousands of Bahrainis took to the Street to demand reforms from
the ruling Al-Khalifa family and its head, King Hamad. Later that
same day, armed police waited for a Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima outside his
home. TRANSLATION: We heard screams and gunshots. We ran and from the
doorway, I saw him lying at the end of the street. I didn't understand
why he was lying there. I started shouting, come back, come back. He
got up and started running towards me. He was running in a very odd
way, like somebody who is very sick. I couldn't understand why. As soon
as he was inside, I closed the door and he fell down on to the floor
and started vomiting blood. father picked his son up to take
him to hospital. TRANSLATION: The police were standing at the end of
the alleyway. They had followed him and shot him. I put Ali in the car
and I saw that the police were proud that they had hit him. They
were holding their weapons high. As if to say, victory. They were
celebrating. TRANSLATION: When my brother went into the intensive
care room, I heard screams and then I heard my father scream. And then
Within hours, that news of my shaver -- Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima's
killing had spread across the island. 10,000 angry Bahrainis
CHANTING. That night, King Hamad made a rare
TV appearance. He expressed his regret for the death of ballet and
But his speech did not appeal the enraged Bahrainis, he now took
their demonstration into the heart of the capital. -- who now. The
protesters were looking for their equivalent of Cairo's Tahrir Square,
and they came here to what was then known as Pearl Roundabout. Teachers,
lawyers, religious elders, men, women and children. They pitched
their tents here and vowed not to leave until their demands were met.
They demanded political reform and equal rights for all citizens, but
Shia and Sunni. -- both. Human rights activist saw that something
unique was happening. This was a frightening moment for them. Belle
Khalifah had prospered by playing one section of the people off
against each other. But now people were looking for political freedom
and civil rights. Today's later, government security forces took up
position on the bridge overlooking the roundabout -- two days later.
What happened next was captured on Everyone is sleeping early morning,
and suddenly they were attacked. Their tents were set on fire and
burnt and many were killed. Men and women were running here and there.
They didn't even -- even give them a chance to clear the place. They
As the clashes turned deadly, the wounded were brought here to
Bahrain's made it past -- hospital. In the car-park, there were crowds
of protesters, some of them using loudspeakers to leave the chance
for the Al-Khalifa family to go. -- lead the chanting. Inside, the
medical staff were shocked at the nature of the injuries, including a
gunshot wounds to the head. Some of the doctors gave emotional
interviews to the foreign media. is a massacre, by all means,
because they are innocent. They haven't done anything, they were
just protesting. What is this? We are that we do first century. We
are civilised people, they were only demonstrating and they were
Outrage medical staff joined the protesters and the police began to
see the hospital as a hub of anti- But the crackdown did not stop the
protests. The protesters tip to the streets and someone was filming,
unaware that security forces were lying in wait.
The images were uploaded onto YouTube and went around the world.
One man's blood-soaked shirt became symbolic of the terror that had
Caught in the international spotlight, the government called
off its offensive and lifted its ban on demonstrations. But the
concession came too late. Many Shia protesters would not be satisfied
as long as the hated dynasty was in power. Within hours, they reclaimed
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 40 seconds
The regime was fighting for its life and it fought back with
calculated menace. The Government now acted to exploit the religious
differences of the people. Checkpoints were set up to identify
and target Shia protesters and overnight, bulldozers appeared,
destroying Shia mosques like this one. It was it clear provocation to
Age-old hostilities between Sunni and Shia reignited. Disorder on the
streets was dealt with it The chaos that followed was the
excuse the regime needed to crack down on the uprising once and for
all. Claiming that the unrest was
fuelled by the show macro government in Iran, Bahrain
enlisted the support of Sunni Saudi Arabia -- the Shia government. On
14th March, Saudi troops rolled across the border and the next day,
On March 18th, troops fired in centuries into the heart of the
roundabout and shock the protesters as they fled. This time, when the
injured and dying arrived at a hospital, the security forces were
Military vehicles had barricaded every entrance and uniformed
soldiers in masks were patrolling this car park. No one was allowed
in or out. Even by their standard of recent events, what happened
next was shocking. This hospital was turned into a military prison
and doctors and nurses who treated the protesters were arrested and
tortured. I secured an interview with a senior member of the ruling
family to see how he would justify such deadly violence. We waited for
a month and at the end of that month we saw total anarchy, we saw
violence spread, we saw fear installed, so we had to take the
necessary measures to restore order. Wasn't the Bath majority of the
force employed by the security forces here -- was under the vast
majority? YouTube has many clips showing your security forces in
Bahrain shooting at unarmed people. I do not deny that, mistakes were
made from both sides. There is no denying that. But the bottom line
is we had to restore law and order. Why is it necessary to put doctors
and nurses on trial? They say they were going about their job, that
their only crime was to bear witness to the injuries of those
protesters. Nurses and doctors that have been charged broke the
sanctity of going about their profession, no one is above the law.
Doctors, politicians, member of the ruling family or any man on the
street. The law must be a buyer did and enforced. The Saudi back
clampdown could not have come at a worse time for Western governments
as they struggled to find their feet in the constantly shifting
landscape of the Malath -- of the Arab Spring. In Libya, time was
running out for the revolutionaries as Colonel Gaddafi forces rapidly
advanced on rebel-held territory. Western governments are hotly
debated intervention. On 17th March, a UN resolution was passed,
authorising the use of military force against Colonel Gaddafi in
But in Bahrain, strategic interests and the price of oil carried the
day. As the Bahrainian regime pulverised what remained of its
people's bid for democracy, the United States and Europe looked the
other way. It was now three months since the death of a young fruit
seller in Tunisia had sparked revolt across the Arab world.
Tunisia and Egypt had overthrown dictators. Libya was embroiled in
civil war and in Yemen, protests threatened the President's 30 year
rule. But there was one country that appeared to be immune to the
turmoil. Syria. The hardline regime in Syria, just across the border
behind me, had been in the vice- like grip of the Assad family for
over 40 years. In Syria, the control of the army, security
forces and emergency laws made political opposition impossible.
With journalists banned from Syria, I headed to Beirut. Just two hours
drive from Damascus, it had become a relatively safe haven for Syrian
dissidents who had less across the border -- who had fled across the
I was here to meet Syrian exiles and cyber activist who had created
a face put paid to hold the regime to account two years earlier. To
disguise his real identity, he had used a composite photo of faces to
create an Everyman called Malath Aumran. Early this year he had
received warnings that the authorities warn his trail so he
had fled to Beirut, where he set up a network to help protesters inside
Syria get their message out. I was thinking we have 20 years of really
hard work before anything changes in Syria. We were preparing
ourselves in the long term. The problem is we have no hope. We were
thinking even the political activists, human rights activists,
what is the solution? And there was no solution. It was completely
black. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. President Bashar
Al-Assad came from a dynasty it with a notorious vet -- reputation
for political repression. His father, Hafez Assad, had been
responsible for the massacre of more than 10,000 people in the City
of Hama in 1982. Bashar Al-Assad appeared to be a reformer. He made
moves to liberalise the economy and opened up political dialogue with
the West and he introduced the internet. Roughly 20% of the
population now had access to the internet but unlike other Arab
dictators, Assad understood its power and had blocked Facebook and
YouTube. The battle for control of Syria would take place not just on
the streets but also in cyberspace. TRANSLATION: Anyone going into an
internet cafe in Syria must handover their passport. All of
their online searches will be monitored. The country is
completely in the iron grip of the security services. I was completely
certain about the sadistic way in which the regime would respond and
the sadistic techniques they would used if anyone rebelled. Throughout
February, while other Arab countries were in open revolt,
there was no sign that Damascus would get caught up in the turmoil.
In spite of the repressive nature of the regime, the Bath party
commanded significant support in Syria for its stance against Israel
and the United States. Assad confidently declared that the Arab
uprising would never have reached his country. In February, he and
blocked Facebook but would appear to be a magnanimous gesture was
understood by insiders to be a ploy. The website could now be used to
gather information about his opponents.
TRANSLATION: there were those who advised Assad to use filtered
monitoring, which means that their lives of anyone suspected of having
any political activity and anyone who has any communication with
opposition figures abroad. strategy backfired. That was, I
would say, the worst mistake for the Syrian government. Mistake for
them. They opened Facebook. Instead of hundreds joining Facebook, we
started to have thousands and thousands. It was like a platform
for a national brainstorming. face become blocked, the internet
bars with covert chat about revolution and uprising. Then
something happened which tapped into the deepest anger of the
arrested in the southern town of Fort -- town of Deraa. They were
caught spray-painting the walls of their school but what enraged the
authorities was the choice of words. Their graffiti was the now iconic
slogan of the Arab revolutions: "the people want the regime to
fall". Nothing was heard of the children for 10 days. Simeon
dissident Omar was in Damascus when the children disappeared. He and
other dedicated regime opponents organised a demonstration.
TRANSLATION: I had an overwhelming desire to protest but this was
blocked by intense fear. When we went out onto the street we were
expecting never to come back. It would be death or a long prison
sentence. That really is what it was like. I remember how I embraced
my son with a lot of love thinking that I would probably never see him
again. On the day of the protest, Omar and a small band of activists
marched openly through the streets of Damascus, pushing their way
TRANSLATION: One of the slogans we shouted was for the release of the
children in Deraa and the people on the Street responded with a lot of
emotion. To be honest, the Syrian people took little notice. What it
was that moved them was the arrest of the younger children. When news
leaked out that the schoolchildren had been tortured by the
authorities, the citizens of Deraa rose up in open rebellion. Syria
had joined the Arab Spring. Over the next few days, 3,000 to up to
The authorities sealed off the city and said plainclothes police
amongst the crowd. -- cent. Many protesters were beaten up and
arrested, but they were undeterred. On the 5th day, the police sent a
clear message that there would be zero tolerance for a Syrian
GUNSHOTS. They opened fire, killing five
people. Enraged by this response, the people there wanted more than
the release of their children. They wanted to topple the regime. For
the Syrian activists, at the challenge was how to harness the
protests in Deraa into a full-scale national uprising. TRANSLATION: We
had to think from the start about how to transmit our voice abroad.
We thought about a variety of ways. The YouTube was the most obvious
choice, because YouTube is a popular media our kit which had
spread across the whole world in minutes. -- outlet. We had to use a
method which didn't draw the attention of the security units,
and that was the mobile phone. that the genie was out of the
bottle, the protest quickly spread to the cities of Baniyas, let
tackier, Homs and Hama. -- that tackier. Distributing the up --
uploaded video clips to use all the negotiations around the world was
critical. Bashir to news organisations around the world was
This is the last thing we received, the first martyr. A so somebody has
been killed in a Hama? -- so So in that particular video, some
people are trying to save the man of's life, and that least number --
at least two people are recording it will stop the most important
thing for them is to take this and put it on YouTube. So people can
see it. As soon as possible. thought I would be prepared,
actually, because we have been hearing about these protests for
such a long time, but it is quite incredible and essentially, these
are the last moments of somebody's Syria's security services were
closely tied to the regime for through family, tribal and
religious links. Assad's paramilitary thugs did the regime's
dirty work on the ground. TRANSLATION: This video shows
without any doubt that they behaved like animals. They don't know how
to behave like human beings. They have no ethics, they treat people
in a horrendous way. Just as they used to treat people secretly in
presence. But now they use these methods openly in the streets in
front of everyone. The regime justified its crackdown public
insisting it was the work of Islamic terrorists. But mobile
phones allowed the man in the street to speak directly to the
wild and refute the propaganda. -- Could the world. They say we are
terrorists. It is a big live. -- it is a lie. We want freedom. They
want the rights, they want justice in Syria. On 16th April, Assad
When I was hearing Assad's speech, it was for me, overwhelming.
Because you can tell that he is lying and he is lying in front of
the cameras, and he knows that many people out there know he is lying
and he doesn't care. Yes, I am lying, but because I have the
strength, the power, the army, and the secret police, you cannot do
anything. Then on 25th April, at the regime showed its true colours.
Tanks were sent into the cities of Deraa, Homs and Baniyas, to crush
TRANSLATION: This video is from the city of Baniyas. It shows one of
the most courageous acts of peaceful resistance against the
army's invasion to crush the demonstrators. The young men came
out with naked chests and ran across the sea -- streets to
prevent the tangs coming into the city. They waved their hands into
the air to give the side of victory to make sure that everybody knew
the demonstration was entirely peaceful. We don't know what
happened to these protesters. The pictures relayed by Rami Nakhle and
from Beirut were sent around the world, providing outrage. But there
was no appetite from Western leaders to to get involved in yet
another Arab conflict. The Syrian authorities now took steps to stop
any more images of the uprising from reaching the outside world.
They arrested anyone filming with a mobile phone. They posted
surveillance teams and snipers on rooftops. In turn, the activists
became more sophisticated in their techniques, avoiding the danger of
uploading mobile phone footage by using Skype to broadcast their
message live. They are calling it now? Yes. This
is an old friend from Baniyas. He has just given us this picture from
his laptop. This is from his home? No. He is here and the spider is on
the other route. He is hiding his head and just showing them. -- the
sniper is on the other roof. He is crouching down with the laptop over
his head? Just to see what is going on. It is a big risk. Every Friday
across Syria, there was warfare on the streets. By the middle of May,
the number of people killed by the security forces was estimated to
have reached 1,000. As more and more demonstrators were
arrested or killed for filming, the activists outside the country
devised way to smuggle in secret filming devices. -- ways.
TRANSLATION: We were able to get hold of cameras which could be
hidden in a shirt pocket or race leave or a button. -- asleep.
inside Syria, activists created their own makeshift devices, harp -
- hiding their phones so they could keep filming what was happening on
their street. The regime responded by intermittently shouting down the
internet in volatile parts of the country. -- shouting. But the side
operation had done his job. Syrian exile's around the world now
rallied in support of the uprising, supplying satellite phones to the
dissidents. They are not cheap, they cost over ï¿½1,000 each and are
being paid for by wealthy Syrian exile's the one to make sure that
the message continues to get out of Syria -- who want to. Of firms like
this are incredibly difficult to trace and allow the user to bypass
controls of the internet on crucial days like Friday. So if you fill a
protest on one of these, you can uploaded directly to the internet
that film. A full-scale war broke out between the activists and the
Assad regime. TRANSLATION: We know the regime had a dedicated team of
computer hackers who specialised in the internet and hacking and
electronic warfare. The Syrian police started hacking into the
websites of the activists and Facebook page us. They sent them
death threats and tampered with websites to make the world believe
they were Israeli spies. So this is about a vocation that a
harmful side is trying to connect - - a notification. Yes, but by
security programme has managed to block this. This didn't used to
happen before? No. This week -- to the Syrian government is becoming
more sophisticated. Are you worried they will catch up with your
security settings? Yes, but we think we are more advanced than
them in hacking. But despite that confidence, the
regime was closing in on him. At the end of July, the Government
sent tanks into Hama, the traditional Islamic stronghold at
the heart of opposition to the Assad dynasty. Three weeks later,
Rami Nakhle or and Omar Edilbi received death threats from within
the Syria. Rami Nakhle has now left Beirut. -- within Syria. As the
summer drew to a close, at Assad's killing machine seemed unstoppable.
And despite international condemnation, the Syrian regime
The bleak outlook for Syria must not be allowed to overshadow the
extraordinary change that has swept the Arab world this year. For the
Egyptian President Mubarak is facing trial. -- former. The
military hold power and people are frustrated by the pace of reform,
but both Egypt and Tunisia are planning to hold their first free
elections before the year is out. But the most dramatic change has
come in Libya. On August 21st, the news broke that rebel forces had
taken Tripoli, driving Colonel Gaddafi from power. Now Tripoli is
experiencing the same euphoria that I witnessed in Benghazi after it
was liberated. It has been a remarkable at best
beer in Benghazi since the revolution. Every night, people
gather and listen to speeches. For many of them, it is the first time
in their lives they have a really been able to express themselves.
None of this would have been possible when Gaddafi was in power,
but in a free Libya, they are loving every moment.
Only in Libya has the Arab Spring ushered in a true revolution. Now a
new country must be constructed from the ashes of Gaddafi's toxic
rule. No one has any illusions about the difficulty of what lies