Syrian Insider Defects to Qatar
COSTELLO: Just about 30 minutes past the hour. Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Stories we're following in the NEWSROOM, Egyptian intelligence officers are meeting with the man who kidnapped two Americans and their translator in Egypt. Bedouin Sheeks have said the hostages including Boston Pastor Michel Louis are unharmed and well fed. But an Egyptian official says the hostages seemed to be in a state of shock and fatigue. The kidnapper demanding the release of a jailed uncle. Mitt Romney is steadfast in his pledge to release only two years of his personal income tax returns after Democrats and some Republicans amped up the pressure this weekend. Romney made a point to say previous Republican presidential contender, John McCain released only two years of his returns. Romney also said Democrat John Kerry's wife who has hundreds of millions of dollars never released her tax return during his campaign. London's Heathrow airport bracing for its first big Olympic influx that expects 237,000 people to fly in or out today. That's about 25 percent more than a normal day. The airport said the arrivals will include 335 athletes, the London games begin a week from Friday. A Syrian government insider for 34 years finally says he has had enough. Former Syrian ambassador in Iraq Nawaf Al-Fares worked as one of President Bashar Al-Assad's trusted lieutenants. But in a stunning turn of events, he defected to Qatar because of the unrelenting bloodshed and he blames Assad for the ongoing violence. Ivan Watson is following all of these developments from Istanbul. Ivan, let's begin with the intense fighting in Damascus. The Red Cross just came out and said the violence in Syria amounts to a civil war.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The ICRS's lawyers basically calling it a, quote, "non-international armed conflict," which is legalese, Carol, for civil war. Now I think many Damascus, many Syrian residents with the death toll at more than 15,000 in the last 16 months would already argue that they already entered civil war stages months ago and there are strong signs that the Syrian government can no longer hold on to the capital Damascus the way it could months ago. I'm going to direct you on a map to the neighborhood in the center of the city Medan (ph). That is where there's been fierce fighting for several days now. We had live streams over the Internet from rebel cameras inside of rebels engaged in what seems like fierce gun battles in that neighborhood of Medan (ph) today. Residents telling us there was gunfire yesterday before the electricity went out in central Damascus and also videos emerging of activists actually setting up road blocks on the main highway running in and out of Damascus, blocking traffic, showing just how difficult it is right now for the Syrian central government to even control its capital city now. It does look like the circle is tightening around the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.</s>COSTELLO: Ok Ivan let's talk about the man who defected to Qatar. He talked about a link between Bashar al-Assad and al Qaeda. Can you explain for us more?</s>WATSON: Well, that's right. Few people might know about this better than this man. Nawaf al-Fares who was Syria's first ambassador to Baghdad in more than 20 years. He took the position in 2008. Now, he says he saw how the Syrian government was basically funneling al Qaeda fighters, Jihadi militants through Syria, across the border to Iraq, during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and we know how terribly that turned out with thousands and thousands of people killed and he is accusing the Syrian central government of basically having an alliance with -- with al Qaeda. And that totally turns around the Syrian government's claim that the Syrian rebels are al Qaeda militants. I asked him in this exclusive interview with the U.S. news network what he thinks about the mentality right now of the Syrian president and his inner circle. Take a listen.</s>NAWAF AL-FARES, FORMER SYRIAN AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ (through translator): I serve the Syrian regime for 34 years. I was among those at the top of the Syrian regime. But what happened in the last year during the holy revolution, all of the killing, the massacres, the refugees and the declaration of war by Bashar al Assad against the Syria people stopped any kind of hope towards reform or real change which had been promised previously by Bashar al Assad.</s>WATSON: That's right, that's not exactly the excerpt of the interview that we wanted to play for you. Another startling accusation that Nawaf al-Fares made was he claimed that the brother- in-law of Syrian president Bashar al Assad a man named Assef Shawkat actually ran an al Qaeda in Iraq safe haven in a Syrian village right next to the Iraqi border that was hit by U.S. Special Forces and helicopter gunships in October of 2008. In fact, he said he claimed he talked to Assef Shawkat who is in that camp an hour after U.S. Forces hit the camp and killed at least eight people. It was a major diplomatic incident in 2008. And certainly that kind of information will make this man Nawaf al-Fares the highest ranking Syrian defector to publicly break with the regime thus far. That will make him a very desirable asset for Western intelligence agencies to talk to -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Ivan Watson reporting live for us this morning. In France, Madonna she's being threatened with a lawsuit. It involves, oh, politics and a swastika.