Browse content similar to 30/07/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight, a top Syrian diplomat in London defects, saying he can no | :00:12. | :00:19. | |
longer bear to represent the regime. As the battle for the city of | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
Aleppo intensifies, will this increasingly bloody civil war split | :00:22. | :00:26. | |
the country. This is another blow to Assad, and his cronies in | :00:26. | :00:31. | |
Damascus, it is good news, this is one in the eye for the regime. We | :00:31. | :00:37. | |
want this regime to crumble and fold as fast as possible. What does | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
the home advantage mean to GB, as they try to match their medal haul | :00:41. | :00:46. | |
from Beijing. We have Team Newsnight on the case, and author | :00:46. | :00:52. | |
of Luck and the head of UK sport. After an Olympic ceremony that | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
broke broadcasting records, what were the messages intends and did | :00:56. | :01:02. | |
we get them. We will talk to the designer of the called Ron, code | :01:02. | :01:10. | |
named Betty. Europe's last dictatorship, as John | :01:11. | :01:16. | |
Sweeney puts himself in the place of those tortured by the regime. | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
The guards force the prisoners to strip naked, and stand in this | :01:20. | :01:30. | |
:01:30. | :01:32. | ||
position, spread eagled, in minus 20, there was snow outside. Good | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
evening, Syria's most senior diplomat in the UK has mit his post | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
in protest at the violent and oppressive actions of the regime | :01:42. | :01:49. | |
headed by Bashar Al-Assad. He told the Home Office he was no longer | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
prepared to continue. It comes as the Government forces | :01:52. | :01:58. | |
try to retake the largest city, Aleppo, with the world paralyses, | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
how can the increasingly brutal civil war end, could it be by | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
spliting the country. The battle for Syria's largest city | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
has raged all day. Sending hundreds of thousands fleeing. Through the | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
noise of war, it is hard to know who's gaining the upper hand. | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
But for the regime, victory is vital. | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
In its report, state television claimed the army had purged one key | :02:25. | :02:32. | |
district of Aleppo, from what it called terrorist gangs. He said | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
they had taken complete control of the city, and will make the whole | :02:37. | :02:45. | |
city secure within a few days. But the rebels, here race to go try | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
to rescue a trapped unit, say that is nonsense. They say they are | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
still advancing. Though they are certainly taking some casualties. | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
While fighting continued in Aleppo, rebels claimed they had taken a key | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
checkpoint, Anadan, to the north. Giving them free movement between | :03:03. | :03:10. | |
the city and the Turkish border. And this unverified footage, they | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
are apparently celebrating the capture of a Government tank, | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
vowing to go all the way to the Presidential Palace. | :03:16. | :03:23. | |
For now, on the streets of all lep po, they are still fighting mainly | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
with -- Aleppo, they are still fighting mainly with the | :03:27. | :03:33. | |
Kalashnikovs, still outgunned by the Government forces. Their | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
strategy is to win gradually and wear them down. They don't have the | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
fire power to win militarily, they have been wage ago war of attrition, | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
trying to bleed the regime of its resources, trying to turn the tide | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
of popular opinion against the regime. Military depexs and these | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
kinds of things. It is very interesting, if you look at the | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
combat raging now, not just in Aleppo city, and the suburbs, the | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
rebels are shooting in all different directions, this is a | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
sign for the regime to say you are encircled and surrounded, we are | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
everywhere. The very fact they are now in Aleppo, the ancient trading | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
city out of the fight for the last year, proves that strategy is | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
working. At least part of Aleppo's prosperous Sunni business community, | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
has finally backed the revolution, they are not the only people | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
changing sides. In another example of the slow erosion of the regime, | :04:26. | :04:33. | |
Syria's most senior diplomat in London, resigned today. He told the | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
Foreign Office he was no longer willing to represent a regime that | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
had committed such violent and oppressive acts against his own | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
people. The news follows the resignation or defection of a | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
number of Syrian diplomats this month. As well as a much larger | :04:47. | :04:52. | |
number of generals and other military officers. Nearly all, | :04:52. | :05:02. | |
:05:02. | :05:04. | ||
including the former charges defares, have been Sunni -- charges | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
defairs have been Sunni Muslims. Some think he will retreat to the | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean, to try to set up an | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
Alawite mini-state. That would hardly be viable. I agree it could | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
never work, because those areas are heavily populated by Sunni Muslims, | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
one area that is 50% Sunni population. What gives it some | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
plausibilty, if you look at where the massacres have taken place, | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
these campaigns can only be described as campaigns of "ethnic | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
cleansing", designed to terrorise the Sunni population. More | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
important than, that although that is pretty bad in itself, designed | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
to make the Alawite communities, around these areas, feel complicit, | :05:48. | :05:55. | |
and feel as though their fortune, their life and death struggle, is | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
inextricablely tied to the political fortune of the Assad | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
regime. When I met refugees from Aleppo on the Turkish border a few | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
days a they told us the mainly Alawite shabiha militia were | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
burning bodies in the city, sometimes burning people alive, to | :06:13. | :06:20. | |
spread sectarian divide. They are working hard on a sectarian war, | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
they didn't succeed, we have so many different communities, Alawite, | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
Sunni and Christians joining the rebels, they didn't succeed. Others | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
aren't so sure, but long-term sectarian war is a fear for the | :06:32. | :06:39. | |
future. For now, for those still trying to survive, amid the gunfire | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
in Aleppo, where bread is running short, as well as water and power | :06:43. | :06:50. | |
supplies, the present is frightening enough. Joining us now | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
the former British ambassador to Syria. You know the country very | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
well, we know Aleppo is the largest population, but stragically, how | :06:59. | :07:09. | |
significant would this victory be for either side? It is the largest | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
city in Syria, two million people. We can't talk about victory, it is | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
a long way off that. We have a number of fighters in the streets, | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
extraordinary courage being shown. Your correspondent and cameramen | :07:21. | :07:24. | |
were also incredibly courageous. There is a lot of courage and | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
bullets being fired. But there is no question of the rebels taking | :07:28. | :07:37. | |
control of Aleppo. They are way short of that. In terms of what is | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
happening today we saw another defection from a high-profile | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
diplomat here, if these start to add up, could it come from within, | :07:44. | :07:50. | |
that fall? I think a diplomat here or there doesn't make a difference. | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
The question is whether the regime would fall apart, as you say. There | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
are two things to look at, one is the loyalty of the army, more | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
importantly the effectiveness of the secret police. If you get a | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
condition of chaos, in Aleppo or in Damascus, such that the secret | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
police don't know where people are, can't come along the next day and | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
arrest them, the fear, the overriding fear of the secret | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
police will dissipate, and then the regime will be in a lot more | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
trouble. If Assad went, would that be the end of the secret police. | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
Assad is of no importance, he has never run Syria, he doesn't run it | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
today. You really believe that. If he went tomorrow the problems would | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
continue? If Assad himself went tomorrow it would make no | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
difference. He would be replaced by one of his relatives, by some | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
intelligence general, and the same regime would be determined to stay | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
in power, this is the key to it, you see. Both sides are now | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
determined to fight. Because, both sides think that they have some | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
chance of winning, and more importantly, neither side can | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
afford to lose. The consequences for them and their families would | :08:57. | :09:03. | |
be terrible. You heard it described this vision, maybe, of an Alawite | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
mini-state. Can you see a Syria now completely divided which a civil | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
war? It is already divided by a civil war. We have a civil war, it | :09:12. | :09:22. | |
:09:22. | :09:23. | ||
has a sectarian element, we have foreign support to either side. | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
mini-state from within Syria? Alawites will have to fight to | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
survive. For the moment there is no scope for diplomacy, because they | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
are determined to fight. But then there is some kind of a military | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
outcome, perhaps even a stalemate, then we have to think, how we can | :09:37. | :09:44. | |
get some degree of stability into that situation, where you you have | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
two million Alawite terrified of the other 20 million Syrians. It is | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
not impossible, we are not a long way from it, that there will be | :09:51. | :09:56. | |
some kind of enclave in the North West just as we have in Azerbaijan. | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
An enclave supported by a foreign power, that could survive, and at | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
least you would have some kind of a frontline, some end to the fighting. | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
You were nodding when you heard the description of these massacres | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
asset nick cleansing. If you take us back to -- as "ethnic cleansing", | :10:13. | :10:20. | |
if you take us back to Bosnia, was there a moment when some kind of | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
intervention was possible and we have missed it? Hard to say we have | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
missed an opportunity. I think we have been mistaken in calling for | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
the removal of Assad. That was the wrong thing to seek. What we should | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
have been seeking was for the regime to move its policies and try | :10:34. | :10:44. | |
:10:44. | :10:45. | ||
to head off this rebellion that they now face. End of day three, a | :10:45. | :10:50. | |
bronze medal for Team GB in gymnastics, but disappointment in | :10:50. | :11:00. | |
the diving. Our lot may not be wearing Stella McCartney, but crisp | :11:00. | :11:06. | |
gently flamable sportswear, with the suggest from the BBC, it is | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
time to welcome our team taking us through a daily digest of the | :11:11. | :11:21. | |
:11:21. | :11:32. | ||
action. Here is Steve Smith's 60- It has been a day of shocks and | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
surprises, not least in the Newsnight office, where our | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
Olympics coverage has been planned down to the very first detail. | :11:40. | :11:45. | |
David Cameron went to the games on the tube. Though his bycicle | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
followed behind in the zil lane, no it didn't. After criticism over | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
empty seats, organisers have released another 3,000 tickets to | :11:53. | :12:00. | |
the public, and promise more to come. The Queen's granddaughter, | :12:00. | :12:06. | |
Zara Philips, has put Britain's equestrians on course for a silver | :12:06. | :12:13. | |
medal. But Britain's gymnasts had their medal downgraded to a bronze | :12:13. | :12:20. | |
after an appeal by the Japanese. It was our first men's gymnastic's | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
medal for 100 years. There was laughter, tears, or a gently | :12:24. | :12:31. | |
suppressed sigh, as excitable Alan George Moldovanu snatched gold in | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
the men's 10m air rifle, we will all remember where we were when | :12:37. | :12:39. | |
that happened. We have all taken that young man to our hearts. There | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
is a lot more tomorrow, canoe, hockey, gymnastic, I should stand | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
up four our tracksuits, I spent a lot of time bidding at the Jimmy | :12:48. | :12:53. | |
Saville auction for these. We will see the Rolls-Royce tomorrow night. | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
What is a science editor's take on what we have seen so far with Team | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
GB. I have been looking at performance, whether we can tell | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
anything from the early list of medals. Most people measure | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
performance by the number of golds, silver, bronze medals we achieve. | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
We have one silver, two bronze, a long way behind America and Japan | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
and China with 11. Can we tell anything about performance edge | :13:19. | :13:29. | |
:13:29. | :13:31. | ||
from the early tally. There is huge expectation that Team | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
GB will perform as well as they did at Beijing or better. How are they | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
doing so far. It is a slightly less good start than the officials would | :13:39. | :13:46. | |
have hoped for. Tom Carver, the road cyclist was -- Mark Cavendish | :13:46. | :13:51. | |
was supposed to catalyse the team with a victory in the road race, | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
but he didn't manage that. There is a long way to go and things can | :13:55. | :14:02. | |
change fast a mildly disappointing start. At Beijing 14 of our 19 gold | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
medals came from three events, sailing, cycling and rowing. Those | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
events have yet to run their full course, so we should be in a much | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
better position to judge how well Team GB is doing, by early next | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
week. So is there anything we can learn | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
from looking back at how nations perform. Scientists have found that | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
there is an advantage to staging the Olympics, a host effect. | :14:24. | :14:34. | |
This shows how Australia's share of medals increased ahead of the year | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
2000 as focus and investment began. This is Great Britain's share ahead | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
of London, it shows a similar pattern heading into our host year, | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
year zero. We are similar to Australia in some ways. In the | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
Olympics, the Sydney Olympics, they had a 5% share of the total medal | :14:51. | :14:57. | |
count. We had exactly the same percentage share in Beijing. By the | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
time of the Sydney Olympics the Australians had a bid over 6% medal | :15:01. | :15:08. | |
share. If we have a -- a bit over 6% share. If we have that, it | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
should be the same in total. Another intriguing factor could | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
come into play, a possible tribunal effect on a host nation's -- tribal | :15:16. | :15:25. | |
effect on a host nation's athletes. Sometimes as much as 60% higher | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
testosterone with a home crowd. Evolutionists believe that a | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
survival advantage was conferred on people when they had tribes | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
invading one's territory, they fought back. UK sport, whose job it | :15:38. | :15:43. | |
is to maximise performance, says it invests around �100 million a year, | :15:43. | :15:48. | |
to deliver success for Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes. | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
The official estimate is Team GB will clock up 48 medals. They have | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
another goal too. The number of medals we win is the easiest target | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
to look at, and the one people remember most of all, because we | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
won 47 medals in Beijing, our best games in a modern era, that is the | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
target people will focus on. But there are a number of measures we | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
need to look at. The number of sports we won meddlias in. You want | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
to continue to -- medals in. You want to continue to do well in | :16:16. | :16:22. | |
those sports, but you want to expand your port folio, and win | :16:22. | :16:28. | |
medals in sports we don't traditionally win medals in. | :16:28. | :16:36. | |
How will it play out over the next couple of weeks? It has been said | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
prediction is notoriously difficult, especially if it is about the | :16:40. | :16:50. | |
:16:50. | :16:50. | ||
future. I'm joined by my guests now. Great of you all to join us. Thank | :16:50. | :16:55. | |
you for coming in. Liz Nichol, you might say we haven't been as lucky | :16:55. | :17:00. | |
as we might so far. Are you happy to say it is just the taking part | :17:00. | :17:07. | |
that counts? No, absolutely not. From a UK Sport perspective, we are | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
investing unapologetically in success. We realise, if in fact, if | :17:11. | :17:18. | |
you deliver medals in an Olympic games, you will provide | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
inspirational moments. What return do you want to get, what is the | :17:21. | :17:26. | |
medal count you have in mind? than Beijing. 47 medals in Beijing, | :17:26. | :17:32. | |
19 gold medal, in 11 sports. We want more medals than Beijing, at | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
least 48 medals in at least 12 sports. That is the official target | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
from the outcome of the games. we stand today, of course, it is | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
early days, do you think we are on that target? It is early days, only | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
day three, there is a lot more to come. In fact, we are doing just | :17:48. | :17:54. | |
fine, three fantastic medals. The medal today from the bronze medal | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
from the men's team gymnastics is outstanding, that is a moment in | :17:58. | :18:04. | |
history. That was not predicted. The bronze from Rebecca, fantastic | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
performance, she swam faster than Beijing and got a bronze. The rest | :18:07. | :18:15. | |
of the world is moving on as well. Lizzie Armistad to get the silver | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
in the road cycling. She was inspired by the support she had on | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
the way. Does this medals' table work? It works in the way that it | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
is an Olympic Games, and of course we are hosting it and want to do | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
well, people will pay a great deal of attention to it, it is easy to | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
measure and gauge. Does it reflect the health of the sporting body, as | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
a whole, no, I don't think it does. If you take two different countries, | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
Argentina, which game fourth in the medal table in Beijing, and China | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
who came first. If you were a young sports person where would you like | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
to be born in, Argentina, you have more sports played in the community. | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
Football, cricket, motor racing, tennis, there are paths to enjoy | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
sport, not so in China. It is natural to do well in the medal | :19:02. | :19:07. | |
table, we shouldn't have this view that we can gauge the health of | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
British sport by saying this many medals equals that good. Is there a | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
part of us that would be liking to be as good as China at sport? | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
want to be as good as we can be, in a way that reflects our own culture | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
here. We are investing in suck he is. There is a parallel investment | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
-- in success, there is a parallel investment into education. It not | :19:29. | :19:37. | |
just about success and medals, it is that vital interest for | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
youngsters in future sport. have a silver medallists here, you | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
have been in the middle of this kind of argument and debate, do you | :19:45. | :19:51. | |
think things have changed a lot? All athletes want to do their best, | :19:51. | :19:56. | |
the biggest stage is the Olympics. Zoe Smith didn't get a medal in the | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
weight lifting, but got a personal best. She will go away content, | :20:00. | :20:04. | |
others not, it is about how you set your standards. For me it is about | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
the medals, I think we will do better, I think we could get 55. | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
Does the home advantage help? Massively. It won't physiologically | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
make you fitter or stronger, but give you the stronger edge. If you | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
go out there, you listen to the gymnastics boys, they said the | :20:21. | :20:27. | |
crowd, Rebecca Adlington said she could hear the crowd. It raises | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
your spirits and your consciousness, that they are here for you, if it | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
gives you the extra couple of per cent psychologically, it could have | :20:36. | :20:41. | |
a detremental effect on your opponents, the underdog. Some of | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
them have come out wearing the headphones, does that seem to you | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
to be an odd way of holding back the home spirit? Some people love | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
to get the crowd, and thrive off the noise. Other people like their | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
own world, listening to music. As athletes we have rituals, maybe | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
that is their ritual listening to a type of music before competing. | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
Everybody has different ways of performing at their be. Going back | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
to the home crowd, I -- their best. Going back to the home crowd, I | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
think that helps. You have been there and done it, but home | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
advantage does work in some sports, we have seen graphics and data | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
about. That there is a danger with expectation at times in sport. Take | :21:23. | :21:28. | |
the example of Andy Murray in tennis, most people would agree the | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
great British yearning of a British champion is not helping Andy Murray. | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
It is a transferable principle. There are times when sportsmen, | :21:37. | :21:42. | |
even though they will never admit it. We are a very proud bunch, | :21:42. | :21:44. | |
sportsmen will never admit to weaknesses. If you got them in | :21:44. | :21:48. | |
there, moment of truth, they would say the expectation was difficult | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
to deal with. Although home advantage should play a part, there | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
is a danger if things become too hyped, which can happen, we know. | :21:54. | :22:01. | |
That I think athletes may not benefit from it. It is for an | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
athlete to control T I have an example, the World Championships in | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
Athens, I was so psyched up for that race, I was so keen, I | :22:09. | :22:16. | |
tatically ran the worst race of my life, I was too hyped up, I ran the | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
worst race of my life. It is for that athlete to control their | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
nerves, I think. I think expectation is a good thing, | :22:23. | :22:28. | |
pressure is a good thing to have. Have we reached a point of peak | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
performance now, certain records like the long jump has not been | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
bettered for 40 years now, is that as far as we can go? It is true | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
that what Stephen Jay Gould called the outer wall of human endeavour, | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
as we inch towards it, the incremental improvements are | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
getting smaller. With greyhounds and horses they have reached that | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
point. The Derby times have not improved for 50 years. There is a | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
point when a human being will not be able to run any faster, the laws | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
of oxygen exchange will go only so far. It is getting hard Tory make | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
very, very big jumps forward -- harder to make very, very big jumps | :23:09. | :23:15. | |
forward. And the testing for drugs is better. Or we have supersonic | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
athletes, Jonathan Edwards, awesome athlete. You mentioned gymnastics, | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
that is a sport where we seemed to have come from nowhere, now doing | :23:24. | :23:31. | |
very well, both men and women, that is not about high-tech? This is | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
about long-term athlete development, that the sport has actually been | :23:34. | :23:41. | |
working at, from its club base, through to its national level, and | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
international level. It is about great coaches, it is about athletes | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
with great talent and commitment, massive commitment. Do you pinpoint, | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
it is often said that we look at the sports where we think that we | :23:52. | :23:55. | |
can improve, we are not going to improve necessarily on the running, | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
we might on the sailing or rowing, high-tech sports, what happened | :23:59. | :24:03. | |
with gymnastics, did somebody pinpoint that, was it down to a | :24:03. | :24:12. | |
very good coach? Tough look at the Beth Tweddle, the inspiration she | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
provided to youngsters coming up through the sport. She has a | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
fantastic coach to help her achieve at the highest level. And the sport | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
has invested in coach development, we have invested in coach education, | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
we are trying to create more world class coaches to populate the high- | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
performance system here. There is a lot of factors involved in success. | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
But for gymnastics, this has been building over a long period of time. | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
And there was one point when we saw thought, actually, it is unlikely | :24:38. | :24:44. | |
we will be able to compete against the top Six Nations of the world. | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
Tonight they proved they could do it. How do you compete with a | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
Chinese woman who can outswim a man. That is what we are up against? | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
will always have extraordinary talent, occasionally showing itself. | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
Across the sports. We just have to actually, you can't compete with | :25:01. | :25:08. | |
that, there will be, for example, on Sunday, Lizzie arm misstead, she | :25:08. | :25:13. | |
won that -- Armisted, she won the silver medal, there was no chance | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
of a gold medal, because there was an outstanding Dutch athlete, who | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
has had great performances over the year. These moments in time will | :25:20. | :25:22. | |
happen, when we have the best in the world. | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
Thank you very much. In a moment we will be talking to | :25:27. | :25:31. | |
the writer, the screenwriter of the opening ceremony, and the designer | :25:31. | :25:38. | |
of the Olympic cauldron. One head of state, denied an | :25:38. | :25:46. | |
invitation to the London Olympics, was Mr Shevesheka. He was accused | :25:46. | :25:52. | |
of human rights, two years ago he was accused of crackdown on | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
protestors. Last March two men were executed after a bombing on the | :25:57. | :26:06. | |
underground killed 15 people. John Sweeney has travelled undercover to | :26:06. | :26:10. | |
investigate allegations of torture and look at the guilt of the | :26:10. | :26:20. | |
:26:20. | :26:23. | ||
executed men. In Belarus the eternal flame burns to commemorate | :26:23. | :26:28. | |
Stalin's great victory over the Nazis, here they still goose step. | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
I have come undercover to investigate claims that the regime | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
tortures and murders its own people N April last year a bomb went off | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
in the Minsk Metro, killing 15 people. | :26:41. | :26:47. | |
Within 48 hours, President Alexander Lukashenka went on TV to | :26:47. | :26:52. | |
say they got the bombers, and they would face the most extreme | :26:52. | :27:02. | |
:27:02. | :27:08. | ||
punishment. Their arrest was shown on prime time TV. | :27:08. | :27:17. | |
The names they were trying to get out of them? Dina Comalavo and | :27:17. | :27:27. | |
:27:27. | :27:27. | ||
another. The following month, the secretary- | :27:27. | :27:34. | |
general of Interpol, Ronald Cay Noble, an American, arrived in | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
Minsk and braced the operation. can tell all the -- and praised the | :27:38. | :27:43. | |
operation. I can tell all the citizens of Belarus that this case | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
was involved by the high professionalism of the ministers | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
and internal affairs and the police, and the high-technology you have in | :27:51. | :27:56. | |
place, and the strong relations between internal affairs and | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
Interpol and countries on a bilateral and multilateral basis. | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
Four months later the trial started of the accomplice and the bomber. | :28:05. | :28:11. | |
And the guilty men were found guilty. But some in Belarus were | :28:11. | :28:21. | |
:28:21. | :28:22. | ||
not convinced by what they say was a 21st century show trial. The bomb | :28:22. | :28:28. | |
had gone off at rush hour in October Station, the city's busiest | :28:28. | :28:35. | |
stop. It was Belarus's 7/7. This is the tube stop where the bombing | :28:35. | :28:45. | |
:28:45. | :28:46. | ||
happened, the question is, who did it? One woman is running a lonely | :28:46. | :28:51. | |
campaign to prove the two bombers were innocent. We drive three hours | :28:51. | :29:00. | |
towards the Russian border, her home is being watched by the bell | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
Rusian KGB for months, she case the coast is clear, for now. | :29:04. | :29:10. | |
She's the mother of Vlad, the alleged bomber's accomplice. I put | :29:10. | :29:16. | |
it to her that the two men had faced a fair trial. TRANSLATION: | :29:16. | :29:21. | |
The court has not a single piece of evidence of proof, not only my son, | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
who was drugged into all of this, but also the other man, apart from | :29:25. | :29:30. | |
his confession, which he gave under torture. | :29:30. | :29:38. | |
For her it starts with Lukashenka. TRANSLATION: Lukashenka said the | :29:38. | :29:43. | |
boys had been interrogated, and by 5.00 they had already confessed. | :29:43. | :29:46. | |
They were interrogated without lawyers. Over that time they were | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
just beaten. The boys had no choice, otherwise they would have been | :29:50. | :30:00. | |
:30:00. | :30:05. | ||
beaten more and more and more, until they confessed. The two men | :30:05. | :30:10. | |
were paraded on TV, confess to go their crimes from a psychiatric | :30:10. | :30:19. | |
ward. TRANSLATION: He came back into the room with a plastic remote | :30:19. | :30:23. | |
control in his hands, he pressed it a few times, and gave it to me to | :30:23. | :30:33. | |
:30:33. | :30:33. | ||
hold. He said it was a detonator for the bomb. So why would anyone | :30:33. | :30:43. | |
:30:43. | :30:45. | ||
confess to a bombing they had no part in? In these 2010 elections | :30:45. | :30:50. | |
were held, and yet -- in December 2010 elections were hell, and yet | :30:50. | :30:56. | |
again President Lukashenka claimed victory with four out of five votes. | :30:56. | :31:02. | |
The opposition cried foul and hit the streets. | :31:02. | :31:06. | |
A crackdown started, 700 arrested, including seven presidential | :31:06. | :31:16. | |
:31:16. | :31:19. | ||
candidates. (gun shots) Opposition activists | :31:20. | :31:24. | |
were picked up by the KGB that night. This man has fled the | :31:24. | :31:28. | |
country, but he drew us a map of how to find what he claims is the | :31:28. | :31:37. | |
regime's torture centre. Right side, and left side, after | :31:37. | :31:47. | |
:31:47. | :31:48. | ||
two streets from the left side you will see it. | :31:48. | :31:53. | |
Because I'm here undercover, we can't film openly. But I followed | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
Vlad's directions, and go for a stroll, along the capital's Main | :31:57. | :32:06. | |
Street. After one building you will see the next, after this place, | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
where everybody from us was imprisoned after elections. This is | :32:10. | :32:16. | |
the KGB head office, very grand. But behind the fancy columns lies | :32:16. | :32:23. | |
the secret prison. You can't see it from the street, but you can from | :32:23. | :32:29. | |
Google Earth. They call it the Americana, after a circular prison | :32:29. | :32:34. | |
in America, that Stalin's secret police admired. Where would the | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
alleged bombers have been held on the night of their arrest. | :32:38. | :32:46. | |
TRANSLATION: In the Americanca, from their arrest until the excuses, | :32:46. | :32:54. | |
they were held there by a KGB unit. What is it like being a guest of | :32:54. | :33:04. | |
:33:04. | :33:04. | ||
the Americanca. It is a small place. It has 18 rooms. TRANSLATION: | :33:05. | :33:08. | |
I first got there, somebody told me to look at the ceiling, you can see | :33:08. | :33:12. | |
what looks like the lid of the coffin, in which you have been | :33:12. | :33:20. | |
buried alive. Night and day, guards wearing masks would enter the cell | :33:20. | :33:26. | |
and drag the prisoners out. TRANSLATION: You are talken | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
downstairs to a cold room, where you are lined up -- taken | :33:30. | :33:34. | |
downstairs to a cold room, where you are lined up, legs stretched | :33:34. | :33:39. | |
apart. They make sure your head is lowered and your legs are spaced | :33:39. | :33:43. | |
out, after that they undress you. All the others stand there as you | :33:43. | :33:46. | |
are striped naked. Another inmate drew us a picture of the strip | :33:46. | :33:53. | |
torture, he's still in Belarus. You are completely naked, and they | :33:53. | :34:02. | |
put you like this. If they think that you are legs are not spread | :34:02. | :34:09. | |
wide enough, they just give you legs, and they go even wider. Even | :34:09. | :34:16. | |
several seconds in this position it is not very pleasant. | :34:16. | :34:23. | |
Give me a flavour of the Americanca, and the BBC has decided I should | :34:23. | :34:29. | |
take part in a little experiment. So we go to a cold store in North | :34:29. | :34:35. | |
London, where the temperature is minus 24 Celsius. So the guards | :34:35. | :34:43. | |
forced the prisoners to strip naked, and stand in this position, spread | :34:43. | :34:49. | |
eagled, in minus 20, there was snow outside. In the jarg Bonn of | :34:50. | :34:53. | |
torture, this is a stress position -- jargon of torture, this is a | :34:53. | :34:58. | |
stress position. You might not think this is looking like torture, | :34:58. | :35:04. | |
but add the cold, and guards kicking your legs apart, and | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
electric cattle prods buzzing around your privates, and several | :35:08. | :35:14. | |
hours a day, night and day. This is torture. That is enough. | :35:14. | :35:24. | |
:35:24. | :35:25. | ||
I lasted 40 seconds. I lasted 40 seconds. For the prisoners, they | :35:25. | :35:35. | |
:35:35. | :35:39. | ||
had to endure that for 40 minutes. So, is it possible that the KGB | :35:39. | :35:45. | |
tortured confessions out of the two men. Other prisoner of the | :35:45. | :35:48. | |
Americanca, said they heard screams from the cells where the two men | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
were being held, and in the middle of the night an ambulance was | :35:52. | :35:59. | |
called. One of the lawyers, here in the | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
white shirt, started going through the CCTV evidence, praised by the | :36:03. | :36:08. | |
man from Interpol, and soon began to pick holes in the official | :36:08. | :36:18. | |
:36:18. | :36:19. | ||
version. The time, 17.39, the bomber enters the Metro, carrying a | :36:19. | :36:29. | |
:36:29. | :36:31. | ||
black bag. Clock the white mark on the bag. Now you see the white | :36:31. | :36:41. | |
:36:41. | :36:43. | ||
mark,. 17.44, now you don't. There is something immediately and | :36:43. | :36:53. | |
:36:53. | :36:55. | ||
obviously wrong about the official version. | :36:55. | :37:00. | |
17.45, the bomber is hanging around, another man walks past him, looks | :37:00. | :37:06. | |
at him, and the bomber sets off after him. It is as if he's taking | :37:06. | :37:16. | |
:37:16. | :37:24. | ||
directions. 17.46, the bomber is apparently led by another man, | :37:24. | :37:32. | |
turning abruptly in front of him in the tunnel. 17.48, the bomber | :37:32. | :37:37. | |
walking down to the platform, where the bomb goes off. Clock the bag, | :37:37. | :37:47. | |
:37:47. | :37:58. | ||
All of these questions about the CCTV were blocked by the judge. | :37:58. | :38:03. | |
One striking clash of evidence, the defence wanted to run, the bomber | :38:03. | :38:10. | |
seems tall, while Dimer is short. The Russian Security Service, the | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
FSB, compared the bomber on the CCTV with Dima for the court, and | :38:15. | :38:24. | |
the FSB's conclusion? TRANSLATION: The FSB said the man filmed with | :38:24. | :38:29. | |
the bag on the Metro, and Dima do not match. They are of different | :38:29. | :38:39. | |
:38:39. | :38:39. | ||
heights and build. The man with the bag and Dima are different people. | :38:39. | :38:44. | |
No forensic evidence at all linking either man with the bomb? | :38:44. | :38:51. | |
TRANSLATION: No, there is no evidence. A spokesman for Interpol | :38:51. | :38:55. | |
denied that the presumption of innocence was breached, and | :38:56. | :38:59. | |
disputed our analysis of the evidence. The statement said Mr | :38:59. | :39:03. | |
Noble concluded that the investigation was professionally | :39:03. | :39:06. | |
conducted, and that the arrests solved the case of who was | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
criminally responsible for the bombing. Advancing one sided false | :39:10. | :39:14. | |
claims, it said, about murderous terrorist conduct, can only | :39:14. | :39:21. | |
undermine public confidence in the media. The judge dismissed the | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
defence case, and in March this year, they were shot with a bullet | :39:24. | :39:34. | |
to the back of the head. If the solicitor is right, then Lukashenka | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
put in the dock for this crime, two innocent men. The question remains, | :39:38. | :39:42. | |
if they didn't bomb the Metro, who did? What of the men in the shadows | :39:42. | :39:47. | |
on the CCTV? Who, in a police state, can | :39:47. | :39:53. | |
organise a bomb? Who is the track record of political violence? One | :39:53. | :39:59. | |
cannot rule out the Belarus state murdering its own people. I asked | :39:59. | :40:06. | |
Luba, where she found her courage? TRANSLATION: It's not bravery, it's | :40:06. | :40:13. | |
passion for the life of my son. I knew my son wasn't guilty. I knew | :40:13. | :40:18. | |
Dima wasn't guilty. But I was powerless against the authorities. | :40:18. | :40:24. | |
I wasn't able to do anything. I wasn't able to save the children. I | :40:24. | :40:34. | |
:40:34. | :40:35. | ||
couldn't do anything. Some of you will be baffled, I guarantee, Danny | :40:35. | :40:40. | |
Boyle prove sized ahead of the opening ceremony, in the end the | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
majority were bowled over, by a performance that broke broadcasting | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
records. It showed us a Britain, anarchic and quietly traditional, | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
able to celebrate the cock-up, and funny, in both senses of the word. | :40:54. | :40:59. | |
We are joined by our guests, the designer of the cauldron, great to | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
have both of you with us, and the screenwriter for the event. Talk us | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
through the starting point for the ideas, where did you begin? Danny | :41:07. | :41:12. | |
asked me out for a cup of tea about two-and-a-half years ago. I thought | :41:12. | :41:17. | |
he was going to me to write a film. I said -- ask me to write fame. He | :41:17. | :41:21. | |
said it is not what you think it is, it is the Olympics opening ceremony. | :41:21. | :41:26. | |
At that point there was a small team, myself, the designer and the | :41:26. | :41:30. | |
little teams, we just threw ideas around in a room. It was like being | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
at primary school, we cut our favourite things out and made | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
scrapbooks and collages on the wall, and talked about what we loved | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
about Britain, and slowly things crystalised. Did you have, one | :41:42. | :41:47. | |
thing that really put this apart, of the humour, did you have a brief | :41:47. | :41:52. | |
to be funny? For example, the single note of Mr Bean, what was | :41:52. | :41:56. | |
the moment at which that was clinched? Straight away, I would | :41:56. | :41:59. | |
say. We didn't have a brief, but Danny came into the room and said | :41:59. | :42:05. | |
we have to change the game from Beijing, that was huge, the end of | :42:05. | :42:09. | |
punk rock, if you want to put it. Massive thing with huge numbers of | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
people. We have got to change the game and do something very, very | :42:12. | :42:16. | |
different. We have to celebrate our eccentricity, and how funny we are. | :42:16. | :42:20. | |
If you think about Beijing, beautiful thing, but very huge | :42:21. | :42:24. | |
numbers of people, very drilled. What was amazing about our | :42:24. | :42:28. | |
spectacle is wherever you looked people were doing something | :42:28. | :42:31. | |
different. That was possible because the volunteers themselves | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
were so creative, and brought so much to the process themselves. It | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
wasn't just a decision to be more individual, but that people who | :42:40. | :42:46. | |
came were themselves very individual. Thomas, individualist | :42:46. | :42:52. | |
enough to code name your cauldron, "Betty". Talk us through that one? | :42:52. | :42:59. | |
That was one of the technical, the producers, the problem was that | :42:59. | :43:04. | |
there were two or three parts of the ceremony that had to be kept | :43:04. | :43:12. | |
top secret, if there was correspondence that said "cauldron | :43:12. | :43:18. | |
on it", it wouldn't be so good. There was the dog of the -- | :43:18. | :43:22. | |
"cauldron" on it, it wouldn't be so good. There was a dog of one of the | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
producers called Betty, we decided to use that. How long did it take | :43:26. | :43:31. | |
to build? It was built in the north of England, it was reversed in | :43:31. | :43:36. | |
somewhere in Yorkshire near Harrogate. It came to the maid main | :43:36. | :43:43. | |
stadium, and we only reers -- main stadium, we only rehearsed it at | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
3.00am once the performers went home. There was only ten people who | :43:47. | :43:52. | |
knew what it was. We are looking at the pictures now, when you saw it | :43:52. | :43:57. | |
on the moment, was there any doubt in your mind, were you still scared | :43:57. | :44:04. | |
it would work. We had rehearsed it. -- We had | :44:04. | :44:07. | |
rehearsed enough that I knew there was a risk. But I sort of trusted | :44:07. | :44:13. | |
Dany and his team. I trusted the engineers who had built it. I | :44:13. | :44:18. | |
trusted that we had worked through it, and it was enough times. What | :44:18. | :44:23. | |
were you doing? I was standing gripping a chair in the stadium, | :44:23. | :44:32. | |
looking down, just letting it wash over me. Because what we, normally | :44:32. | :44:37. | |
a cauldron is a thing stuck on the top of a stadium. When we were | :44:37. | :44:46. | |
originally briefed by Loughran, the -- LOCOG, the organising committee, | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
they said there was a bit of the roof strengthened ready to put the | :44:50. | :44:55. | |
thing on. You wanted it, you didn't mind that people couldn't see it | :44:55. | :44:59. | |
outside? The first conversation with Danny was about trying to root | :44:59. | :45:04. | |
a ceremony in the spectator, and with the athletes. It felt that the | :45:04. | :45:11. | |
act of sticking it on the roof was sort of for the rest of the world, | :45:11. | :45:17. | |
rather than rooting it, and the stadium itself is quite a pure | :45:17. | :45:23. | |
shape. To some extent it is like a temple. It felt where would you put | :45:23. | :45:28. | |
that antique, it is like an altar, it felt this absolute centre of | :45:28. | :45:34. | |
such a pure form some how felt the only place we could put it. Back do | :45:34. | :45:39. | |
you, would you accept that there were political choices in that | :45:39. | :45:45. | |
production, the revolutions were in, the empire of out, the NHS, CND, | :45:45. | :45:50. | |
both very graph clo displayed. Was that a dlib -- graphically | :45:50. | :45:54. | |
displayed? Do you mean a left-right thing? I genuinely think the | :45:54. | :46:00. | |
opening ceremony was a great work of art. Any great work of art will | :46:00. | :46:03. | |
contain contradictions, and people can take from it whatever they want. | :46:03. | :46:09. | |
It is absolutely fine by me for Aidan Burden to think it is left- | :46:10. | :46:17. | |
wing, and it is fine by me that Boris thinking Mary Poppins | :46:17. | :46:20. | |
represents Margaret Thatcher vanquishing the miner, they are | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
both completely wrong but enjoyable. If people are looking for messages, | :46:24. | :46:29. | |
one critic wrote it was about a Britain feeling comfortable with | :46:29. | :46:33. | |
itself post-empire. Was there a message as to what find of country | :46:33. | :46:36. | |
we are now? The message is we dropped something in there. We | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
tried our best and came up with lots of amazing things. I think | :46:40. | :46:46. | |
what it became, was the volunteers, and how much they brought to it. | :46:46. | :46:51. | |
The thing itself, you know, against the background where people have | :46:51. | :46:54. | |
been paid huge amount of money in this country, and got things very | :46:54. | :46:58. | |
wrong. Here were a group of 7,000 people who paid nothing at all, who | :46:58. | :47:04. | |
turned up night after night in the rain, and performed this amazing | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
miracle. I would like it if it opened a debate about how to | :47:08. | :47:12. | |
motivate people. Do we motivate people by money, or are the better | :47:12. | :47:16. | |
people who are motivated by something else. It is political in | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
that sense, in that something happened. It would be really good | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
if we thought about what that meant and what happened to us there. As | :47:23. | :47:27. | |
if it was a barium meal showing up what was right and what was wrong | :47:27. | :47:31. | |
in the country. If that was not as clearly understood by foreigner, as | :47:31. | :47:36. | |
to those watching at home, the quirky moments, the fish, the cart | :47:36. | :47:42. | |
horse, the sheep, did that matter. Boyle said people would be baffled | :47:42. | :47:47. | |
by it? I don't know, it had huge viewing figures in America. I think | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
people have embraced it. Why shouldn't you challenge people. Why | :47:50. | :47:57. | |
should you go for a lowest common denominator, anadyne McDonalds | :47:57. | :48:01. |