:00:12. > :00:19.Tonight, a top Syrian diplomat in London defects, saying he can no
:00:19. > :00:22.longer bear to represent the regime. As the battle for the city of
:00:22. > :00:26.Aleppo intensifies, will this increasingly bloody civil war split
:00:26. > :00:31.the country. This is another blow to Assad, and his cronies in
:00:31. > :00:37.Damascus, it is good news, this is one in the eye for the regime. We
:00:37. > :00:41.want this regime to crumble and fold as fast as possible. What does
:00:41. > :00:46.the home advantage mean to GB, as they try to match their medal haul
:00:46. > :00:52.from Beijing. We have Team Newsnight on the case, and author
:00:52. > :00:56.of Luck and the head of UK sport. After an Olympic ceremony that
:00:56. > :01:02.broke broadcasting records, what were the messages intends and did
:01:02. > :01:10.we get them. We will talk to the designer of the called Ron, code
:01:11. > :01:16.named Betty. Europe's last dictatorship, as John
:01:16. > :01:20.Sweeney puts himself in the place of those tortured by the regime.
:01:20. > :01:30.The guards force the prisoners to strip naked, and stand in this
:01:30. > :01:32.
:01:32. > :01:36.position, spread eagled, in minus 20, there was snow outside. Good
:01:36. > :01:41.evening, Syria's most senior diplomat in the UK has mit his post
:01:42. > :01:49.in protest at the violent and oppressive actions of the regime
:01:49. > :01:52.headed by Bashar Al-Assad. He told the Home Office he was no longer
:01:52. > :01:58.prepared to continue. It comes as the Government forces
:01:58. > :02:02.try to retake the largest city, Aleppo, with the world paralyses,
:02:02. > :02:07.how can the increasingly brutal civil war end, could it be by
:02:07. > :02:11.spliting the country. The battle for Syria's largest city
:02:11. > :02:15.has raged all day. Sending hundreds of thousands fleeing. Through the
:02:15. > :02:20.noise of war, it is hard to know who's gaining the upper hand.
:02:20. > :02:25.But for the regime, victory is vital.
:02:25. > :02:32.In its report, state television claimed the army had purged one key
:02:32. > :02:37.district of Aleppo, from what it called terrorist gangs. He said
:02:37. > :02:45.they had taken complete control of the city, and will make the whole
:02:45. > :02:50.city secure within a few days. But the rebels, here race to go try
:02:50. > :02:54.to rescue a trapped unit, say that is nonsense. They say they are
:02:54. > :02:58.still advancing. Though they are certainly taking some casualties.
:02:58. > :03:03.While fighting continued in Aleppo, rebels claimed they had taken a key
:03:03. > :03:10.checkpoint, Anadan, to the north. Giving them free movement between
:03:10. > :03:12.the city and the Turkish border. And this unverified footage, they
:03:12. > :03:16.are apparently celebrating the capture of a Government tank,
:03:16. > :03:23.vowing to go all the way to the Presidential Palace.
:03:23. > :03:27.For now, on the streets of all lep po, they are still fighting mainly
:03:27. > :03:33.with -- Aleppo, they are still fighting mainly with the
:03:33. > :03:36.Kalashnikovs, still outgunned by the Government forces. Their
:03:37. > :03:41.strategy is to win gradually and wear them down. They don't have the
:03:41. > :03:45.fire power to win militarily, they have been wage ago war of attrition,
:03:45. > :03:49.trying to bleed the regime of its resources, trying to turn the tide
:03:49. > :03:52.of popular opinion against the regime. Military depexs and these
:03:52. > :03:57.kinds of things. It is very interesting, if you look at the
:03:57. > :04:00.combat raging now, not just in Aleppo city, and the suburbs, the
:04:00. > :04:05.rebels are shooting in all different directions, this is a
:04:05. > :04:10.sign for the regime to say you are encircled and surrounded, we are
:04:10. > :04:14.everywhere. The very fact they are now in Aleppo, the ancient trading
:04:14. > :04:19.city out of the fight for the last year, proves that strategy is
:04:19. > :04:22.working. At least part of Aleppo's prosperous Sunni business community,
:04:22. > :04:26.has finally backed the revolution, they are not the only people
:04:26. > :04:33.changing sides. In another example of the slow erosion of the regime,
:04:33. > :04:37.Syria's most senior diplomat in London, resigned today. He told the
:04:37. > :04:40.Foreign Office he was no longer willing to represent a regime that
:04:40. > :04:44.had committed such violent and oppressive acts against his own
:04:44. > :04:47.people. The news follows the resignation or defection of a
:04:47. > :04:52.number of Syrian diplomats this month. As well as a much larger
:04:52. > :05:02.number of generals and other military officers. Nearly all,
:05:02. > :05:04.
:05:04. > :05:10.including the former charges defares, have been Sunni -- charges
:05:10. > :05:14.defairs have been Sunni Muslims. Some think he will retreat to the
:05:14. > :05:20.Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean, to try to set up an
:05:20. > :05:26.Alawite mini-state. That would hardly be viable. I agree it could
:05:26. > :05:30.never work, because those areas are heavily populated by Sunni Muslims,
:05:30. > :05:33.one area that is 50% Sunni population. What gives it some
:05:33. > :05:37.plausibilty, if you look at where the massacres have taken place,
:05:37. > :05:40.these campaigns can only be described as campaigns of "ethnic
:05:41. > :05:44.cleansing", designed to terrorise the Sunni population. More
:05:44. > :05:48.important than, that although that is pretty bad in itself, designed
:05:48. > :05:55.to make the Alawite communities, around these areas, feel complicit,
:05:55. > :05:58.and feel as though their fortune, their life and death struggle, is
:05:58. > :06:03.inextricablely tied to the political fortune of the Assad
:06:03. > :06:09.regime. When I met refugees from Aleppo on the Turkish border a few
:06:09. > :06:13.days a they told us the mainly Alawite shabiha militia were
:06:13. > :06:20.burning bodies in the city, sometimes burning people alive, to
:06:20. > :06:24.spread sectarian divide. They are working hard on a sectarian war,
:06:25. > :06:28.they didn't succeed, we have so many different communities, Alawite,
:06:28. > :06:32.Sunni and Christians joining the rebels, they didn't succeed. Others
:06:32. > :06:39.aren't so sure, but long-term sectarian war is a fear for the
:06:39. > :06:43.future. For now, for those still trying to survive, amid the gunfire
:06:43. > :06:50.in Aleppo, where bread is running short, as well as water and power
:06:50. > :06:54.supplies, the present is frightening enough. Joining us now
:06:54. > :06:59.the former British ambassador to Syria. You know the country very
:06:59. > :07:09.well, we know Aleppo is the largest population, but stragically, how
:07:09. > :07:12.significant would this victory be for either side? It is the largest
:07:12. > :07:17.city in Syria, two million people. We can't talk about victory, it is
:07:17. > :07:21.a long way off that. We have a number of fighters in the streets,
:07:21. > :07:24.extraordinary courage being shown. Your correspondent and cameramen
:07:24. > :07:28.were also incredibly courageous. There is a lot of courage and
:07:28. > :07:37.bullets being fired. But there is no question of the rebels taking
:07:37. > :07:40.control of Aleppo. They are way short of that. In terms of what is
:07:41. > :07:44.happening today we saw another defection from a high-profile
:07:44. > :07:50.diplomat here, if these start to add up, could it come from within,
:07:50. > :07:54.that fall? I think a diplomat here or there doesn't make a difference.
:07:54. > :07:59.The question is whether the regime would fall apart, as you say. There
:07:59. > :08:03.are two things to look at, one is the loyalty of the army, more
:08:03. > :08:08.importantly the effectiveness of the secret police. If you get a
:08:08. > :08:11.condition of chaos, in Aleppo or in Damascus, such that the secret
:08:11. > :08:15.police don't know where people are, can't come along the next day and
:08:15. > :08:18.arrest them, the fear, the overriding fear of the secret
:08:18. > :08:22.police will dissipate, and then the regime will be in a lot more
:08:22. > :08:25.trouble. If Assad went, would that be the end of the secret police.
:08:25. > :08:29.Assad is of no importance, he has never run Syria, he doesn't run it
:08:29. > :08:32.today. You really believe that. If he went tomorrow the problems would
:08:32. > :08:36.continue? If Assad himself went tomorrow it would make no
:08:36. > :08:41.difference. He would be replaced by one of his relatives, by some
:08:42. > :08:46.intelligence general, and the same regime would be determined to stay
:08:47. > :08:50.in power, this is the key to it, you see. Both sides are now
:08:50. > :08:53.determined to fight. Because, both sides think that they have some
:08:53. > :08:57.chance of winning, and more importantly, neither side can
:08:57. > :09:03.afford to lose. The consequences for them and their families would
:09:03. > :09:07.be terrible. You heard it described this vision, maybe, of an Alawite
:09:07. > :09:12.mini-state. Can you see a Syria now completely divided which a civil
:09:12. > :09:22.war? It is already divided by a civil war. We have a civil war, it
:09:22. > :09:23.
:09:23. > :09:26.has a sectarian element, we have foreign support to either side.
:09:26. > :09:29.mini-state from within Syria? Alawites will have to fight to
:09:29. > :09:34.survive. For the moment there is no scope for diplomacy, because they
:09:34. > :09:37.are determined to fight. But then there is some kind of a military
:09:37. > :09:44.outcome, perhaps even a stalemate, then we have to think, how we can
:09:44. > :09:48.get some degree of stability into that situation, where you you have
:09:48. > :09:51.two million Alawite terrified of the other 20 million Syrians. It is
:09:51. > :09:56.not impossible, we are not a long way from it, that there will be
:09:56. > :10:00.some kind of enclave in the North West just as we have in Azerbaijan.
:10:00. > :10:04.An enclave supported by a foreign power, that could survive, and at
:10:04. > :10:08.least you would have some kind of a frontline, some end to the fighting.
:10:08. > :10:13.You were nodding when you heard the description of these massacres
:10:13. > :10:20.asset nick cleansing. If you take us back to -- as "ethnic cleansing",
:10:20. > :10:23.if you take us back to Bosnia, was there a moment when some kind of
:10:23. > :10:26.intervention was possible and we have missed it? Hard to say we have
:10:26. > :10:29.missed an opportunity. I think we have been mistaken in calling for
:10:29. > :10:34.the removal of Assad. That was the wrong thing to seek. What we should
:10:34. > :10:44.have been seeking was for the regime to move its policies and try
:10:44. > :10:45.
:10:45. > :10:50.to head off this rebellion that they now face. End of day three, a
:10:50. > :11:00.bronze medal for Team GB in gymnastics, but disappointment in
:11:00. > :11:06.the diving. Our lot may not be wearing Stella McCartney, but crisp
:11:06. > :11:11.gently flamable sportswear, with the suggest from the BBC, it is
:11:11. > :11:21.time to welcome our team taking us through a daily digest of the
:11:21. > :11:32.
:11:32. > :11:36.action. Here is Steve Smith's 60- It has been a day of shocks and
:11:36. > :11:40.surprises, not least in the Newsnight office, where our
:11:40. > :11:45.Olympics coverage has been planned down to the very first detail.
:11:45. > :11:50.David Cameron went to the games on the tube. Though his bycicle
:11:50. > :11:53.followed behind in the zil lane, no it didn't. After criticism over
:11:53. > :12:00.empty seats, organisers have released another 3,000 tickets to
:12:00. > :12:06.the public, and promise more to come. The Queen's granddaughter,
:12:06. > :12:13.Zara Philips, has put Britain's equestrians on course for a silver
:12:13. > :12:20.medal. But Britain's gymnasts had their medal downgraded to a bronze
:12:20. > :12:24.after an appeal by the Japanese. It was our first men's gymnastic's
:12:24. > :12:31.medal for 100 years. There was laughter, tears, or a gently
:12:31. > :12:37.suppressed sigh, as excitable Alan George Moldovanu snatched gold in
:12:37. > :12:39.the men's 10m air rifle, we will all remember where we were when
:12:39. > :12:44.that happened. We have all taken that young man to our hearts. There
:12:44. > :12:48.is a lot more tomorrow, canoe, hockey, gymnastic, I should stand
:12:48. > :12:53.up four our tracksuits, I spent a lot of time bidding at the Jimmy
:12:53. > :12:58.Saville auction for these. We will see the Rolls-Royce tomorrow night.
:12:58. > :13:01.What is a science editor's take on what we have seen so far with Team
:13:01. > :13:05.GB. I have been looking at performance, whether we can tell
:13:05. > :13:10.anything from the early list of medals. Most people measure
:13:10. > :13:15.performance by the number of golds, silver, bronze medals we achieve.
:13:15. > :13:19.We have one silver, two bronze, a long way behind America and Japan
:13:19. > :13:29.and China with 11. Can we tell anything about performance edge
:13:29. > :13:31.
:13:31. > :13:35.from the early tally. There is huge expectation that Team
:13:35. > :13:39.GB will perform as well as they did at Beijing or better. How are they
:13:39. > :13:46.doing so far. It is a slightly less good start than the officials would
:13:46. > :13:51.have hoped for. Tom Carver, the road cyclist was -- Mark Cavendish
:13:51. > :13:55.was supposed to catalyse the team with a victory in the road race,
:13:55. > :14:02.but he didn't manage that. There is a long way to go and things can
:14:02. > :14:05.change fast a mildly disappointing start. At Beijing 14 of our 19 gold
:14:05. > :14:09.medals came from three events, sailing, cycling and rowing. Those
:14:09. > :14:12.events have yet to run their full course, so we should be in a much
:14:12. > :14:16.better position to judge how well Team GB is doing, by early next
:14:16. > :14:20.week. So is there anything we can learn
:14:20. > :14:24.from looking back at how nations perform. Scientists have found that
:14:24. > :14:34.there is an advantage to staging the Olympics, a host effect.
:14:34. > :14:38.This shows how Australia's share of medals increased ahead of the year
:14:38. > :14:43.2000 as focus and investment began. This is Great Britain's share ahead
:14:43. > :14:47.of London, it shows a similar pattern heading into our host year,
:14:47. > :14:51.year zero. We are similar to Australia in some ways. In the
:14:51. > :14:57.Olympics, the Sydney Olympics, they had a 5% share of the total medal
:14:57. > :15:01.count. We had exactly the same percentage share in Beijing. By the
:15:01. > :15:08.time of the Sydney Olympics the Australians had a bid over 6% medal
:15:08. > :15:12.share. If we have a -- a bit over 6% share. If we have that, it
:15:12. > :15:16.should be the same in total. Another intriguing factor could
:15:16. > :15:25.come into play, a possible tribunal effect on a host nation's -- tribal
:15:25. > :15:30.effect on a host nation's athletes. Sometimes as much as 60% higher
:15:30. > :15:34.testosterone with a home crowd. Evolutionists believe that a
:15:34. > :15:38.survival advantage was conferred on people when they had tribes
:15:38. > :15:43.invading one's territory, they fought back. UK sport, whose job it
:15:43. > :15:48.is to maximise performance, says it invests around �100 million a year,
:15:48. > :15:52.to deliver success for Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
:15:52. > :15:57.The official estimate is Team GB will clock up 48 medals. They have
:15:57. > :16:00.another goal too. The number of medals we win is the easiest target
:16:00. > :16:04.to look at, and the one people remember most of all, because we
:16:04. > :16:07.won 47 medals in Beijing, our best games in a modern era, that is the
:16:07. > :16:12.target people will focus on. But there are a number of measures we
:16:12. > :16:16.need to look at. The number of sports we won meddlias in. You want
:16:16. > :16:22.to continue to -- medals in. You want to continue to do well in
:16:22. > :16:28.those sports, but you want to expand your port folio, and win
:16:28. > :16:36.medals in sports we don't traditionally win medals in.
:16:36. > :16:40.How will it play out over the next couple of weeks? It has been said
:16:40. > :16:50.prediction is notoriously difficult, especially if it is about the
:16:50. > :16:50.
:16:50. > :16:55.future. I'm joined by my guests now. Great of you all to join us. Thank
:16:55. > :17:00.you for coming in. Liz Nichol, you might say we haven't been as lucky
:17:00. > :17:07.as we might so far. Are you happy to say it is just the taking part
:17:07. > :17:11.that counts? No, absolutely not. From a UK Sport perspective, we are
:17:11. > :17:18.investing unapologetically in success. We realise, if in fact, if
:17:18. > :17:21.you deliver medals in an Olympic games, you will provide
:17:21. > :17:26.inspirational moments. What return do you want to get, what is the
:17:26. > :17:32.medal count you have in mind? than Beijing. 47 medals in Beijing,
:17:32. > :17:36.19 gold medal, in 11 sports. We want more medals than Beijing, at
:17:36. > :17:40.least 48 medals in at least 12 sports. That is the official target
:17:40. > :17:44.from the outcome of the games. we stand today, of course, it is
:17:44. > :17:48.early days, do you think we are on that target? It is early days, only
:17:48. > :17:54.day three, there is a lot more to come. In fact, we are doing just
:17:54. > :17:58.fine, three fantastic medals. The medal today from the bronze medal
:17:58. > :18:04.from the men's team gymnastics is outstanding, that is a moment in
:18:04. > :18:07.history. That was not predicted. The bronze from Rebecca, fantastic
:18:07. > :18:15.performance, she swam faster than Beijing and got a bronze. The rest
:18:15. > :18:19.of the world is moving on as well. Lizzie Armistad to get the silver
:18:19. > :18:24.in the road cycling. She was inspired by the support she had on
:18:24. > :18:27.the way. Does this medals' table work? It works in the way that it
:18:27. > :18:31.is an Olympic Games, and of course we are hosting it and want to do
:18:31. > :18:35.well, people will pay a great deal of attention to it, it is easy to
:18:35. > :18:40.measure and gauge. Does it reflect the health of the sporting body, as
:18:40. > :18:45.a whole, no, I don't think it does. If you take two different countries,
:18:46. > :18:50.Argentina, which game fourth in the medal table in Beijing, and China
:18:50. > :18:54.who came first. If you were a young sports person where would you like
:18:54. > :18:58.to be born in, Argentina, you have more sports played in the community.
:18:58. > :19:02.Football, cricket, motor racing, tennis, there are paths to enjoy
:19:02. > :19:07.sport, not so in China. It is natural to do well in the medal
:19:07. > :19:12.table, we shouldn't have this view that we can gauge the health of
:19:12. > :19:16.British sport by saying this many medals equals that good. Is there a
:19:16. > :19:21.part of us that would be liking to be as good as China at sport?
:19:21. > :19:24.want to be as good as we can be, in a way that reflects our own culture
:19:24. > :19:29.here. We are investing in suck he is. There is a parallel investment
:19:29. > :19:37.-- in success, there is a parallel investment into education. It not
:19:37. > :19:41.just about success and medals, it is that vital interest for
:19:41. > :19:44.youngsters in future sport. have a silver medallists here, you
:19:45. > :19:51.have been in the middle of this kind of argument and debate, do you
:19:51. > :19:56.think things have changed a lot? All athletes want to do their best,
:19:56. > :20:00.the biggest stage is the Olympics. Zoe Smith didn't get a medal in the
:20:00. > :20:04.weight lifting, but got a personal best. She will go away content,
:20:04. > :20:08.others not, it is about how you set your standards. For me it is about
:20:08. > :20:12.the medals, I think we will do better, I think we could get 55.
:20:12. > :20:16.Does the home advantage help? Massively. It won't physiologically
:20:16. > :20:21.make you fitter or stronger, but give you the stronger edge. If you
:20:21. > :20:27.go out there, you listen to the gymnastics boys, they said the
:20:27. > :20:31.crowd, Rebecca Adlington said she could hear the crowd. It raises
:20:31. > :20:36.your spirits and your consciousness, that they are here for you, if it
:20:36. > :20:41.gives you the extra couple of per cent psychologically, it could have
:20:41. > :20:44.a detremental effect on your opponents, the underdog. Some of
:20:44. > :20:49.them have come out wearing the headphones, does that seem to you
:20:49. > :20:53.to be an odd way of holding back the home spirit? Some people love
:20:53. > :20:58.to get the crowd, and thrive off the noise. Other people like their
:20:58. > :21:02.own world, listening to music. As athletes we have rituals, maybe
:21:02. > :21:05.that is their ritual listening to a type of music before competing.
:21:05. > :21:11.Everybody has different ways of performing at their be. Going back
:21:11. > :21:15.to the home crowd, I -- their best. Going back to the home crowd, I
:21:15. > :21:18.think that helps. You have been there and done it, but home
:21:18. > :21:23.advantage does work in some sports, we have seen graphics and data
:21:23. > :21:28.about. That there is a danger with expectation at times in sport. Take
:21:28. > :21:32.the example of Andy Murray in tennis, most people would agree the
:21:33. > :21:37.great British yearning of a British champion is not helping Andy Murray.
:21:37. > :21:42.It is a transferable principle. There are times when sportsmen,
:21:42. > :21:44.even though they will never admit it. We are a very proud bunch,
:21:44. > :21:48.sportsmen will never admit to weaknesses. If you got them in
:21:48. > :21:51.there, moment of truth, they would say the expectation was difficult
:21:51. > :21:54.to deal with. Although home advantage should play a part, there
:21:54. > :22:01.is a danger if things become too hyped, which can happen, we know.
:22:01. > :22:06.That I think athletes may not benefit from it. It is for an
:22:06. > :22:09.athlete to control T I have an example, the World Championships in
:22:09. > :22:16.Athens, I was so psyched up for that race, I was so keen, I
:22:16. > :22:20.tatically ran the worst race of my life, I was too hyped up, I ran the
:22:20. > :22:23.worst race of my life. It is for that athlete to control their
:22:23. > :22:28.nerves, I think. I think expectation is a good thing,
:22:28. > :22:32.pressure is a good thing to have. Have we reached a point of peak
:22:32. > :22:37.performance now, certain records like the long jump has not been
:22:38. > :22:43.bettered for 40 years now, is that as far as we can go? It is true
:22:43. > :22:47.that what Stephen Jay Gould called the outer wall of human endeavour,
:22:47. > :22:51.as we inch towards it, the incremental improvements are
:22:51. > :22:54.getting smaller. With greyhounds and horses they have reached that
:22:54. > :22:59.point. The Derby times have not improved for 50 years. There is a
:22:59. > :23:04.point when a human being will not be able to run any faster, the laws
:23:04. > :23:09.of oxygen exchange will go only so far. It is getting hard Tory make
:23:09. > :23:15.very, very big jumps forward -- harder to make very, very big jumps
:23:15. > :23:20.forward. And the testing for drugs is better. Or we have supersonic
:23:20. > :23:24.athletes, Jonathan Edwards, awesome athlete. You mentioned gymnastics,
:23:24. > :23:31.that is a sport where we seemed to have come from nowhere, now doing
:23:31. > :23:34.very well, both men and women, that is not about high-tech? This is
:23:34. > :23:41.about long-term athlete development, that the sport has actually been
:23:41. > :23:44.working at, from its club base, through to its national level, and
:23:45. > :23:48.international level. It is about great coaches, it is about athletes
:23:48. > :23:52.with great talent and commitment, massive commitment. Do you pinpoint,
:23:52. > :23:55.it is often said that we look at the sports where we think that we
:23:55. > :23:59.can improve, we are not going to improve necessarily on the running,
:23:59. > :24:03.we might on the sailing or rowing, high-tech sports, what happened
:24:03. > :24:12.with gymnastics, did somebody pinpoint that, was it down to a
:24:12. > :24:15.very good coach? Tough look at the Beth Tweddle, the inspiration she
:24:15. > :24:18.provided to youngsters coming up through the sport. She has a
:24:18. > :24:22.fantastic coach to help her achieve at the highest level. And the sport
:24:22. > :24:27.has invested in coach development, we have invested in coach education,
:24:27. > :24:30.we are trying to create more world class coaches to populate the high-
:24:30. > :24:34.performance system here. There is a lot of factors involved in success.
:24:34. > :24:38.But for gymnastics, this has been building over a long period of time.
:24:38. > :24:44.And there was one point when we saw thought, actually, it is unlikely
:24:44. > :24:48.we will be able to compete against the top Six Nations of the world.
:24:48. > :24:53.Tonight they proved they could do it. How do you compete with a
:24:53. > :24:57.Chinese woman who can outswim a man. That is what we are up against?
:24:57. > :25:01.will always have extraordinary talent, occasionally showing itself.
:25:01. > :25:08.Across the sports. We just have to actually, you can't compete with
:25:08. > :25:13.that, there will be, for example, on Sunday, Lizzie arm misstead, she
:25:13. > :25:17.won that -- Armisted, she won the silver medal, there was no chance
:25:17. > :25:20.of a gold medal, because there was an outstanding Dutch athlete, who
:25:20. > :25:22.has had great performances over the year. These moments in time will
:25:22. > :25:27.happen, when we have the best in the world.
:25:27. > :25:31.Thank you very much. In a moment we will be talking to
:25:31. > :25:38.the writer, the screenwriter of the opening ceremony, and the designer
:25:38. > :25:46.of the Olympic cauldron. One head of state, denied an
:25:46. > :25:52.invitation to the London Olympics, was Mr Shevesheka. He was accused
:25:52. > :25:57.of human rights, two years ago he was accused of crackdown on
:25:57. > :26:06.protestors. Last March two men were executed after a bombing on the
:26:06. > :26:10.underground killed 15 people. John Sweeney has travelled undercover to
:26:10. > :26:20.investigate allegations of torture and look at the guilt of the
:26:20. > :26:23.
:26:23. > :26:28.executed men. In Belarus the eternal flame burns to commemorate
:26:28. > :26:32.Stalin's great victory over the Nazis, here they still goose step.
:26:32. > :26:37.I have come undercover to investigate claims that the regime
:26:37. > :26:41.tortures and murders its own people N April last year a bomb went off
:26:41. > :26:47.in the Minsk Metro, killing 15 people.
:26:47. > :26:52.Within 48 hours, President Alexander Lukashenka went on TV to
:26:52. > :27:02.say they got the bombers, and they would face the most extreme
:27:02. > :27:08.
:27:08. > :27:17.punishment. Their arrest was shown on prime time TV.
:27:17. > :27:27.The names they were trying to get out of them? Dina Comalavo and
:27:27. > :27:27.
:27:27. > :27:34.another. The following month, the secretary-
:27:34. > :27:38.general of Interpol, Ronald Cay Noble, an American, arrived in
:27:38. > :27:43.Minsk and braced the operation. can tell all the -- and praised the
:27:43. > :27:47.operation. I can tell all the citizens of Belarus that this case
:27:47. > :27:51.was involved by the high professionalism of the ministers
:27:51. > :27:56.and internal affairs and the police, and the high-technology you have in
:27:56. > :28:01.place, and the strong relations between internal affairs and
:28:01. > :28:05.Interpol and countries on a bilateral and multilateral basis.
:28:05. > :28:11.Four months later the trial started of the accomplice and the bomber.
:28:11. > :28:21.And the guilty men were found guilty. But some in Belarus were
:28:21. > :28:22.
:28:22. > :28:28.not convinced by what they say was a 21st century show trial. The bomb
:28:28. > :28:35.had gone off at rush hour in October Station, the city's busiest
:28:35. > :28:45.stop. It was Belarus's 7/7. This is the tube stop where the bombing
:28:45. > :28:46.
:28:46. > :28:51.happened, the question is, who did it? One woman is running a lonely
:28:51. > :29:00.campaign to prove the two bombers were innocent. We drive three hours
:29:00. > :29:04.towards the Russian border, her home is being watched by the bell
:29:04. > :29:10.Rusian KGB for months, she case the coast is clear, for now.
:29:10. > :29:16.She's the mother of Vlad, the alleged bomber's accomplice. I put
:29:16. > :29:21.it to her that the two men had faced a fair trial. TRANSLATION:
:29:21. > :29:25.The court has not a single piece of evidence of proof, not only my son,
:29:25. > :29:30.who was drugged into all of this, but also the other man, apart from
:29:30. > :29:38.his confession, which he gave under torture.
:29:38. > :29:43.For her it starts with Lukashenka. TRANSLATION: Lukashenka said the
:29:43. > :29:46.boys had been interrogated, and by 5.00 they had already confessed.
:29:46. > :29:50.They were interrogated without lawyers. Over that time they were
:29:50. > :30:00.just beaten. The boys had no choice, otherwise they would have been
:30:00. > :30:05.
:30:05. > :30:10.beaten more and more and more, until they confessed. The two men
:30:10. > :30:19.were paraded on TV, confess to go their crimes from a psychiatric
:30:19. > :30:23.ward. TRANSLATION: He came back into the room with a plastic remote
:30:23. > :30:33.control in his hands, he pressed it a few times, and gave it to me to
:30:33. > :30:33.
:30:33. > :30:43.hold. He said it was a detonator for the bomb. So why would anyone
:30:43. > :30:45.
:30:45. > :30:50.confess to a bombing they had no part in? In these 2010 elections
:30:50. > :30:56.were held, and yet -- in December 2010 elections were hell, and yet
:30:56. > :31:02.again President Lukashenka claimed victory with four out of five votes.
:31:02. > :31:06.The opposition cried foul and hit the streets.
:31:06. > :31:16.A crackdown started, 700 arrested, including seven presidential
:31:16. > :31:19.
:31:20. > :31:24.candidates. (gun shots) Opposition activists
:31:24. > :31:28.were picked up by the KGB that night. This man has fled the
:31:28. > :31:37.country, but he drew us a map of how to find what he claims is the
:31:37. > :31:47.regime's torture centre. Right side, and left side, after
:31:47. > :31:48.
:31:48. > :31:53.two streets from the left side you will see it.
:31:53. > :31:57.Because I'm here undercover, we can't film openly. But I followed
:31:57. > :32:06.Vlad's directions, and go for a stroll, along the capital's Main
:32:06. > :32:10.Street. After one building you will see the next, after this place,
:32:10. > :32:16.where everybody from us was imprisoned after elections. This is
:32:16. > :32:23.the KGB head office, very grand. But behind the fancy columns lies
:32:23. > :32:29.the secret prison. You can't see it from the street, but you can from
:32:29. > :32:34.Google Earth. They call it the Americana, after a circular prison
:32:34. > :32:38.in America, that Stalin's secret police admired. Where would the
:32:38. > :32:46.alleged bombers have been held on the night of their arrest.
:32:46. > :32:54.TRANSLATION: In the Americanca, from their arrest until the excuses,
:32:54. > :33:04.they were held there by a KGB unit. What is it like being a guest of
:33:04. > :33:04.
:33:05. > :33:08.the Americanca. It is a small place. It has 18 rooms. TRANSLATION:
:33:08. > :33:12.I first got there, somebody told me to look at the ceiling, you can see
:33:12. > :33:20.what looks like the lid of the coffin, in which you have been
:33:20. > :33:26.buried alive. Night and day, guards wearing masks would enter the cell
:33:26. > :33:30.and drag the prisoners out. TRANSLATION: You are talken
:33:30. > :33:34.downstairs to a cold room, where you are lined up -- taken
:33:34. > :33:39.downstairs to a cold room, where you are lined up, legs stretched
:33:39. > :33:43.apart. They make sure your head is lowered and your legs are spaced
:33:43. > :33:46.out, after that they undress you. All the others stand there as you
:33:46. > :33:53.are striped naked. Another inmate drew us a picture of the strip
:33:53. > :34:02.torture, he's still in Belarus. You are completely naked, and they
:34:02. > :34:09.put you like this. If they think that you are legs are not spread
:34:09. > :34:16.wide enough, they just give you legs, and they go even wider. Even
:34:16. > :34:23.several seconds in this position it is not very pleasant.
:34:23. > :34:29.Give me a flavour of the Americanca, and the BBC has decided I should
:34:29. > :34:35.take part in a little experiment. So we go to a cold store in North
:34:35. > :34:43.London, where the temperature is minus 24 Celsius. So the guards
:34:43. > :34:49.forced the prisoners to strip naked, and stand in this position, spread
:34:50. > :34:53.eagled, in minus 20, there was snow outside. In the jarg Bonn of
:34:53. > :34:58.torture, this is a stress position -- jargon of torture, this is a
:34:58. > :35:04.stress position. You might not think this is looking like torture,
:35:04. > :35:08.but add the cold, and guards kicking your legs apart, and
:35:08. > :35:14.electric cattle prods buzzing around your privates, and several
:35:14. > :35:24.hours a day, night and day. This is torture. That is enough.
:35:24. > :35:25.
:35:25. > :35:35.I lasted 40 seconds. I lasted 40 seconds. For the prisoners, they
:35:35. > :35:39.
:35:39. > :35:45.had to endure that for 40 minutes. So, is it possible that the KGB
:35:45. > :35:48.tortured confessions out of the two men. Other prisoner of the
:35:48. > :35:52.Americanca, said they heard screams from the cells where the two men
:35:52. > :35:59.were being held, and in the middle of the night an ambulance was
:35:59. > :36:03.called. One of the lawyers, here in the
:36:03. > :36:08.white shirt, started going through the CCTV evidence, praised by the
:36:08. > :36:18.man from Interpol, and soon began to pick holes in the official
:36:18. > :36:19.
:36:19. > :36:29.version. The time, 17.39, the bomber enters the Metro, carrying a
:36:29. > :36:31.
:36:31. > :36:41.black bag. Clock the white mark on the bag. Now you see the white
:36:41. > :36:43.
:36:43. > :36:53.mark,. 17.44, now you don't. There is something immediately and
:36:53. > :36:55.
:36:55. > :37:00.obviously wrong about the official version.
:37:00. > :37:06.17.45, the bomber is hanging around, another man walks past him, looks
:37:06. > :37:16.at him, and the bomber sets off after him. It is as if he's taking
:37:16. > :37:24.
:37:24. > :37:32.directions. 17.46, the bomber is apparently led by another man,
:37:32. > :37:37.turning abruptly in front of him in the tunnel. 17.48, the bomber
:37:37. > :37:47.walking down to the platform, where the bomb goes off. Clock the bag,
:37:47. > :37:58.
:37:58. > :38:03.All of these questions about the CCTV were blocked by the judge.
:38:03. > :38:10.One striking clash of evidence, the defence wanted to run, the bomber
:38:10. > :38:15.seems tall, while Dimer is short. The Russian Security Service, the
:38:15. > :38:24.FSB, compared the bomber on the CCTV with Dima for the court, and
:38:24. > :38:29.the FSB's conclusion? TRANSLATION: The FSB said the man filmed with
:38:29. > :38:39.the bag on the Metro, and Dima do not match. They are of different
:38:39. > :38:39.
:38:39. > :38:44.heights and build. The man with the bag and Dima are different people.
:38:44. > :38:51.No forensic evidence at all linking either man with the bomb?
:38:51. > :38:55.TRANSLATION: No, there is no evidence. A spokesman for Interpol
:38:56. > :38:59.denied that the presumption of innocence was breached, and
:38:59. > :39:03.disputed our analysis of the evidence. The statement said Mr
:39:03. > :39:06.Noble concluded that the investigation was professionally
:39:06. > :39:10.conducted, and that the arrests solved the case of who was
:39:10. > :39:14.criminally responsible for the bombing. Advancing one sided false
:39:14. > :39:21.claims, it said, about murderous terrorist conduct, can only
:39:21. > :39:24.undermine public confidence in the media. The judge dismissed the
:39:24. > :39:34.defence case, and in March this year, they were shot with a bullet
:39:34. > :39:38.to the back of the head. If the solicitor is right, then Lukashenka
:39:38. > :39:42.put in the dock for this crime, two innocent men. The question remains,
:39:42. > :39:47.if they didn't bomb the Metro, who did? What of the men in the shadows
:39:47. > :39:53.on the CCTV? Who, in a police state, can
:39:53. > :39:59.organise a bomb? Who is the track record of political violence? One
:39:59. > :40:06.cannot rule out the Belarus state murdering its own people. I asked
:40:06. > :40:13.Luba, where she found her courage? TRANSLATION: It's not bravery, it's
:40:13. > :40:18.passion for the life of my son. I knew my son wasn't guilty. I knew
:40:18. > :40:24.Dima wasn't guilty. But I was powerless against the authorities.
:40:24. > :40:34.I wasn't able to do anything. I wasn't able to save the children. I
:40:34. > :40:35.
:40:35. > :40:40.couldn't do anything. Some of you will be baffled, I guarantee, Danny
:40:40. > :40:46.Boyle prove sized ahead of the opening ceremony, in the end the
:40:46. > :40:50.majority were bowled over, by a performance that broke broadcasting
:40:50. > :40:54.records. It showed us a Britain, anarchic and quietly traditional,
:40:54. > :40:59.able to celebrate the cock-up, and funny, in both senses of the word.
:40:59. > :41:02.We are joined by our guests, the designer of the cauldron, great to
:41:02. > :41:07.have both of you with us, and the screenwriter for the event. Talk us
:41:07. > :41:12.through the starting point for the ideas, where did you begin? Danny
:41:12. > :41:17.asked me out for a cup of tea about two-and-a-half years ago. I thought
:41:17. > :41:21.he was going to me to write a film. I said -- ask me to write fame. He
:41:21. > :41:26.said it is not what you think it is, it is the Olympics opening ceremony.
:41:26. > :41:30.At that point there was a small team, myself, the designer and the
:41:30. > :41:35.little teams, we just threw ideas around in a room. It was like being
:41:35. > :41:39.at primary school, we cut our favourite things out and made
:41:39. > :41:42.scrapbooks and collages on the wall, and talked about what we loved
:41:42. > :41:47.about Britain, and slowly things crystalised. Did you have, one
:41:47. > :41:52.thing that really put this apart, of the humour, did you have a brief
:41:52. > :41:56.to be funny? For example, the single note of Mr Bean, what was
:41:56. > :41:59.the moment at which that was clinched? Straight away, I would
:41:59. > :42:05.say. We didn't have a brief, but Danny came into the room and said
:42:05. > :42:09.we have to change the game from Beijing, that was huge, the end of
:42:09. > :42:12.punk rock, if you want to put it. Massive thing with huge numbers of
:42:12. > :42:16.people. We have got to change the game and do something very, very
:42:16. > :42:20.different. We have to celebrate our eccentricity, and how funny we are.
:42:21. > :42:24.If you think about Beijing, beautiful thing, but very huge
:42:24. > :42:28.numbers of people, very drilled. What was amazing about our
:42:28. > :42:31.spectacle is wherever you looked people were doing something
:42:31. > :42:36.different. That was possible because the volunteers themselves
:42:36. > :42:40.were so creative, and brought so much to the process themselves. It
:42:40. > :42:46.wasn't just a decision to be more individual, but that people who
:42:46. > :42:52.came were themselves very individual. Thomas, individualist
:42:52. > :42:59.enough to code name your cauldron, "Betty". Talk us through that one?
:42:59. > :43:04.That was one of the technical, the producers, the problem was that
:43:04. > :43:12.there were two or three parts of the ceremony that had to be kept
:43:12. > :43:18.top secret, if there was correspondence that said "cauldron
:43:18. > :43:22.on it", it wouldn't be so good. There was the dog of the --
:43:22. > :43:26."cauldron" on it, it wouldn't be so good. There was a dog of one of the
:43:26. > :43:31.producers called Betty, we decided to use that. How long did it take
:43:31. > :43:36.to build? It was built in the north of England, it was reversed in
:43:36. > :43:43.somewhere in Yorkshire near Harrogate. It came to the maid main
:43:44. > :43:47.stadium, and we only reers -- main stadium, we only rehearsed it at
:43:47. > :43:52.3.00am once the performers went home. There was only ten people who
:43:52. > :43:57.knew what it was. We are looking at the pictures now, when you saw it
:43:57. > :44:04.on the moment, was there any doubt in your mind, were you still scared
:44:04. > :44:07.it would work. We had rehearsed it. -- We had
:44:07. > :44:13.rehearsed enough that I knew there was a risk. But I sort of trusted
:44:13. > :44:18.Dany and his team. I trusted the engineers who had built it. I
:44:18. > :44:23.trusted that we had worked through it, and it was enough times. What
:44:23. > :44:32.were you doing? I was standing gripping a chair in the stadium,
:44:32. > :44:37.looking down, just letting it wash over me. Because what we, normally
:44:37. > :44:46.a cauldron is a thing stuck on the top of a stadium. When we were
:44:46. > :44:50.originally briefed by Loughran, the -- LOCOG, the organising committee,
:44:50. > :44:55.they said there was a bit of the roof strengthened ready to put the
:44:55. > :44:59.thing on. You wanted it, you didn't mind that people couldn't see it
:44:59. > :45:04.outside? The first conversation with Danny was about trying to root
:45:04. > :45:11.a ceremony in the spectator, and with the athletes. It felt that the
:45:11. > :45:17.act of sticking it on the roof was sort of for the rest of the world,
:45:17. > :45:23.rather than rooting it, and the stadium itself is quite a pure
:45:23. > :45:28.shape. To some extent it is like a temple. It felt where would you put
:45:28. > :45:34.that antique, it is like an altar, it felt this absolute centre of
:45:34. > :45:39.such a pure form some how felt the only place we could put it. Back do
:45:39. > :45:45.you, would you accept that there were political choices in that
:45:45. > :45:50.production, the revolutions were in, the empire of out, the NHS, CND,
:45:50. > :45:54.both very graph clo displayed. Was that a dlib -- graphically
:45:54. > :46:00.displayed? Do you mean a left-right thing? I genuinely think the
:46:00. > :46:03.opening ceremony was a great work of art. Any great work of art will
:46:03. > :46:09.contain contradictions, and people can take from it whatever they want.
:46:10. > :46:17.It is absolutely fine by me for Aidan Burden to think it is left-
:46:17. > :46:20.wing, and it is fine by me that Boris thinking Mary Poppins
:46:20. > :46:24.represents Margaret Thatcher vanquishing the miner, they are
:46:24. > :46:29.both completely wrong but enjoyable. If people are looking for messages,
:46:29. > :46:33.one critic wrote it was about a Britain feeling comfortable with
:46:33. > :46:36.itself post-empire. Was there a message as to what find of country
:46:36. > :46:40.we are now? The message is we dropped something in there. We
:46:40. > :46:46.tried our best and came up with lots of amazing things. I think
:46:46. > :46:51.what it became, was the volunteers, and how much they brought to it.
:46:51. > :46:54.The thing itself, you know, against the background where people have
:46:54. > :46:58.been paid huge amount of money in this country, and got things very
:46:58. > :47:04.wrong. Here were a group of 7,000 people who paid nothing at all, who
:47:04. > :47:08.turned up night after night in the rain, and performed this amazing
:47:08. > :47:12.miracle. I would like it if it opened a debate about how to
:47:12. > :47:16.motivate people. Do we motivate people by money, or are the better
:47:16. > :47:19.people who are motivated by something else. It is political in
:47:19. > :47:23.that sense, in that something happened. It would be really good
:47:23. > :47:27.if we thought about what that meant and what happened to us there. As
:47:27. > :47:31.if it was a barium meal showing up what was right and what was wrong
:47:31. > :47:36.in the country. If that was not as clearly understood by foreigner, as
:47:36. > :47:42.to those watching at home, the quirky moments, the fish, the cart
:47:42. > :47:47.horse, the sheep, did that matter. Boyle said people would be baffled
:47:47. > :47:50.by it? I don't know, it had huge viewing figures in America. I think
:47:50. > :47:57.people have embraced it. Why shouldn't you challenge people. Why
:47:57. > :48:01.should you go for a lowest common denominator, anadyne McDonalds