Transcript: Syrian president Bashar Assad

CURRY: I wonder perhaps if the idea came from something that happened years ago.  Has Syria ever supported the insurgency in Iraq?

BASHAR ASSAD: Never.

CURRY: Never? Not in 2004?

BASHAR ASSAD: Again, what's our interest?  No, no, no.

CURRY: Never?

BASHAR ASSAD: All allegations from administration. Nobody believes them.

CURRY: Why would the administration want to say this?

BASHAR ASSAD: 'Cause they want to absolve themselves from the responsibility.  They blame others.  As I said, they always looking for scapegoats.  They failed.  Their war was complete fiasco.  All their plans were doomed to failure and they want to-- to accuse others and to-- And to make clear their mistakes.  This is why.

CURRY: Here's a question.  I think I know you have said publicly that you oppose al-Qaeda.

BASHAR ASSAD: Yes.  I oppose any extremist state of mind.

CURRY: If you oppose al-Qaeda, how aggressively are you working against it?

BASHAR ASSAD: That depends on the definition-- definition of "aggressiveness."  How would you define "aggressive"? Just anyone was involved in any terrorist attack regarding Syria or any-- other--

CURRY: Are you prosecuting them?  Are you-- are you--

BASHAR ASSAD: Exactly.  Of course.

CURRY: --are you prosecuting an effort of going after them?  Are you hunting them down?

BASHAR ASSAD: Definitely.  We-- we have more than 1,600 detainees.  Of course we deported them.  We deported them to their countries.  We don't keep them here.  We don't--

CURRY: We don't you prosecute them?

BASHAR ASSAD: Well, because we have kind of agreements with many countries that if we have some-- detainees of their nationality, we have to deport in this kind of cooperation.  We can't--

CURRY: What's to prevent them from coming back again, Mr. President?

BASHAR ASSAD: How did you know that he's al-Qaeda and where he comes from?  I don't know.  How do you know?  Did you know about those who implement the 11th of September  -- when came to the United States?  You don't know.  They become like any other one.  It's impossible to know.

CURRY: We eventually knew who they were. But you're saying beforehand we didn't know.  You're saying that before--

BASHAR ASSAD: Exactly.  Before.  But when you know and when there's evidence that he is involved in such action, you-- you take procedure.  You take action.

CURRY: Are you saying that none of these 1,600 people you deported you had any evidence against they were linked with al-Qaeda?

BASHAR ASSAD: Of course.  Many of them.  That's why we deported them to their country according to the agreement with those countries.  And they will prosecute them.  But it's-- it's-- it's the same.

CURRY: So what is your message this morning to al-Qaeda that wants to use Syria as a transit point into Iraq and elsewhere?

BASHAR ASSAD: My message to al-Qaeda?

CURRY: Yes.

BASHAR ASSAD: My message to al-Qaeda is they know it.  They know that we don't allow this.  This is against our interests.  And as you know, we have many-- or maybe you know that we had some clashes with al-Qaeda and Syria for the last two or three years. It started in 2004.  They got the message.  This is very clear.

CURRY: "The door is shut.  Do not come.  You are not welcome"?

BASHAR ASSAD: Of course.  This is-- very normal.  As long as it's against our interests, they-- they shouldn't be here.  And they were never allowed to be here because we suffered from terrorism.  I'm not talking about al-Qaeda. Before al-Qaeda.  Many decades.  We knew that in the '80s, 15,000 Syrians died.  We-- we learned from our lessons in the past.  So we don't have to learn again.  It's old lessons in Syria.  Maybe for you in the United States it's something new. For us it's something not new.

CURRY: You said you learned from your own suffering?

BASHAR ASSAD: Exactly.  Exactly.  That's why this is old message, what you're asking about, it's nothing new.

CURRY: Someone who was welcomed recently (was) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

BASHAR ASSAD: Yeah.

CURRY: The Bush administration harshly criticized Nancy Pelosi for meeting with you last month.  Vice-president Dick Cheney called her, accused her of having bad behavior.  You smile.

BASHAR ASSAD: (LAUGHTER) Yeah.

CURRY: You smile. Why are you smiling?

BASHAR ASSAD: Well, this is American issue.  But it's-- it's a funny description.  To say it's a "bad behavior" because I think the other way.  She didn't come to Syria because she admires-- government or the state or our political stance.  But she was doing her job as American officer in a very high position.

She wants to know what's going on.  Most of the debate in the United States is about foreign policy in Iraq.  As Americans, you spend, you paid for more than 400-- billion dollars in Iraq.  And the question is:  What are the results?  Against the terror?

The terror is still at large.  The terrorists are spawning everywhere.  The world is more vulnerable and more susceptible to their attacks.  And she was coming here to work for the interests of her country to see how can I help United States?  She didn't come to help President Assad. That's why I laugh.

CURRY: "It's ironic that she came and the president, the Bush administration, did not." I can see that in your eyes.

BASHAR ASSAD: Uh-huh (AFFIRM).  

CURRY: It's ironic that she--

BASHAR ASSAD: That she came?

CURRY: And then the-- and-- then- a member of the Bush administration did not.

BASHAR ASSAD: No, if I have problem overseas, I have to go as official to see what's going on.  You cannot do it from satelitte, from afar.  It's not a conference.  

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