Bashar Al Assad: “Today President Assad, the dictator in Syria, has announced that he's granting what he calls amnesty to protesters…”

He's also using the same -- literally, the same false rhetoric that was used by Mubarak, that's been used by Gadhafi, blaming satellite news channels, blaming foreigners, blaming unnamed conspiracies.

Bashar al-Assad brought this on by turning the tanks loose on population centers. He asked for it. This started out as a fairly benign movement, almost, you know, an incipient democracy, and he opened up with the artillery.

We don't feel our people. Nobody kill - no government in the world, kill its people unless it's created by crazy person. For me, as president, I became president because of the public support. It's impossible for anyone in this state to be…

The State Department has called on Assad to end his assault against the Syrian people, singling out Matar as a champion of peace, committed to confronting the regime's, quote, "despicable violence."