01:00
MARK DAVIS: It may look like a meeting at a modelling agency, but these students are in a truly deadly situation.
YOUNG WOMAN (translation): I was interrogated for four hours. Eventually he wrote the statement and just told me to sign it.
MARK DAVIS: They're being watched day and night for saying out loud what other Lebanese have only dared whisper for the past decade. They've become the focus of Syrian Intelligence, the most brutal security force in the Middle East.
YOUNG MAN (translation): All these slogans and posters put up by intelligence about the liberation of the south and whatever, we will just remove them.
02:07
MARK DAVIS: Over the past three months, virtually every person in this room has been arrested in a crackdown against Lebanese suspected of anti-Syrian activities.
YOUNG WOMAN (translation): They didn't let the lawyer see me. I was there four days and no lawyer.
MARK DAVIS: In Lebanon, Syria controls the government, the army, the police and the courts, but not for now this small nationalist group which is gaining national attention.
YOUNG MAN: When the Syrians are really in the corner in Lebanon, they hurt. And when a thing you do or a speech you make or a statement you announce will hurt them, they will hurt you.
03:09
MARK DAVIS: It's been an astounding month in Lebanon. The war between two foreign armies, Syria and Israel, is no longer being fought on Lebanese soil.
And why do you throw the rocks?
03:30
LEBANESE BOY (translation): They've occupied our land, so we want to throw rocks at them now.
MARK DAVIS: After 22 years of occupying the south of Lebanon, Israel has withdrawn to its side of the fence. And it's in this victory for the Lebanese people that the complete impotence of their government is being revealed.
There are no Lebanese troops or police here to protect and control this volatile border. The Syrians remain in Lebanon, stronger than ever, and they've ordered the government to keep away.
With Jewish settlements just a stone's throw from this border, the only groups in control here are Syrian Intelligence and the Islamic militias they support.
04:19
YOUNG MAN (translation): If a Jewish guy gets out, I'll rip him to pieces. (Laughs)
GRAHAM DAVIS: The political certainties that have endured for all of this young man's life have been shattered in the space of a few weeks. Not only has Israel suddenly packed up and left, but the man who made the Syrian annexation of Lebanon his personal mission just as suddenly dropped dead.
CROWD CHANTS: With our soul, with our blood, we will protect you, Bashar.
Arise, Beirut, and listen...
07:40
MARK DAVIS: This rally is supposed to be an affirmation of Lebanese loyalty to Syria and a spontaneous outburst of mourning for the death of its President. But there's hardly a Lebanese national in the crowd. It's a circus arranged for the media by Syrian Intelligence and attended mostly by the Syrian workers they control.
This pro-Syrian parade through the streets of Beirut is heading for an unusual destination. There is no Syrian Embassy in Beirut - a clear sign that Lebanon is not regarded in any way as an independent country. Without any irony, this group here is travelling the real powerbase in Beirut - Syrian Intelligence headquarters.
In all of the eulogies that are being sung for Hafez Assad and his son and heir apparent Bashar, there is of course no mention of the murder and torture the Assad regime has been built upon. Nor in the chants about Lebanese loyalty is there any mention of the hundreds of Lebanese who've been spirited away to rot in secret Syrian prisons.
Like frightened people everywhere, these Syrian men are prepared to chant but not to talk, even in response to the most innocent of questions.
Could I ask why President Assad was so important to you?
07:40
(Lebanese man chants pro-Bashar slogan)
MARK DAVIS: Can I ask you why he was so important to you?
TRANSLATOR: He doesn't want to answer.
MARK DAVIS: Just ask again. Does he want to answer or not?
MAN (translation): Why is this man talking to me?
07:37
MARK DAVIS: Apparently, the talking is best left to the Syrian organisers.
This is the headquarters for Syrian Intelligence in Beirut. Lebanese are too terrified to even walk down this street, and today is a rare opportunity to film the building. It's said if you're taken in here, you don't come out.
Time will tell whether Bashar Assad harbours the same obsession his father did to create Greater Syria through the total annexation of Lebanon. But there's little doubt his party, minders and military are determined to stay here.
08:30
YOUNG MAN: I had here my hand broken. They were beating me on the face with the back of the gun, so I put my hand in front of the gun and it was broken. I had it plastered - I think you saw it in the film later.
MARK DAVIS: Ziad Abz is one of the leaders of the Lebanon Patriotic Movement, which has opposed the presence of both Israel and Syria. But for criticising the Syrian presence in Lebanon, he's been arrested 22 times in the past nine years and imprisoned for "damaging relations with friendly countries".
09:04
ZIAD ABZ, LEBANON PATRIOTIC FRONT: It's not accepted in Lebanon to speak over a certain limit. There's some guidelines. Inside those guidelines, you're allowed to speak whatever you want; even you are allowed to reject certain things, just to reflect the image there is freedom. When you speak outside those guidelines, you become a troublemaker. Is it me, or is it anybody else?
MARK DAVIS: What is that line you can't talk past?
09:30
ZIAD ABZ: You cannot talk about Syrian presence in Beirut, you cannot talk about the way Syrians are benefiting from their presence here. Before, they used to give the impression they are here just because the Israelis are here - to protect Lebanon from the Israelis. Now, there's an Israeli withdrawal, there's no more Israeli occupation, and there's no whatsoever reason for them to say. That's why we are planning to raise our voice louder, and we will.
10:04
Once, I was arrested in the Ministry of Defence. I was blindfolded for 72 hours, and they kept me standing - not allowed to sit down for 72 hours...
MARK DAVIS: As a vocal critic of Syria, Ziad is lucky to be alive. Over the years he's been politically active, dozens of others have disappeared or been killed for similar activities - daring to state the obvious, that Lebanon is an occupied country.
Apart from the military presence, what's the intelligence numbers in Beirut?
ZIAD ABZ: There are around 35-40,000 official military Syrian soldiers, and around 25,000 intelligence.
10:44
MARK DAVIS: The odds are intimidating, but apparently for Ziad, not overwhelming.
ZIAD ABZ: We're ready to pay the price, whatever it take. We pay the price for the Israeli withdrawal; we are right to pay the same price for the Syrians to withdraw.
MARK DAVIS: The Lebanese have already paid the price for asking Syria to leave. In 1989, a faction of the Lebanese Army rose against the Syrians, accusing them of attempting to completely annex Lebanon, rather than merely assisting to oust Israel. The Syrians crushed the Lebanese Army and unleashed a brutal round of assassinations, arrests and torture.
A pro-Syrian government was installed and elections managed ever since. On the streets of Lebanon, the Syrian President has taken equal billing with the nominal leader of the country, Emile Lahud. The government claims that it's a brotherly relationship.
In his tour of Beirut, Ziad reveals a less benign side of the "brotherly forces".
12:16
ZIAD ABZ: They used this building for the intelligence and the interrogations here for this part of Beirut. You can see them here sitting...on the address of this building, there's the Intelligence...
MARK DAVIS: And what's their operation there?
ZIAD ABZ: Here is an interrogation apartment where they usually arrest people and interrogate them.
MARK DAVIS: It's a pretty run-down building, though...
13:00
ZIAD ABZ: Yeah, but there is four floors underground.
MARK DAVIS: Four floors. And what's in there - cells or what?
ZIAD ABZ: Yeah - cells and offices for interrogation. They use the underground part of the building.
MARK DAVIS: And how long are people kept there for?
ZIAD ABZ: Depends - usually when you're kept for more than one month, they take you to a place near the border. They have a big prison, where some people are there for 10 years now. If your case is a bit more serious, you go to a prison in Syria, where you never come back.
13:18
MARK DAVIS: When the Israelis announced their withdrawal in April, Ziad was one of the first arrested in a pre-emptive strike by Syrian and Lebanese intelligence. Nothing unusual in that, but this time, there was a very public reaction. In a rare demonstration, students from around Beirut took to the streets, demanding the release of Ziad and five others who'd disappeared. They were in no doubt who was behind the arrests.
STUDENTS CHANT: Syria out! Syria out!
MARK DAVIS: These words were never heard on Lebanese TV.
STUDENTS CHANT: Freedom, sovereignty, independence!
14:04
MARK DAVIS: 15 people were taken in by the security forces and 20 sent to hospital. In the days and weeks that followed, another dozen were taken from their homes or arrested on the streets, most of them imprisoned and interrogated for weeks.
After confronting the troops and hoses, Pascal Morad was arrested a few days later.
PASCAL MORAD, STUDENT (translation): It is dangerous and of course we get scared, but we have no choice but to do what we're doing. It is our duty. I can't just watch this humiliation of our government - this crawling to Syria and just doing nothing. In the end, why am I getting education? How can I say I'm Lebanese if I do not demand to be free in my own country? Of course we're scared, but we have no choice.
MARK DAVIS: Pascal was imprisoned, threatened and interrogated for 18 days. It was a terrifying experience, but one that has merely hardened her resolve.
15:30
PASCAL'S MOTHER: We weren't happy about our daughter being arrested. It is shameful to have a girl arrested. They're students and they're not scared. But the fathers who have responsibilities are afraid of being arrested.
MARK DAVIS: Like others who were released, Pascal could be arrested at any time. Other charges are still to be heard which could lead to her imprisonment again - a threat that may be even more frightening to her parents than it is to her, but luckily, she has their support.
16:01
PASCAL'S FATHER (translation): The hard time and humiliation she went through, of course we didn't like that. We weren't happy about the humiliation they went through. But as to the stand she took, of course it makes me feel proud that my children are Lebanese patriots. All we are demanding is the freedom, independence and sovereignty of Lebanon.
PASCAL MORAD (translation): They must be feeling scared and guilty, which is why they're arresting students. And why are we getting arrested? Because we are demanding our rights, while they are benefiting from the status quo, being in power. They're benefiting from the Syrians.
16:45
MARK DAVIS: According to the graffiti, Pascal's university is part of Syria, and the students here celebrate the Syrian presence - wishful thinking on behalf of the soldiers who wrote it. Pascal came to the attention of intelligence agencies for handing out leaflets protesting the disappearance of Tony, one of the members of the student council at this campus. He was held and interrogated for 19 days.
Today, Pascal and Tony are in the middle of their exams. The morning session had been cancelled because 200 soldiers began chanting Syrian propaganda outside the exam room - the same soldiers who've proven so adept with spray cans, a freedom of expression not afforded to the students themselves.
YOUNG MAN (translation): If I hang a poster, they will beat me up - arrest me and beat me. It is forbidden, and the person who hangs them will be beaten up, will disappear, be imprisoned. We've been on trial at least three or four times each just for saying slogans against the Syrian occupation or presence in Lebanon.
19:09
MARK DAVIS: The military presence on this campus is extraordinary - all the more so because it's not Lebanese troops watching over the students here, but Syrian.
Do they talk to you if they think you're planning something?
TONY, STUDENT: Yeah, for sure. They take us always for interviews or interrogation.
MARK DAVIS: This si the army that isn't there. The Syrians cannot be filmed or photographed, and they're never shown in any Lebanese media.
PASCAL MORAD (translation): If they see you, they'll smash your camera and take you for interrogation. Ask why you're filming, who sent you here, who is behind you. It's tough. More than just interrogation - you will be beaten and the camera smashed. It happened to someone before who was filming.
TONY (translation): This is the intelligence post. This post is in charge of watching the students, the Student Council and their activities. They watch the university all the time.
19:30
(English) Here it says camping only for the soldiers. They sleep here, but (translation) Intelligence are stationed in the room we saw before.
MARK DAVIS: OK, I think we'd better go. They're coming up.
TONY: They're coming up?
MARK DAVIS: OK, let's go.
As these soldiers parade around the campus holding pictures of Syrian leaders aloft, the message for the students is clear.
In this current showdown, the students here are extremely vulnerable, but they're not totally alone. Another very powerful voice has recently been added to theirs.
20:29
In its coverage of the Syrian presence, the media in Lebanon has been largely intimidated into silence or downright sycophancy. But in recent weeks, the most prestigious daily in Beirut has had a shattering change of heart.
Gibrahn Touani became editor of his family paper, 'El Mahar', earlier this year. Last month, he wrote an editorial that caused Beirut to hold its breath. Just two days before the death of the Syrian President, Gibrahn wrote that the time had now come for Syria to leave Lebanon.
21:15
GIBRAHN TOUANI, EDITOR, 'EL MAHAR': We have the country. We want this country to be independent and sovereign, We want to be the ally of the Syrians and not the agents. And there is a major difference between being ally or agent.
MARK DAVIS: In a country where such sentiments are confined to the privacy of the home, Gibrahn's candour is astounding.
GIBRAHN TOUANI: For time being, there is no relationship. For time being, there is a sort of Syrian interference and presence and domination of Lebanon. They are present in our internal affairs, in the foreign affairs, defence affairs, everything.
MARK DAVIS: These are extraordinary things to say. Most people will say your life is in danger.
22:01
GIBRAHN TOUANI: You cannot have everything for free. You must know you always have to pay a price when you want something. Our role as journalists, we must know we have consequences to pay. And this is the minimum that you can give. If we're not ready to give and pay this price, we only have to go and do another job. We have had 200 Southern people dead in this country, so I don't think their life is cheaper than my life, or mine is better than theirs. So it's normal - they died for their country, we must be ready to die for our country, all to normalise the things. So when we do deed with the Syrians, we have to say the truth to the Syrians. We have to tell them what's wrong, what's right, what we want.
22:53
MARK DAVIS: A paper of such prestige as 'El Mahar' will undoubtedly impact on public opinion, but not necessarily Lebanese politicians. No Lebanese ministers or officials were available to be interviewed for this program. Gibrahn is as frank about them as he is about the Syrian presence.
GIBRAHN TOUANI: We are writing just to change...not to change the minds of the politicians. These politicians have been here because of the Syrians. These are Muppets, yes-men. So it's alright - we're not working on changing their minds. We're working on giving as much data as we can give to the Lebanese people, and what we are asking the students, the new generation, is not to tell us, "What do you want us to do?" No. "What do you want? And we are behind you."
23:54
MARK DAVIS: The bravery of this group - some of them, like Elsie, who are still at school - is chilling. Veterans like Ziad and more recent converts such as Pascal believe they have the support of the nation. But that is yet to be proven.
It's still to be seen whether this group, which is largely perceived as Christian, can grow into a truly nationalist movement. Undoubtedly, the situation for Muslim members like Mohammed is far more dangerous. Syrian and Lebanese Intelligence would regard them as religious traitors, and it's much harder for the Muslim members and supporters of this group to speak publicly.
MOHAMMED, MUSLIM ACTIVIST (translation): They told him, "Sign this and you can go." He signed, thinking we'd be freed, but instead they took us to Baabda prison.
24:50
MARK DAVIS: The test ahead will be whether a national allegiance can transcend religious alliances.
GIBRAHN TOUANI: I don't think any Lebanese would prefer to see Lebanon annexed by Syria, than a Lebanon independent, with good relationship with Syrians and others. I cannot imagine anybody worldwide who'll accept to see this country annexed, or with a foreign presence. This is unacceptable.
ZIAD ABZ: Of course I should be afraid. But I think with some of the activists in Lebanon already crossed the line where it's important for them - if they shut up now, they will be safe. We've already crossed this line. We've already endangered ourselves. So now, if we stop from speaking or if we do nothing, we will still be in danger.
25:43
GIBRAHN TOUANI: When you made it very clear that you are going to write what you want to write, respecting your business, your job, and that you're not going to answer the forms that threaten you, they have only two choices - either they leave you in prison or they kill you. While they're thinking if they'll kill you or let you continue to write, you can push higher and higher the level of freedom, and then killing you will create a major problem, and more problem than a month ago, two months ago.
MARK DAVIS: The coming months will tell whether the pages of 'El Mahar' report on a tumultuous change in Lebanon, or more bleakly, the fate of its own editor and a possibly doomed student movement.