A torn portrait of Bashir al-Assad, which appears to have been arranged, is seen inside the Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria, on December 10. Those were the most vivid memories from my meeting with Bashar al-Assad. Toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, a fellow secular Baathist like Assad, had been executed just six months earlier. Assad met us without a large entourage, folding his long body into a chair at the head of the room. Read more about Ivan Watson’s meeting with the dictator.

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Persons: Bashir al, Assad, Ali Haj Suleiman, Bashar al, Saddam Hussein, Syria’s, Hafez, Little, Read, Ivan Watson’s Locations: Damascus, Syria, Iraq