it's clear syria is unlikely to turn into another libya. involving western military action. in the first place, russia will probably block it at the u.n. security council. but even without russia, there's no appetite for intervention. syria is a well armed state in a volatile region. and all-out war would involve its neighbors and western powers are distracted. the united states, the presidential election, europeans with the euro crisis and all of them worried about withdrawing from afghanistan. in paris tonight, president putin was digging in his heels. refusing to consider sanctions on syria and pointing out opposition fighters are also killing people. and the u.n. peace plan, he says, is still worth backing. bridget kendall, bbc news. >> for a closer look at russia's pivotal role in this crisis i spoke earlier with matthew reginsky, deputy director of the program for international peace. over the course of the last week, the more people i speak to about syria, they tend to be saying the best chance we have of avoiding total civil war in syria is to get the russians to put

and in news from libya, a group of militia fighters blocked air traffic. they demanded the release of one of their leaders. thirty militia members were arrested. in denmark, a group of men planning revenge for a cartoon of muhammed face charges of a terrorist attack. the newspaper that apologized has apologizedd them for any offense. >> today, a danis court convicted four men of a terrorist plot, and they were given 12 years each. they planned a shooting spree in copenhagen. the evidence was strong. weapons were found and the conversations were intercepted by swedish intelligence. the act was considered deeply offensive by muslims. the cartoons were published in 2005. in a separate plot from 2010, a somali man tried to kill the cartoonist. the men who were driven in were from north african origin. edish of them sweedis citizens. prosecutors said they intended to take hostage and kill those in the office. three of them were picked up in a suburb of the danish capital. also found were 100 runs of ammunition and plastic handcuffs. this was not the only plot.

colonel gaddafi's former intelligence chief has gone on trial in libya. he faces a long list of charges, in quoting ordering killings -- including ordering killings last year. he denies the charges. today u.s. officials confirmed top al-qaeda operative abu yahya al-libi was killed. his death is being characterized as a major blow to the organization. for more on this, i was joined by a senior political scientist and author of "hunting in the shadows." thank you for joining us. how significant is this? >> it is significant for al- qaeda in pakistan. he served as the gatekeeper. he had a very important role in helping to communicate on the field in iraq and somalia. his death does make it more difficult for the pakistan leadership to communicate on the field. >> the pakistan government says these strikes are illegal. are they? >> the challenge today is that fighting in previous years and decades has been between armies in single country's. al-qaeda is not an organization that fights in one area. its globally. it has elements in our range of areas. it is leg

libya in particular. so he had a good network of individuals from al qaeda and the islamic north africa, yemen and somalia. there are some potential individuals who might be able to fill that plot. al qaeda has after these drone strikes pushed up individuals. but i think what we're seeing is the al qaeda structure in pakistan has definitely been weakened by the strike. >> brown: do we know or can we know how he was targeted in a drone strike or where the information would come from? >> no, it's not entirely clear in this particular case. in many cases with drone strikes, one collects information from a variety of means. signals intelligence, human intelligence. what looks to be the case though based on the pattern of drone strikes is that the u.s. and a range of other organizations have increasingly penetrated where al qaeda sits in pakistan. that can not bode well for al qaeda because it's losing its support network there. >> brown: these drone strikes continue to be highly contentious and vehemently opp

what worked in libya isn't working in syria. the geography's different, the problem hasn't been tried but no one will dare try it because in libya, you could deal with this remotely by finding the libyan forces out in the desert and bombing them. in syria, this is all taking place inside cities. you can't use remote air power without causing terrific casualties and no one wants to take the risk of getting in the midst of the civil war. so there are some things for which the light footprint strategy works and there are others which is not well suited. >> rose: well but there are people who worry about the syrian policy if the administration and others do nothing, the things they fear most eventually happen. >> that's right. and that's the big concern here. so you know, we've got a strategy right now that is good for keeping terrorists off balance and may be good at slowing down countries seeking unconventional weapons. it does not do a whole lot for changing societies. remember, it was just a few years ago we would sit at this ta

that syria is not libya. it will not implode, but x load? >> >> yes, -- but exploded? >> yes, that is the estimation of not just kofi annan, but other leaders. that is why there's so much concern about syria. it is not just a question of syria falling into civil war, but a question of a regional crisis. we have heard a lot of grim assessment of the situation on the ground. we heard an acknowledgement from kofi annan that his peace plan is not being implemented and their need to be steps taken to press the government and if that is not going to work, then we need to look at other options. but we have very little detail of what the other options or belittle steps -- bolder steps would be. the secretary-general has come out and said that they love the security council to decide what to do next. the have no information as to what that might be. >> what else did they say about this contact group that james mentioned in his report? >> according to diplomats in the security council, mr. kofi annan did not raise it with the council. but he did raise it with journalists afterwa

one is the sheer strength of syria's armed forces, its military capability, greater than libya's for example. there's no political will behind the military option, reflecting the public mood against another war, particularly in the united states. major powers are left clinging to kofi annan's plan, which he concedes is not being implemented. today, he seemed tired and dispirited. after discussing ways to salvage his peace plan with the american secretary of state -- >> some say the plan might be dead. is the problem the plan or implementation? if it is implementation, how do we get action on that? what other options do we have? >> the international committee of the red cross now says a million ana ha in syria need aid because of the conflict. the report more and more driven from their homes amid shortages of food, medical care, and shelter. bbc news. >> among the bbc journalists who spent a lot of time reporting on the situation inside syria is our middle east correspondent eastpaul wood. his reports have offered a rare view into this conflict, and earlier, he joined me here in the s

we just need to arm and equip these people, the same way we did in libya. >> woodruff: i asked because you mentioned... when you talk about air strikes, when their forces are very close to civilian forces, how8yv are you going to distinguish? >> well they were fat gates of benghazi and we were able to stop them there. we have precision-guided bombs, we could have people on the ground as air controllers i think it's a very doable kind of situation. >> woodruff: and what about, senator, the argument that former republicans secretaries of state-- henry kissinger and james baker-- both of whom have said that for reasons of cost and because there's no real clarity about what's going to replace the assad regime that it would be a mistake to move militarily? >> well in all due respect, i've seen this movie before. i saw the movie when people said we shouldn't go to bosnia. i saw the movie when think said we shouldn't go to kosovo. i saw the movie when they said anduv((qqbed that we shouldn't intervene in rwanda and 850,000 people were slaughtered. >> woodruff: government leaks, you've made

. >> likely so on egypt this week and libya. remember, libya is a sore point for the russians. >> peter, you mentioned russians have been helpful in getting supplies into afghanistan. that's all the more important now because pakistan is now allowing supplies to come in. is that -- does that explain this kind of weird disdense between the pentagon and state department this week in talking about whether russia was supplying helicopters or not? gwen: weird dissidents is a kind way of putting it. >> very kind. secretary clinton saying putin supplying attack helicopters to assad sounds tough, raises the pressure of the pentagon. well, yeah, there are three helicopters that have been sent back to russia for refurbishment and russia returned them under contract. gwen: why? >> she's trying to raise the pressure on them and there's a weird disdinse here and there's irony the biggest success of the reset is also the biggest problem. now we need them. we need russian air corps we put in place to supply our war against the tall began and a

we don't know what's going to come to power in libya. we don't know what's going to come to power in syria after assad-- whenever that day happens. are we going through something now with tunisia and now in egypt, an evolutionary process of sort of people like the muslim brotherhood in power and that may change them as much as they change the country? >> well, that certainly has been the u.s. hope is that as the muslim brotherhood, the muslim democrats generally began to go into politics, had political roots to express their frustrations and their desires that that would take the violent edge off of islamist movements and they would then have to grapple with the realities of power. how to bring foreign investment, how to get an economy moving. how to get the g.d.p. growth level above 5%. those are the specific issues that now face the likely president morsi. and it was hoped that across the arab world that this process of empowering people who had been excluded by a corrupt essentially police state system would be beneficial. and i think

>> no, i don't think you could say libya has settled down yet. i don't think that it would be possible to glide seamlessly from 42 years of dictatorship to democracy overnight. the future of libya really does hang in the balance at the moment. because after the revolution libya has got such disparate views on what they want. some people want a secular state. some people want a an islamist state. and those young men who we saw during the revolution firing their weapons into the air and-- they don't want to give those weapons up. and the central government such as it is, really is very week. it has little legitimacy. >> and your book reminded us just how thinly populated and how fast an area this country really is. is it harder to make common cause, harder to make one country out of a place with the peculiar demographic and geographic challenges of libya? >> well, i really think the libyans have got a lot going for them. as you say, small population, 6 million people. they're rich. they've got oil & gas. an many of them are very well educated. one