Arab League monitors sent to Syria completed the initial stage of their mission. The group was assessing a plan for Syria to withdraw its army from city streets and end the violent crackdown on protesters. The Arab League meets this weekend to review the monitors' report and determine what to do next. In a moment, we'll hear more about that from NPR's Peter Kenyon. First, the Arab League's mission in Syria has been controversial. Earlier today, we reached a former observer who quit and left Syria last week. He's an Algerian writer, based in Paris, named Anwar Malek. And he told us what he saw in the city of Homs. The signs of blood on the walls, on the ground. On every street there are signs of blood that show there have been a lot of people killed and wounded. The humanitarian situation is totally disastrous, no electricity, no water, no food, no medicine. Malek says he and other monitors were threatened by Syrian authorities, and he's critical of the Arab League as well. I refuse to be part of this charade that is full of lies. This was nonstop, the tanks were shelling, people were getting jailed. It's all lies and lies and more lies. The regime was lying to us. I realize the Arab League is actually in bed with the Syrian regime on this. They did not want to make it work.