1. Bashar al Assad - Syria
President of Syria since 2000, when he succeeded his dead father, Assad is probably the dictator on this list who is causing the most chaos at the moment. He trained as a doctor but after the death of his brother Bassel, he entered the military and was groomed for the Syrian presidency. Initially, the West had hopes that he would be a reformer but when the Arab Spring came around, he showed his true colours and ordered a massive crackdown on protestors. Assad hates the USA, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel. He has amassed a $1.5 billion fortune for himself and his family which is squirrelled away in accounts in different countries. He is not that fond of religion and does everything to promote secularism. Syrian website use is closely monitored and sites like Google and Facebook banned. It is widespread knowledge that Assad and his secret police torture and interrogate members of the opposition and dissidents. Syria has the worst human rights record of all the countries in the Middle East. Israel condemned Syria for its assistance to radical terrorist groups who are actively conspiring against Israel including Hezbollah and Hamas. There is little doubt that Syria has a profound hatred for Israel and would love to blow her off the map. Syria is very concerned about Israel's nuclear weapons programme and her Samson policy - if you are going to take us out, then we will take you out with us. This has led to Syria developing its own chemical weapons programme, to keep up with Israel. The extent of this programme is shady and big time war was averted after Syrian troops used chemical weapons on its civilians. The heartbreaking and agonising film footage of Syrian people burnt to bits provoked universal condemnation and the US was ready to attack, but a more cautious Britain and the EU managed to halt this by making Syria submit to weapons inspection by the UN. This process is still ongoing. Assad has also been active in stirring up trouble in Lebanon, befriending the PLO, openly extolling the virtues of Hamas and Hezbollah, pissing Israel off and demanding an apology from the Pope for the Crusades. The Civil war has taken a terrible toll on people in Syria with over 20,000 deaths. Hopefully something can be done by the International community soon to oust Assad. He promotes both racial hatred against Israel and her allies, uses chemical weapons on his civilians and Syria is a breeding camp for radical extremist groups and the Assad regime openly praises them. Definitely the world's current most despicable dictator.