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Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey Leon here, Before we get to this episode,

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Speaker 1: I want to let you know that you can binge

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Speaker 1: the entire season of Fiasco Benghazi right now ad free

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Speaker 1: by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Sign up for Pushkin

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Speaker 1: Plus on the Fiasco Apple podcast show page, or visit

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Speaker 1: Pushkin dot Fm slash Plus now onto the show. Previously

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Speaker 1: on Fiasco.

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Speaker 2: He's been called the world's number one terrorist, a madman

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Speaker 2: who exports terrorism around the world, Colonel Murima Coduti.

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Speaker 3: The first time in almost a quarter century, the US

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Speaker 3: has diplomatic ties with Libya.

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Speaker 4: We were sent out there and told just to go

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Speaker 4: find what you can find.

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Speaker 5: Chris Stevens was always willing to open a conversation with

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Speaker 5: people from pretty scary Islamist backgrounds.

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Speaker 4: Nobody demonstrated or protested in Goddafi's Libya.

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Speaker 6: But they didn't really care anymore.

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Speaker 4: They'd lost everything.

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Speaker 1: Hamis Gadaffi arrived in Houston, Texas on January twentieth, twenty eleven.

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Speaker 1: While in town, Hamis, one of Mumar Gadaffi's sons, was

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Speaker 1: scheduled to visit a NASA facility and the Port of Houston.

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Speaker 1: There's a photo from the trip in which Camise can

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Speaker 1: be seen smiling with the chairman of the Houston Port

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Speaker 1: Commission and ten other men in suits. Camise was around

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Speaker 1: thirty at the time, and in the photo he looks sharp,

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Speaker 1: wearing jeans and shiny other shoes, with a sport coat

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Speaker 1: and a simple black necktie. Camisa's visit to Houston was

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Speaker 1: part of a wide ranging tour of the United States

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Speaker 1: sponsored by a large American infrastructure firm with business in Libya.

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Speaker 1: According to Camisa's schedule, the trip was to inclclude a

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Speaker 1: VIP tour of Universal studios and visits to Apple, Google

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Speaker 1: and Intel. Whether he ended up doing all that we

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Speaker 1: don't know for sure, because it wasn't reported on at

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Speaker 1: the time. The specifics of what Camise actually did in

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Speaker 1: the United States are fuzzy. One of the few people

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Speaker 1: who knows some of the details is Colonel Brian Linville.

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Speaker 7: Hamis went to the United States not as a part

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Speaker 7: of an official government function per se. Instead, at that

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Speaker 7: time he was working on his master's degree at a

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Speaker 7: school in Spain and was really interested in the business

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Speaker 7: management aspects of the United States.

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Speaker 1: At the time of Camise's American safari, Lynnville was a

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Speaker 1: Foreign Area officer in the US Army. He was living

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Speaker 1: in Tripoli and serving as a diplomatic liaison to the

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Speaker 1: Libyan military.

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Speaker 7: Foreign area officers like myself refer to ourselves hyphenated as

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Speaker 7: soldier diplomats because it really does incorporate the aspects of both,

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Speaker 7: and you can't separate the two.

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Speaker 1: Linnville accompanied camise on the part of his trip that

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Speaker 1: was planned in coordination with the Department of Defense. The

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Speaker 1: DoD had agreed to take camise on tours of the

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Speaker 1: US Air Force Academy West Point and the National Defense University.

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Speaker 1: It fell to Linnville's escort Camiste to each of those stops.

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Speaker 7: I sincerely believe he wanted to go and observe and

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Speaker 7: learn and take back something that might be to the

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Speaker 7: benefit of his country, his military.

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Speaker 1: For most of the trip, Camisee tried to keep his

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Speaker 1: identity under wraps.

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Speaker 7: He was extremely hesitant to allow himself to be identified

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Speaker 7: as Kaddafi's son. Everywhere we went. He asked that we

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Speaker 7: introduce him as Captain Camise not as Captain Kadafi. He

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Speaker 7: wanted to disassociate himself from any stigmas that might be

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Speaker 7: associated with that name.

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Speaker 4: In the United States officials are saying no to being

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Speaker 4: leader Momar Kadafi.

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Speaker 8: Does anybody think that Momarkadafi is not a terrorist?

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Speaker 9: This is a man who simply does not accept a

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Speaker 9: responsibility for Libya's a terrorist past.

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Speaker 7: Camis knew that we'd had Araqi past, and his purpose

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Speaker 7: wasn't to make waves or to ruffle any feathers.

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Speaker 1: Camis's American hosts didn't want to ruffle his feathers either.

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Speaker 1: He and his brothers were important to the American government

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Speaker 1: because they were widely understood to be the future of Libya.

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Speaker 1: Whatever happened after Muamar Gadaffi eventually died, his sons would

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Speaker 1: be a huge part of it. In the meantime, it

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Speaker 1: was possible they could serve as a positive influence on

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Speaker 1: their father.

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Speaker 7: With Camis, we knew that he had the potential to

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Speaker 7: talked to his dad and explain what he'd seen and

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Speaker 7: encouraged the Libyan government to make some changes.

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Speaker 1: Not all of Gadafi's sons inspired this kind of faith

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Speaker 1: or enjoyed equal standar in the eyes of the West.

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Speaker 7: The Kadafi boys were a motley assortment.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps the most respected of the Gaddafi brothers was Saif

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Speaker 1: al Islam, whom you heard about in episode one Scyphal.

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Speaker 7: Islam, as the heir apparent, took on a much larger

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Speaker 7: role than his other brothers, and much more political role,

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Speaker 7: whereas the other brothers struggled to find.

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Speaker 4: Their way up.

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Speaker 1: Those other brothers included Matassim, who once paid Beyonce a

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Speaker 1: rumored two million dollars to perform at a New Year's

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Speaker 1: Eve concert in Saint Bart's and Sadi, who was caught

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Speaker 1: using steroids during a stint as a professional soccer player

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Speaker 1: in Italy. By comparison, Camisee did not attract much attention

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Speaker 1: while his brothers made headlines in The New York Times.

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Speaker 1: In Gawker, Camis seemed to fly under the radar as

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Speaker 1: he worked towards an MBA in Spain. But back home

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Speaker 1: in Libya he had another role.

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Speaker 7: He was the commander of the regime's most important and

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Speaker 7: probably best equipped, best trained regiment, of the thirty second

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Speaker 7: Enhanced Brigade.

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Speaker 1: The thirty second Enhanced Brigade was one of the few

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Speaker 1: elite units of the Libyan military, which on the whole

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Speaker 1: was underfunded and poorly organized. This was at least in

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Speaker 1: part because Colonel Gaddafi liked it that way. As he

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Speaker 1: saw it, if a military coups were ever attempted against him,

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Speaker 1: it would be much easier for his loyalists to defeat

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Speaker 1: a weak army than a strong one.

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Speaker 7: He focused on developing specific regime protection forces that he

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Speaker 7: knew were loyal and were manned by family members or

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Speaker 7: tribal members that were loyal to him and loyal to

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Speaker 7: the Kadafi government.

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Speaker 1: And so camisse led the main one of those.

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Speaker 7: Yes, that's correct.

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Speaker 1: While Camisee traveled the United States, the Middle East was

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Speaker 1: experiencing a historic convulsion. A little over a month earlier,

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Speaker 1: in December of twenty ten, a street vendor in Tunisia

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Speaker 1: had doused himself in paint dinner and lit himself on fire.

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Speaker 1: It was a protest against corrupt local authorities who had

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Speaker 1: harassed him and confiscated the scale he used to weigh

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Speaker 1: his produce.

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Speaker 7: His closest friends, anguished by Mohamlet's actions, took to the

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Speaker 7: streets and began a popular uprising.

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Speaker 1: When words spread about what the produce vendor had done

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Speaker 1: and why Tunisians poured into the streets in protest.

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Speaker 6: Anger erupted onto the streets. Today, while police rushing a

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Speaker 6: crowd carrying banners reading yes we can. It was enough

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Speaker 6: to bring down the government and force the nation's president

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Speaker 6: to flee.

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Speaker 1: Before long, the president of Tunisia was forced from power,

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Speaker 1: and the revolutionary mood started spreading to Egypt.

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Speaker 10: Just listen to the chance roaring in downtown Cairol, the

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Speaker 10: hundreds of people walking to the streets.

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Speaker 1: It's unprecedented for people to.

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Speaker 11: March to the streets this way as an act of

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Speaker 11: protests without security is he's trying to prevent them.

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Speaker 1: On January twenty fifth, twenty eleven, protests erupted in Tariar

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Speaker 1: Square in Cairo as thousands of Egyptians demanded that President

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Speaker 1: Hosni Mubarik stepped down. It was the beginning of what

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Speaker 1: would come to be known in the West as the

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Speaker 1: Arab Spring.

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Speaker 11: Of course, a wave of protests has swept through the

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Speaker 11: Arab world, and now many are wondering how far that

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Speaker 11: wave will spread and what it means to the rest

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Speaker 11: of the Middle East.

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Speaker 1: Including Mubarak resigned as president of Egypt on February eleventh.

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Speaker 1: That same day, Kamiska Dafi was in Chicago sitting in

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Speaker 1: on a class at Northwestern University taught by Deepak Chopra.

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Speaker 1: The class was called the Soul of Leadership, and at

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Speaker 1: one point Chopra brought up Mubarik and the Egyptian Revolution

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Speaker 1: as Camise took extensive notes. After his visit to Chicago,

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Speaker 1: Camise flew to DC, where Brian Linville took him to

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Speaker 1: the National Defense University. At a roundtable discussion with American

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Speaker 1: government officials, a US ambassador asked Camise the question that

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Speaker 1: was on everyone's mind.

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Speaker 7: And he said, you know, I can't pass up this opportunity.

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Speaker 7: I want to ask what are your thoughts on and

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Speaker 7: the uprisings that are going on? And I think Camise

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Speaker 7: shocked the room when he said, I think it's a

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Speaker 7: good thing. I think it's good that the people of

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Speaker 7: the region are finally having an opportunity to express themselves

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Speaker 7: in this way. And you could have heard a pin

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Speaker 7: drop in the room.

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Speaker 1: From DC, Camise traveled to New York City, where he

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Speaker 1: toured the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The

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Speaker 1: next day, he was scheduled to take in a performance

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Speaker 1: of Mamma Mia on Broadway. Brian Linnville, who was supposed

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Speaker 1: to meet Camise in New York. Was still at his

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Speaker 1: hotel in Washington when he heard about unsettling reports coming

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Speaker 1: out of Libya.

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Speaker 7: On the news. There were reports that there been some

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Speaker 7: uprisings in eastern Libya around Benghazi.

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Speaker 12: Well, in a rare show of unrest, hundreds of opponents

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Speaker 12: of Libyan leader.

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Speaker 13: Moammar Gadaffi clashed with police overnight.

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Speaker 1: Lynnville was getting ready to travel to New York when

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Speaker 1: he got a phone call.

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Speaker 7: My cell phone rings and it's Camisi's handler. Well that

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Speaker 7: the handler says, Hey, Camisi is cutting his trip short

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Speaker 7: and he's flying back.

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Speaker 4: To Libya tonight.

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Speaker 7: And that was it. We both knew what was going down.

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Speaker 7: The Arab spring had arrived in Libya.

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Speaker 1: When you say you knew what was going down, like

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Speaker 1: you mean you understood what he was going back there

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Speaker 1: to do.

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Speaker 7: Oh yeah, for sure, Hamis was going to go back

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Speaker 7: to Libya and play a prominent role in putting down

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Speaker 7: the uprisings. I think we were both airborne at the

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Speaker 7: same time, different planes, and we both probably got back

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Speaker 7: to Triple Hit about the same time. Then ultimately we

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Speaker 7: would go on to be on the opposite sides of

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Speaker 7: the battlefield.

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Speaker 1: I'm Leon Nafok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This

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Speaker 1: is Fiasco Benghazi.

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Speaker 14: Dramatic showdown between a dictator with a ruthless grip on

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Speaker 14: power and a population demanding freedom.

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Speaker 10: My mother knew she might not see us again.

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Speaker 15: It's easy for people to say you take the consequences

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Speaker 15: if something bad happened.

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Speaker 16: And I just said to him, you've just guaranteed your

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Speaker 16: future as an ambassador.

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Speaker 4: He went in into Benghazi in the height of a war.

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Speaker 4: It was pretty remarkable.

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Speaker 1: Episode two, We Will Stay Here, in which Libya revolts

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Speaker 1: and a beloved American diplomat makes his mark in Benghazi.

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Speaker 1: We'll be right back. There was a joke that went

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Speaker 1: around in early twenty eleven that summed up how a

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Speaker 1: lot of Libyans felt at the beginning of the Arab Spring.

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Speaker 1: It had to do with Libya's geographic position in North Africa,

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Speaker 1: sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia.

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Speaker 10: The Tunisians were joking about us. They say that we

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Speaker 10: asked Libyans to sit down so we can't see Egyptians

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Speaker 10: and in spite of them, to start their revolution.

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Speaker 1: This is Iman Bugagis in twenty eleven. She was an

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Speaker 1: orthodonist on the teaching staff at the University of Benghazi.

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Speaker 1: The joke she's referring to here basically meant that no

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Speaker 1: one was expecting the Libyan people to join in when

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Speaker 1: the revolutionary wave started sweeping the Arab world, because we

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Speaker 1: were hopeless.

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Speaker 10: They knew the autrocity of Gavefi and we felt that also.

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Speaker 10: We felt that we never kick out Gembefi.

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Speaker 1: But sometime in early February, social media posts started circulating

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Speaker 1: calling for mass protests to take place in Libya. On Thursday,

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Speaker 1: February seventeenth. It was being called a day of rage.

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Speaker 1: Brian Linnville, the American Army Liaison, says the Gadafi regime

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Speaker 1: started quietly mobilizing for potential unrest.

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Speaker 7: It was apparent that the regime was nervous.

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Speaker 16: Right.

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Speaker 7: We noticed a definite uptick in security forces in downtown Tripoli,

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Speaker 7: and there was a certain tension in the air because

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Speaker 7: you'd watch on Al Jazer and every other news agency

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Speaker 7: as these governments started to topple across the region and everybody

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Speaker 7: was asking can it happen here?

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Speaker 1: On February fifteenth, the Kadafi regime arrested a prominent lawyer

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Speaker 1: in Benghazi named Fati Turbil. It was seemingly a precautionary measure.

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Speaker 1: Turbil was best known as a representative of the families

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Speaker 1: whose loved ones had been killed at Abu Salim prison

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety six. As you heard in episode one,

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Speaker 1: the Kadafi regime had been allowing the families to protest

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Speaker 1: every Saturday outside the courthouse in Benghazi. Fati Turbil, who

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Speaker 1: was helping the families in their fight for restitution and

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Speaker 1: who had also lost relatives in the massacre, often joined them.

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Speaker 10: They were the mothers, the sisters.

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Speaker 17: The wives of political prisoners, and always they were They

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Speaker 17: were asking, They were making noise and requesting to know

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Speaker 17: the fate of their relatives and what had happened.

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Speaker 10: They wanted the truth because at that time, even at

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Speaker 10: that time, there was no clear admission of the regime

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Speaker 10: of what happened exactly.

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Speaker 1: Gaddafi apparently thought that arresting Turbil would silence anyone who

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Speaker 1: might be thinking of revolution. Instead, soon after Turbil's arrest,

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Speaker 1: a group of fifteen to twenty women, all family members

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Speaker 1: of abously imprisoners, gathered outside the building where Turbil was

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Speaker 1: being held.

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Speaker 10: They came in front of the intelligence headquarter, and what

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Speaker 10: they were saying was wake up, wake up, being Ghazzi.

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Speaker 10: This is the day that you were waiting for Knu

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Speaker 10: the Nudi Yban Ghazzi had Yomtrai. It walked up at

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Speaker 10: the sentence, they walked us. After that people started gathering.

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Speaker 10: It was very strange to see women protesting and with

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Speaker 10: all of this courage. So the people and the youth

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Speaker 10: started to come and then they walked till the city center,

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Speaker 10: which was a few kilometers.

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Speaker 1: Later that night, Fati Turbil was allowed to go free.

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Speaker 1: But like the self immolation of a street vendor in Tunisia,

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Speaker 1: Turbill's arrest had sparked something unconfirmed.

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Speaker 18: Video it's claimed, shows protesters outside a police station in

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Speaker 18: Benghazi on Tuesday. They've come to demonstrate against the arrest

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Speaker 18: of human rights lawyer Fati Turbill. After dark, the protesters

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Speaker 18: regroup outside the city's security directorate, their chance turn against

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Speaker 18: the government and the forty one year long rule of

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Speaker 18: Mama Gaddafi.

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Speaker 1: On February seventeenth, the day of Rage, Iman and Bugegis

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Speaker 1: left her home to join a protest on the steps

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Speaker 1: of the Bengazi courthouse. She was joined by her sister, Salwah,

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Speaker 1: another lawyer who've been helping the Abu Sulim families. As

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Speaker 1: they headed to the courthouse, the sisters didn't know if

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Speaker 1: they were to return home alive.

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Speaker 10: We left our children with my mother, and my mother

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Speaker 10: knew and we knew that she might.

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Speaker 16: Not see us again.

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Speaker 10: We didn't talk about it. We thought that it's something

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Speaker 10: we have to do regardless, So we didn't what if,

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Speaker 10: what if? No, no, no no, But they thought about that.

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Speaker 10: You know, we have something we have to do. It's

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Speaker 10: our responsibility, the older generation. We have to do something.

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Speaker 10: You know, we have a students, We have children who

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Speaker 10: deserves better life. They deserve to live in peace, to

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Speaker 10: have good education.

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Speaker 1: Iman joined her sister in front of the courthouse just

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Speaker 1: before one pm. At first, the protesters made relatively modest demands,

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Speaker 1: calling for a constitution and social reforms, not full on

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Speaker 1: regime change. But as the afternoon wore on, the crowd

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Speaker 1: kept growing and many of the new arrivals were young

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Speaker 1: people who were less restrained in their ambitions. They didn't

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Speaker 1: just want change, they wanted Gaddafi gone. Imman initially tried

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Speaker 1: to discourage them because she was afraid that Gaddafi would

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Speaker 1: simply kill them all if they called for his ouster.

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Speaker 1: But by four o'clock she could tell the tide had turned.

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Speaker 1: A revolution that started and there was no going back.

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Speaker 10: For seven eight hours, we were just chanting about Libya.

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Speaker 10: It was the first time that we say it's our country,

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Speaker 10: we love it. It was like a love song, you know.

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Speaker 10: All of a sudden we recognized how much we love

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Speaker 10: our country. This is our country, we love it, We

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Speaker 10: love you, you know.

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Speaker 19: It was unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: Declaring love for Libya was revolutionary in and of itself.

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Speaker 1: Colonel Gaddafi had only ever encouraged love for Colonel Gaddafi.

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Speaker 10: He didn't use the name Libya for anything, so for

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Speaker 10: a long time he replaced Libya with himself. So at

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Speaker 10: that time, we just moved away that curtain and Libya

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Speaker 10: returned to us, and we discovered how much we love

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Speaker 10: our country.

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Speaker 1: It was a euphoric moment. Even though the revolution was

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Speaker 1: just starting, the mere act of public descent felt like

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Speaker 1: a victory. On February eighteenth, a man climbed up a

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Speaker 1: utility pole in Benghazi and hung the old flag of

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Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Libya, red, black and green with a

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Speaker 1: star and crescent in the center.

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Speaker 10: Are screaming, you know it's ourn flag. It came back

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Speaker 10: to us.

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Speaker 1: Thousands of protesters in Benghazi joined together to sing a

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Speaker 1: protest song called Salfa Napka Hunah we will stay here.

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Speaker 10: For the first time, we were singing for our country

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Speaker 10: and we were saying that we will stay here. Libya

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Speaker 10: will stay here.

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Speaker 1: The unrest wasn't limited to Benghazi. Within a week, protests

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Speaker 1: were occurring throughout Libya. The response from the Gadafi regime

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Speaker 1: was quick and violent.

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Speaker 14: Dramatics showdown between a dictator with a ruthless grip on

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Speaker 14: power and a population demanding freedom.

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Speaker 5: Kaddafi is lashing back with force and brutality on a

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Speaker 5: scale not yet seen in the revolutions that have been

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Speaker 5: sweeping across the Arab world.

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Speaker 18: Reports of casualties have come from all over the country.

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Speaker 18: Sources suggest Libyan security forces shot and killed demonstrators.

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Speaker 5: With borders closed and telephone and internet jam, it's impossible

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Speaker 5: to get an accurate picture, but there are reports of

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Speaker 5: massacres by the military.

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Speaker 1: Army attache Brian Linnville returned to Tripoli from his trip

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Speaker 1: with Kamiska Dathi on February nineteenth, just two days after

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Speaker 1: the Day of Rage. By this point the uprising had

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Speaker 1: reached the Libyan capital as well.

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Speaker 7: As soon as the sun went down, we could hear

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Speaker 7: outside like echoing through the streets, this chanting, this low roar,

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Speaker 7: angry people in the streets. Shortly after that, we started

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Speaker 7: hearing gunfire, and that gunfire developed into machine gun fire,

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Speaker 7: and we started seeing tracers shoot across the sky, and

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Speaker 7: the chanting got worse and worse throughout the night. It

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Speaker 7: was all night long, and looking out across the city

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Speaker 7: and hearing all the gunfire, you knew people were dying.

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Speaker 7: There's no way it could be any other outcome.

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Speaker 1: Like February twentieth, Human Rights Watch had put the country

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Speaker 1: wide death toll at one hundred and seventy three. Two

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Speaker 1: days later, Colonel Gaddafi appeared on state television from his

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Speaker 1: compound in Tripoli. Gaddafi looked like a ghoul, his skin

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Speaker 1: gray and pallid, ranting for over an hour. He vowed

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Speaker 1: to never relinquish power and called in his supporters to

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Speaker 1: track down protesters and search for them Zengazenga roughly Ali

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Speaker 1: by Ali, until the country was clean of dirt.

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Speaker 2: Momar Gaddafi is not leaving without a fight. He's trying

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Speaker 2: to extinguish protests like these that keep popping up. A

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Speaker 2: number of people killed ranges anywhere from three hundred two

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Speaker 2: one thousand, and residents say militiamen are roaming the streets

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Speaker 2: firing their weapons. Some fear that will trigger a civil war,

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Speaker 2: and they were begging.

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Speaker 4: The war to get Please, we need to help.

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Speaker 2: The US is considering sanctions to put pressure on Gadaffi.

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Speaker 2: In the meantime, protesters say they will continue to march

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Speaker 2: in the streets and won't stop until Gaddafi is no

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Speaker 2: longer in power.

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Speaker 12: Good out, noon, everybody.

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Speaker 1: On February twenty third, President Barack Obama addressed the nation

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Speaker 1: from the White House, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

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Speaker 1: standing by his side.

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Speaker 12: We strongly condemned the use of violence in Libya. This

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Speaker 12: violence must stop. This is not simply a concern of

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Speaker 12: the United States. The entire world is watching, and we

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Speaker 12: will coordinate our assistance and accountability measures with the international community.

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Speaker 1: Obama underscored the uprisings in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia were organic,

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Speaker 1: not the result of foreign interference region, but he made

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Speaker 1: it clear that the protesters had America's support.

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Speaker 12: This change doesn't represent the work of the United States

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Speaker 12: or any foreign power, presents the aspirations of people who

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Speaker 12: are seeking a better life, and throughout this time of transition,

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Speaker 12: the United States will continue to stand up for freedom,

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Speaker 12: stand up for justice, and stand up for the dignity

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Speaker 12: of all people. Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Obama's expression of solidarity with the rebels in their fight

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Speaker 1: against Gaddafi masked his reluctance to allow America to be

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Speaker 1: caught in the crossfire, and with violence in triplely escalating,

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Speaker 1: the US decided to abandon its embassy and get its

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Speaker 1: diplomats out of Libya. The day after Obama's address, The

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Speaker 1: nineteen staffers still working out of the embassy in Tripoli,

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Speaker 1: including Brian Linnville, were tasked with destroying everything so that

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Speaker 1: sensitive information didn't wind up in the wrong hands. One

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Speaker 1: of Lynnville's deputies showed him what to do.

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Speaker 7: He's like, all right, sir, take this sledgehammer, take that computer,

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Speaker 7: hit it there and there, put a hole there, put

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Speaker 7: a hole there, put a hole there, and then come

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Speaker 7: back and see me.

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Speaker 1: There was a whole embassy's worth of computers and other

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Speaker 1: equipment that needed destroying.

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Speaker 7: The destruction took all night. I think the sun was

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Speaker 7: coming up when I was able to crawl into my

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Speaker 7: office and line on the floor for a few hours

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Speaker 7: to catch a little bit of sleep.

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Speaker 1: After that it was time to go. Before leaving, Linnville

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Speaker 1: and his deputy brought down the embassy's American flag. They

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Speaker 1: folded it and tucked it away safely. Then they lined

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Speaker 1: up their convoy and drove to the airport. It was

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Speaker 1: shortly after two PM, and Friday prayers were letting out

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Speaker 1: at mosques all over the city.

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Speaker 7: That's when the protests started again. This time, the violence

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Speaker 7: started right in the middle of the afternoon, and our

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Speaker 7: convoy had to pass right through several of those protests

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Speaker 7: as they were occurring. We had gunfire going off within

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Speaker 7: a few feet of our car as they were engaging

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Speaker 7: these protesters.

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Speaker 1: Linnville and the embassy staff managed to make it safely

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Speaker 1: to the airport, where they boarded a charter plane to Istanbul.

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Speaker 1: American diplomatic mission to Libya was coming to an end

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Speaker 1: for now. By mid March, less than a month after

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Speaker 1: the Libyan revolution began, the US had frozen more than

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Speaker 1: thirty billion dollars in assets belonging to Gaddafi and four

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Speaker 1: of his kids, including Camise. But the Libyan rebels wanted

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Speaker 1: more from the West than just economic sanctions. They wanted firepower.

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Speaker 1: While Colonel Gaddafi publicly insisted that al Qaida was to

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Speaker 1: blame for the unrest and that casualties were at most

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Speaker 1: two hundred, France, the UK, and the Arab League pressured

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Speaker 1: the US to join them in a military intervention. When

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Speaker 1: Secretary of State Clinton arrived in Paris for meetings with

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Speaker 1: the g Eight, the question of what to do about

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Speaker 1: Libya followed her there.

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Speaker 8: The Secretary starts her week in Paris facing international pressure

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Speaker 8: for a Libyan no fly zone. Clinton has been skeptical, saying,

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Speaker 8: even with international backing, it's the US that takes all

440
00:26:13,951 --> 00:26:14,511
Speaker 8: the risks.

441
00:26:14,751 --> 00:26:17,071
Speaker 15: It's easy for people to say do this, do that,

442
00:26:17,271 --> 00:26:20,510
Speaker 15: and then they turn and say, okay, us go do it.

443
00:26:20,671 --> 00:26:23,031
Speaker 15: You take the consequences if something bad happen.

444
00:26:23,471 --> 00:26:26,150
Speaker 1: He was decided that while she was in Paris, Clinton

445
00:26:26,191 --> 00:26:28,511
Speaker 1: would meet with a representative of what the Libyan rebels

446
00:26:28,511 --> 00:26:33,110
Speaker 1: were calling the Transitional National Council or the TNC, who's

447
00:26:33,150 --> 00:26:36,311
Speaker 1: basically a temporary de facto government whose leaders were trying

448
00:26:36,390 --> 00:26:37,431
Speaker 1: to replace Goaddafi.

449
00:26:37,711 --> 00:26:40,911
Speaker 8: For Secretary Clinton, it's a trip to the great unknown.

450
00:26:41,350 --> 00:26:44,631
Speaker 8: She will meet the Libyan opposition this week, although what

451
00:26:44,751 --> 00:26:47,910
Speaker 8: the US might offer and which rebel leaders she should

452
00:26:47,951 --> 00:26:50,711
Speaker 8: see has the State Department working overtime.

453
00:26:51,110 --> 00:26:54,111
Speaker 15: Because we know that there are some with whom we'd

454
00:26:54,110 --> 00:26:56,071
Speaker 15: want to be allied and others with whom we would not.

455
00:26:56,630 --> 00:27:00,031
Speaker 16: There was no real appetite on the US part to

456
00:27:00,191 --> 00:27:03,390
Speaker 16: enter into the Libyan frey at that particular point.

457
00:27:03,951 --> 00:27:06,990
Speaker 1: This is Gene krets the US ambassador to Libya at

458
00:27:07,031 --> 00:27:11,311
Speaker 1: the time of the revolution. As Ambassador, Kretz was responsible

459
00:27:11,311 --> 00:27:13,830
Speaker 1: for making contact with the leaders of the TNC and

460
00:27:13,911 --> 00:27:17,630
Speaker 1: sizing them up. As Kretz explains it now, one big

461
00:27:17,671 --> 00:27:20,191
Speaker 1: fear at the State Department was that the rebel coalition

462
00:27:20,271 --> 00:27:24,150
Speaker 1: would include too many radical Islamists, that in addition to

463
00:27:24,150 --> 00:27:27,150
Speaker 1: people like Iman Bugegis who wanted to build a democracy,

464
00:27:27,830 --> 00:27:31,071
Speaker 1: there was also a large constituency of ultra conservative, anti

465
00:27:31,150 --> 00:27:35,071
Speaker 1: American Muslims who wanted to impose strict Sharia law in Libya.

466
00:27:35,951 --> 00:27:39,791
Speaker 16: I had been sent to find out exactly who these

467
00:27:39,830 --> 00:27:43,830
Speaker 16: people were. Was this a real uprising or was it?

468
00:27:44,071 --> 00:27:48,471
Speaker 16: As Kadafi and as minions were claiming a jihadist plot

469
00:27:49,350 --> 00:27:53,151
Speaker 16: that America would regret. My view after meeting people from

470
00:27:53,231 --> 00:27:55,110
Speaker 16: the TNC, and what they were doing was that it

471
00:27:55,150 --> 00:28:01,151
Speaker 16: was a legitimate national uprising which probably included jihadist elements

472
00:28:01,150 --> 00:28:02,991
Speaker 16: by virtue of the fact that they existed.

473
00:28:03,551 --> 00:28:06,271
Speaker 1: One of Kretz's contacts within the TNC was a man

474
00:28:06,311 --> 00:28:09,630
Speaker 1: in his late fifties named Mahmoud Jabriel, the Foreign Minister

475
00:28:09,711 --> 00:28:13,991
Speaker 1: for the Transitional Government. Jabriel had a PhD in political

476
00:28:13,991 --> 00:28:17,151
Speaker 1: science from the University of Pittsburgh and he spoke English fluently.

477
00:28:18,191 --> 00:28:21,271
Speaker 1: Here he is speaking in a twenty twelve documentary Who.

478
00:28:21,110 --> 00:28:25,430
Speaker 20: Were Racing with time with Mike Police all over the

479
00:28:25,511 --> 00:28:29,830
Speaker 20: place and the meeting with the Madame Clinton was Philip Cruscher.

480
00:28:29,991 --> 00:28:33,551
Speaker 1: Ambassador Crets arranged a meeting between Gabriel, Clinton and one

481
00:28:33,590 --> 00:28:35,710
Speaker 1: of his colleagues from the State Department who had just

482
00:28:35,751 --> 00:28:39,551
Speaker 1: been named Special Envoy to the Transitional Government. His name

483
00:28:39,751 --> 00:28:43,950
Speaker 1: was Christopher Stevens. Clinton, Kretz and Stephens sat down with

484
00:28:44,031 --> 00:28:47,991
Speaker 1: Gabriel in a hotel suite overlooking the Tuilerie Garden. In

485
00:28:48,071 --> 00:28:51,151
Speaker 1: her memoir Hard Choices, Clinton writes that she could see

486
00:28:51,151 --> 00:28:53,911
Speaker 1: the Eiffel Tower from her window as Jabriel made the

487
00:28:53,991 --> 00:28:56,151
Speaker 1: argument for American intervention in Libya.

488
00:28:56,431 --> 00:29:02,071
Speaker 16: He laid out the case for why America, leader of

489
00:29:02,111 --> 00:29:07,151
Speaker 16: the world's democracies, should look on this situation and see

490
00:29:07,231 --> 00:29:11,470
Speaker 16: that there were elements that very much coincided with what

491
00:29:11,551 --> 00:29:16,831
Speaker 16: America's interests in the world were and what American values were.

492
00:29:17,191 --> 00:29:20,071
Speaker 1: The meeting lasted just forty five minutes, but by the

493
00:29:20,191 --> 00:29:23,510
Speaker 1: end Clinton seemed convinced that Jabriel and his fellow rebels

494
00:29:23,551 --> 00:29:24,991
Speaker 1: were trustworthy and sincere.

495
00:29:25,751 --> 00:29:28,591
Speaker 16: I think the meeting was one of the first times

496
00:29:28,631 --> 00:29:31,950
Speaker 16: that the US and the guys of the Secretary was

497
00:29:31,991 --> 00:29:35,471
Speaker 16: able to meet and put a face to the revolution,

498
00:29:35,751 --> 00:29:39,391
Speaker 16: to see that these were not wild eyed jihadists and

499
00:29:39,431 --> 00:29:44,071
Speaker 16: that in fact, they were really people committed to setting

500
00:29:44,191 --> 00:29:48,951
Speaker 16: up a democratic country. And the meeting with Jabriel then

501
00:29:49,831 --> 00:29:51,911
Speaker 16: was the one that I think that at least helped

502
00:29:51,951 --> 00:29:56,631
Speaker 16: convince the Secretary that our participation in this reaction against

503
00:29:56,671 --> 00:30:00,751
Speaker 16: Kadafi was justifiable. And then the President made the decision

504
00:30:01,231 --> 00:30:02,271
Speaker 16: a few days later, I.

505
00:30:02,231 --> 00:30:06,591
Speaker 1: Believe, on March fifteenth, Obama called his national security team

506
00:30:06,631 --> 00:30:09,431
Speaker 1: together for a meeting in the White House Situation Room.

507
00:30:10,271 --> 00:30:13,151
Speaker 1: Who was conferencing in from Paris told the President She

508
00:30:13,191 --> 00:30:16,391
Speaker 1: supported intervention, but Obama wasn't yet convinced.

509
00:30:16,591 --> 00:30:20,271
Speaker 14: American forces are already stretched thin with the conflicts in

510
00:30:20,311 --> 00:30:21,631
Speaker 14: Iraq and Afghanistan.

511
00:30:21,831 --> 00:30:24,671
Speaker 10: If we get preoccupied and bogged down in Afghanistan, I

512
00:30:24,751 --> 00:30:25,950
Speaker 10: Rock and now Libya, We're not going to.

513
00:30:25,951 --> 00:30:26,791
Speaker 16: Have much left.

514
00:30:27,071 --> 00:30:29,871
Speaker 1: Obama was hesitant to put American troops on the ground

515
00:30:29,991 --> 00:30:31,591
Speaker 1: and yet another far away country.

516
00:30:31,671 --> 00:30:34,271
Speaker 7: It's called war fatigue Afghanistan.

517
00:30:34,511 --> 00:30:35,911
Speaker 4: That war's very unpopular.

518
00:30:36,111 --> 00:30:39,831
Speaker 5: The American people hate being stuck in another third World

519
00:30:39,951 --> 00:30:40,671
Speaker 5: country over there.

520
00:30:40,711 --> 00:30:42,911
Speaker 4: We're stuck in two of them now. It's easy to

521
00:30:42,911 --> 00:30:45,191
Speaker 4: blow the trumpets, it's hard to end the war.

522
00:30:45,911 --> 00:30:48,911
Speaker 1: But Iraq and Afghanistan were not the only reference points

523
00:30:48,911 --> 00:30:49,751
Speaker 1: on people's minds.

524
00:30:50,031 --> 00:30:51,351
Speaker 7: You can have another Sudan.

525
00:30:51,431 --> 00:30:52,831
Speaker 4: You can't have another Rwanda.

526
00:30:53,071 --> 00:30:55,911
Speaker 12: You could have another Rwandan genocide on your hands in

527
00:30:55,991 --> 00:30:57,710
Speaker 12: Libya if you don't do something.

528
00:30:58,551 --> 00:31:02,311
Speaker 1: Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, had worked

529
00:31:02,311 --> 00:31:05,871
Speaker 1: in the Clinton administration during the Rwanda crisis, and she

530
00:31:06,111 --> 00:31:09,111
Speaker 1: was adamant that in the case of Libya, US intervention

531
00:31:09,311 --> 00:31:11,031
Speaker 1: was necessary to prevent a slaughter.

532
00:31:11,431 --> 00:31:14,751
Speaker 6: Let's remember President Clinton, and reflecting on his presidency, said

533
00:31:14,751 --> 00:31:17,231
Speaker 6: his greatest regret was not acting sooner in Rwanda.

534
00:31:18,311 --> 00:31:21,990
Speaker 1: At this point, Camis Gadaffi's thirty second brigade had arrived

535
00:31:21,991 --> 00:31:25,351
Speaker 1: at Misrata, the third largest city in Libya and the

536
00:31:25,351 --> 00:31:28,031
Speaker 1: only rebel stronghold in the western part of the country.

537
00:31:28,911 --> 00:31:32,471
Speaker 1: Rebel commanders in Misrada pleaded for NATO's help as Camisa's

538
00:31:32,471 --> 00:31:36,911
Speaker 1: troops encircled the city. Meanwhile, in the east, other brigades

539
00:31:36,951 --> 00:31:41,111
Speaker 1: were marching towards Benghazi. It was clear they outnumbered and

540
00:31:41,231 --> 00:31:44,791
Speaker 1: outgunned the rebels, most of whom were ordinary citizens with

541
00:31:44,871 --> 00:31:49,911
Speaker 1: little to no military training. Iman bugegis again, we could.

542
00:31:49,751 --> 00:31:55,871
Speaker 10: See the smoke of Gerethi's convoy coming. It was obvious

543
00:31:55,991 --> 00:32:00,991
Speaker 10: that something is coming. Death is coming. We welcomed the

544
00:32:01,071 --> 00:32:06,710
Speaker 10: international intervention. We didn't have any other option. It was

545
00:32:06,751 --> 00:32:07,431
Speaker 10: a survival.

546
00:32:08,071 --> 00:32:11,791
Speaker 19: Tonight, things are at a turning point and Colonel Kaddaffi

547
00:32:11,871 --> 00:32:16,391
Speaker 19: could face international intervention. Earlier today, he took to the

548
00:32:16,471 --> 00:32:20,151
Speaker 19: radio to warn the opposition in Benghazi of a looming offensive.

549
00:32:21,991 --> 00:32:24,151
Speaker 19: We are coming, he said. We are looking for the

550
00:32:24,231 --> 00:32:26,911
Speaker 19: traitors and shall have no mercy nor compassion.

551
00:32:27,671 --> 00:32:31,431
Speaker 1: With Gaddafi's forces approaching Benghazi, the US needed to make

552
00:32:31,471 --> 00:32:37,871
Speaker 1: a decision before it was too late, and so Obama

553
00:32:37,911 --> 00:32:41,791
Speaker 1: agreed to a kind of compromise. The US would participate

554
00:32:41,791 --> 00:32:44,271
Speaker 1: in the intervention, but only as part of a collective

555
00:32:44,271 --> 00:32:47,351
Speaker 1: effort that would be led by other countries, namely the

556
00:32:47,431 --> 00:32:51,510
Speaker 1: UK and France. Later, one of Obama's advisers would describe

557
00:32:51,511 --> 00:32:55,351
Speaker 1: the arrangement as leading from behind. The point was that

558
00:32:55,351 --> 00:32:58,071
Speaker 1: the US would not be responsible for whatever came next

559
00:32:58,111 --> 00:33:01,511
Speaker 1: in Libya. It would have to be someone else's problem.

560
00:33:01,911 --> 00:33:05,551
Speaker 1: With that, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice began coordinating with

561
00:33:05,631 --> 00:33:09,951
Speaker 1: NATO and the UN to authorize military action. On March seventeen,

562
00:33:10,431 --> 00:33:13,751
Speaker 1: just three days after Clinton's meeting with Mahmud Jabriel in Paris,

563
00:33:14,431 --> 00:33:18,071
Speaker 1: the UN passed a resolution allowing for all necessary measures

564
00:33:18,071 --> 00:33:19,710
Speaker 1: to protect civilians in Libya.

565
00:33:20,511 --> 00:33:23,631
Speaker 19: This evening, the UN Security Council voted in favor of

566
00:33:23,671 --> 00:33:28,231
Speaker 19: a resolution that would take all measures necessary to protect civilians.

567
00:33:28,591 --> 00:33:31,751
Speaker 21: For the residents of Ben Razzi, this military intervention is

568
00:33:31,831 --> 00:33:35,191
Speaker 21: coming in the nick of time, because Gaddafi's forces are

569
00:33:35,231 --> 00:33:38,151
Speaker 21: already closing in on the city. The people of eastern

570
00:33:38,191 --> 00:33:40,631
Speaker 21: Libya will be hoping it's not too late.

571
00:33:41,071 --> 00:33:44,871
Speaker 1: On March nineteenth, French jets led the Way bombing Gaddafi

572
00:33:44,991 --> 00:33:49,631
Speaker 1: forces outside Benghazi. The move effectively saved the revolution and

573
00:33:49,791 --> 00:33:51,631
Speaker 1: likely prevented significant bloodshed.

574
00:33:51,751 --> 00:33:56,191
Speaker 15: The French have gone in with jets and attacked Momarket offees,

575
00:33:56,671 --> 00:33:57,791
Speaker 15: military vehicles.

576
00:33:57,791 --> 00:34:01,551
Speaker 1: American missile strikes followed the beginning of what the US

577
00:34:01,711 --> 00:34:03,591
Speaker 1: named Operation Odyssey Dawn.

578
00:34:04,231 --> 00:34:07,791
Speaker 22: Today, I authorized the Armed Forces of the United States

579
00:34:08,111 --> 00:34:12,991
Speaker 22: to begin a limited military in Libya in support of

580
00:34:13,031 --> 00:34:16,431
Speaker 22: an international effort to protect Libyan civilians.

581
00:34:16,791 --> 00:34:21,071
Speaker 1: In his televised address announcing the airstrikes against Kadafi, Obama

582
00:34:21,111 --> 00:34:23,991
Speaker 1: emphasized that the United States was not acting alone.

583
00:34:24,471 --> 00:34:28,151
Speaker 12: Make no mistake today, we are part of a broad coalition.

584
00:34:28,911 --> 00:34:31,710
Speaker 12: We are answering the calls of a threatened people, and

585
00:34:31,750 --> 00:34:34,311
Speaker 12: we are acting in the interests of the United States

586
00:34:34,671 --> 00:34:37,031
Speaker 12: and the world. Thank you very much.

587
00:34:37,991 --> 00:34:40,711
Speaker 1: Did you feel relieved when you heard that the intervention

588
00:34:40,791 --> 00:34:41,231
Speaker 1: had happened?

589
00:34:41,230 --> 00:34:42,551
Speaker 4: Did it lift the pressure?

590
00:34:43,190 --> 00:34:44,990
Speaker 17: Yes, all of us.

591
00:34:45,631 --> 00:34:49,390
Speaker 10: You know he would have destroyed Binghassi. He didn't want

592
00:34:49,431 --> 00:34:50,511
Speaker 10: Binghazzi anymore.

593
00:34:51,871 --> 00:34:53,950
Speaker 1: What did you feel when you heard that it was done,

594
00:34:54,031 --> 00:34:55,591
Speaker 1: that the convoy was destroyed.

595
00:34:56,750 --> 00:35:00,270
Speaker 10: Big relief. We went after that and we saw the

596
00:35:00,311 --> 00:35:08,471
Speaker 10: convoy destroyed, burned tanks, burned military cars a lot. It

597
00:35:08,591 --> 00:35:13,191
Speaker 10: was very long convoy, but also we knew many people

598
00:35:13,270 --> 00:35:17,151
Speaker 10: who died, so it was very, very sad destituation.

599
00:35:21,151 --> 00:35:24,750
Speaker 1: Libya was now essentially split in two, with Tripoli in

600
00:35:24,791 --> 00:35:28,031
Speaker 1: the west under Gadafi's control and Benghazi in the east

601
00:35:28,230 --> 00:35:32,151
Speaker 1: serving as the rebels base of operations, but with American

602
00:35:32,190 --> 00:35:35,111
Speaker 1: diplomats out of the country and Obama strict no boots

603
00:35:35,111 --> 00:35:38,350
Speaker 1: on the ground policy, intelligence on what the rebels were

604
00:35:38,391 --> 00:35:41,750
Speaker 1: actually doing was hard to come by. Ambassador krets and

605
00:35:41,791 --> 00:35:43,790
Speaker 1: the team from Tripoli were now working out of a

606
00:35:43,871 --> 00:35:47,671
Speaker 1: makeshift office in DC. The consensus was that someone from

607
00:35:47,710 --> 00:35:50,230
Speaker 1: the American mission needed to go to Benghazi.

608
00:35:50,551 --> 00:35:53,591
Speaker 16: Some of the other European nations had gone back into

609
00:35:53,631 --> 00:35:57,991
Speaker 16: Benghazi with representation. There was a strong sense in Washington

610
00:35:58,071 --> 00:36:00,031
Speaker 16: that we had to be there as well.

611
00:36:00,391 --> 00:36:03,471
Speaker 1: Kretz immediately thought of his colleague Chris Stevens, the man

612
00:36:03,551 --> 00:36:05,750
Speaker 1: who had joined him in Secretary Clinton for the meeting

613
00:36:05,831 --> 00:36:08,791
Speaker 1: with Jabriel in Paris and who had served in Libya

614
00:36:08,871 --> 00:36:11,870
Speaker 1: for two years during the brief and ill fated reconciliation

615
00:36:11,991 --> 00:36:16,471
Speaker 1: with Gaddafi. Kret suggested Stevens to his State Department colleague

616
00:36:16,551 --> 00:36:20,151
Speaker 1: Jeff Feltman, the Assistant Secretary in charge of the Middle East.

617
00:36:20,951 --> 00:36:21,791
Speaker 1: Here is Feltman.

618
00:36:22,071 --> 00:36:24,231
Speaker 4: We felt that he had the right personality to play

619
00:36:24,230 --> 00:36:27,190
Speaker 4: this ambiguous liaison role in Benghazi that was sort of

620
00:36:27,270 --> 00:36:29,870
Speaker 4: undefined because of his background, because of his personality, because

621
00:36:29,911 --> 00:36:32,071
Speaker 4: of his ability to connect with people.

622
00:36:33,591 --> 00:36:37,311
Speaker 1: Chris Stevens was about to turn fifty one. A native

623
00:36:37,311 --> 00:36:40,430
Speaker 1: of California, he had blonde hair, a tan and a big,

624
00:36:40,471 --> 00:36:44,551
Speaker 1: bright smile. As you heard in episode one, Stevens had

625
00:36:44,591 --> 00:36:46,991
Speaker 1: helped build the US embassy in Tripoli that had just

626
00:36:46,991 --> 00:36:51,071
Speaker 1: been abandoned. Now he was up for another unusual position

627
00:36:51,111 --> 00:36:54,511
Speaker 1: in Libya, one that his superiors at the State Department

628
00:36:54,591 --> 00:36:58,111
Speaker 1: thought he was particularly well suited to Jeff Veltman.

629
00:36:58,151 --> 00:37:04,591
Speaker 4: Again, he also was sort of fearless. It's not usual

630
00:37:04,871 --> 00:37:08,430
Speaker 4: to send in a diplomat and basically say make your way.

631
00:37:09,071 --> 00:37:14,271
Speaker 4: He did not inherit an office or a local staff

632
00:37:14,270 --> 00:37:16,951
Speaker 4: that could help guide him. He didn't inherit the old

633
00:37:16,951 --> 00:37:18,870
Speaker 4: proverbial rollerdecks from his predecessors.

634
00:37:19,591 --> 00:37:22,831
Speaker 1: Chris Stevens arrived in Benghazi on April fifth, twenty eleven,

635
00:37:23,111 --> 00:37:24,591
Speaker 1: aboard a Greek cargo ship.

636
00:37:24,871 --> 00:37:27,790
Speaker 4: He went in by water into Benghazi in the height

637
00:37:27,831 --> 00:37:29,551
Speaker 4: of a war. It was pretty.

638
00:37:29,270 --> 00:37:32,351
Speaker 1: Remarkable at first. Stevens set up his operation in a

639
00:37:32,391 --> 00:37:35,710
Speaker 1: suite at the Tabestie Hotel, fifteen story building in the

640
00:37:35,750 --> 00:37:36,391
Speaker 1: city center.

641
00:37:36,551 --> 00:37:39,951
Speaker 4: When Chris went to Benghazi, there was essentially nothing. He

642
00:37:40,031 --> 00:37:44,551
Speaker 4: and his immediate staff were essentially inventing a diplomatic facility

643
00:37:45,151 --> 00:37:49,991
Speaker 4: out of whole cloth. It was a high risk venture,

644
00:37:50,911 --> 00:37:55,511
Speaker 4: but one that was extremely rewarding for Chris and obviously

645
00:37:55,511 --> 00:37:59,390
Speaker 4: beneficial for US as we're trying to understand more about

646
00:37:59,431 --> 00:38:03,151
Speaker 4: what's happening in the most opaque country in the Arab world.

647
00:38:03,831 --> 00:38:06,471
Speaker 1: Even though the US was now supporting the rebels in

648
00:38:06,511 --> 00:38:09,710
Speaker 1: their fight against Ghadafi, the State Department still had very

649
00:38:09,750 --> 00:38:12,591
Speaker 1: little knowledge about who they were, what they believed, and

650
00:38:12,631 --> 00:38:16,671
Speaker 1: what their goals were for Libya. The TNC desperately wanted

651
00:38:16,710 --> 00:38:19,511
Speaker 1: the United States to recognize them as Libya's legitimate government,

652
00:38:20,071 --> 00:38:24,071
Speaker 1: but the Obama administration was guarded. They wanted more information.

653
00:38:24,551 --> 00:38:29,911
Speaker 4: Chris's responsibilities were to figure out who were these guys,

654
00:38:30,230 --> 00:38:33,950
Speaker 4: what did they stand for? If Kadafi would leave, what

655
00:38:33,991 --> 00:38:36,951
Speaker 4: would they put in his place? Was there a chance

656
00:38:37,230 --> 00:38:40,751
Speaker 4: for them to have a unified government? What was happening

657
00:38:40,791 --> 00:38:43,991
Speaker 4: with the sort of very nascent Islamist movements that were

658
00:38:43,991 --> 00:38:46,071
Speaker 4: coming up. These were questions we did not know the

659
00:38:46,071 --> 00:38:46,631
Speaker 4: answers for.

660
00:38:47,391 --> 00:38:50,551
Speaker 1: It's worth reiterating that the administration's big fear was that

661
00:38:50,671 --> 00:38:54,311
Speaker 1: radical anti American Islamists would take over the Libyan Revolution.

662
00:38:55,511 --> 00:38:58,270
Speaker 1: The leaders of the tnc said they were building a democracy,

663
00:38:58,991 --> 00:39:01,310
Speaker 1: but did they have the power and popular support to

664
00:39:01,351 --> 00:39:04,910
Speaker 1: follow through In a country where the population was more

665
00:39:04,951 --> 00:39:08,791
Speaker 1: than ninety percent Muslim religion would inevitably influence the workings

666
00:39:08,791 --> 00:39:12,190
Speaker 1: of the government, but different people had different ideas about

667
00:39:12,230 --> 00:39:14,431
Speaker 1: the degree to which Islam should dictate the law of

668
00:39:14,431 --> 00:39:18,910
Speaker 1: the land. The US feared inadvertently aiding extremists who had

669
00:39:18,911 --> 00:39:24,911
Speaker 1: no intention of establishing democracy once Gaddafi fell. It was

670
00:39:24,951 --> 00:39:28,071
Speaker 1: against this backdrop that Chris Stevens launched himself into the

671
00:39:28,111 --> 00:39:31,791
Speaker 1: work of diplomacy in Benghazi. He was known for taking

672
00:39:31,911 --> 00:39:35,191
Speaker 1: jogs around town and chatting up regular citizens on the street,

673
00:39:35,351 --> 00:39:36,830
Speaker 1: no matter what their politics were.

674
00:39:37,190 --> 00:39:39,111
Speaker 4: You know, there were people who said, Chris, you shouldn't

675
00:39:39,111 --> 00:39:41,991
Speaker 4: meet with person X, person XES and Islamis. You're giving

676
00:39:41,991 --> 00:39:45,390
Speaker 4: the Islamis status by meeting with the Islamist. Don't do it.

677
00:39:45,911 --> 00:39:51,151
Speaker 4: Chris would push back and insist on meeting with anyone

678
00:39:52,031 --> 00:39:56,511
Speaker 4: who might have the ability to influence the direction in

679
00:39:56,551 --> 00:39:58,591
Speaker 4: Libya moves in the future. So I don't think he

680
00:39:58,710 --> 00:40:02,111
Speaker 4: was naive, but he did try to embrace a very

681
00:40:02,151 --> 00:40:04,310
Speaker 4: wide spectrum of Libyan contacts.

682
00:40:05,311 --> 00:40:09,151
Speaker 1: The people of Benghazi embraced Stephens as well. When the

683
00:40:09,270 --> 00:40:12,951
Speaker 1: US killed us Laden in May of twenty eleven, locals

684
00:40:12,991 --> 00:40:15,551
Speaker 1: stopped Stevens in the street to congratulate him and said

685
00:40:15,551 --> 00:40:19,791
Speaker 1: they hoped Kaddafi would be next. Still, when Jeff Feltman

686
00:40:19,871 --> 00:40:23,230
Speaker 1: from the State Department visited Benghazi that spring, he was

687
00:40:23,270 --> 00:40:25,951
Speaker 1: shaken by the precarious conditions in which Stevens and his

688
00:40:25,991 --> 00:40:26,831
Speaker 1: team were working.

689
00:40:27,311 --> 00:40:30,151
Speaker 4: I was very worried about his security. The doors to

690
00:40:30,151 --> 00:40:34,951
Speaker 4: his suite were plate glass, so you had these two

691
00:40:35,071 --> 00:40:39,191
Speaker 4: big glass doors with handles. And the way you closed

692
00:40:39,190 --> 00:40:41,430
Speaker 4: that suite at night when Chris and his team would

693
00:40:41,431 --> 00:40:43,111
Speaker 4: go to bed was you put a chain with a

694
00:40:43,471 --> 00:40:45,830
Speaker 4: key lock on it. That horrified me.

695
00:40:46,431 --> 00:40:48,870
Speaker 1: Near the end of the summer, the State Department leased

696
00:40:48,911 --> 00:40:51,991
Speaker 1: a compound of villas in Benghazi and moved the American

697
00:40:52,031 --> 00:40:55,631
Speaker 1: mission out of the Tabesti Hotel. Guards were hired and

698
00:40:55,710 --> 00:40:58,750
Speaker 1: vehicle screenings were arranged in an effort to secure the property.

699
00:40:59,190 --> 00:41:01,310
Speaker 1: But the Americans were not allowed to do much to

700
00:41:01,311 --> 00:41:04,871
Speaker 1: physically fortify it, and because it was a temporary facility,

701
00:41:05,111 --> 00:41:07,991
Speaker 1: not an official embassy or consulate, it didn't have to

702
00:41:07,991 --> 00:41:12,591
Speaker 1: meet the State Department's typical security stand Chris Stevens didn't

703
00:41:12,591 --> 00:41:15,111
Speaker 1: want to stay hold up in a bunker anyway. He

704
00:41:15,151 --> 00:41:18,191
Speaker 1: wanted to be out meeting people where they lived. Again,

705
00:41:18,471 --> 00:41:20,791
Speaker 1: former Libya Ambassador Gen Kratz.

706
00:41:20,991 --> 00:41:26,391
Speaker 16: We both believed that we needed some flexibility in terms

707
00:41:26,391 --> 00:41:28,991
Speaker 16: of the way we were allowed to operate. We were

708
00:41:28,991 --> 00:41:32,190
Speaker 16: not cowboys, believe me, but we wanted to do our job,

709
00:41:32,791 --> 00:41:36,710
Speaker 16: and we thought that we had the ground knowledge to

710
00:41:36,750 --> 00:41:39,111
Speaker 16: determine what was an acceptable risk for us and what

711
00:41:39,270 --> 00:41:42,071
Speaker 16: was not, and so we designed a program to allow

712
00:41:42,151 --> 00:41:45,710
Speaker 16: us to meet people that we needed to meet. And

713
00:41:45,750 --> 00:41:49,911
Speaker 16: I think Chris certainly shared that view and certainly practiced

714
00:41:49,911 --> 00:41:51,551
Speaker 16: it to the extent that he could while he was

715
00:41:51,591 --> 00:41:52,511
Speaker 16: in Benghazi.

716
00:41:53,871 --> 00:41:57,511
Speaker 23: Hello, good afternoon, Chris Stevens. I got in from Benghazi

717
00:41:57,750 --> 00:41:58,631
Speaker 23: a couple of days ago.

718
00:41:58,871 --> 00:42:01,991
Speaker 1: On August second, twenty eleven, Stevens was briefly back in

719
00:42:02,031 --> 00:42:03,951
Speaker 1: the US to provide an update on what he had

720
00:42:04,031 --> 00:42:08,071
Speaker 1: learned about the TNC during his time in Benghazi. By then,

721
00:42:08,190 --> 00:42:11,631
Speaker 1: it had been almost six months since the started, but

722
00:42:11,671 --> 00:42:15,151
Speaker 1: as Stevens told reporters, there was no indication that Gaddafi

723
00:42:15,311 --> 00:42:17,231
Speaker 1: was going to step down or leave Tripley.

724
00:42:17,750 --> 00:42:18,391
Speaker 15: What is your.

725
00:42:18,311 --> 00:42:22,591
Speaker 5: Sense of how much longer the sort of conflict is

726
00:42:22,791 --> 00:42:27,671
Speaker 5: likely to go on before Kadafi leaves? I mean three months,

727
00:42:27,671 --> 00:42:28,511
Speaker 5: six months, a year.

728
00:42:28,911 --> 00:42:31,151
Speaker 23: I wouldn't want to put a date on it, but

729
00:42:32,551 --> 00:42:35,511
Speaker 23: all I can say is that, you know, the world

730
00:42:35,591 --> 00:42:40,071
Speaker 23: has lined up against him, and his bas is shrinking,

731
00:42:40,311 --> 00:42:44,830
Speaker 23: and the tnc forces are closing in around him, and

732
00:42:44,871 --> 00:42:47,991
Speaker 23: so are sanctions and other things. So I think everybody

733
00:42:48,071 --> 00:42:49,551
Speaker 23: agrees it's a matter of time.

734
00:42:50,911 --> 00:42:54,390
Speaker 1: Later that month, the rebels took Tripli, and Gaddafi had

735
00:42:54,431 --> 00:42:55,871
Speaker 1: no choice but to flee.

736
00:42:55,750 --> 00:42:58,631
Speaker 11: Libby and leader Momark. Adafi's defenses are collapsing and his

737
00:42:58,750 --> 00:43:02,151
Speaker 11: regime appears to be crumbling fast. According to a rebel leader,

738
00:43:02,391 --> 00:43:05,551
Speaker 11: the unit in charge of protecting Dadafi and Tripoli has

739
00:43:05,551 --> 00:43:09,190
Speaker 11: surrendered and joined the revolt, allowing the opposition force to

740
00:43:09,230 --> 00:43:09,991
Speaker 11: move into TRIPLEI.

741
00:43:10,831 --> 00:43:14,431
Speaker 1: In Gaddafi's absence, rebels breached his compound, set fire to

742
00:43:14,471 --> 00:43:18,151
Speaker 1: his tent, and carried off souvenirs, including thick gold jewelry

743
00:43:18,190 --> 00:43:22,031
Speaker 1: and a green golf cart. They also raided Gaddafi's stash

744
00:43:22,031 --> 00:43:25,951
Speaker 1: of weapons. The next day, rebels busted the locks of

745
00:43:25,991 --> 00:43:28,831
Speaker 1: the blue cast iron doors of the Abu Salim prison

746
00:43:28,911 --> 00:43:37,631
Speaker 1: in Tripoli and set the remaining inmates free. The rebels

747
00:43:37,671 --> 00:43:40,510
Speaker 1: went cell to sell, breaking the locks with hammers until

748
00:43:40,511 --> 00:43:44,270
Speaker 1: the prison was an empty shell. After their release, more

749
00:43:44,270 --> 00:43:47,071
Speaker 1: than one hundred former prisoners found their way back home

750
00:43:47,151 --> 00:43:54,151
Speaker 1: to Benghazi. Just six months earlier, Colonel Gaddafi's son, Camise,

751
00:43:54,190 --> 00:43:57,111
Speaker 1: had been in Chicago sitting on lectures by Deepak Chopra,

752
00:43:58,190 --> 00:44:01,430
Speaker 1: now the senior rebel commander, telling cn in Gaddafi's son

753
00:44:01,591 --> 00:44:02,791
Speaker 1: Kamis is dead.

754
00:44:03,151 --> 00:44:05,310
Speaker 16: The military commander is said to have died during a

755
00:44:05,351 --> 00:44:06,831
Speaker 16: battle in northwest Libya.

756
00:44:07,551 --> 00:44:10,310
Speaker 1: A man claiming to be one of Camisa's bodyguards told

757
00:44:10,351 --> 00:44:13,671
Speaker 1: reporters that Gaddafi's son had been killed in a NATO airstrike.

758
00:44:14,631 --> 00:44:17,591
Speaker 1: Brian Linville, who had accompanied Camis during his US visit,

759
00:44:17,831 --> 00:44:19,711
Speaker 1: wasn't sure how to feel about the news.

760
00:44:20,190 --> 00:44:27,270
Speaker 7: Sadness isn't the right term, but maybe disappointment because when

761
00:44:27,351 --> 00:44:32,270
Speaker 7: I knew him, up to that point of early February,

762
00:44:32,471 --> 00:44:35,751
Speaker 7: his unit had not committed atrocities. He didn't have blood

763
00:44:35,791 --> 00:44:38,270
Speaker 7: on his hands. I had to contrast that in my

764
00:44:38,391 --> 00:44:42,190
Speaker 7: mind that, you know, at this one moment in February,

765
00:44:42,351 --> 00:44:47,631
Speaker 7: it seems so promising, and then something was lost, not

766
00:44:47,671 --> 00:44:52,750
Speaker 7: just an opportunity, but something was lost.

767
00:44:52,951 --> 00:44:56,031
Speaker 1: That fall, Hillary Clinton visited Tripoli to make a show

768
00:44:56,071 --> 00:44:57,471
Speaker 1: of support for the TNC.

769
00:44:58,230 --> 00:45:02,551
Speaker 15: This is Libya's moment, this is Libya's victory, and the

770
00:45:02,591 --> 00:45:03,911
Speaker 15: future belongs to you.

771
00:45:04,391 --> 00:45:08,230
Speaker 1: During her trip, Clinton toured the new US embassy. In

772
00:45:08,270 --> 00:45:10,270
Speaker 1: her memoir, she wrote that she heard gunshot in the

773
00:45:10,311 --> 00:45:13,871
Speaker 1: distance and wondered if it was fighting or celebration. The

774
00:45:13,911 --> 00:45:16,311
Speaker 1: embassy staff seemed quite used to it by now.

775
00:45:16,151 --> 00:45:16,591
Speaker 4: She wrote.

776
00:45:17,511 --> 00:45:21,790
Speaker 1: Two days later, on October twentieth, Clinton was in Cobble, Afghanistan,

777
00:45:22,311 --> 00:45:24,391
Speaker 1: and during a break from a taped interview, she was

778
00:45:24,431 --> 00:45:25,551
Speaker 1: handed a BlackBerry.

779
00:45:26,710 --> 00:45:37,111
Speaker 13: Wow confirmed unconfirmed NC now unconfirmed reports about Kadafi being

780
00:45:37,151 --> 00:45:39,390
Speaker 13: captured unconfirmed.

781
00:45:40,511 --> 00:45:41,910
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've had too many.

782
00:45:41,951 --> 00:45:44,270
Speaker 13: We've we've had a bunch of those before. We've had,

783
00:45:44,351 --> 00:45:46,310
Speaker 13: you know, have him, have had him captured a couple

784
00:45:46,351 --> 00:45:46,711
Speaker 13: of times.

785
00:45:47,551 --> 00:45:52,991
Speaker 1: Then it became official, Mummar Gaddafi was dead. We came, we.

786
00:45:52,911 --> 00:45:57,270
Speaker 15: Saw he died. Didn't have anything to do with your

787
00:45:57,351 --> 00:45:59,071
Speaker 15: visit now I'm sure did.

788
00:46:01,111 --> 00:46:04,871
Speaker 1: Almost immediately, cell phone footage emerged of Kadafi being beaten

789
00:46:04,911 --> 00:46:08,351
Speaker 1: by his captors. Words spread that he had been tortured

790
00:46:08,431 --> 00:46:12,351
Speaker 1: and sodomized and shot in the head. Afterwards, his body

791
00:46:12,471 --> 00:46:14,911
Speaker 1: was taken to a meat locker where Libyans took photos

792
00:46:14,951 --> 00:46:18,990
Speaker 1: of his corpse. Again, the State Department's Jeff Feltman.

793
00:46:19,031 --> 00:46:21,390
Speaker 4: I mean, there was a sense of horror how he

794
00:46:21,471 --> 00:46:24,151
Speaker 4: was killed. These were not the sorts of methods that

795
00:46:24,190 --> 00:46:26,190
Speaker 4: the TNC had said that they would be using to

796
00:46:26,831 --> 00:46:30,591
Speaker 4: bring to accountability members of the former regime. But there

797
00:46:30,631 --> 00:46:33,951
Speaker 4: was also a sense of relief that it would probably

798
00:46:33,991 --> 00:46:37,791
Speaker 4: be harder to have a sustained insurrection against the change

799
00:46:37,831 --> 00:46:38,311
Speaker 4: in Libya.

800
00:46:38,750 --> 00:46:43,950
Speaker 1: Emon Bugegis, the Libyan orthodonist turned revolutionary, had mixed emotions too.

801
00:46:44,351 --> 00:46:48,031
Speaker 10: It was a relief that okay, that's it, our country

802
00:46:48,750 --> 00:46:52,551
Speaker 10: is liberated. And it was a heavy price. But what

803
00:46:52,750 --> 00:46:56,911
Speaker 10: happened after that to him, it was said, But what

804
00:46:57,071 --> 00:47:01,230
Speaker 10: he was doing and what he was implanting of hate

805
00:47:01,311 --> 00:47:05,591
Speaker 10: and revenge, and what happened to him, there was no

806
00:47:05,710 --> 00:47:08,390
Speaker 10: other way, you know. He forced that. He didn't want

807
00:47:08,431 --> 00:47:10,591
Speaker 10: to surrender, he didn't want to leave country.

808
00:47:12,431 --> 00:47:14,270
Speaker 1: What did you think would happen next.

809
00:47:14,911 --> 00:47:20,631
Speaker 10: We were hoping that with the elections then a democratic

810
00:47:20,871 --> 00:47:26,231
Speaker 10: government will come and things will change and for the better.

811
00:47:28,111 --> 00:47:29,031
Speaker 10: It didn't happen.

812
00:47:32,391 --> 00:47:33,151
Speaker 1: We'll be right back.

813
00:47:38,671 --> 00:47:42,350
Speaker 24: Six months after the uprising against Momar Kadafi, Libya is

814
00:47:42,551 --> 00:47:45,551
Speaker 24: flooded with weapons and faces a potential power vacuum.

815
00:47:45,911 --> 00:47:50,230
Speaker 1: After Kadafi's death, the political situation in Libya was delegate.

816
00:47:50,031 --> 00:47:53,271
Speaker 24: The former prime minister who led the fight against the colonel,

817
00:47:53,270 --> 00:47:55,871
Speaker 24: believes the country is now at risk of being taken

818
00:47:55,911 --> 00:48:00,111
Speaker 24: over by extremists. Mahmud Jabriel also says it's the result

819
00:48:00,151 --> 00:48:03,831
Speaker 24: of NATO abandoning Libya after the former regime was toppled.

820
00:48:04,151 --> 00:48:08,591
Speaker 20: After the regime filled out most of the Western countries,

821
00:48:09,230 --> 00:48:12,671
Speaker 20: that the mission has been accomplished. They neglect the fact

822
00:48:12,911 --> 00:48:18,190
Speaker 20: that Libya is a stateless site. Any political vircuum can

823
00:48:18,230 --> 00:48:21,631
Speaker 20: be filled by anybody, you know, and it's a fertile soil,

824
00:48:21,750 --> 00:48:23,350
Speaker 20: you know, for xumism to grow.

825
00:48:24,351 --> 00:48:26,951
Speaker 1: That was the state of play. Chris Stevens inherited in

826
00:48:26,951 --> 00:48:29,431
Speaker 1: May of twenty twelve when he was confirmed as the

827
00:48:29,471 --> 00:48:32,071
Speaker 1: new US ambassador to post Gaddafi Libya.

828
00:48:33,111 --> 00:48:34,111
Speaker 22: Asala Malikum.

829
00:48:34,511 --> 00:48:37,111
Speaker 9: My name is Chris Stevens, and I'm the new US

830
00:48:37,151 --> 00:48:38,591
Speaker 9: Ambassador to Libya.

831
00:48:39,031 --> 00:48:42,111
Speaker 1: In a video posted to the embassy's YouTube account, Stevens

832
00:48:42,151 --> 00:48:45,190
Speaker 1: expressed hope that the US could help Libya achieve democracy

833
00:48:45,710 --> 00:48:48,511
Speaker 1: Libyan Hospital. Standing on a roof with a view of Washington,

834
00:48:48,591 --> 00:48:52,271
Speaker 1: DC behind him, he invited Libyans to imagine a better future.

835
00:48:52,991 --> 00:48:56,311
Speaker 9: Over my shoulder, here you can see the US Capitol Building.

836
00:48:56,671 --> 00:49:00,511
Speaker 9: In that building, five hundred and thirty five elected representatives

837
00:49:00,551 --> 00:49:03,591
Speaker 9: from every corner of America come together to debate the

838
00:49:03,671 --> 00:49:06,751
Speaker 9: issues of the day. There are men and women from

839
00:49:06,791 --> 00:49:10,991
Speaker 9: every religious, ethnic and family background. I look forward to

840
00:49:11,031 --> 00:49:14,391
Speaker 9: watching Libya develop equally strong institutions of government.

841
00:49:15,871 --> 00:49:18,310
Speaker 1: Libyans were anxious to get their new government going to

842
00:49:18,991 --> 00:49:22,031
Speaker 1: and elections for the new General National Congress were set

843
00:49:22,071 --> 00:49:27,031
Speaker 1: for July seventh, twenty twelve. As the date approached, some Americans,

844
00:49:27,071 --> 00:49:30,111
Speaker 1: as well as liberal minded Libyans, feared that strict ultra

845
00:49:30,151 --> 00:49:32,991
Speaker 1: conservative Islamists would take a majority in the new government.

846
00:49:34,551 --> 00:49:38,830
Speaker 1: There was something else on their minds, too, militias. For

847
00:49:38,871 --> 00:49:41,391
Speaker 1: a year and a half, militia groups had fought together

848
00:49:41,471 --> 00:49:45,431
Speaker 1: to defeat Gadathi. Now that their common enemy was gone,

849
00:49:45,551 --> 00:49:48,831
Speaker 1: they were almost like gangs, each one vuying to control

850
00:49:48,911 --> 00:49:53,511
Speaker 1: their turf. Hospitals, airports, even oil fields fell under the

851
00:49:53,551 --> 00:49:57,431
Speaker 1: control of various militias, and because the new leadership of

852
00:49:57,471 --> 00:50:00,991
Speaker 1: Libya needed time to rebuild a formal military and police force,

853
00:50:01,511 --> 00:50:04,671
Speaker 1: the TNC essentially put the militias in charge of security,

854
00:50:04,991 --> 00:50:08,431
Speaker 1: even putting them on the public payroll. Here again is

855
00:50:08,511 --> 00:50:10,711
Speaker 1: former Resistant Secretary of State Jeff Veltman.

856
00:50:11,431 --> 00:50:13,551
Speaker 4: We knew that we did not know enough about the militias.

857
00:50:14,871 --> 00:50:18,991
Speaker 4: We still thought that with the proper support, that the

858
00:50:19,031 --> 00:50:21,791
Speaker 4: civilian leadership would be able to knit this back together.

859
00:50:22,311 --> 00:50:26,951
Speaker 1: The problem was the militias all had different interests, different loyalties,

860
00:50:27,190 --> 00:50:31,031
Speaker 1: different ideologies, and thanks to the TNC, they were all

861
00:50:31,111 --> 00:50:33,230
Speaker 1: flush with money, as well as guns that had been

862
00:50:33,230 --> 00:50:37,790
Speaker 1: taken from Gaddafi's armories for foreigners. It added up to

863
00:50:37,831 --> 00:50:41,951
Speaker 1: a simmering sense of danger in Benghazi, and on June sixth,

864
00:50:42,031 --> 00:50:46,391
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, that danger revealed itself when the American diplomatic

865
00:50:46,431 --> 00:50:48,831
Speaker 1: compound was targeted with a homemade bomb.

866
00:50:49,190 --> 00:50:54,671
Speaker 7: One evening, somebody placed a bomb outside inn exterior wall

867
00:50:54,710 --> 00:50:57,710
Speaker 7: of the compound and blew probably a man sized hole

868
00:50:57,710 --> 00:50:57,991
Speaker 7: in it.

869
00:50:58,111 --> 00:51:00,271
Speaker 1: Colonel Brian Linville again and.

870
00:51:00,391 --> 00:51:04,431
Speaker 7: Of course, we took this very seriously, and the embassy

871
00:51:04,471 --> 00:51:06,390
Speaker 7: team huddled to talk about it.

872
00:51:06,791 --> 00:51:10,310
Speaker 1: Ambassador Stevens, now based in Tripoli, gathered his tea for

873
00:51:10,351 --> 00:51:14,270
Speaker 1: an emergency meeting to discuss the attack. Stevens made it

874
00:51:14,311 --> 00:51:16,991
Speaker 1: clear he felt strongly that the US needed people in

875
00:51:17,031 --> 00:51:19,311
Speaker 1: Benghazi despite the apparent risks.

876
00:51:19,750 --> 00:51:24,151
Speaker 7: You can't understand the story of Libya if you don't

877
00:51:24,151 --> 00:51:28,230
Speaker 7: know what's going on in Benghazi, and Chris knew that

878
00:51:28,391 --> 00:51:32,831
Speaker 7: if we shut down operations in Benghazi, we would be blind.

879
00:51:33,750 --> 00:51:37,790
Speaker 7: We missed the commencement of the Libyan revolution because we

880
00:51:37,831 --> 00:51:40,350
Speaker 7: didn't have a presence in Benghazi. We didn't know what

881
00:51:40,391 --> 00:51:43,071
Speaker 7: was going on there. And I know Chris was loath

882
00:51:43,791 --> 00:51:47,591
Speaker 7: to give that up because it would have crippled our

883
00:51:47,671 --> 00:51:52,511
Speaker 7: ability to understand the Libyan story. If we gave up

884
00:51:52,551 --> 00:51:55,190
Speaker 7: on Benghazi, we were giving up on Libya. He didn't

885
00:51:55,230 --> 00:51:55,750
Speaker 7: want to do that.

886
00:51:56,270 --> 00:51:58,471
Speaker 1: Not everyone at the embassy agreed with Stevens.

887
00:51:58,750 --> 00:52:02,470
Speaker 7: There were voices of descent saying that this is too much,

888
00:52:02,511 --> 00:52:07,911
Speaker 7: we need to get out, But the prevailing voice was

889
00:52:07,991 --> 00:52:10,951
Speaker 7: that we would try to stick it out and as

890
00:52:10,951 --> 00:52:14,511
Speaker 7: best we could address the security situation. It wasn't like

891
00:52:14,551 --> 00:52:15,231
Speaker 7: we did nothing.

892
00:52:16,111 --> 00:52:19,391
Speaker 1: Stevens wanted to keep the Bengazi mission open despite the

893
00:52:19,431 --> 00:52:23,591
Speaker 1: security risks. He knew that in addition to the homemade bomb,

894
00:52:23,631 --> 00:52:25,951
Speaker 1: there had been an attack on a UN officials convoy

895
00:52:26,111 --> 00:52:29,351
Speaker 1: in another on a Red Cross building. In fact, Stevens

896
00:52:29,391 --> 00:52:32,270
Speaker 1: had flagged the increase in violence in his communications with DC.

897
00:52:33,591 --> 00:52:36,871
Speaker 1: Stevens also took steps to fortify the ben Ghazi compound.

898
00:52:37,831 --> 00:52:40,671
Speaker 1: He deployed security officers from Tripoli to figure out ways

899
00:52:40,710 --> 00:52:43,431
Speaker 1: the mission could be better protected, and he talked with

900
00:52:43,511 --> 00:52:46,190
Speaker 1: Libyan authorities about increasing the presence of the militia that

901
00:52:46,230 --> 00:52:49,511
Speaker 1: had been hired to help guard the compound. They were

902
00:52:49,511 --> 00:52:53,071
Speaker 1: called the February seventeenth Martyrs Brigade, named after the day

903
00:52:53,151 --> 00:52:54,511
Speaker 1: the Libyan revolution started.

904
00:52:54,871 --> 00:52:58,911
Speaker 7: He didn't ignore the threat by any stretch of the imagination,

905
00:52:59,471 --> 00:53:02,951
Speaker 7: but he tried to mitigate it instead of avoiding it

906
00:53:02,991 --> 00:53:07,790
Speaker 7: all together and pulling out. You know, in retrospect, that

907
00:53:07,791 --> 00:53:10,991
Speaker 7: would have been our moment to shut down operation to Benghazi.

908
00:53:11,551 --> 00:53:15,271
Speaker 1: The warning signs kept coming. Shortly after the bomb attack

909
00:53:15,311 --> 00:53:18,631
Speaker 1: at the compound, a parade of trucks drove through Benghazi

910
00:53:18,631 --> 00:53:22,230
Speaker 1: flying black flags. It was a rally of at least

911
00:53:22,230 --> 00:53:25,791
Speaker 1: fifteen different militia groups demanding that the new Libyan government

912
00:53:25,951 --> 00:53:27,310
Speaker 1: be based on Sharia law.

913
00:53:28,230 --> 00:53:29,551
Speaker 12: What are you marching for today?

914
00:53:29,551 --> 00:53:30,631
Speaker 14: What are your protesting?

915
00:53:31,631 --> 00:53:36,230
Speaker 18: We need cherry Alo to kill them, Kufa to kill

916
00:53:36,230 --> 00:53:36,911
Speaker 18: the infidels.

917
00:53:36,991 --> 00:53:37,190
Speaker 5: Yes.

918
00:53:37,311 --> 00:53:37,591
Speaker 22: Yes.

919
00:53:38,031 --> 00:53:43,631
Speaker 1: After one month after that Islamist rally, Libyans voted in

920
00:53:43,671 --> 00:53:47,591
Speaker 1: their country's first free elections since Gadafi's death. The State

921
00:53:47,631 --> 00:53:50,951
Speaker 1: Department considered it a success, with sixty two percent of

922
00:53:50,951 --> 00:53:54,031
Speaker 1: the eligible population turning out to vote and the vast

923
00:53:54,031 --> 00:53:57,311
Speaker 1: majority of polling places reporting no incidents of violence.

924
00:53:57,591 --> 00:54:00,031
Speaker 24: This is what all of the fighting in Libya was

925
00:54:00,071 --> 00:54:02,830
Speaker 24: about last year, not just the removal of Ghadafi, but

926
00:54:02,911 --> 00:54:05,431
Speaker 24: the chance to choose a democratically elected government.

927
00:54:05,750 --> 00:54:09,991
Speaker 1: Despite predictions of an Islamist victory, Mahmoud Jabriel's party dramatic

928
00:54:10,311 --> 00:54:13,911
Speaker 1: outperformed more conservative parties in what was considered a landslide

929
00:54:13,951 --> 00:54:14,631
Speaker 1: for the moderates.

930
00:54:14,750 --> 00:54:18,111
Speaker 10: It's a journing point in theory of Lydia.

931
00:54:18,391 --> 00:54:21,751
Speaker 19: Most people in Libya are savoring their new democratic rights.

932
00:54:21,991 --> 00:54:24,750
Speaker 6: The many challenges ahead about what exactly they're going to

933
00:54:24,791 --> 00:54:26,951
Speaker 6: do with them can wait until after the election.

934
00:54:27,151 --> 00:54:30,310
Speaker 1: Party It was about two months later in September of

935
00:54:30,351 --> 00:54:33,750
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, that Ambassador Chris Stevens decided to leave the

936
00:54:33,871 --> 00:54:38,390
Speaker 1: US Embassy in Tripoli and visit Benghazi. Stevens would arrive

937
00:54:38,471 --> 00:54:41,390
Speaker 1: on Monday, September tenth, and he would have several days

938
00:54:41,431 --> 00:54:45,311
Speaker 1: of meetings with the Benghazi City Council and various business leaders.

939
00:54:46,951 --> 00:54:50,311
Speaker 1: Stevens planned the trip despite warnings from the head diplomatic

940
00:54:50,351 --> 00:54:53,831
Speaker 1: security agent in Tripoli, who was concerned about the escalating

941
00:54:53,911 --> 00:54:57,671
Speaker 1: violence and tension in Benghazi. Friends who were in touch

942
00:54:57,671 --> 00:55:01,231
Speaker 1: with Stephens shortly before his trip remember him being excited

943
00:55:01,270 --> 00:55:02,831
Speaker 1: to return to a place he loved.

944
00:55:03,190 --> 00:55:09,471
Speaker 4: Chris comes across as this really nice, embracing California surfer dude.

945
00:55:10,151 --> 00:55:13,391
Speaker 4: People can underestimate his intelligence because of just the persona

946
00:55:13,551 --> 00:55:15,911
Speaker 4: he had. I have to say, I don't want to

947
00:55:15,911 --> 00:55:18,230
Speaker 4: play blame the victim here, but I do wonder about

948
00:55:18,270 --> 00:55:21,071
Speaker 4: that twenty twelve Benghazi trip. I mean, of course we

949
00:55:21,111 --> 00:55:23,511
Speaker 4: would all think about it, given the horror of what

950
00:55:23,591 --> 00:55:25,310
Speaker 4: happened to my friend.

951
00:55:25,391 --> 00:55:25,751
Speaker 16: Chris.

952
00:55:26,431 --> 00:55:30,151
Speaker 1: Stevens did take precautions, making no advanced announcement of a

953
00:55:30,190 --> 00:55:32,830
Speaker 1: trip and traveling with a larger than usual group of

954
00:55:32,871 --> 00:55:36,230
Speaker 1: diplomatic security agents. He was supposed to be back in

955
00:55:36,270 --> 00:55:50,271
Speaker 1: Tripoli by Friday. On the next episode of Fiasco, Chris Stevens'

956
00:55:50,311 --> 00:55:53,591
Speaker 1: trip to Benghazi is halted by violence and tragedy.

957
00:55:54,351 --> 00:55:57,151
Speaker 3: Scott Wicklum does this several times, you know, to search

958
00:55:57,190 --> 00:55:59,591
Speaker 3: for his colleagues, and I remember him saying that if

959
00:55:59,591 --> 00:56:04,350
Speaker 3: he went in one more time, he would die.

960
00:56:05,471 --> 00:56:08,631
Speaker 1: For a list of books, articles and documentaries we used

961
00:56:08,631 --> 00:56:11,391
Speaker 1: in our research, Hello the link in our show notes.

962
00:56:12,351 --> 00:56:15,871
Speaker 1: Fiasco is a production of Prolog Projects, and it's distributed

963
00:56:15,871 --> 00:56:19,790
Speaker 1: by Pushkin Industries. The show is produced by Andrew Parsons,

964
00:56:19,991 --> 00:56:24,591
Speaker 1: Ulla Kulpa, Sam Lee and me Leon Mayfock, with editorial

965
00:56:24,591 --> 00:56:28,750
Speaker 1: support from Sam Graham Felsen and Madeline Kaplan. Our researcher

966
00:56:28,911 --> 00:56:32,831
Speaker 1: was Francis Carr. Our score was composed by Dan English,

967
00:56:33,071 --> 00:56:36,551
Speaker 1: Joe Valley and Noah Hect. Additional music by Nick se

968
00:56:36,631 --> 00:56:39,951
Speaker 1: Levester and Joel Saint Julian. Our theme song is by

969
00:56:39,951 --> 00:56:44,350
Speaker 1: Spatial Relations audio mixed by Rob Buyers, Michael Raphael and

970
00:56:44,431 --> 00:56:47,951
Speaker 1: Johnny Vince Evans. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at

971
00:56:48,031 --> 00:56:52,270
Speaker 1: Chips and y Copyright Council provided by Peter Yassi at

972
00:56:52,391 --> 00:56:57,911
Speaker 1: Yasi Butler PLLC. Thanks to archive dot Org. Mifen Alba,

973
00:56:58,311 --> 00:57:04,031
Speaker 1: Peter bartu Aa, Buruela Ben Fishman, Baker habib Anna, Lynnville

974
00:57:04,351 --> 00:57:10,310
Speaker 1: Ian Martin Ismaele, Sweya Murad Idris and Frederick Warehe Victual.

975
00:57:10,351 --> 00:57:13,151
Speaker 1: Thanks to Lubinary and thank you for listening.