Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey Leon here, Before we get to this episode,
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Speaker 1: note this episode contains descriptions of violence some listeners may
Speaker 1: find disturbing. Previously on Fiasco.
Speaker 2: The Arab Spring had arrived in Libya.
Speaker 1: They were saying, wake up, wake up, Benghazi.
Speaker 3: This is the day.
Speaker 4: If you are waiting.
Speaker 2: Forward, It's not usual to send in a diplomat and
Speaker 2: basically say make your way.
Speaker 5: I was very worried about it. Secure it eight.
Speaker 1: Six months after the uprising, Olivia is flooded with weapons
Speaker 1: and faces a potential power vacuum. The country is now
Speaker 1: at risk of being taken over by extremists.
Speaker 2: You Americans need to watch out because the people who
Speaker 2: you're dealing with are not your friends.
Speaker 3: Man plus X equals Islamic terrorist.
Speaker 5: Islamic terrorist minus X.
Speaker 4: Equals man.
Speaker 3: But what is X?
Speaker 1: You're listening to a scene from a low budget movie
Speaker 1: called Innocence of Muslims. It's not even really a movie technically,
Speaker 1: it's a fourteen minute trailer for a movie that was
Speaker 1: never released. The trailer was posted on YouTube in July
Speaker 1: of twenty twelve.
Speaker 3: Muhammed is all a messenger and the Kuwan is a constitution.
Speaker 1: The Innocence of Muslims video is a crude piece of
Speaker 1: anti Islamic propaganda. In it, the Islamic prophet Mohammad is
Speaker 1: played by a boyish white actor, and he's depicted as
Speaker 1: a charlatan, a womanizer, and a bloodthirsty tyrant.
Speaker 6: He kills men, captures women, and chills men, and what's more,
Speaker 6: he does this all in the.
Speaker 3: Name of God.
Speaker 7: What God is this?
Speaker 1: The video was produced in California by an Egyptian American
Speaker 1: man named Nicula Basselli. Nicula he said he made the
Speaker 1: film in protest of violence perpetrated around the world by
Speaker 1: Islamic extremists. It was an amateurish production. Nicula used his
Speaker 1: own house as a sound stage. He hired the actors
Speaker 1: through backstage dot Com and told them they were shooting
Speaker 1: an epic called Desert Warriors. According to the script he
Speaker 1: gave them, the film wasn't about Mohammed at all, but
Speaker 1: just some guy named George. It was only in post
Speaker 1: production that the name Mohammad was dubbed. In raised him
Speaker 1: as one of your slaves.
Speaker 5: If you must, what shall I call you?
Speaker 3: His name is Mohammed the father unknown.
Speaker 1: Nikola had his twenty one year old son post the
Speaker 1: video online and for a while it went virtually unseen.
Speaker 1: Then about two months later, in September of twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: a new version of the video appeared on YouTube, this
Speaker 1: time translated into Arabic.
Speaker 5: A mis alhand.
Speaker 1: Soon miss when clips from the video aired an Egyptian
Speaker 1: television with heated commentary from a pundit who called it
Speaker 1: unspeakable and asked how long will I be called a
Speaker 1: terrorist for growing my beard? The video exploded in Egypt.
Speaker 1: Political leaders and preachers publicly denounced it, and popular Facebook
Speaker 1: groups called for protests. As tensions continued to rise, the
Speaker 1: American Embassy in Cairo decided to address the video. Around
Speaker 1: noon on September eleventh, they released a written statement.
Speaker 8: Saying quote the Embassy of the United States and Cairo
Speaker 8: condemns the continuing efforts misguided individuals to hurt the religious
Speaker 8: feelings of Muslims. As we condemn efforts to offend believers
Speaker 8: of all religions.
Speaker 1: The statement did little to quell the outrage in Cairo.
Speaker 1: Within a matter of hours, hundreds of protesters had gathered
Speaker 1: outside the American embassy.
Speaker 6: Developing story out of Cairo, Egypt. I understand that protesters
Speaker 6: are outside the US embassy. They are there are about
Speaker 6: a thousand of them, and protesters have, from what we understand,
Speaker 6: storm the walls of the embassy and pull down US flags.
Speaker 1: Some of the protesters scaled the walls, tearing down an
Speaker 1: American flag and setting it on fire.
Speaker 6: Egyptian riot police are on the scene and they are
Speaker 6: trying to protect the walls.
Speaker 8: They are protesting a video they say the fames the
Speaker 8: prophet Muhammad Egyptian.
Speaker 1: The Cairo protest was only the latest flare up in
Speaker 1: a long running conflict over the depiction of Mohammad.
Speaker 6: Muslim protesters directed more violent anger today against newspapers in
Speaker 6: Denmark and other European countries that have printed cartoons of
Speaker 6: Mohammad from Cairo day.
Speaker 1: In most Islamic practices, it's considered blasphemists to create any
Speaker 1: visual representation of Mohammed. Over the years, some self described
Speaker 1: secularists have made a point of violating that rule in
Speaker 1: the name of free speech.
Speaker 8: Against cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed as violent womanizing, first
Speaker 8: published in Denmark and since in seventeen other countries.
Speaker 1: One of the most dramatic examples occurred back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, after a Danish newspaper published several cartoons
Speaker 1: of Mohamed and protests broke out across the Arab world.
Speaker 1: They were Muslim protests in at least a dozen countries today,
Speaker 1: now in Cairo. In twenty twelve, it looked like the
Speaker 1: same thing again, with Egyptians rising up against the deliberate
Speaker 1: provocation that had originated in the West. And it was
Speaker 1: happening on the anniversary of the September eleventh attacks, when
Speaker 1: American embassies across the region were on high alert.
Speaker 2: Anyway, the embassy was closed for business that day as
Speaker 2: a security measure, and we were working from our compound
Speaker 2: for the most part.
Speaker 1: This is Gregory Hicks. In twenty twelve, he was the
Speaker 1: deputy Chief of the American Mission in Libya, Chris Stevens's
Speaker 1: number two at the embassy in Tripoli. On September eleventh,
Speaker 1: Hicks had been left in charge while Stevens took a
Speaker 1: short trip to Benghazi.
Speaker 2: And I remember texting Chris in Benghazi and asking him,
Speaker 2: are you watching what's going on in Cairo?
Speaker 1: Stevens told Hicks he had been unaware of the protests
Speaker 1: for all the tensions erupting in Egypt over the Innocence
Speaker 1: Muslims video.
Speaker 2: Libya was quiet, and then when the sun went down,
Speaker 2: we were kind of relieved, wiping the sweat off our brows,
Speaker 2: that we had not been targeted in Tripoli and they
Speaker 2: had not been targeted in Benghazi.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the day had passed without incident. Hicks
Speaker 1: was relieved.
Speaker 2: I had basically said, Okay, we're good, We're through the day.
Speaker 2: Nine to eleven is going to be over. And the
Speaker 2: only thing that happened was in Cairo. And so I
Speaker 2: went to watch a television program and about nine forty
Speaker 2: five or thereabouts, John Martinick, the RSO, ran up to
Speaker 2: my room. He's yelling Greg, Greg the consulates under attack.
Speaker 1: Hicks checked his phone and saw missed calls from both
Speaker 1: Ambassador Stevens and a number he didn't recognize. He tried
Speaker 1: to call back, but no one picked up. Then Hicks
Speaker 1: got through to Stevens by dialing the unknown number and he.
Speaker 2: Said, Greg, we're under attack. I think I said okay,
Speaker 2: and before I could say anything else, he cut the line.
Speaker 1: I'm Leon Navak from Prologued Projects and Pushkin Industries. This
Speaker 1: is fiasco Benghazi.
Speaker 7: I could hear these shots. I can heard the greenades.
Speaker 5: I turned to the ambassador and said, I'm going to
Speaker 5: start shooting, and when I die I want you to
Speaker 5: pick up my rifle and keep on fighting.
Speaker 2: It's taken to a hospital and the government won't tell
Speaker 2: us where it is.
Speaker 3: We already got the buddy, we got the remains.
Speaker 5: I thought I was alone. I thought everybody else was dead.
Speaker 1: Episode three, Barefoot, The Attack in Benghazi. We'll be right back.
Speaker 3: Chris arrived to Bengazi Airport Monday morning, Monday. This is
Speaker 3: the day, was September tenth, So I was there at
Speaker 3: the airport to we'll come here.
Speaker 1: This is Baker Habib, born and raised in Libya. He
Speaker 1: started working with the State Department when the US reconciled
Speaker 1: with the Gadafi regime after the Libyan Revolution. Habib became
Speaker 1: especially close with Chris Stevens. When Stevens was posted in
Speaker 1: Benghazi as an envoy to the anti Gaddafi opposition. Now
Speaker 1: with Gaddafi gone, Stephens was coming back to Benghazi to
Speaker 1: check in with his local contacts.
Speaker 3: And I remember when I told him was came back,
Speaker 3: and he said, I'm pretty glad to be back home.
Speaker 3: So he considered Bengazi as home.
Speaker 1: Why exactly Stephens decided to make his trip to Benghazi
Speaker 1: when he did has never been firmly established, but the
Speaker 1: general reason was that he understood the city's importance as
Speaker 1: one of Libya's cultural and political centers. Benghazi was the
Speaker 1: seat of the revolution that had toppled Gadafi. If Tripoli
Speaker 1: was Libya's Washington d C. Benghazi was New York or LA.
Speaker 1: Stephens believed that the US needed a strong presence there
Speaker 1: Island Town, Stevens was going to preside over the opening
Speaker 1: of a kind of study center at a local school
Speaker 1: that was owned and operated by Baker Habib. It would
Speaker 1: be called the American Corner. The idea was that Libyans
Speaker 1: could take English classes there, find information on college admissions
Speaker 1: in the US, and so on. It would be an
Speaker 1: engine of what some might call American soft power. When
Speaker 1: Stevens arrived in Benghazi. He and Habib set about finalizing
Speaker 1: the details for the opening.
Speaker 3: I spent all day long with him on Monday and Tuesday.
Speaker 7: I went out a little bit.
Speaker 3: I'm back again. Last time I saw him it was
Speaker 3: about fiveish. He had an appointment with the Turkish councilor
Speaker 3: at that time, so I would say the last time
Speaker 3: I saw Chris Stevens, I walked with him, it was
Speaker 3: about five five ten something like that.
Speaker 1: After Habib left, Stevens took his last meeting of the
Speaker 1: day with a Turkish diplomat at the American Compound.
Speaker 5: Our compound was in a residential neighborhood and it didn't
Speaker 5: look unlike any of the other houses in the area,
Speaker 5: so about as long as one of their blocks, like
Speaker 5: a city block almost. It had cement walls all the
Speaker 5: way around it.
Speaker 1: This is Scott Wickland, trained in the Navy as a
Speaker 1: specialist in conducting rescue missions. In twenty twelve, he was
Speaker 1: working for the State Department as a DS agent DS
Speaker 1: short for Diplomatic Security. On September eleventh, Wickland was on
Speaker 1: day forty one of a seventy day posting at the
Speaker 1: compound in Benghazi.
Speaker 5: We had four buildings on it a little orchard on it.
Speaker 5: We had a pool. We had a soccer field where
Speaker 5: the guards would play soccer, and sometimes we would go
Speaker 5: play with them.
Speaker 1: As you heard in episode two, the American compound in
Speaker 1: Benghazi had been leased by the State Department after the
Speaker 1: Libyan Revolution. The four structures on the grounds included a
Speaker 1: barracks for local Libyan guards, a canteen, and a building
Speaker 1: known as Villas, where Stevens slept and met with visitors.
Speaker 1: After Stevens's final meeting of the night, business at the
Speaker 1: compound began to wind down, Stevens retired to his residence
Speaker 1: in Villa C. One of his State Department colleagues, an
Speaker 1: IT specialist named Sean Smith, was in his bedroom in
Speaker 1: the same building, playing a video game called Evonline and
Speaker 1: chatting with other gamers. One DS agent was in the
Speaker 1: compound security center. Scott Wickland and two other agents were outside.
Speaker 5: At the end of the evening. We were sitting by
Speaker 5: the pool and talking. You know, I was wearing flip flops,
Speaker 5: just kind of relaxing.
Speaker 1: Then a little after nine thirty pm, Wickland heard a
Speaker 1: sound in the distance.
Speaker 5: It sounded like chanting to me, you know, like a
Speaker 5: crowd chanting something. I didn't know what it was, and
Speaker 5: then the sound kind of came nearer and nearer, approaching
Speaker 5: the compound, and when I made out alahu Akbar. With
Speaker 5: our current risk profile, we need to do something.
Speaker 1: Wickland and the other DS agents snapped into action.
Speaker 5: We're already stressed out because the ambassadors here. It's a
Speaker 5: dangerous location at September eleventh, we're on this kind of
Speaker 5: high alert. We don't know if they're armed, we don't
Speaker 5: know if they're peaceful. We just don't know. And the
Speaker 5: automatic response from my end was I need to go
Speaker 5: get ready in case. So I turned to the other
Speaker 5: guys and I said, go get your stuff.
Speaker 1: The DS agents who were with Wickland by the pool
Speaker 1: ran to get their weapons. Wickland already had some of
Speaker 1: his gear with him, so he took the role of
Speaker 1: securing Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith, the IT specialist. Both
Speaker 1: of them were in the living quarters of Villa C,
Speaker 1: which were separated from the main area by what Wickland
Speaker 1: describes as a metal jail cell door.
Speaker 5: I ran into Phili C and the building ran over
Speaker 5: into kind of our living area, and I locked this
Speaker 5: jail cell door. You could like stick your arm through
Speaker 5: the door, but a person could not crawl through.
Speaker 1: As Wickland secured the villa's living quarters, he could tell
Speaker 1: that the group he had heard approaching the compound was
Speaker 1: breaching the main gate outside. It appeared that most of
Speaker 1: the Libyan guards on duty had scattered, allowing the attackers
Speaker 1: to rush in effectively unopposed. Sean Smith tapped out a
Speaker 1: message to the people he was playing video games with.
Speaker 5: Fuck.
Speaker 1: He wrote, gunfire. Wickland ran into his bedroom and put
Speaker 1: on body armor and a helmet.
Speaker 5: And as soon as I came out of my bedroom,
Speaker 5: Investor Stevens was standing kind of in this common area.
Speaker 5: He was ready for bed, you know. He was wearing
Speaker 5: shorts and like a white T shirt. He had his
Speaker 5: body armor with him in his helmet and he was
Speaker 5: kind of finishing putting that on, and right away I
Speaker 5: told him that we needed to get him in the
Speaker 5: safe haven. Seawn Smith came out shortly after that, and
Speaker 5: I put Shawn Smith in the safe haven and we sat.
Speaker 1: The safe haven was essentially a big closet surrounded by
Speaker 1: cement walls. Wickland turned off the lights as he ushered
Speaker 1: Stevens and Smith inside.
Speaker 5: There was a sliding door on it that I had opened.
Speaker 5: And I was kind of kneeling in the entryway of
Speaker 5: the save haven, and I had a shotgun, a pistol
Speaker 5: and an M four And I think that this is
Speaker 5: actually where I kicked off my sandals, because crouching down
Speaker 5: on sandals it just wasn't comfortable.
Speaker 1: Now barefoot, Wickland steadied his M four rifle in the
Speaker 1: darkness of the safe haven and waited. Around nine pm,
Speaker 1: Chris Stevens's friend, Baker Habib got a call from one
Speaker 1: of the DS agents in the compound. He addressed Habibe
Speaker 1: by the nickname Stevens had given him Bo.
Speaker 3: The diplomatic security agents. One of them he called me
Speaker 3: and tell me, hey, Bo aranda attack. So for me,
Speaker 3: I couldn't possess my reaction. Oh and there is sand
Speaker 3: at that time. What he meant by attack, it cannot be.
Speaker 1: Habib didn't want to believe that the compound was under attack,
Speaker 1: but he knew what he was hearing.
Speaker 7: I could hear these shots. I can heard the grenades.
Speaker 1: Habib jumped in his car and headed to the compound
Speaker 1: where he had been with Chris Stevens four hours earlier.
Speaker 1: From his position in the safe haven, Scott Wickland could
Speaker 1: hear the gunfire too. He could also hear the attackers
Speaker 1: begin to hit the main doors of villas trying to
Speaker 1: break in. Then suddenly he could see them.
Speaker 5: I could see through the jail cell door into this
Speaker 5: entryway into Villa C, which is where I saw all
Speaker 5: the attackers rush in when they finally blew open the doors.
Speaker 5: I saw him come in the building and I saw,
Speaker 5: you know that they were carrying weapons. I saw AK
Speaker 5: forty seven's the RPG, I saw grenades. I knew that
Speaker 5: we were in trouble. I was immediately on the radio saying,
Speaker 5: where is everybody? Where's my backup? Where are you guys?
Speaker 5: And I had to whisper because people were in the building,
Speaker 5: and I said, they're in the building. I need immediate assistance.
Speaker 5: And I said this over and over, and I didn't
Speaker 5: hear a response.
Speaker 1: There were four other DS agents in the compound, but
Speaker 1: none of them were answering Wicklan's calls.
Speaker 5: I was scared, wondering if, like the other guys, okay,
Speaker 5: were they killed, you know, were they captured? You know?
Speaker 5: I had no idea.
Speaker 1: As the attackers rushed into the villa, Wickland could hear
Speaker 1: the commotion they were causing. It sounded like they were
Speaker 1: breaking glass, ripping paintings off the walls, and destroying furniture.
Speaker 5: As people started to flood into the building, I start thinking, well,
Speaker 5: this is it. I mean, it's only a matter of
Speaker 5: time before they come over and find us. And sure enough,
Speaker 5: two individuals came over to the jail cell door. One
Speaker 5: of the individuals started fumbling with one of his grenades,
Speaker 5: and I thought, you know, he's going to blow the
Speaker 5: locks up with his grenades. And that's when I turned
Speaker 5: to the ambassador and said, if they blow the locks,
Speaker 5: I'm going to start shooting, and when I die, I
Speaker 5: want you to pick got my rifle and keep on fighting.
Speaker 1: Wickland trained the site of his rifle on the chest
Speaker 1: of one of the men standing at the jail cell door,
Speaker 1: but he held his fire, figuring that as soon as
Speaker 1: he pulled the trigger, he would reveal his location to
Speaker 1: all the other attackers.
Speaker 5: Instead of using the grenades, one of the guys uses
Speaker 5: the butt of his rifle and just kind of bangs
Speaker 5: on the door a little bit, but nothing happened. After that,
Speaker 5: they turned and walked away. That was a massive sigh
Speaker 5: of relief for me. I thought, my gosh, maybe we're
Speaker 5: going to survive. Maybe we're going to be in the clear.
Speaker 1: Shortly after that, Wicklan saw the attackers start to leave
Speaker 1: the building and he breathed the tentative sigh of relief.
Speaker 5: What I didn't realize was that they had taken some
Speaker 5: fuel cans and started pouring it on all those broken
Speaker 5: frames and the furniture, and they lit it on fire.
Speaker 1: The compound had recently acquired a new generator. It was
Speaker 1: stored near the main gate, next to big jugs of
Speaker 1: diesel fuel. It seemed that before leaving the villa, the
Speaker 1: attackers had poured the fuel all over the premises.
Speaker 5: I got a hint of that smell, and it was smoke,
Speaker 5: and I didn't know how bad it was. I didn't know,
Speaker 5: you know, I couldn't see any fire. I couldn't tell it,
Speaker 5: but I could smell it. And then I knew, well,
Speaker 5: now we have a different problem on our hands.
Speaker 1: From his post in Tripoli, four hundred miles away, Deputy
Speaker 1: Chief of Mission Greg Hicks was trying to get a
Speaker 1: handle on what was happening in ben Ghazi. He had
Speaker 1: spoken to Stevens just after nine forty five PM when
Speaker 1: Stevens told him the mission was under attack. Now Hicks
Speaker 1: had to figure out how to help.
Speaker 2: The first thing I'm doing is, Okay, track down all
Speaker 2: of our embassy leadership people, get them to the operations center,
Speaker 2: and say get on the horn with everybody you know
Speaker 2: and find out what exactly is going on.
Speaker 1: Hicks and his colleagues in Tripoli developed a kind of
Speaker 1: phone tree. Some were trying to reach the DS agents
Speaker 1: of the compound. Meanwhile, Hicks was communicating with Libyan government
Speaker 1: officials in hopes of mobilizing some kind of rescue.
Speaker 2: I was calling senior officials in the government in Tripoli
Speaker 2: because they are the individuals who have the responsibility to react.
Speaker 2: I mean, this was a criminal attack on a diplomatic
Speaker 2: facility in Libyan territory.
Speaker 1: But the process was hampered by the reality of telecommunication
Speaker 1: in Libya. Service inside the embassy was so unreliable that
Speaker 1: Hicks and his team had to go outside to their courtyard.
Speaker 2: We're all walking around. It's dead dark except for the
Speaker 2: stars overhead and the like that are on in our compound,
Speaker 2: and we're all walking around dousing for telephone signals. When
Speaker 2: we got the signal, we would immediately start dialing on
Speaker 2: our phones frantically to try to make the next phone call.
Speaker 2: And then we would ammeble like kind of come together
Speaker 2: and we would share the information that we had gathered,
Speaker 2: and then we would all spread out again, dousing for signal,
Speaker 2: and then we would be on the phone again.
Speaker 1: He was through these phone calls that Hicks and his
Speaker 1: State Department colleagues formed a rough understanding of how the
Speaker 1: attack in Benghazi was playing out.
Speaker 2: We heard, you know. It was dozens of armed individuals
Speaker 2: had entered the compound, rocket pelt grenades and rifle fire
Speaker 2: and automatic fire and was taking place.
Speaker 1: As Hicks dialed out, he tried Ambassador Stevens again and again.
Speaker 2: I was trying to call him every few minutes and
Speaker 2: getting no answer. He probably had his phone on silence
Speaker 2: to not attract attention to their presence. I don't know,
Speaker 2: but he'd never answered the phone again.
Speaker 1: When he wasn't calling Stevens's phone or his contacts in
Speaker 1: the Libyan government, Deputy Chief of Mission Greg Hicks was
Speaker 1: calling the CIA. Specifically, he was calling the station chief
Speaker 1: at the CIA outpost in Benghazi, a facility known internally
Speaker 1: as the CIA Annex. It was located less than a
Speaker 1: mile from the State Department compound.
Speaker 2: I was in touch with the Annex chief, so I
Speaker 2: was talking to him about the security team from the
Speaker 2: Annex in Benghazi moving expeditiously to rescue our people at
Speaker 2: our facility.
Speaker 1: The annex was home base for about two dozen Americans,
Speaker 1: including some CIA agents and the team of private security contractors.
Speaker 1: In an agreement between the CIA and the State Department,
Speaker 1: those contractors could be tapped to respond to an emergency
Speaker 1: at the diplomatic nearby. That was why Greg Hicks wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to the station chief.
Speaker 2: And I asked him quite pointedly, are you going to
Speaker 2: be able to meet your obligations under our agreement?
Speaker 1: Separately, the contractors at the CIA annex heard distress calls
Speaker 1: from the compound. They pulled on their gear, grabbed their weapons,
Speaker 1: and loaded up into armored cars. But before they could leave,
Speaker 1: they were held up by the annex chief. He was
Speaker 1: in charge of directing the contractors, and for reasons that
Speaker 1: would later be litigated and re litigated in the media
Speaker 1: and by Congress, he told the contractors to wait.
Speaker 2: I know the Gazi Annex chief personally, and he's a
Speaker 2: decent man. He was put in an awful position that
Speaker 2: night where he had to make choices to risk the
Speaker 2: people under his authority in his compound to save our
Speaker 2: people and the consulate.
Speaker 1: If the station chief were to send the contractors to
Speaker 1: the compound, he would be leaving the CIA annex largely defenseless.
Speaker 1: So instead of sending his own people out, he tried
Speaker 1: to reach the leaders of friendly local militias to ask
Speaker 1: for their help. The contractors got frustrated. They knew that
Speaker 1: the passing minutes were only giving the attackers an edge. Eventually,
Speaker 1: a call came on the radio from one of the
Speaker 1: DS agents at the compound. If you guys don't get
Speaker 1: here soon, we're going to die. With that, the CIA
Speaker 1: contractors broke protocol. Twenty minutes after they had first heard
Speaker 1: about the attack. They left for the compound without the
Speaker 1: station chiefs go ahead. At the compound, Scott Wickland was
Speaker 1: adjusting to a new threat.
Speaker 5: Fire. Yeah. I turned to the Ambassador and John Smith
Speaker 5: and I was like, hey, we got to get to
Speaker 5: the bathroom now.
Speaker 1: The idea behind moving to the bathroom was that Wickland,
Speaker 1: Stevens and Smith would have access to water.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 1: They could wet a towel and shove it under the
Speaker 1: base of the door, then open the small window vent
Speaker 1: and wait out the fire. Wicklin figured the villa was
Speaker 1: made of concrete. The stuff inside of it might catch fire,
Speaker 1: but the structure itself would not.
Speaker 5: I mean, outside there are attackers, inside, there's fire. I'm
Speaker 5: more likely to survive fire if I'm in the bathroom
Speaker 5: than i am to survive attackers who were outside. I
Speaker 5: knew that going outside was not an option at all,
Speaker 5: and so we started crawling.
Speaker 1: It was eight meters from the safe haven to the bathroom,
Speaker 1: about the length of two cars. Wicklin strapped his rifle
Speaker 1: across his chest and began to guide Stevens in a
Speaker 1: crawl with his left hand holding the body armor on
Speaker 1: Stevens's back. Sean Smith followed behind them.
Speaker 5: By the time we reached the corner, so two meters,
Speaker 5: the smoke was super thick. I mean, that's how quickly
Speaker 5: it filled up with smoke. And it wasn't smoke like
Speaker 5: a campfire. This was smoke like it just it entered
Speaker 5: your eyeballs, it went in your mouth, and it was
Speaker 5: just putrid. It was black, thick smoke that's a mixture
Speaker 5: of burning rubber and plastic and caustic fumes that just
Speaker 5: choke you.
Speaker 2: Could you see it all?
Speaker 5: No, nothing, There was no breathable air from like the
Speaker 5: ceiling all the way down to you know, the floor,
Speaker 5: and so I was like kind of cupping my hands
Speaker 5: on the floor and breathing, you know, the last inch
Speaker 5: of air that was left. And that's how I was
Speaker 5: still talking. And so I was still saying follow me,
Speaker 5: follow me, and I was hitting the floor so it
Speaker 5: would make like a popping noise, and so they could
Speaker 5: hear me where I was is where to go? And
Speaker 5: I was just saying, come on, we can make it.
Speaker 5: Come on, we can make it. Come on. You know.
Speaker 5: I went at a slow pace and I could feel
Speaker 5: Ambassador Stevens on my left side, and then I didn't,
Speaker 5: you know, I thought, well, he's right there, he's right
Speaker 5: behind me. Anyway, no big deal, Like he can still
Speaker 5: hear my voice, he can hear my hands. And I
Speaker 5: was still saying, come on, we can make it, come on,
Speaker 5: follow me, follow this on in my voice, follow me,
Speaker 5: follow me. And I made it to the bathroom and
Speaker 5: they didn't show up. So I started feeling out into
Speaker 5: the hallway that led to the bathroom to see if
Speaker 5: I could feel them and pull them in, and I
Speaker 5: didn't feel anything. I searched until I was like about
Speaker 5: to pass out, Like I could feel the lightheadedness and
Speaker 5: like my body like losing motor skills, and I was
Speaker 5: really getting scared. At that point, I realized, well, it's
Speaker 5: either I'd die here or I go outside.
Speaker 1: Wickland knew he could get outside through his bedroom window.
Speaker 1: He just had to get there in the darkness. Wicklan's
Speaker 1: rifle had somehow gotten tangled or stuck in the bathroom sink,
Speaker 1: so he left it behind, stood upright, and ran to
Speaker 1: his room. Once inside, he felt his way to the
Speaker 1: window and cranked it open.
Speaker 5: And I kind of collapsed onto this little patio area
Speaker 5: that I have and shortly after it was just gunfire.
Speaker 5: I mean I believed, you know, it was right on
Speaker 5: my position.
Speaker 1: Wickland took cover behind a knee high wall that surrounded
Speaker 1: the patio area outside his bedroom. He could feel shards
Speaker 1: of cement hitting his face from where bullets were making
Speaker 1: contact around him.
Speaker 5: It was just like getting blast in the face by
Speaker 5: a shotgun. And so I turned around and went back
Speaker 5: into the building to search for Ambassador Stevens and Shawn Smith.
Speaker 5: I went back in the window, and I was just
Speaker 5: yelling and screaming, hoping that one of the two of
Speaker 5: them could hear me and keep fighting, Like keep crawling
Speaker 5: towards my bedroom. I was yelling, I'm in my bedroom.
Speaker 5: I'm in my bedroom. Follow my voice. Follow me. There
Speaker 5: was like a desk right by my doorway, and I
Speaker 5: was slamming that thing, hitting it, like follow me, come
Speaker 5: to this noise, Come to my voice.
Speaker 1: Wicklan stayed inside until once again he felt like he
Speaker 1: was going to pass out. Then he turned around, climbed
Speaker 1: out the window, caught his breath, and went back in
Speaker 1: to try again.
Speaker 5: I thought, if I turned my lamp on, maybe they'll
Speaker 5: be able to see it, and so I went over
Speaker 5: by feel on my lamp on the side of my bed,
Speaker 5: turned it on, and I held it up to my
Speaker 5: face because I couldn't see it, and I remember feeling
Speaker 5: the heat from the light bulb and I could just
Speaker 5: barely make out a light. That's how thick the smoke was.
Speaker 1: Wicklan says that each time he went back into the villa,
Speaker 1: he could only stay for about a minute. Eventually he
Speaker 1: knew he couldn't go back in at all. He was
Speaker 1: also certain that By this point, after spending so much
Speaker 1: time inside the burning building, Chris Stevens and Sean Smith
Speaker 1: had to be dead.
Speaker 5: My body didn't have any energy left, and I had
Speaker 5: been breathing in that smoke. Oh man, it just makes
Speaker 5: me sick thinking about it. I knew that if I
Speaker 5: went in one more time, that would have been it.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't have been coming back out. I wouldn't be
Speaker 5: able to help out anybody if I was another casualty.
Speaker 5: So I made the decision to climb up the ladder
Speaker 5: from the patio up to the roof.
Speaker 1: It's worth underscoring that, in that moment, climbing up onto
Speaker 1: the roof of a burning building felt like Wickland's best option.
Speaker 5: It was like a frying pan, it was so hot.
Speaker 1: Wickland pulled the aluminum ladder up behind him and took
Speaker 1: stock of his surroundings. Perched up on the roof, he
Speaker 1: now had a slightly better sense of what was going
Speaker 1: on around him. He tried again to reach the other
Speaker 1: DS agents who had been in the compound with him
Speaker 1: when the attack started.
Speaker 5: The first thing that I did was I got on
Speaker 5: the radio and I was like, where the fuck is everybody?
Speaker 5: And I said Ambassador Stephens and Sean Smith are still
Speaker 5: in the burning building. I need immediate assistance. And there
Speaker 5: wasn't a response. Nobody got over the radio and said, yeah,
Speaker 5: we're coming to help you out. It was just silence.
Speaker 5: I thought I was alone. I thought everybody else was dead.
Speaker 5: I thought the other agents were dead. And I had
Speaker 5: blisters in my throat and in my mouth. My feet
Speaker 5: were pretty messed up, my breathing was pretty bad. And
Speaker 5: so I developed a plan. And my plan was that
Speaker 5: I was going to jump off the roof without shoes,
Speaker 5: and I was going to run to the edge of Benghazi.
Speaker 5: I was going to steal a car and drive it
Speaker 5: to Egypt. And that was my real plan.
Speaker 1: While Wickland imagined ways of getting away from the compound,
Speaker 1: Baker Habib, Chris Stevens's friend and colleague, was desperate to
Speaker 1: get in.
Speaker 3: I want to be inside the compound by Jokoba Kroc.
Speaker 3: This is my aim at that time. I just want
Speaker 3: to be there.
Speaker 1: As Habib drew closer to the front gates, he was
Speaker 1: stopped by a group of armed men.
Speaker 7: So there I found two cars, two trucks with heavy
Speaker 7: machine guns, and I told him he just wanted to
Speaker 7: go in. They said, no way, you can't.
Speaker 1: Habib didn't know who these men were or whether they
Speaker 1: were working with the attackers. Either way, they had closed
Speaker 1: off the street, so Habib turned his car around and
Speaker 1: drove to the back of the compound, which looked out
Speaker 1: onto a lively street where people had been dining when
Speaker 1: the attack began. Habib got out of his car and
Speaker 1: tried to get a sense of the scene.
Speaker 3: I could hear clearly greenades and number of shots, and
Speaker 3: the greenades again the comp.
Speaker 7: Between the grenades. I will say one two minutes Maximo.
Speaker 1: As Habib stood near the back of the compound, a
Speaker 1: man carrying a missile launcher approached him and asked if
Speaker 1: he was a civilian. Habib told him that he was
Speaker 1: and said, I need.
Speaker 7: To go to the building.
Speaker 3: I have to be there. He said it's stager. I
Speaker 3: said no, let me do it.
Speaker 1: Eventually Habib left his car and began to walk back
Speaker 1: around to the front of the compound.
Speaker 3: What is so is people with guns, people without guns,
Speaker 3: and many people. You cannot imagine. This was alike a flow.
Speaker 3: It's like a three people getting.
Speaker 7: In the gate. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 3: The scene was unbelievable, and no one knows what was
Speaker 3: going on at that time.
Speaker 1: The flood of people Habib was seeing had shown up
Speaker 1: at the compound. After a word of the attack spread
Speaker 1: around Benghazi through text messages, facebook pages, and phone calls.
Speaker 1: It was hard to tell who was an attacker and
Speaker 1: who was just a rubbernecker trying to see what was
Speaker 1: going on at the American mission. Later, this ambiguity would
Speaker 1: determine almost everything about how the attack in Benghazi was
Speaker 1: initially misunderstood in the United States. Up on the rooft
Speaker 1: Wicklan didn't know what time it was or how long
Speaker 1: it had been since he gave up on trying to
Speaker 1: find Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith. After a while, though,
Speaker 1: it seemed like the attackers had moved away from his position,
Speaker 1: creating an opportunity for him to escape, and.
Speaker 5: I thought, well, this might be my time pretty soon
Speaker 5: to carry out my plan. Then I got a call
Speaker 5: over the radio and it was Dave Ouben.
Speaker 1: Dave Eben was another DS agent and Wickman's friend from training.
Speaker 1: The two of them had been out by the pool
Speaker 1: together when the attackers first arrived at the compound. They
Speaker 1: hadn't seen each other or spoken since.
Speaker 5: Dave called and basically said, you know, Scott, are you alive.
Speaker 5: I called back and I was like, yes, yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: still alive. I'm still here. Where are you guys? I
Speaker 5: need some help, And they said we're coming.
Speaker 1: Wicklin says the other DS agents came to the side
Speaker 1: of Villis where he was hiding and signaled to him. Wickland,
Speaker 1: still barefoot, climbed down the ladder and told them he
Speaker 1: thought Ambassador Stevens and Shawn Smith were still inside the building.
Speaker 5: When I see them, it's like, oh, my gosh, I
Speaker 5: might survive. I might survive this because I now have
Speaker 5: my teammates. I'm not alone anymore. That was the big
Speaker 5: thing for me was I thought I was alone like
Speaker 5: this entire time. I thought it was just me. Right away,
Speaker 5: they were jumping in the burning building to try and
Speaker 5: find ambass Stevens and Shawn Smith.
Speaker 1: As the other DS agents took turns entering the building,
Speaker 1: they were joined by the team of private contractors from
Speaker 1: the CIA Annex. After a firefight on their way into
Speaker 1: the compound, the CIA contractors had managed to scare off
Speaker 1: some of the attackers, at least temporarily. Now they joined
Speaker 1: in the desperate search for Stevens and Smith, entering the
Speaker 1: villa through the windows, Scott Wickland had identified, doing a
Speaker 1: lap side as long as they could stand it, and
Speaker 1: circling back out again. Finally, one of the DS agents
Speaker 1: found Sean Smith. He was dead, apparently of smoke and elation,
Speaker 1: and the agent pulled his body out of the villa.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long after that it seemed like the fighting
Speaker 1: might start up again.
Speaker 5: We start feeling pressure from like attackers again. There's people
Speaker 5: who are kind of hiding out at one of the gates,
Speaker 5: and so we're starting to feel like, you know, we
Speaker 5: have to get moving. We have to get out of
Speaker 5: here before there's a second attack.
Speaker 1: Though they still hadn't found Stevens, the DS agents and
Speaker 1: the contractors decided it was time to evacuate to the
Speaker 1: nearby CIA base. The DS agents went first, packing into
Speaker 1: one of the armored vehicles that was kept at the compound.
Speaker 1: Despite his condition, Wickland got into the driver's seat. He
Speaker 1: had been in Benghazi the longest and he knew the
Speaker 1: way to the annex. Meanwhile, the CIA contractors loaded Sean
Speaker 1: Smith's body into the car they'd arrived in. After beating
Speaker 1: back another advance from the attackers. They pulled out of
Speaker 1: the compound two. It was eleven seventeen PM, about an
Speaker 1: hour and a half after the attack first started. Wherever
Speaker 1: Ambassador Stevens was now, it wasn't with the Americans. Baker
Speaker 1: Habib worried that his friend had been kidnapped.
Speaker 7: At that time.
Speaker 3: I was in contact with those people who got Sjonah Smith, Buddy.
Speaker 3: I thought Chris was out of the compound at that time.
Speaker 3: So you say, just came to my mind that Chris
Speaker 3: would be a tortured first, then he killed by them,
Speaker 3: and everything is just in my mind.
Speaker 7: So at that time was what was suitable.
Speaker 1: At the embassy in Tripoli, Greg Hicks had been trying
Speaker 1: to solicit some kind of help from somewhere before another
Speaker 1: wave of attacks could hit the Americans. At what point
Speaker 1: were you told that basically there wasn't any help coming
Speaker 1: from outside of Libya.
Speaker 2: That was AFRICOM telling the Defense attesche that they had
Speaker 2: nothing available to send, and that happened at about eleven PM.
Speaker 1: AFRICOM is part of the Department of Defense. It's responsible
Speaker 1: for American military activity in Africa. On the night of
Speaker 1: the attack, AFRICAM told Hicks. The nearest military resources were
Speaker 1: fighter planes stationed in Aviano, Italy that was at least
Speaker 1: a two or three hour flight from Benghazi. On top
Speaker 1: of that, there were no tankers available for the planes
Speaker 1: to refuel.
Speaker 2: Essentially, that's why there was no military response, because the
Speaker 2: military wasn't ready for any eventuality.
Speaker 1: On nine to eleven, it appeared that the Americans' only
Speaker 1: option to launch a rescue mission from Tripoli, so a
Speaker 1: team of private security contractors based in the Capitol boarded
Speaker 1: a flight to Benghazi. We'll be right back. Even after
Speaker 1: the Americans evacuated the Benghazi compound, the large crowd of
Speaker 1: Libyans Baker Habib had seen nearby continued to grow.
Speaker 3: So you see many people just coming and keep coming
Speaker 3: to the American mission because Biebo was curious to know
Speaker 3: what was going on at that time and what happened.
Speaker 3: Many of them just was to be there with their
Speaker 3: cell phone to just record what was going on.
Speaker 1: What you're hearing is a cell phone video recorded by
Speaker 1: a man named fad alba Khush, who later shared his
Speaker 1: footage with American news networks. Some people looted the compound,
Speaker 1: taking everything from television sets to coils of rope. One
Speaker 1: guy even picked up a container of chocolate syrup and
Speaker 1: walked through the compound, squirting it into his mouth. Then,
Speaker 1: around one o'clock in the morning, someone found a man
Speaker 1: in Villa C. He was unresponsive and covered in soot.
Speaker 1: In the cell phone video, you can see a group
Speaker 1: of people pull the man's body out of the villa.
Speaker 1: You can hear them yelling in Arabic, he's alive, He's alive. Later,
Speaker 1: some American commentators would say the Libyans dragged the man
Speaker 1: through the streets. In reality, they immediately brought him to
Speaker 1: the Bengazi Medical Center and within fifteen minutes he was
Speaker 1: in a hospital bed. Soon after, the American Embassy in
Speaker 1: Tripoli received a call from Scott Wickland's phone. It was
Speaker 1: the same number that Greg Hicks had reached Chris Stevens
Speaker 1: on earlier in the night, but this time it and
Speaker 1: Steven's on the other line. It was a man speaking Arabic,
Speaker 1: saying he was at the hospital with someone who looked
Speaker 1: like the ambassador. Hicks and his colleagues pressed the man
Speaker 1: for something more concrete, but he would not provide a
Speaker 1: photograph or any other confirmation.
Speaker 2: We were very, very focused on asking the kinds of
Speaker 2: questions that would reveal whether we were talking to a
Speaker 2: friend or an enemy.
Speaker 1: The Americans felt like they couldn't take any information at
Speaker 1: face value. It was more than possible that Wickland's cell
Speaker 1: phone had been stolen from the compound and that the
Speaker 1: attackers were now trying to lure them into a trap.
Speaker 2: Then this whole confusing conversation begins where we understand he's
Speaker 2: taken to a hospital, and the government keeps telling as well,
Speaker 2: we know he's safe, and we keep going where is he?
Speaker 2: And they won't tell us where he is, So our
Speaker 2: view is that he's a prisoner and not in a
Speaker 2: safe place.
Speaker 1: Baker Habib, who was in touch with State Department officials,
Speaker 1: volunteered to go to the hospital and see for himself
Speaker 1: if the man was Chris Stevens, but he was told
Speaker 1: he couldn't go. It turned out there was intelligence saying
Speaker 1: that because of his close association with the Americans, Habib
Speaker 1: might be a target too.
Speaker 7: So I told him how about sending someone I trust
Speaker 7: and someone in you Christine is very well he could
Speaker 7: go there without any problem.
Speaker 1: So that plan was set in motion, and after a
Speaker 1: while Habib's friend called him from the hospital.
Speaker 7: So he called me back and.
Speaker 3: Told me that I'm next to him. Yes, his christive
Speaker 3: is one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Stevens was dead. Habib's friend said someone needed to come
Speaker 1: get his body from the hospital, and Habib told him
Speaker 1: he was on his way. Chris Stevens was reported killed
Speaker 1: in action at four fifteen am. By that time, the
Speaker 1: Americans who had gathered at the CIA base, including Scott Wickland,
Speaker 1: his fellow DS agents, and the CIA contractors, had all
Speaker 1: spent hours bracing themselves for another attack. Though locals didn't
Speaker 1: officially know where the CIA annex was, it was possible
Speaker 1: that someone had tracked the Americans as they made their
Speaker 1: way there from the compound. There had been several moments
Speaker 1: while Wickland was driving to the annex when he thought
Speaker 1: someone was following him. When he got there, the tail
Speaker 1: was gone, but he and the other Americans wanted to
Speaker 1: be ready for the worst.
Speaker 5: We prepared by putting people up on the roof and
Speaker 5: making sure that they were armed. You know. We had
Speaker 5: people monitoring to make sure that we could see these people.
Speaker 5: And I stayed inside just trying to kind of recuperate
Speaker 5: a little bit.
Speaker 1: Were you able to get medical attention at that point.
Speaker 5: I mean, there wasn't a whole lot that we could
Speaker 5: do for me. I got some shoes, which was great.
Speaker 1: Soon enough, it turned out Wickland and the others had
Speaker 1: been right to worry. Whoever was trying to expel them
Speaker 1: from Benghazi had figured out where they were. Aided by
Speaker 1: night vision goggles, the Americans prevailed in two brief firefights,
Speaker 1: but everyone was dreading the sunrise, when light would give
Speaker 1: the attackers a clearer view of the CIA base. At
Speaker 1: five am, reinforcements finally arrived from Tripoli. Among them was
Speaker 1: a CIA contractor named Glen Doherty, who joined a number
Speaker 1: of others, including a contractor named Tyrone Woods, on the
Speaker 1: roof of the main building as the sky began to
Speaker 1: turn from black to deep blue. The plan was to
Speaker 1: get every American out of Benghazi as soon as humanly possible.
Speaker 5: But then, you know, was I expecting mortars?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 5: I was not expecting mortars, and I definitely wasn't expecting
Speaker 5: the accuracy the mortars.
Speaker 1: In the space of ninety seconds, six mortars hit the
Speaker 1: Benghazi CIA base. Three of them exploded on the roof
Speaker 1: of the main building, where most of the Americans were hiding.
Speaker 5: You know, I was standing right below the ceiling of
Speaker 5: where they're impacting. But I think the heaviest part of
Speaker 5: the entire experience was knowing that, you know, I've I
Speaker 5: have some friends up on that roof, and I don't
Speaker 5: know why they're not answering the radio call. I don't
Speaker 5: know how they're doing.
Speaker 1: Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were both killed in the explosions.
Speaker 1: Another CIA contractor, Mark Geist, and Scott Wickman's friend Dave
Speaker 1: Uben were critically injured. After that, the attackers seemed to
Speaker 1: withdraw and the Americans prepared to leave Benghazi. At the airport,
Speaker 1: the plane that the trip team had used to get
Speaker 1: to Benghazi was still sitting on the tarmac. It was
Speaker 1: too small to fit everyone who needed to evacuate, which
Speaker 1: meant that those needing immediate medical attention, including Scott Wickland,
Speaker 1: were sent ahead. In the meantime, one of Wickland's fellow
Speaker 1: DS agents called Baker Habib to update him on the situation.
Speaker 1: A group of Libyans the Americans trusted had gone to
Speaker 1: the Benghazi Medical Center to retrieve Stevens's body.
Speaker 9: I wasn't my way to the hospital then receive a
Speaker 9: qullo from one of the ds and he said, bo,
Speaker 9: don't go to a hospital. He said why, he said,
Speaker 9: we already got the buddy, We got the remains. Just
Speaker 9: come straightforward to the to the airport.
Speaker 1: When Habib arrived at the airport, he said goodbye to
Speaker 1: his friend.
Speaker 9: He was there at the airport.
Speaker 4: He's a front of mere lifeless.
Speaker 3: And he was there.
Speaker 7: In the city.
Speaker 9: He loved to support, to back up and to obendge
Speaker 9: to the United States.
Speaker 7: So I spoke to him.
Speaker 4: I told him, Chris, what if it takes, I was
Speaker 4: doing him best to bring those criminals to justice.
Speaker 1: Other Libyans who had known Chris Stevens during his time
Speaker 1: in Benghazi came to the tarmac as well. Many of
Speaker 1: them were in tears, aware that the American evacuation probably
Speaker 1: meant the end of the US presence in Benghazi. Greg
Speaker 1: Hicks was aware of it too.
Speaker 2: I distinctly remember arguing that if we leave, then we've lost.
Speaker 2: They went that was the purpose of the attack, was
Speaker 2: the chasers out of the country. So my view was
Speaker 2: that we needed to take some time, regroup, rebuild, and
Speaker 2: then continue our job.
Speaker 1: The Libyan Air Force provided a cargo plane for the
Speaker 1: remaining Americans. The bodies of Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods,
Speaker 1: and Glen Doherty were loaded in as well. After a
Speaker 1: stop in Tripoli, Scott Wickland and the others boarded a
Speaker 1: plane for Europe.
Speaker 5: We loaded up on the plane and there were four coffins.
Speaker 5: You know, everybody's looking at these coffins and at these
Speaker 5: people and silently trying to figure out what just happened.
Speaker 1: On the next episode of Fiasco, the attack in Benghazi
Speaker 1: enters the bloodstream of American politics.
Speaker 3: That took the president fourteen days before he called the
Speaker 3: attack in Benghazzi an active chair.
Speaker 5: Get the transfer.
Speaker 1: For a list of books, articles, and documentaries we used
Speaker 1: in our research, follow the link in our show notes.
Speaker 1: Fiasco is a production of Prolog Projects, and it's distributed
Speaker 1: by Pushkin Industries. The show is produced by Andrew Parsons,
Speaker 1: Ulla Kulpa, Sam Lee, and me Leon Mayfock, with editorial
Speaker 1: support from Sam Graham Felsen and Matteline Kaplan. Our researcher
Speaker 1: was Francis Carr. Our score was composed by Dan English,
Speaker 1: Joe Valley, and Noah Hect. Additional music by Nick Sylvester
Speaker 1: Joel Saint Julian Billy Libby and Little Cheddar Studios. Our
Speaker 1: theme song is by Spatial Relations Audio mixed by Rob Buyers,
Speaker 1: Michael Raphael and Johnny Vince Evans. Our artwork is by
Speaker 1: Teddy Blanks at Chips and y Copyright Council provided by
Speaker 1: Peter Yassi at Yassi Butler PLLC. Thanks to Archive dot Org,
Speaker 1: Julianne Himmelstein, Mike Clark, David Kirkpatrick, fad Alba Khush, Angela
Speaker 1: Giordani and Mitch Zukoff. Special thanks to Lubernari and thank
Speaker 1: you for listening.