WEBVTT - Benghazi: Episode 1 - The Dictator 0:00:16.271 --> 0:00:22.910 Pushkin. Hey Leon here, before we get to this episode, 0:00:22.991 --> 0:00:24.591 I want to let you know that you can binge 0:00:24.671 --> 0:00:28.911 the entire season of Fiasco Benghazi right now ad free 0:00:28.951 --> 0:00:32.311 by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Sign up for Pushkin 0:00:32.351 --> 0:00:36.150 Plus on the Fiasco Apple podcast showpage or visit Pushkin 0:00:36.231 --> 0:00:47.870 dot Fm Slash Plus now onto the show. On the 0:00:47.991 --> 0:00:52.191 night of September eleventh, twenty twelve, four Americans were killed 0:00:52.231 --> 0:00:55.831 in Benghazi, a city in Libya on the Mediterranean Sea. 0:00:56.111 --> 0:00:59.791 What potentially happened in Libya in the city of Benghazi. 0:01:00.111 --> 0:01:04.750 Not only did the attackers storm the building in Benghazi. 0:01:04.351 --> 0:01:07.271 The attack began when a group of armed assailants broke 0:01:07.311 --> 0:01:10.351 into a diplomatic compound operated by the State Department. Would 0:01:10.351 --> 0:01:12.711 mean that it ended nearly eight hours later with the 0:01:12.711 --> 0:01:14.951 bombing of a secret CIA base nearby. 0:01:15.151 --> 0:01:18.351 First they attacked it with RPG rifles, then they opened 0:01:18.351 --> 0:01:19.831 fire on it with machine guns. 0:01:20.351 --> 0:01:24.071 Among the victims was the American ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. 0:01:24.271 --> 0:01:24.631 And again. 0:01:24.671 --> 0:01:26.831 His name is John Christopher Stevens, and he was born 0:01:26.871 --> 0:01:29.271 in Northern California in nineteen sixty. 0:01:29.631 --> 0:01:32.271 Stevens had been posted in Libya on and off for 0:01:32.351 --> 0:01:34.791 the better part of five years. On the night of 0:01:34.831 --> 0:01:37.391 the attack, he died of smoke in elation after the 0:01:37.431 --> 0:01:39.791 assailants set fire to the villa where he was hiding 0:01:39.791 --> 0:01:44.911 from them. Afterwards, it seemed like all anyone in the 0:01:44.991 --> 0:01:47.991 United States wanted to talk about was whose fault it was. 0:01:48.351 --> 0:01:51.311 The Obama administration resisting responsibility. 0:01:51.311 --> 0:01:53.951 There's a lot of dispute when the administration knew how 0:01:54.031 --> 0:01:57.191 dangerous the situation with Lizim ben Ghazi, the situation. 0:01:57.071 --> 0:01:59.951 Who had let it happen, Who had failed to stop 0:01:59.991 --> 0:02:03.271 it once it started, Whose lack of vigilance had allowed 0:02:03.271 --> 0:02:05.591 the attackers to do as much damage as they did. 0:02:05.711 --> 0:02:07.711 Should they have had more advanced warning, should they have 0:02:07.751 --> 0:02:11.071 set more security. A question that usually got skipped over 0:02:11.351 --> 0:02:14.710 as if the answer were self evident, was what Ambassador 0:02:14.711 --> 0:02:19.311 Stevens was doing in Benghazi to begin with. All anyone 0:02:19.351 --> 0:02:22.511 seemed interested in was that the American mission in Libya 0:02:22.631 --> 0:02:27.431 had failed, not what the mission had actually been. 0:02:27.671 --> 0:02:30.751 My name is Chris Stevens, and I'm excited to continue 0:02:30.791 --> 0:02:34.391 the great work we've started building a solid partnership between 0:02:34.391 --> 0:02:37.270 the United States and Libya to help you, the Libyan people, 0:02:37.391 --> 0:02:42.911 achieve your goals. 0:02:45.391 --> 0:02:48.671 For more than forty years, Libya had been ruled by 0:02:48.671 --> 0:02:51.791 a violent and eccentric dictator, Mumar Gadafi. 0:02:52.031 --> 0:02:53.391 We read that you are mad. 0:02:54.711 --> 0:02:56.751 You know that those things had been invented. 0:02:57.031 --> 0:02:59.351 Gaddafi had long been regarded in the West as an 0:02:59.431 --> 0:03:04.391 unparalleled menace. Before bin Laden, Kaddafi was the face of 0:03:04.471 --> 0:03:05.591 international terrorism. 0:03:05.791 --> 0:03:08.911 He's been called the world number one terrorist, a madman 0:03:08.951 --> 0:03:11.111 who exports terrorists them around the world. 0:03:11.551 --> 0:03:15.191 Ronald Reagan once memorably called Kadafi the mad dog of 0:03:15.231 --> 0:03:18.311 the Middle East. What I had forgotten, or never really 0:03:18.351 --> 0:03:21.031 absorbed in the first place, was that during the early 0:03:21.111 --> 0:03:25.071 two thousands, under the Bush administration, the United States had 0:03:25.111 --> 0:03:30.711 reconciled with Kadafi. We lifted sanctions, we established diplomatic relations. 0:03:31.431 --> 0:03:34.751 We even accepted his help in pursuing suspected terrorists. 0:03:35.231 --> 0:03:37.311 The United States may have a new ally in the 0:03:37.351 --> 0:03:40.191 war on terror, Libya's Momar Kadafi says. 0:03:40.271 --> 0:03:43.031 American oil companies were doing business with Libya for the 0:03:43.071 --> 0:03:48.031 first time in decades. In Tripoli, Libya's capital city, the 0:03:48.071 --> 0:03:52.271 State Department opened a new American embassy. As you'll hear, 0:03:52.671 --> 0:03:55.631 that was why Chris Stevens first came to Libya back 0:03:55.671 --> 0:03:56.591 in two thousand and seven. 0:03:56.951 --> 0:04:02.671 Moamar Kadafi's regime has shown excellent cooperation against terrorism and 0:04:02.751 --> 0:04:04.711 dismantled its nuclear weapons. 0:04:04.871 --> 0:04:07.871 Back then, I wasn't paying much attention to international news, 0:04:08.311 --> 0:04:12.031 and I certainly wasn't paying attention to Libya. I was 0:04:12.071 --> 0:04:14.631 just graduating from college in two thousand and seven. I 0:04:14.671 --> 0:04:17.671 had heard of Gaddafi, but that was about it. I 0:04:17.711 --> 0:04:20.751 was only slightly more tuned in in twenty eleven when 0:04:20.751 --> 0:04:23.871 the Arab Spring swept into Libya and forced Gadafi out 0:04:23.911 --> 0:04:26.031 of power as part of a US backed revolution. 0:04:26.511 --> 0:04:29.391 The uprising against Gaddafi broke out in mid February, and 0:04:29.431 --> 0:04:32.671 an anti regime protests quickly spread across the vast desert 0:04:32.711 --> 0:04:34.111 country of six million people. 0:04:34.511 --> 0:04:37.791 But even then I just wasn't that invested or informed. 0:04:38.871 --> 0:04:41.231 So when I saw reports in September of twenty twelve 0:04:41.271 --> 0:04:44.791 about an attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, I 0:04:44.831 --> 0:04:47.511 had no context for it, to be honest, I didn't 0:04:47.511 --> 0:04:50.791 even really think of benng Ghazi as a place. Instead, 0:04:51.071 --> 0:04:55.271 I experienced it as an American political scandal. I associated 0:04:55.311 --> 0:04:57.991 the word Benghazi with a drawn out controversy that it 0:04:58.111 --> 0:05:02.631 spawned endless conspiracy theories and captivated the Republican Party. Ben 0:05:02.671 --> 0:05:05.071 Ghazi gaate the political cover up of some kind. 0:05:04.991 --> 0:05:06.391 Of regime gigs lying about it. 0:05:06.471 --> 0:05:08.231 I think it could be as bad as Watergate, but 0:05:08.271 --> 0:05:09.431 nobody died in water Gate. 0:05:09.551 --> 0:05:11.471 The White House can sign those people to death. 0:05:11.591 --> 0:05:14.751 We kill the ambassador just to cover something up. You 0:05:14.831 --> 0:05:15.991 put two and two together. 0:05:16.311 --> 0:05:18.871 I wanted to make this podcast because I had a 0:05:18.911 --> 0:05:22.311 strong suspicion that I was missing something that by not 0:05:22.471 --> 0:05:25.631 knowing what really happened in Benghazi or who it had 0:05:25.671 --> 0:05:29.551 happened to, I was checked out on something really important, 0:05:30.311 --> 0:05:35.671 because in retrospect, the Benghazi attack looks incredibly consequential for 0:05:35.751 --> 0:05:40.431 Libya certainly, but also for the United States. Even though 0:05:40.431 --> 0:05:43.351 the scandal has a reputation, especially among liberals, as a 0:05:43.391 --> 0:05:48.431 nuisance and a distraction, it really changed history. Among other things, 0:05:48.551 --> 0:05:51.831 it led directly to Hillary Clinton's email scandal. So if 0:05:51.831 --> 0:05:54.190 you're someone who thinks Quinton's emails cost her the twenty 0:05:54.191 --> 0:05:57.630 sixteen election, you could make the case that Benghazi took 0:05:57.631 --> 0:06:02.551 down a presidency no less than Watergate did. What I've 0:06:02.591 --> 0:06:05.630 realized after dozens of interviews with people who watched the 0:06:05.671 --> 0:06:09.471 Benghazi story unfold up close, is that there are very 0:06:09.471 --> 0:06:13.951 specific reasons why the scandal had such longevity. Together, they 0:06:13.951 --> 0:06:17.591 tell a story about political warfare in America, how it 0:06:17.631 --> 0:06:20.071 was waged in the pre Trump era through the media 0:06:20.151 --> 0:06:23.271 and the justice system in Congress, and how it laid 0:06:23.311 --> 0:06:27.151 the groundwork for the politics we live with today. But 0:06:27.351 --> 0:06:31.191 Benghazi is not just an American story. It's also about 0:06:31.191 --> 0:06:34.431 America's place in the world, and how, after eight years 0:06:34.431 --> 0:06:37.271 of George W. Bush and the War on Terror, the 0:06:37.311 --> 0:06:40.671 Obama administration set out to change the country's image abroad. 0:06:43.471 --> 0:06:45.831 At the height of the scandal, a lot of people 0:06:45.871 --> 0:06:51.191 were asking, sometimes earnestly, often performatively, why did Ambassador Chris 0:06:51.231 --> 0:06:55.151 Stevens die that night in Benghazi? And what I've learned 0:06:55.231 --> 0:06:58.311 is there is an answer to that question, but all 0:06:58.351 --> 0:07:01.231 the noise around the scandal made it incredibly hard to 0:07:01.231 --> 0:07:04.950 see it clearly in real time. It turns out, to 0:07:05.071 --> 0:07:08.671 understand the truth about Benghazi, you have to understand what 0:07:08.871 --> 0:07:12.151 America was trying to achieved there. You have to know 0:07:12.191 --> 0:07:15.111 what was supposed to happen in Benghazi in a perfect world, 0:07:15.631 --> 0:07:22.951 instead of what did I'm Leon Napok from Prologue Projects 0:07:22.951 --> 0:07:26.711 and Pushkin Industries. This is fiasco Benghazi. 0:07:27.431 --> 0:07:30.431 Obama, who have four Americans to die in Benghazi? 0:07:30.471 --> 0:07:33.591 There is a certain self fulfilling prophecy to outrage. 0:07:33.191 --> 0:07:34.591 Wild conspiracy theory. 0:07:34.911 --> 0:07:38.231 Intelligence officials acknowledged they originally got it wrong. 0:07:38.471 --> 0:07:39.271 It was a fucking mess. 0:07:39.271 --> 0:07:40.871 It's really hard to figure out what's going on. 0:07:41.231 --> 0:07:42.791 They're shooting through the door. 0:07:43.151 --> 0:07:45.631 I turned to the ambassador and said, if they blow 0:07:45.791 --> 0:07:47.631 the locks, I'm gonna start shooting. 0:07:47.871 --> 0:07:50.431 And when I die, I want you to keep on fighting. 0:07:50.831 --> 0:07:54.391 You can't understand the story of Libya if you don't 0:07:54.391 --> 0:07:55.831 know what's going on in Benghazi. 0:07:55.871 --> 0:07:58.391 Omar Ghadavi is not leaving without a flight. 0:08:00.311 --> 0:08:04.791 Episode one The Dictator, in which Muamar Gadafi and the 0:08:04.871 --> 0:08:09.111 United States, after decades of hostility, discover they have a 0:08:09.151 --> 0:08:20.631 common enemy. We'll be right back. Hussein el Shafi was 0:08:20.671 --> 0:08:23.471 twenty years old when he was arrested in nineteen eighty 0:08:23.551 --> 0:08:26.031 nine for criticizing Muammar Gadafi. 0:08:26.551 --> 0:08:28.991 I was in the fourth semester, like a second year 0:08:28.991 --> 0:08:32.071 at that time, and they just knock on my door. 0:08:32.591 --> 0:08:34.511 They put my hands in a handcuffs. 0:08:35.191 --> 0:08:38.791 El Shafi was born and raised in Benghazi. At the 0:08:38.831 --> 0:08:41.551 time of his arrest, he was studying engineering at a 0:08:41.550 --> 0:08:42.471 local university. 0:08:42.910 --> 0:08:45.190 They took me to one of those They call it 0:08:45.271 --> 0:08:49.751 like Mora Bamni, which means the security district for the area. 0:08:50.391 --> 0:08:52.910 El Shafi's crime was that he spoke up against the 0:08:52.950 --> 0:08:56.511 regime during a student forum on the Green Book, Kadafi's 0:08:56.590 --> 0:08:57.631 rambling manifesto. 0:08:57.950 --> 0:09:00.670 He has compiled his thinking into a green book, a 0:09:00.710 --> 0:09:03.871 blending of the Koran and Kadafi's own brooding thoughts. 0:09:05.070 --> 0:09:09.071 He called the Anovaria Tarita means the third solution for 0:09:09.151 --> 0:09:12.311 the world. You know, as a capitalism is dying and 0:09:12.471 --> 0:09:16.111 the socialism is dying, I am the solution for the world. 0:09:18.030 --> 0:09:21.070 El Shafi was required to attend the Green Book forum 0:09:21.111 --> 0:09:23.871 in order to receive his degree, but he was tired 0:09:23.910 --> 0:09:26.711 of having to pretend to take Gadafi seriously as a thinker, 0:09:27.231 --> 0:09:29.790 and he was tired of the regime having control over 0:09:29.830 --> 0:09:30.311 his mind. 0:09:30.790 --> 0:09:34.191 There is no library in none of our Libyan cities. 0:09:34.631 --> 0:09:38.030 If you want to read, the only books was brought 0:09:38.670 --> 0:09:42.311 by Godavi's authority and put on the shelves. 0:09:43.030 --> 0:09:45.231 No voice above Godav's voice, you know. 0:09:45.910 --> 0:09:47.951 And so el Shafi stood up in front of his 0:09:47.991 --> 0:09:51.431 classmates and denounced Gaddafi for closing Libya off from the 0:09:51.430 --> 0:09:54.430 rest of the world, even the Soviet Union was starting 0:09:54.471 --> 0:09:56.991 to open up. He said it was time for Libya 0:09:57.070 --> 0:10:02.310 to change too. El Shafi was arrested at his home 0:10:02.391 --> 0:10:05.910 a few days later. He was taken first by bus, 0:10:05.991 --> 0:10:09.591 then by plane to Tripoli, about four hundred miles west 0:10:09.590 --> 0:10:13.990 of Bengui. Zi Alshafi was blindfolded and handcuffed throughout the journey, 0:10:14.670 --> 0:10:16.551 so when he was led into a prison cell, he 0:10:16.550 --> 0:10:17.551 didn't know where he was. 0:10:18.790 --> 0:10:22.631 There were small holes in the walls between cells, so 0:10:23.030 --> 0:10:25.111 I was able to talk to one of those people 0:10:25.151 --> 0:10:28.111 he was before us. At where we are, said Unibuslim body, 0:10:28.190 --> 0:10:30.951 welcome to Buslim. 0:10:31.070 --> 0:10:35.030 Abu Salim was an infamous detention facility known for housing 0:10:35.111 --> 0:10:36.550 political prisoners. 0:10:36.351 --> 0:10:40.271 The dark heart of Gaddafi's oppression, Abu Salim prison the. 0:10:40.310 --> 0:10:43.311 Name itself so frightening that Libyans avoid saying it. 0:10:43.550 --> 0:10:49.150 Abu Salim was full of people the Gadafi regime considered enemies. Historically, 0:10:49.310 --> 0:10:52.391 opposition to Gaddafi and Libya had been tied up with religion. 0:10:53.310 --> 0:10:56.871 Although Gaddafi identified as Muslim, many Libyans came to see 0:10:56.910 --> 0:11:01.751 him as an apostate advancing a secular ideology. These critics 0:11:01.751 --> 0:11:05.070 included hardline Islamists who belonged to groups like the Libyan 0:11:05.111 --> 0:11:09.030 Islamic Fighting Group, which supported the violent overthrow of the regime. 0:11:10.070 --> 0:11:12.310 But there were also people like husay In El Shafi, 0:11:12.790 --> 0:11:16.670 who opposed political violence and were unaffiliated with any organization. 0:11:17.190 --> 0:11:21.910 He claims those are Islamists, but I was, yeah, I 0:11:22.030 --> 0:11:24.670 was going to the mosque. I was very con conservative 0:11:24.710 --> 0:11:28.391 at that time, but I did not belong to any group, 0:11:28.670 --> 0:11:31.550 like an armed group or anything like this. 0:11:32.511 --> 0:11:35.830 El Shafi says the Gaddafi regime branded anyone they didn't 0:11:35.950 --> 0:11:39.831 like a radical Islamist and that many ordinary devout Muslims 0:11:39.871 --> 0:11:41.790 like him were swept up in the dragnet. 0:11:42.151 --> 0:11:46.471 He doesn't say I'm against Muslim, because he claims too 0:11:46.670 --> 0:11:50.431 that he is a Muslim, but he claims that his 0:11:50.631 --> 0:11:56.831 problem with the Islamic parties that was a pretext means 0:11:56.910 --> 0:11:59.991 that he taken as a reason to kill or to 0:12:00.111 --> 0:12:02.310 demolish his opponents. 0:12:03.790 --> 0:12:06.030 It's worth saying here that the meaning of the term 0:12:06.111 --> 0:12:09.950 Islamist depends on who you're talking to. At its most basic, 0:12:10.351 --> 0:12:13.510 it refers to someone who subscribes to a political ideology 0:12:13.631 --> 0:12:17.470 based on Islamic principles, and under that umbrella you can 0:12:17.471 --> 0:12:22.631 find both avowed hardliners and moderates. The word Islamism was 0:12:22.670 --> 0:12:25.311 introduced to English back in the nineteen eighties as a 0:12:25.351 --> 0:12:30.351 less pejorative alternative to Islamic fundamentalism. Some people still use 0:12:30.391 --> 0:12:33.670 it that way, as a neutral word that imagines Islamism 0:12:33.710 --> 0:12:38.991 as just another political orientation. Others associate Islamism with violence 0:12:39.030 --> 0:12:43.310 and intolerance. For them, an Islamist government based on any 0:12:43.351 --> 0:12:50.111 form of Sharia or Islamic law is inherently undemocratic. At 0:12:50.190 --> 0:12:53.870 Abu Salim, Hussein el Shafi was lucky to be classified 0:12:53.910 --> 0:12:56.910 as a low risk inmate and kept separate from those 0:12:56.950 --> 0:13:01.551 suspected of being violent extremists. Still, he was beaten and 0:13:01.631 --> 0:13:04.790 tortured and never given any indication of when he would 0:13:04.790 --> 0:13:08.871 be released. Other former inmates from Abu Sulim have reported 0:13:08.910 --> 0:13:12.511 being attacked by dog, subjected to deafening nightly broadcasts of 0:13:12.511 --> 0:13:16.831 Gaddafi's speeches, and prodded with electric cables. When I interviewed 0:13:16.830 --> 0:13:19.271 El Shafi, he had to take a break because the 0:13:19.310 --> 0:13:22.190 phone was hurting his ear. It had been mutilated at 0:13:22.190 --> 0:13:22.831 Abu Sulim. 0:13:23.471 --> 0:13:25.631 I'll try to use this ear, not that ear, because 0:13:25.670 --> 0:13:28.231 this one cut in the jail oh my god, have 0:13:28.231 --> 0:13:28.991 did you see my ear? 0:13:29.070 --> 0:13:29.310 Yeah? 0:13:29.391 --> 0:13:33.670 Yeah, yeah, it's touching the thing, you know. Sorry by that. 0:13:35.830 --> 0:13:39.870 In nineteen ninety five, about six years into El Shafi's imprisonment, 0:13:40.631 --> 0:13:44.150 life at Abu Sulim became more cruel and more isolating. 0:13:45.231 --> 0:13:48.231 It happened following a jail break, after which inmates were 0:13:48.231 --> 0:13:51.590 forbidden from going outside and medical care was withheld from 0:13:51.590 --> 0:13:52.430 those who needed it. 0:13:53.111 --> 0:13:57.151 Things getting worse and worse and worse. Some people died, 0:13:57.271 --> 0:14:01.550 Some people has cancers, you name it, heart pressure, and 0:14:01.871 --> 0:14:03.950 some people has like stomach issues. 0:14:04.631 --> 0:14:07.630 Some of them, they said, were dying slowly guys. 0:14:12.710 --> 0:14:16.111 As conditions worsened, a group of inmates planned a protest, 0:14:16.790 --> 0:14:20.351 and on June twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six, they overpowered 0:14:20.351 --> 0:14:23.191 a guard, took his keys, and started letting people out 0:14:23.231 --> 0:14:27.391 of their cells. In the ensuing chaos, the prison guards 0:14:27.391 --> 0:14:33.271 reportedly killed seven inmates. Later that day, Gaddafi's intelligence chief 0:14:33.431 --> 0:14:37.351 arrived at the prison to survey the situation. Before leaving, 0:14:37.590 --> 0:14:40.431 he promised a delegation of inmates that conditions at Abu 0:14:40.431 --> 0:14:43.871 Sulim would improve and that those who needed medical attention 0:14:43.951 --> 0:14:48.551 would receive it instead. The following morning, the prisoners of 0:14:48.590 --> 0:14:52.111 Abu Sulim, More than a thousand of them were marched 0:14:52.151 --> 0:14:56.991 into the courtyards adjacent to their cell blocks. Elshafi remembers 0:14:56.991 --> 0:15:00.071 being taken outside and being ordered to lie face down 0:15:00.151 --> 0:15:00.711 on the ground. 0:15:01.431 --> 0:15:05.711 They came in the morning, they said okay, room by rum, 0:15:06.271 --> 0:15:07.631 they take them out. 0:15:08.391 --> 0:15:11.591 They tied their hands and the turn around facing the 0:15:11.590 --> 0:15:12.511 wall in the yard. 0:15:13.311 --> 0:15:16.551 El Shaffie estimates that there were about thirteen hundred men 0:15:16.710 --> 0:15:18.711 lined up in the prison yards when he started to 0:15:18.751 --> 0:15:19.391 hear shooting. 0:15:20.511 --> 0:15:23.711 My friend is Cardiolois now in Ireland, his named Sab. 0:15:24.231 --> 0:15:27.671 He was holding my hand tight. I said no, I said, 0:15:27.830 --> 0:15:28.511 the care. 0:15:28.391 --> 0:15:28.911 Us, that's all. 0:15:28.951 --> 0:15:31.631 They're not gonna kill them all. They want to scare us. 0:15:31.871 --> 0:15:34.231 They try to teach us a lesson, you know. He said, 0:15:35.951 --> 0:15:40.230 three for our friends, their souls raising up the gun. 0:15:41.031 --> 0:15:44.071 Al Shaffie and his friend, whom I also interviewed, didn't 0:15:44.111 --> 0:15:46.870 know if they were next, but from the sound of 0:15:46.911 --> 0:15:49.711 the gunfire they could tell the guards were moving from 0:15:49.710 --> 0:15:51.311 one section of the prison to another. 0:15:51.511 --> 0:15:58.591 The shootings continued for at least three and a half hours. 0:15:58.871 --> 0:16:07.191 The last shot was individuals like they're finishing up, you know. 0:16:08.710 --> 0:16:10.831 El Shaffie thinks he and the other men in his 0:16:10.871 --> 0:16:14.031 cell block were spared because of their low risk classification. 0:16:15.311 --> 0:16:19.031 He says there were only about three hundred survivors. After 0:16:19.031 --> 0:16:22.031 the shooting ended, prison guards enlisted some of them to 0:16:22.071 --> 0:16:24.551 help clean the watches and rings. They were taking off 0:16:24.551 --> 0:16:25.551 the bodies. 0:16:26.511 --> 0:16:28.951 And they have plots info the wear on them. And 0:16:29.590 --> 0:16:32.511 I said, oh my gosh, they're sitting. They have rings 0:16:32.551 --> 0:16:34.991 and they watches, Oh my gosh. 0:16:36.191 --> 0:16:39.631 For years, the massacre at Abu Salim was kept secret 0:16:39.671 --> 0:16:43.351 from the world, even in Libya. It was nothing more 0:16:43.431 --> 0:16:44.031 than a rumor. 0:16:45.830 --> 0:16:46.791 No one knows nothing. 0:16:46.911 --> 0:16:50.791 All well, they know people heard shooting and they hit 0:16:50.951 --> 0:16:55.590 sirens that night. And some of them they said they 0:16:55.671 --> 0:16:57.911 kill him. Some of them they said, no, he just 0:16:57.991 --> 0:17:00.751 killed some of them. No one knows anything. 0:17:02.391 --> 0:17:04.751 The families of those who had been killed were not 0:17:04.791 --> 0:17:08.430 informed that their loved ones were dead. Instead, they were 0:17:08.471 --> 0:17:11.711 merely told that they could no longer be at them. 0:17:11.871 --> 0:17:15.390 In many cases, family members continued bringing letters and food 0:17:15.390 --> 0:17:17.551 to the prison and leaving them with the guards, who 0:17:17.630 --> 0:17:22.551 said nothing. According to al Shafi, new inmates who arrived 0:17:22.551 --> 0:17:25.311 at Abu Sulim in the years after the massacre would 0:17:25.311 --> 0:17:29.111 find bullets lodged in the prison yard walls. 0:17:34.231 --> 0:17:34.711 There is a. 0:17:34.671 --> 0:17:37.431 Figure emerging in the Middle East. He is Colonel Muammar 0:17:37.511 --> 0:17:40.470 El Kadafi, and he wants to unify the Arabs and 0:17:40.551 --> 0:17:43.710 restore the Arab Crescent of Nations to their ancient prestige 0:17:43.751 --> 0:17:44.551 and power. 0:17:44.630 --> 0:17:45.471 In the Shaving. 0:17:46.431 --> 0:17:50.190 Before Mumar Gadafi built prisons for his domestic enemies, he 0:17:50.231 --> 0:17:52.311 made a name for himself by standing up to his 0:17:52.390 --> 0:17:56.471 foreign ones. Gaddafi came to power in nineteen sixty nine, 0:17:56.870 --> 0:18:00.110 replacing the Western backed king Idris by staging a military 0:18:00.150 --> 0:18:04.791 coup in Benghazi. Gaddafi was just twenty seven years old, 0:18:05.071 --> 0:18:08.551 a handsome young army officer who projected strength and vigor, 0:18:08.951 --> 0:18:10.751 and who was embraced by many Libyans. 0:18:11.110 --> 0:18:14.390 Olibya was an obscure desert kingdom. Today it is on 0:18:14.431 --> 0:18:17.191 the center stage of Middle East politics, and the matter 0:18:17.231 --> 0:18:18.910 responsible is under thirty. 0:18:19.110 --> 0:18:22.830 A strong and asymmetric cancerness like the anti hero movie 0:18:22.911 --> 0:18:23.551 stars of the. 0:18:23.630 --> 0:18:27.191 Sixties, Kaddafi, who was born in a Bedouin tent off 0:18:27.231 --> 0:18:30.471 the Mediterranean coast, positioned himself as a representative of the 0:18:30.511 --> 0:18:33.751 Arab world and a challenger to Western imperialism. 0:18:34.110 --> 0:18:37.390 A revolutionary who believes people should rule themselves, not be 0:18:37.471 --> 0:18:38.230 ruled by government. 0:18:38.311 --> 0:18:40.870 If those ambitions seem grandiose for the young leader of 0:18:40.870 --> 0:18:43.350 a desert land of a mere two million people, it 0:18:43.390 --> 0:18:46.991 should be quickly pointed out that Kadafi has one powerful asset. 0:18:47.071 --> 0:18:54.031 Money Oil money makes Libya's young leftist strong man a 0:18:54.191 --> 0:18:55.910 power in the Arab world. 0:18:56.271 --> 0:18:58.751 In a move that defined his early years in power, 0:18:59.071 --> 0:19:02.831 Kaddafi forced Western oil companies to renegotiate their export agreements 0:19:02.870 --> 0:19:03.590 with Libya. 0:19:03.630 --> 0:19:07.431 In March, Kaddafi's deputy prime minister negotiated a new agreement 0:19:07.471 --> 0:19:11.230 with Western oil companies. Libya is now making twice as 0:19:11.311 --> 0:19:13.590 much money from oil as when Gadaffi and his young 0:19:13.630 --> 0:19:16.071 officers overthrow King DRIs two years ago. 0:19:16.630 --> 0:19:19.510 The standoff ended up shifting the balance of power towards 0:19:19.551 --> 0:19:22.791 Arab countries like Libya that possessed huge amounts of oil, 0:19:23.350 --> 0:19:25.751 and away from Western countries that depended on it. 0:19:26.071 --> 0:19:29.150 Now, Libya is the world's sixth largest producer of oil 0:19:29.271 --> 0:19:32.991 the fourth largest exporter. Enough oil will be shipped this 0:19:33.110 --> 0:19:36.071 year to earn Libya more than two billion dollars. 0:19:37.431 --> 0:19:40.431 Starting in the nineteen seventies, Gaddafi put his oil money 0:19:40.471 --> 0:19:43.590 to work, providing training and weapons for rebel groups around 0:19:43.630 --> 0:19:47.870 the world. He supported Latin American leftists like the Sandinistas, 0:19:48.110 --> 0:19:52.031 the PLO, South African Anti apartheid movement, and the IRA 0:19:52.271 --> 0:19:53.191 in Northern Ireland. 0:19:53.711 --> 0:19:56.710 Each year, the IRA collects a check for two million 0:19:56.791 --> 0:19:59.751 dollars from one of Gadaf's money managers in Tripoli. 0:20:00.471 --> 0:20:02.871 Round the globe, dozens of scenes like. 0:20:02.870 --> 0:20:06.110 This are being enacted for the benefit of Gadaf's crusade. 0:20:06.751 --> 0:20:10.350 According to one estimate, more than thirty different organizations sent 0:20:10.390 --> 0:20:12.631 fighters to train in Libya at various points. 0:20:13.071 --> 0:20:16.951 Libya's strong man leader Mumar Khadaffi, spends an estimated two 0:20:17.071 --> 0:20:21.271 hundred million dollars a year arming and training terrorists and insurgents. 0:20:21.870 --> 0:20:24.671 Gaddafi also spent a lot of money building up his 0:20:24.711 --> 0:20:26.551 own Arsenal her capital. 0:20:26.630 --> 0:20:29.511 Libya under Gaddaffi in the seven sies was the biggest 0:20:29.511 --> 0:20:32.630 purchaser of weapons in the world. He was like a 0:20:32.630 --> 0:20:33.791 compulsive shopper. 0:20:34.231 --> 0:20:37.630 This is Lindsay Hilsom, a reporter for Channel four News 0:20:37.671 --> 0:20:40.910 in the UK who has covered Libya extensively. In her 0:20:40.951 --> 0:20:44.870 book Sandstorm, Hilsomon describes how Mumar Gadafi came to loom 0:20:44.911 --> 0:20:48.630 over the American imagination as a symbol of violence and chaos. 0:20:48.791 --> 0:20:52.710 He's the ultimate villain, the godfather of international terrorism, a 0:20:52.751 --> 0:20:56.951 one dimensional, erratic, irrational, unbalanced two bit dictate. 0:20:56.711 --> 0:21:00.631 A central character in real world acts of terror, as well. 0:21:00.431 --> 0:21:02.751 As the star of a number of best selling thrillers 0:21:02.791 --> 0:21:05.431 based on the premise that one day he would get 0:21:05.431 --> 0:21:05.830 the bomb. 0:21:05.991 --> 0:21:08.791 He's very volatile, an opportunistic. 0:21:10.110 --> 0:21:13.511 In nineteen eighty one, Newsweek put Gadafi on its cover 0:21:13.671 --> 0:21:16.551 under the headline the most dangerous man in the World. 0:21:17.551 --> 0:21:19.990 Technically there was a question mark in the headline, and 0:21:20.110 --> 0:21:23.230 if you read the article, the answer was maybe. But 0:21:23.630 --> 0:21:27.431 the cover accurately captured Gaddafi's reputation in America. 0:21:27.671 --> 0:21:30.830 He has three obsessions. Hatred of Israel, hatred of the 0:21:30.911 --> 0:21:33.711 United States for supporting Israel, and a dream of a 0:21:33.830 --> 0:21:35.191 united Arab world. 0:21:35.751 --> 0:21:39.710 Libya became synonymous with terrorism. If you remember Back to 0:21:39.751 --> 0:21:42.870 the Future, which came out in nineteen eighty five, Doc 0:21:42.911 --> 0:21:46.551 Brown is pursued by crazed terrorists from Libya who want 0:21:46.551 --> 0:21:48.830 to kill him for selling them a phony nuclear bomb. 0:21:49.431 --> 0:21:51.511 Oh my god, they found me. 0:21:51.551 --> 0:21:53.671 I don't know how they found who? 0:21:53.671 --> 0:21:54.111 Who? 0:21:54.590 --> 0:21:55.271 What do you think? 0:21:58.071 --> 0:22:01.910 Gaddafi became even more closely associated with terrorism in nineteen 0:22:01.911 --> 0:22:04.791 eighty six, when his regime was implicated in a bombing 0:22:04.870 --> 0:22:07.390 in Berlin. Reporter Lindsay Hilsome. 0:22:07.431 --> 0:22:13.151 Again in nineteen eighty six, he provided the weapons, training 0:22:13.390 --> 0:22:17.951 and his agents attacked a belgiscotheque in Berlin. 0:22:18.231 --> 0:22:19.271 For the second time. 0:22:19.311 --> 0:22:21.791 This week, Americans had been the victims of a terrorist 0:22:21.791 --> 0:22:22.670 attack in Europe. 0:22:22.711 --> 0:22:25.311 This time the target was a nightclub in West Berlin, 0:22:25.390 --> 0:22:28.390 a favorite of American soldiers. Little was left of the 0:22:28.431 --> 0:22:29.471 West Berlin Disco. 0:22:29.870 --> 0:22:32.350 Over one hundred and fifty were injured, about seventy of 0:22:32.390 --> 0:22:33.431 them American. 0:22:33.071 --> 0:22:36.991 Servicemen, and it was quite clear from very early on 0:22:37.191 --> 0:22:39.751 that it was the Libyans behind that attack. 0:22:40.071 --> 0:22:42.751