WEBVTT - Introducing Fiasco: Benghazi

0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:15.440
<v Speaker 1>Pushkin. What I told people I was making a podcast

0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.239
<v Speaker 1>about Benghazi. Nine times out of ten they called me

0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:25.560
<v Speaker 1>a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked why. I

0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.440
<v Speaker 1>was never surprised. I know that Benghazi has a bad reputation.

0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:33.200
<v Speaker 1>Benghazi the truth became a web of lies. It's almost

0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.000
<v Speaker 1>a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory. Will we

0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.320
<v Speaker 1>ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre? Bad faith?

0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.280
<v Speaker 1>Political warfare? The regime keeps lying about it.

0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.000
<v Speaker 2>They're not going to let this go, are they?

0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:49.080
<v Speaker 1>And frankly bullshit? We kill the ambassador just to cover

0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:54.960
<v Speaker 1>something up. You put two and two together. I'm Leon Napok,

0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.360
<v Speaker 1>co creator of Slowburn. You've heard me dig into political

0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.960
<v Speaker 1>firestorm like Iran Contra and Bush v. Gore. Now it's

0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.880
<v Speaker 1>time for a slightly more recent scandal, one that began

0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.600
<v Speaker 1>with the killing of a US ambassador and three other

0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:16.560
<v Speaker 1>Americans in Libya. Benghazi has been contested ever since. Was

0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:21.600
<v Speaker 1>it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy? The forces

0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:23.840
<v Speaker 1>that led up to the scandal and the marks that

0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.560
<v Speaker 1>left on America and Libya are still coming into focus.

0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:33.600
<v Speaker 1>Benghazi is a Rosetta stone for everything that's been going

0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:40.920
<v Speaker 1>on for the last twenty years. Over six episodes, you'll

0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.880
<v Speaker 1>hear what life was like in Benghazi before the attack,

0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:48.000
<v Speaker 1>under the regime of Muamar Gadafi and during the revolution

0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:49.040
<v Speaker 1>that brought him down.

0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:54.240
<v Speaker 2>We could see the smoke of Gerdefi's convoy. It was

0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.560
<v Speaker 2>obvious that death is coming.

0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.240
<v Speaker 1>You'll meet the late Chris Stevens, a US ambassador, set

0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.279
<v Speaker 1>out to redefine America's relationship with the Arab world.

0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.440
<v Speaker 2>He was smart, he was fearless, and certainly one of

0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.000
<v Speaker 2>the best diplomats we've ever had.

0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.960
<v Speaker 1>And you'll hear from people who are in Benghazi. On

0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.480
<v Speaker 1>the night of the attack, we saw it happen from

0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:20.200
<v Speaker 1>close range. I could hear clearly green eights and number

0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:20.960
<v Speaker 1>of shots.

0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.000
<v Speaker 2>I turned to the ambassador and said, if they blow

0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.120
<v Speaker 2>the locks, I'm going to start shooting, and when I die,

0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:29.720
<v Speaker 2>I want you to pick up my rifle and keep

0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:30.320
<v Speaker 2>on fighting.

0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.280
<v Speaker 1>It didn't take long for the attack to become simply Benghazi.

0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:40.680
<v Speaker 1>The word entered American politics before the fighting was even over,

0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:45.960
<v Speaker 1>and almost fifteen years later, it hasn't really left.

0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.600
<v Speaker 2>They said, the government is lying to you. What they're

0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.079
<v Speaker 2>saying happened did not happen. It was a fucking mess.

0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:53.680
<v Speaker 1>It's really hard to figure out what's going on.

0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.519
<v Speaker 2>Everybody's looking at these coffins silently trying to figure out

0:02:58.560 --> 0:02:59.520
<v Speaker 2>what just happened.

0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:05.080
<v Speaker 1>From prolog projects and Pushkin industries, this is fiasco Benghazi.

0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:10.160
<v Speaker 1>What difference at this point does it make? Yes, that's right,

0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:19.800
<v Speaker 1>Lock her up. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus to binge the

0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:24.519
<v Speaker 1>entire season of Fiasco Bengazi ad free starting September eighth

0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.480
<v Speaker 1>as a Pushkin Plus subscriber who also get bonus episodes,

0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.600
<v Speaker 1>full audiobooks, and binge's from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors.

0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.880
<v Speaker 1>Find Pushkin Plus on the Fiasco show page on Apple Podcasts,

0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.080
<v Speaker 1>or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus