Stay updated with breaking news from Gadhafi. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
He said, no, they were supporting me. i said, no, they weren t. they were saying down with gaddafi! no, they weren t. i actually think he believed in his own propaganda. he lived in a bubble. but so, i think you can try to use things you ve seen but the great strength one of the great strengths of being a reporter is that you have used your own eyes and your ears and you have proof that you can then show to people. you are getting close to events and people that we know war crimes tribunals, for example, are interested in looking at and it s starting to become more and more frequent that the work ofjournalists is being required in those kind of legal environments. is that something you re comfortable with, if requests come in from the international criminal court or.? i ve testified at four separate trials in the former yugoslavia war crimes process, including mladic and karadzic, the bosnian serb leaders, and i felt you know, one of the great sort of cliches that reporter ....
Of his own image, in a flowing ochre robe, aviator sunglasses, slightly spacey, at the head of a massive convoy of vehicles. so, you know, it was almost like being in the room with his spitting image puppet. and in the case of those two men, you had also spent time reporting on the consequences of the actions of their government. considerable amount, yeah and their victims. how did you square the two men who were in front of you, who was speaking to you with apparent of you, who were speaking to you with apparent conviction, and what you knew to be the cause of their instructions? well, i tried to use it against them. for example, with gaddafi, he was saying, my people love me. they love me all i remember him saying that. he said it in english. and i said, well, hang on a minute. i was just earlier on today, people were out on the streets of tripoli and they were protesting. ....
A very good brief so, you know, you get these things which you can push back at them. but yeah, if they re going to keep at it, they re going to keep at it. and in those moments on each side of the interview when you arrive, when you re packing up, both with president asaad but also gaddafi as well, can you learn things about how they interact with their colleagues, about how they carry themselves? absolutely. assad is incredibly polite in a sort of old world, courtly way. he ll leap to his feet when you get to the room. he ll break his neck to make sure he s not the first person through the door after you, and then, he always i ve interviewed him a few times and he always gives you about ten or 15 minutes one on one beforehand, you have a little chat. gaddafi, on the other hand, you know, he swept in, the absolute caricature of his own image, you know, in a flowing ochre robe, aviator sunglasses, slightly spacey, at the head of a massive ....
Convoy of vehicles. so, you know, it was almost like being in the room with his spitting image puppet. and in the case of those two men, you had also spent time reporting on the consequences of the actions of their government. considerable amount, yeah and their victims. how did you square the two men who were in front of you, who was speaking to you with apparent conviction, and what you knew to be the cause of their instructions? well, i tried to use it against them. for example, with gaddafi, he was saying, my people love me. they love me all i remember him saying that. he said it in english. and i said, well, hang on, a minute. i was just earlier on today, people were out on the streets of tripoli and they were protesting . he said, no, they were supporting me . i said, no, they weren t. they were saying down with gaddafi . no, they weren t. i actually think he believed in his own propaganda. he lived in a bubble. ....
How do you manage that relationship? one of the things that have really changed, all groups, from little armed groups to governments are much tighter about control of the media and they want to somehow control the message, so they do like to keep a very close eye and insist on lots of permissions, just getting to somewhere like bakhmut requires all sorts of permissions and permits to get in there in the first place, and that gives them quite a bit of power over you. the only where you can operate is to realise. one of the things you have to realise is we are fairly powerless, and you work around those structures. and sometimes, it requires making compromises, if you re working in the libya in the days of gadhafi, syria, or other authoritarian places, you have to work on their system, which involve sometimes a lot of schmoozing. but you must not compromise what comes out of it, ....