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You have a lot of time to daydream when you’re stuck in a Tripoli hotel lobby with 130 other foreign journalists, all squeezed together, waiting for The Leader to pass through a revolving glass door. Eight hours after a red carpet was laid outside that door – and with still no sign of Colonel Moammar Gadhafi – I began to imagine that we had passed through to the very weird side of the Looking Glass, where things are never as they should be.
Here we were, shooting video of each other with our cell phone cameras – some even streaming the live pictures back to their network HQs. After midnight, the Leader did, finally, arrive, pumping his fists in the air – did he think we were supporters at one of his pep rallies? – as the press scrum tried to move with him. He darted into a curtained room surrounded by his bouncers – all male this time – where he took questions from French and Turkish TV reporters. An hour later – that’s nine hours since the news that The Leader was coming to the Rixos Hotel to make a statement – he left by a back door, unseen by any waiting journalists. We didn’t even merit a goodbye fist pump.
All this time, less than 30 miles away, hundreds of anti-Gadhafi rebels were holed up in the center of a town called Zawiya. Despite several days of withering attacks by tanks, artillery and airstrikes, dozens of casualties and dwindling supplies, these Libyans were determined to fight to the last man for their freedom. This was the Libyan Alamo. But instead of covering THAT, we’d been corralled into a kind of captive, red-carpet press gaggle.
We’d been invited by the Libyan government to take our crews and "go wherever we want, shoot whatever we want." In doing so, said our Libyan handlers, we would quickly see through the lies of the "foreign media" (which means Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyya TV). We would soon understand that there is no pro-democracy movement or protest in Libya, no power struggle and no internal problems – just a series of "destabilizing incidents" carried out by al-Qaida operatives and organized by Israel.
What we came to understand, however, was that "wherever we wanted" to go meant only within the locked-down capital of Tripoli, well within a bubble of disinformation, and always with a government minder. So, on a Friday, after prayers, when we asked to be taken to Green Square or Algeria Square with a mosque where we might see "Day of Rage" protests, we were taken instead in a large bus along the coastal road, heading east and AWAY from any potential protests. "Why are you taking us out of town?" one of our Arabic speakers asked the chief minder. "Well, because we thought you’d like to go on a tour of the city when there’s no traffic!" he replied.
Organized bus trips – we call them Magical Mystery Tours - didn’t survive beyond the first week. And here’s why – word was out that pro-Gadhafi forces had retaken Zawiya. So we headed out, one Saturday, in a caravan of mini-vans and SUVs, passing checkpoint after checkpoint, until we got to the last checkpoint, about a mile outside Zawiya, where our minders said, "You’re on your own from here – don’t move quickly, or they’ll shoot you. But they know you’re coming’. We advanced slowly, wondering why pro-Gadhafi forces would shoot the people who had come to film the retaking of the town. What we soon found were several thousand people packed in Zawiyah’s central square, calling for the end of the Gadhafi regime, protected by soldiers sitting on tanks – who had just defected to the rebel side. What we ran into was the fall of Zawiya … to the opposition. Since that embarrassment (for the Gadhafi regime), each day since has begun with a proposed trip to Zawiya – based on some source that forces loyal to the regime had retaken it. We stand outside the revolving – or looking – glass door, next to the vehicles, and wait for our security clearance. It never comes.
While much of Libya remains under rebel control, the uprising is now in a stranglehold as loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi have launched a military attack, pushing back a drive to take Tripoli. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Today was no different. With the sun already setting, we were all summoned to depart…for Zawiya. Some of us asked why go so late, and take the risk of negotiating heavily armed checkpoints in the dark. "Zawiyah has been liberated! Our people are victorious!" was the reply. Sure enough, on the Libyan State TV channel playing out continuously on a large flat screen in the lobby, people were dancing and chanting pro-Gadhafi slogans in a pleasant, green park. The scrawl across the images said this was a "March of Coherence" with the people of Libya, taking place in Zawiya. But our sources were saying that half of the city of 300,000 had been destroyed by airstrikes, and what was left was a war zone.
We’d never get to see the "March of Coherence" with our own eyes. Just as our long caravan was about to pull out of the hotel parking lot, the trip was canceled. Yes, Zawiya was free, but the minister of oil was heading to our hotel, to explain who actually blew up a pipeline and storage tank on the eastern front, earlier in the day. Zawiya would have to wait. So we collected our bags, cameras and flak jackets, passed through the revolving glass door and returned to our weird world where nothing is quite right. Late tonight we learned that Martyr’s Square, in the center of Zawiya, was back in rebel hands.
Jim Maceda is an NBC News correspondent, based in London, currently on assignment in Libya.
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"tour of the city when there’s no traffic"? So they thought you were on a field trip? I admire you though - the press for courageously risking your lives to bring us real events as it happens.
-Adventurous Wench
Rumor has it some BBC reporters got their butts kicked by Gaddafi forces. I'm eager to see how Daffi spins that one. Umm...maybe Al Qaeda put hallucinagenics in the BBC's Nescafe and they beat themselves up?
A group of British soldiers got caught by the pro-democratic groups; now, the British journalists got caught. They need to be careful.
The Gadhafi regime has no friend to pro-democracy.
When was the last time something like this happened and the US twiddled its giant military thumbs?
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956? The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979? The Egyptian Revolution a few weeks ago? What circumstances are the same in each case and what circumstances are different? Where is the UN as some Arabs say UN intervention would be OK and US intervention would not be welcome?
Jim Maceda can be sure there is as much or more going on behind the curtain here and elsewhere as is going on in Tripoli. I am increasingly uneasy, however, that nothing useful seems to be happening in front of the curtain.
The Israeli Mossad, British SAS and the American CIA are ALL going to be operating 24/7 to covertly pour all kinds of weapons and explosives into the hands of the Libyan rebels. It is so sad when they are caught trying to implement such deals which could very well blow-back on America and Israel as it did in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iraq and Iran and etc. etc.
America slaps a arm embargo on Libya which of course is a distinct slap across the face of America's friend Russia. Then covertly America's CIA begins pouring weapons into Libya to the rebels, such hypocrisy goes no where in the world today without widely being noticed. Go figure!
Anyone sneaking into and around Libya is going to be heavily questioned, roughed up and interrogated, just as they would be in any nation of the Middle East as well as any nation which has war's raging on. Go figure!
And many American's wonder how and why the 'American hiking tourists' in the same border area which the Israeli Mossad and American CIA supplied the Kurdish fighters to cross into Iran and kill as many Iranian civilians as they could kill, just happened to be confronted, arrested and tossed into jail. Go figure!
Regardless of what the press says, the democratic West seems to have already decided to go with the "known" (Kaddafi) rather than the "unknown" Freedom Fighters)....
I wonder what the crazy "known" will do after he reconsolidates and sees that the West IS a paper tiger and that Russia and China are the real "masters of the scene" for holding back Libya's neigbors from throwing water on this inhuman "fire"..
The ghost of Chamberlain lurks?
Oh for heaven's sake. Load some boats with the same arms that the government forces have, point them towards the rebel held coastline, wind the rubberbands and let 'em go!
No Kidding!
That's right. We have A LOT of energy right here at home. And it's just sitting there. But instead, we gamble with our children's future and enable terrorists. It makes no sense!
* 21 BILLION barrels of proven oil reserves.
* 134 BILLION barrels of undiscovered oil reserves.
* 727 MILLION barrels of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
* 48.5 BILLION barrels of undiscovered oil reserves land.
* 5.7 to 16.0 BILLION barrels of undiscovered oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
What would YOU do, do you pay for gas to get to work or do you buy food? If you can't feed yourself you can't work. If you can't work you can't afford to eat. That's a pretty tough catch 22.
If you're a Liberal, you'll say, "YES! Even though dangerous countries hate us and cause energy prices to rise and take food off our plates it's okay."
WRONG! IT'S NOT OKAY! Thanks to Obama and the anti-energy zealots, energy prices won't be the only things that increase. When gas prices rise, the cost of EVERYTHING will shoot through the roof. Retail prices will balloon. Interest rates will spike. The cost of food and water will surge. And you may not able to have enough money for either one.
Let's face the facts. Our country is in BIG TROUBLE. Our economy is in ruins. People can't find work. Hardworking American's CAN'T afford to pay their bills. And you can bet these American's WILL NOT be able to afford the impending energy price crisis. It's time to stand up and stop this outrage!
BUT - THE LIBERALS THINK THAT--despite all this, they can get away with forcing us to pay through the nose for our energy!
Enough Is ENOUGH!
DITTO! Gerald
Gerald sounds like an Exxon lobbyist.
Once again the zionists have duped their stupid "friends" into doing their dirty work. Our elected officials, wasting our USA tax dollars $$$$, when people at home are having trouble making ends meet ???? That AIPAC money hose, is spraying capital hill $$$$$$.
If you are going to make an inflammatory accusation how about if you back it up with some facts. Just because you think it is true does not make it true. You conspiracy theorists are all the same.
facts get in the way.no need when we can conjere stuff up out of thin air
get with the program no one else using facts
I beleive in press freedom. You as reporters are make situations worse by adding you opions or comments...Lybia why ask how long it will last. Simple AS LONG AS IT TAKES. Stop saying and asking things that can't be answered or not true.. Is USA leading the the way NO we are there for support and stop asking if the US will get credit fot it... Who cares. The world hates the US because or your insinuation, US braging rights??? Come guys report what you see and not what it could do.. Price of Gas going up Thanks to you guys. Saying " we could see gas hike because of this." The world has heard and corperation hear it and do it, the people are expection a hike and take advantage of it Gas prices the following day go up. THANKS. One reporter keeps asking how long it will last in Lybia, and has been told there is no way to know many times. Keeps asking, She asked an other reporter her opion and said maybe two to three days. Now this reporter is saying a couple of day. People in know have told her many times they don't know.. leave it at that. Stop trying put the USA AS THE LEADER OF THE NO FLY ZONE. Say it as it is 'NOT LEAD BY THE USA PERIOD. Some of you are doing more damage to the USA than helping.. I'm at a point that I don't beleive half of way you say...
TIRED OF IT, STOP DOING DAMAGE TO THE USA AND TURNING THE WORLD AGAINST US.??????
The entire world has perhaps 35-40 years of oil remaining (at the present rate of growth of technology and population), 50-70 years left of natural gas, maybe 250 years of coal (without stripping our living resources). The earth recieves roughly 80 petawatts of useful energy every day from the sun. This would be a good source of energy if we move quickly. Still though, we should be making a major global push towards new sources of energy, not "renewable' sources of energy that still rely on fossil fuels. Contained slow fusion reactors for instance would be a very good option. The decision about whether to save ourselves as a collective kind is up to us. The time to move on these issues is now because time is running out. If we don't act soon our childrens children may very likely be travelling in horse and buggy.
It has been the Jew and the Christian that have given us civilization as we understand it today. The Arab, the Persian, the Oriental mind and many other peoples in general did aid in this process though. The Jews are friends and allys of the Christian and vice versa. This is as it should be. I myself am Judeo-Christian because one without the other would be without meaning in the modern world today.
The USA is a filthy cesspool. A toxic acid wherever it goes, the USA is poison. Born in lies, they are sustained by crimes, mass murders, deception and depravity.
Libya should evict all western reporters as spies. They are tools for western propaganda.
Hey Wombat....I am an American Armenian....You sound like a Russian Armenian.....This nation is our home and we like the freedom of religion here....If you don't like it go back to Russia. By the way....we are honest capitalists here unlike your bribe taking,sneaky former communist gang....if fact most of the crimes by Armenians are from your former soviet Armenians....we happen to be law abiding people here and you guys are a blot on our good name.
I'll be honest, I used to think that reporters and the media in general were good-for-nothings whose sole purpose was to put a political spin on everything. I firmly believed they had no place in a warzone, of all things, and that if they died, they got what they deserved.
Then I got into the journalism field.
Ok, I'll admit, it's only a job for a small community college newspaper. While I'm not disillusioned into thinking that different news media outlets aren't slanted politically (Fox News, anyone?), I do have a new, deep respect for media and all the people that comprise it. One of the things that keeps America strong and (pretty much) honest is the media. They are the watchdogs, always looking for that next big story. It keeps the politicians in line, it keeps the dissidents in line, and it keeps the wool from being pulled completely over our eyes. They have one of the most underappreciated jobs, but one that is most critical to our survival as a free nation.
Then you have the field reporters, such as Jim here. They are a different breed, going places and doing things that no sane man would do without some serious weaponry and a crapton of kevlar. The go in armed with a camera, a notepad, and their wits, and usually nothing more. Their goal is to leave with the truth. They aren't stupid; they know there are better paying jobs with much less risk that they could get involved in. Instead, they choose to do the unthinkable in the pursuit of the truth.
I could go on praising journalist for quite a while, but I'll just sum it up here. TLDR; keep up the good work Jim, and all the reporters out there. Although it's not the most respected job, it is one of the most important. Keep bringing the truth!
So now we don't like the legitimate government of Lybia and have committed acts of war under the guise of a UN resolution to stop its ruler from putting down armed insurection by some of its citizens that are ideologically aligned with another adversary, the government of Iran instead of the 'west' including the USA. What is there that warrants 100 million dollars a day in expense cost to the US taxpayer??? Why are we trying to fix the screwed up geography left by the French and British colonial efforts in the middle east for absolutely no return on investment? We certainly won't get any good will from those in Lybia or th Arab states and this won't make our ties to the monarchs in the region any more secure. I want MY money back NOW!!
So now we don't like the legitimate government of Lybia and have committed acts of war under the guise of a UN resolution to stop its ruler from putting down armed insurection by some of its citizens that are ideologically aligned with another adversary, the government of Iran instead of the 'west' including the USA. What is there that warrants 100 million dollars a day in expense cost to the US taxpayer??? Why are we trying to fix the screwed up geography left by the French and British colonial efforts in the middle east for absolutely no return on investment? We certainly won't get any good will from those in Lybia or the Arab states and this won't make our ties to the monarchs in the region any more secure. I want MY money back NOW!!
a young person is wayward without correction making terrible mistakes . financialy irresponsible . a respected parent can enhance thier life and open many blessings . spare the rod spoil the child . where is the correction of the gov spending concerning STUPID?
i understand that we just spent over millions to enforce a no fly . great do you remember how iraq and all of the other countries felt about our intervention ? remember moga afgan iraq have thier been that much spent to help humanity? of course not our budget leans to close to war mongering ANY REPRESENETIVE WHO INVOLVES IN MIDDLE EAST should have his head examined . lets police the world and get it over with .
i want you to get our money back to your accounting of the money impressive . i havent heard anybody even admit that kind of spending its only take more and more until they get stopped and i hope its before we all collapse trying to pay for juvenile and stupid invasive child like spending . grow up america clean up your own backyard before its to late
The western world is digging their grave by meddling the internal affairs of Muslim countries.
We are not fools to believe that US, UK and France are there to help the civilians in Libya. Libya is going to become the second Afghanistan. We Muslim are ready to die for ALLAH and will go insha ALLAH into paradise while the nonbelievers will end into hellfire.
Al-Qadi, Shabab and Islamist organizations are our heroes. We say to them; keep the good job and fight for the sake of ALLAH. Devils and Satans are afraid of these noble groups and they (the nonbelivers and their helpers)will be destroyed very soon insha Allah and our fighter will be victorious..