in 2011 I wanted to cover the uprising
in Libya so like so many journalists we
snuck in through Egypt we knew that one
of the great risks for us journalist was
getting caught by Qadhafi’s forces so on
March fifteenth 2011 I was working with
tyler hicks anthony shadid and steve
farrell and we were covering the front
line image davia we knew that the city
was going to fall all the signs were
there civilians were fleeing the the
mortar rounds were walking towards our
position that’s a sign that they are
zooming in on a position we wanted to
stay as long as we possibly could to get
the freshest reporting our driver
started getting calls saying Gaddafi’s
troops were in the city and that we had
to leave and we ignored him that’s the
first mistake you never ignore your
driver we stayed we kept photographing
and working on the front line and by the
time we decided to flee we drove
directly into one of Qadhafi’s
checkpoints this is the exact position
that we were taken hostage if you look
at Bryan Denton’s name he’s a
photographer for the New York Times
that’s where our car was stopped you
have to make a decision when you
approach a hostile check point do you
stop and announce yourself as
journalists and hope that they don’t
kill you or do you try and drive through
the checkpoint and hope that they don’t
open fire we’re all yelling something
different dr go stop our driver panicked
he stopped the car and jumped out and
said we’re journalists at that point
Gaddafi’s troops ripped us out of the
car the rebels that we were with started
opening fire on that checkpoint and we
were caught in a wall of bullets there
were bullets everywhere I did not get
out of the car at that point all the men
had jumped out and been pulled out I was
still sitting behind where the driver
had been sitting on the left-hand side I
put my head in my lap and sort of prayed
that it would all go away and it did not
and so I felt the bullets everywhere and
I said okay I have to get out of the car
because the car is not armored it does
not protect you I crawled across the
back seat jumped out and one of
Qadhafi’s troops was immediately on me
pulling my cameras of course I’m pulling
back instinctively which is not very
smart and so he’s pulling back and we’re
in the middle of the road and I feel
bullets everywhere so I suddenly thought
okay I have to make a run for it so each
one of us tried to get behind this
cement building
when we got behind the building we were
told to lie facedown in the dirt each
one of us had a gun put to our heads
they were about to execute us and the
commander came over and said you can’t
kill them they’re American and we don’t
know why he said that but Anthony later
translated that for us in that moment
they took my shoes off my feet tied me
up with my shoelaces my wrists and my
ankles together and carried me away they
put me and Steve in one vehicle on the
front line & tyler and anthony in
another and they kept us there for hours
while sniper fire bullets and bombs
rained around us we were tied up we
couldn’t go anywhere at that point as
the fighting got closer they decided
they wanted us to live the entire time
we were punched in the face the men were
smashed in the back of the head with gun
butts and I was groped that went on for
the first three days we were eventually
put in prison we spent a night in prison
which actually was the first time we
were allowed to speak to each other
openly because before we were
blindfolded so we were scared to speak
to one another then we were flown to
Tripoli and we were held there for three
days and eventually we were released
this is our release as we were brought
to the Turkish embassy the Turkish
government was acting as a proxy for the
American government because the
Americans had pulled out of Tripoli and
this is our car two weeks later Bryan
Denton went back to see if they can find
our driver our driver was never seen
again we don’t know if he was killed in
that moment when he jumped out of the
car if he was executed or if he was put
in prison but the New York Times sent a
team back to try and look for him and
they found our car on the side of the
road and they found my shoe
you
in Libya so like so many journalists we
snuck in through Egypt we knew that one
of the great risks for us journalist was
getting caught by Qadhafi’s forces so on
March fifteenth 2011 I was working with
tyler hicks anthony shadid and steve
farrell and we were covering the front
line image davia we knew that the city
was going to fall all the signs were
there civilians were fleeing the the
mortar rounds were walking towards our
position that’s a sign that they are
zooming in on a position we wanted to
stay as long as we possibly could to get
the freshest reporting our driver
started getting calls saying Gaddafi’s
troops were in the city and that we had
to leave and we ignored him that’s the
first mistake you never ignore your
driver we stayed we kept photographing
and working on the front line and by the
time we decided to flee we drove
directly into one of Qadhafi’s
checkpoints this is the exact position
that we were taken hostage if you look
at Bryan Denton’s name he’s a
photographer for the New York Times
that’s where our car was stopped you
have to make a decision when you
approach a hostile check point do you
stop and announce yourself as
journalists and hope that they don’t
kill you or do you try and drive through
the checkpoint and hope that they don’t
open fire we’re all yelling something
different dr go stop our driver panicked
he stopped the car and jumped out and
said we’re journalists at that point
Gaddafi’s troops ripped us out of the
car the rebels that we were with started
opening fire on that checkpoint and we
were caught in a wall of bullets there
were bullets everywhere I did not get
out of the car at that point all the men
had jumped out and been pulled out I was
still sitting behind where the driver
had been sitting on the left-hand side I
put my head in my lap and sort of prayed
that it would all go away and it did not
and so I felt the bullets everywhere and
I said okay I have to get out of the car
because the car is not armored it does
not protect you I crawled across the
back seat jumped out and one of
Qadhafi’s troops was immediately on me
pulling my cameras of course I’m pulling
back instinctively which is not very
smart and so he’s pulling back and we’re
in the middle of the road and I feel
bullets everywhere so I suddenly thought
okay I have to make a run for it so each
one of us tried to get behind this
cement building
when we got behind the building we were
told to lie facedown in the dirt each
one of us had a gun put to our heads
they were about to execute us and the
commander came over and said you can’t
kill them they’re American and we don’t
know why he said that but Anthony later
translated that for us in that moment
they took my shoes off my feet tied me
up with my shoelaces my wrists and my
ankles together and carried me away they
put me and Steve in one vehicle on the
front line & tyler and anthony in
another and they kept us there for hours
while sniper fire bullets and bombs
rained around us we were tied up we
couldn’t go anywhere at that point as
the fighting got closer they decided
they wanted us to live the entire time
we were punched in the face the men were
smashed in the back of the head with gun
butts and I was groped that went on for
the first three days we were eventually
put in prison we spent a night in prison
which actually was the first time we
were allowed to speak to each other
openly because before we were
blindfolded so we were scared to speak
to one another then we were flown to
Tripoli and we were held there for three
days and eventually we were released
this is our release as we were brought
to the Turkish embassy the Turkish
government was acting as a proxy for the
American government because the
Americans had pulled out of Tripoli and
this is our car two weeks later Bryan
Denton went back to see if they can find
our driver our driver was never seen
again we don’t know if he was killed in
that moment when he jumped out of the
car if he was executed or if he was put
in prison but the New York Times sent a
team back to try and look for him and
they found our car on the side of the
road and they found my shoe
you
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