faced with the potential of mass atrocities, and a call for help from the libyan people. the united states and our friends and allies stopped qaddafi s forces in their trarks. a coalition that included the united states, nato and arab nations persevered through the summer to protect libyan civilians. meanwhile the courageous libyan people fought for their own future and broke the back of the regime. this is a momentous day in the history of libya. the dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted and with this promise the libyan people have a great responsibility to build an inclusive and tolerant and democratic libya that stands as the ultimate rebuke to qaddafi s dictatorship. we look forward to the announcement of the country s liberation. the quick formation of an interim government and a stable transition to libya s first free
to stand idly by. faced with the potential of mass atrocities and a call for help from the libyan people, the united states and our friends and allies stopped gadhafi s forces in their tracks. a coalition that included the united states, nato and arab nations persevered through the summer to protect libyan civilians and meanwhile the courageous libyan people fought for their future and broke the back of the regime. this is a momentous day in the history of libya. the dark shadow of tyranny has been lift and if w this promise, the libyan people have a great responsibility. to build an inclusive and tolerant and democratic libya that stands as the ultimate rebuke to gadhafi s dictatorship. we look forward to the announcement of the country s liberation, the quick formation of an interim government and a
this 2009 speech at the u.n. was typical. translator: we are not committed to obey the rules or resolutions of the councils with this information because it is undemocratic reporter: what was supposed to be a 15-minute talk ram balanced on more than 90 minutes. but while he sometimes appeared a clown on the world stage, his actions were often deadly. in the mid-80s he funneled money and weapons to support the palestine liberation organization s fight against israel. the irish republican army s efforts to defeat british rule in northern ireland. and he viciously targeted americans. in 1986, libyan agents were accused of bombing a berlin nightclub killing two americans and a turk. u.s. president ronald reagan responded by bombing tripoli, targeting gadhafi s house. the raid killed more than 100 people, including gadhafi s own daughter. two years later, pan am flight 103 blew up over the tiny village of lockerbie, scotland, raining debris and taking 270 lives. investigator
to be gadhafi. reports of his capture and killing came soon after the rebel forces had announced that they had taken control of sirte, his hometown. the gunfire there libyans didn t wait any time for confirmation of gadhafi s death to start celebrating there in sirte. libyan rebels fired into the air as you can see a great deal of celebration there and excitement. the burst of gunfire echoing through tripoli as well as people are filling the streets. i want to bring in our own barbara starr who s live at the pentagon for the latest there. barbara, give us a sense of what we know. what the u.s. role was in this as well as nato. we ve been talking earlier this morning there was a nato air strike on a convoy moving around sirte. at the time the nato officials said they had no reason to believe gadhafi was inside. now they are looking at that possibility that this all began when he was in a convoy moving around the city of sirte. we will find out in the coming hours more detail
ended just hours ago and now you re about to see a photo that is said to be gadhafi badly wounded and in custody and we warn you, it s pretty gruesome. all right, well, he has either badly wounded in this cell phone video or dead. it s a cell phone image obtained somehow by our colleagues at the french press agency. we ll point out that cnn can t independently confirm its authenticity. now, rebel leaders were excited, but a little coy when the news broke. this is what the information minister for libya s national transitional council said. as a big day, a big day for the libyan people. i think it s a great victory for libyan people, great victory for revolution and we know now from our sources that we have a big fish. i don t know how big the fish is you don t know who has been captured. just a senior figure. yes. misrata radio confirmed the big figure as moammar gadhafi himself. we re waiting for a statement from benghazi. and to think is the one and then to see pe