on the ground. blood pouring from his head. later, photos are released of the former dictator, dead. there s no clear answer to exactly who pulled the trigger, but it s obvious it was because people they wanted it over. they wanted it finished. shelton transfers the footage to her laptop and drives three hours to the nearest internet connection, where she uploads the footage to her editors. soon after, the rest of the world is watching. and reacting. the capture and death of colonel moammar gadhafi marked a sudden and unexpected end to the libyan revolution thursday. i really did not want them to kill him. i wanted them to put him on trial. i wanted this to end not with revenge but with justice. but a certain part of you also has to feel sorry for this man, surrounded and outnumbered and pleading for his life and yet being killed.
gadhafi, who s held power for 42 years. libya was one of those countries people never imagined it would see the revolution spread to. because gadhafi was so in control. but i m a revolution junkie, and it succeeded in tunisia. it succeeded in egypt. i wanted it to succeed everywhere. for decades gadhafi was one of the world s most eccentric leaders, known for his flamboyant outfits and his all-female bodyguards. but he was also an open supporter of international terrorism, with links to the lockerbie bombers, the i.r.a., and other militant groups. he kept libya under very, very tight wraps. he would disappear people. there was no freedom of any kind. massacres in prison. so he was a horrendous, horrible, brutal dictator. anyone who spoke out against him at all would be arrested immediately, sometimes tortured, sometimes killed. tracy shelton is a 34-year-old freelance journalist from australia who heads to
as rebel fighters prepare to head to the site of the convoy bombing, shelton asks if she can go along. but they refuse. that was the only time they ever said no. they told me, no, you can t come with us. it s just it s really too dangerous in there. but as soon as the rebels discover who was in the convoy and what has happened, they send for her. shelton is the first western journalist to arrive at the scene. rebels tell her that gadhafi has been found hiding in a storm drain and captured. by the time i got there, i think he was probably already dead by that stage, but they were taking him away in an ambulance. the scene was still quite amazing because people were still celebrating. people had there were guys who had chunks of gadhafi s hair. they had bits of his clothing, going this was gadhafi s. i mean, the people everybody, of course, was shooting in the air. i asked among the guys, did anybody take any photos, any footage or anything? one of the guys i knew came stra
control of the entire city, which no one had expected. and gadhafi and his whole family fled. there was a lot of excitement in the country because it seemed like it was over. but it isn t over, not while gadhafi and his sons remain in hiding. until october 20th, 2011. that day, tracy shelton is with a group of militia fighters she s been profiling for months. that morning, some of the guys from the battalion had gone into surt, and i d gone in with them. around 8:30 a.m., a heavily armored convoy of about 70 vehicles is seen leaving surt, gadhafi s hometown and his last remaining stronghold. there were snipers all over the city that were set up to protect the convoy. everybody knew there was somebody important in this group. nato forces bombed the caravan from the air. dozens are killed. there were a lot of survivors that had run into the bushes, into houses in this area. as rebel fighters prepare to
animal, and they re saying his name over and over again. eventually, they lay gadhafi on the ground. blood pouring from his head. later, photos are released of the former dictator, dead. there s no clear answer to exactly who pulled the trigger, but it s obvious it was because people they wanted it over. they wanted it finished. shelton transfers the footage to her laptop and drives three hours to the nearest internet connection, where she uploads the footage to her editors. soon after, the rest of the world is watching. and reacting. the capture and death of colonel moammar gadhafi marked a sudden and unexpected end to the libyan revolution thursday. i really did not want them to kill him. i wanted them to put him on trial. i wanted this to end not with revenge but with justice. but a certain part of you also has to feel sorry for this man, surrounded and outnumbered and pleading for his life and yet