Imprisoned by Moammar Gadhafi

This interview was one of my favorites because I felt it had great emotional content. I arranged to interview a former Libyan national for comment on the uprising in Eastern Libya during its early days, before much real fighting took place, and, in fact, weeks before the U.S. and allies decided to use air power to defend the rebels from potential massacre. I didn't know until I got into the interview that the interviewee, Dr. Fathi Finaish had actually been imprisoned, albeit briefly, by Gadhafi as a young man in the 1970's. Furthermore, Dr. Finaish had family still living in Tripoli from whom he had not heard since the start of the uprising.

Moammar Gadhafi with military hat drawn low over

 his eyes in 1969 shortly after taking power in Libya.

Public Domain photo from the Online Museum of Syrian History

At first, during the interview, Dr. Finaish seemed a bit closed in his attitude. He responded very briefly to my questions, often with one word or a single brief sentence. Once I got some basic background information, I mixed in more open-ended questions to draw him out, but sometimes a short succinct answer can have a powerful impact. For example, I asked, "Is there any discussion or dissent allowed against policies or government edicts in Libya? The answer was short and to the point: "No. If you talk, you will pay for it, dearly." That simple sentence speaks volumes and really helped me to understand why, at this time, so many Libyan people were willing to risk their lives with few weapons and little, if any, training to try to wrest back their children's destiny from Gadhafi.

I'll also point out that although he spoke English very well, it was not Dr. Finaish's first language. Although I could not transcribe his accent, I did try to keep some of the phrasings and hesitations that might appear out of the ordinary to a native English speaker to try to capture more of the emotion and character of the interview and the interviewee.

You can read the full published interview at this link...

As an aside, this was also interesting from a writing standpoint because it is an example of the shifting vagaries of English spellings of foreign names and words. The spelling "Moammar Gadhafi" was in vogue with Yahoo! News when I wrote this interview, but it is often spelled quite differently by different news organizations, making it difficult for users of search engines trying to find information about the Libyan leader.