Shadowing Practice: Muammar Gaddafi | A Day in The Life of a Dictator - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Libya, Friday, June 28, 1996.
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Muammar Gaddafi, guide of the Libyan revolution, awakens in the luxurious bedroom of one of his numerous villas.
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It is 8 a.m and like every morning, Gaddafi has a hard time getting up.
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As opposed to Stalin's austere life, he is totally dominated by his impulses and suffers from numerous addictions, mind altering drugs, alcohol and sex.
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But at 54, his body is wearing down, having been subjected to every kind of excess for far too long.
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As a result, it is increasingly difficult for him to maintain his self-control in public.
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People are frequently perplexed by his erratic behavior.
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Later on judged him unstable.
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Ronald Reagan referred to him as a mad dog, and to Anwar al-Sadat, he was just plain crazy.
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Nevertheless, it is this sex maniac and drug addict who rules Libya with an iron fist.
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For 27 years, he's been systematically plundering his country's wealth, beginning by confiscating the colossal oil and gas revenues,
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and then appropriating all big business concerns and redistributing them to his entourage.
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Today, although he is one of the richest men in the world, his home is half buried underground, surrounded by bulletproof walls and watchtowers,
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with soldiers standing guard 24 hours a day.
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Not only is part of this residence underground, but it is also hidden inside the perimeter of an ultra-secure compound, Bab-Alazizia, which covers six square kilometers.
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An entire city within a city, located in the heart of Tripoli, a huge area surrounded by walls, a veritable modern fortress.
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He is not a police officer.
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Muhammad Gliwon, Gaddafi's personal cameraman, is part of the dictator's innermost circle.
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and the house of the house.
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The house of my family.
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And even within this fortress, the exact location of Gaddafi's home is kept a secret.
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fear became an obsession with Gaddafi after the Americans bombed his palace in 1986.
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Suspected of funding many terrorist attacks around the world that resulted in hundreds of victims, he became public enemy number one.
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Since then, he has lived constantly on Since then, he has lived constantly on the alert, like a fugitive inside his own country.
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But now, in 1996, Gaddafi is threatened by a new enemy, the National Front for the Liberation of Libya,
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comprised of armed Islamist groups that are based in the desert and have declared war on him.
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Gaddafi takes this threat very seriously.
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They are Salafists, suspected of being linked with Al-Qaeda.
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He has already had hundreds of them arrested and imprisoned in Abu Salim prison.
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Living conditions there are horrendous.
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Fatih Saad was imprisoned there during that time.
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For 12 years he witnessed what the prisoners had to undergo.
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The natural type of type is to make you a threat with a threat,
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with the smoke, with the two hands on the floor, and you stay all day together with your hands.
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The reason is that you sleep on the floor without a slant,
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and you will have to eat the water during the night.
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This is the same.
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I'm sure you're not sure.
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I'm sure you're not sure.
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The conditions inside were really brutal.
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The jail cells were overcrowded.
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The people who died were often left in the cells for days.
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And torture was institutional.
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People felt like there was no way out, that they were buried alive in this prison
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and they felt like they were in a prison where the keys had been thrown away.
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This Friday, June 28th, the prisoners can't take any more.
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They have reached their limit.
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For days, dead bodies have been left to rot inside their cells.
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They have nothing to lose.
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Today, Gaddafi will soon have to deal with a completely unprecedented situation.
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In 27 years of absolute power, he has never had to face the kind of massive revolt that is about to break out at Abu Salim.
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This date will never be forgotten in the bloody history of Libya under Gaddafi's rule.
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It's 11 a.m in Bab al-Azizia.
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Gaddafi is in his bathroom preparing to start the day.
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Several young women are in attendance, taking care of his every need.
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They take his blood pressure daily, they massage him, apply makeup, and dye his hair to cover the bald spots.
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But at 54, Gaddafi can't abide the premature aging of his face, marked by excesses of every sort,
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and which bears no resemblance to the young man who took power 25 years ago.
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At that time, the international press had referred to him as the Arab Kennedy.
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And his good looks had played an essential part in his popularity and success.
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But he can't count on his seductive charms any longer.
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A few weeks ago, he underwent plastic surgery for the first time.
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It took place in the middle of the night in a high-security clinic built in a bunker underneath his house.
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The surgeon was Brazilian, not one Libyan was present, and Gaddafi refused a general anesthesia.. in order to remain conscious during the operation.
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He killed Saddam was an Egyptian.
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He was afraid that a Libyan would kill him.
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That's one of the reasons he didn't have Libyan in the bunker.
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I think he didn't want anesthesia.
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All his life, Gaddafi would continue to have plastic surgery...
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...performed without a general anesthesia.
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Obsessed with his image, Gaddafi is constantly reinventing himself according to the political role he wishes to play.
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Soldier of the revolution.
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Patron of international terrorism.
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Self-proclaimed leader of the Arab countries.
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And even African king of kings.
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There is no limit to his arrogance and megalomania.
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He was able to get a car and get a car to the car.
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Just for the car, just for the show.
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He was a person who felt a little bit.
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I noticed that this guy doesn't have any better than him.
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The old man who lived here was a cause of his own personal career.
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He was very proud of his life.
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This man lived a long time in his life.
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He was very proud of his life.
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He was born from this man.
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And we will see him born from him daily.
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Gaddafi came from a Bedouin family.
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They lived in a tent in a desert area near the town of Sirte, a region considered almost uninhabitable where young Muammar tended the goats.
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His father worked as a servant for a powerful family.
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They were considered second-class Libyans.
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Gaddafi would never forget that.
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His cousin, Said Gaddafi al-Dham, shared the misery of his childhood.
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Well, tribe, those days, respect the strong, and the rich.
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He was not strong and not rich and he had a tough,
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hard life in the beginning.
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I think this is one of the reasons he makes against the people after, the whole society.
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It's deep inside.
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It's his personality.
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When he was only ten, Gaddafi decided to escape the poverty in his family's life and go to school in the city.
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He climbed on a truck and arrived in Sirte.
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Alone and destitute, he slept outside and survived on dates and survived on dates.
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When he returned to his village a few years later, he returned as a hero.
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He had become Colonel Qaddafi, the man who had just led the revolution and freed his people from the monarchy of old King Idris, who had reigned for 52 years.
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From the start, Qaddafi knew how to play up that childhood scenario to his advantage, arranging interviews with his family for Libyan television programs,
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later to be picked up by foreign networks where he played
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the humble man who owes everything to his strong character and to his courage. and continue to study.
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The little desert shepherd had become one of the richest men in the world.
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Like Stalin, every day Gaddafi signs the lists of people who are sentenced to prison or to death.
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He tolerates no argument.
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He used to say, all those who oppose the regime, and especially the Islamists, must be treated like cockroaches and deserve to be eradicated without trial.
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For example, he was a picture of the image.
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He said he was a rat.
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He said he was a rat.
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He said he was a judge.
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He was a judge.
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He was a judge.
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He was a judge.
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He was a judge.
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From the moment he took power, he put in place a brutally repressive regime.
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But it was in 1984, after barely escaping an attempted assassination,
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that he decided to televise the trials and public executions so as to terrify the entire population.
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The first of these trials was
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that of this young student being judged before an enraged crowd and whose only crime was to have studied abroad.
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I am the shawaii.
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I am the mate.
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I am the American.
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A mock tribunal accuses him of having made contact with figures of the opposition in the United States, and even to have trained in Morocco to prepare an assassination attempt on Qaddafi.
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Hoping to save his life, the student confesses to everything, but as in all corrupt trials, the result is a foregone conclusion.
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It's an event that shocked every Libyan, because I think it's at that moment that they understood
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just how far the Gaddafi regime was willing to go to instill terror into their own people.
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The entire population felt threatened, even people at the highest level.
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And so, who will be in the eyes of Qaddafi, will be able to say the curse of the prison, the torture and the death of the people.
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And yet Qaddafi had been a young revolutionary who rose to
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power at the age of 27 as the defender of great causes.
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To unify the Arab countries, to free Libya from foreign occupation by nationalizing the oil companies.
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To restore independence and pride to his country, the Libyans saw him as the great liberator, another Nasser.
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Like Stalin and Amin Dada, building national pride and achieving greater social justice were the two main themes that served to consolidate his power.
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I was born in the world of peace, peace, peace, love, and love.
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And I started to look at my thoughts.
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It was a simple thought.
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So, everyone, I was in the world of peace.
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But the honeymoon with his people is soon over.
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Now he is afraid of his people.
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He can't even stand being touched by them.
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And when he is obliged to mingle with the crowds while pretending to enjoy it, he hits his bodyguards if they let anyone come too close.
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When they were killed, they were afraid to kill them.
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They were attacking the enemy, so they were attacking these people.
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Every time they were attacking, they were attacking them.
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Gaddafi has lost all contact with his people.
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Now he only communicates with them on television.
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Today, as he does several times each week, each week, he is getting ready to record one of his interminable speeches, which has most Libyans yawning.
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But at last,
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when he is about to begin, his secretary interrupts him with the news that a revolt has just broken out at Abu Salim prison.
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Gaddafi doesn't take the alert seriously.
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Abu Salim is an ultra-high security prison, and he is confident that his powerful police force can put down the rebellion.
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But what is happening in the prison is far worse than he thinks.
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They gave them a treatment for the prisoners.
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They were even a gun.
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When they opened the door, they opened the door and opened the door. in the Rasa.
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Qadhafi has no idea that at this very instant, what is happening in the prison will cause endless repercussions until the day he dies.
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Just three hours after it began, the Abu Salim prison revolt has exploded out of control, but Gaddafi still hasn't realized how grave the situation is.
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He returns to his room where one of his victims awaits him.
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These women come from all levels of society.
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They are taken from their families and brought before the supreme guide without anyone daring to protest.
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They are abused, made to endure the worst humiliations and often beaten.
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In 1983, Gaddafi created a military academy reserved for women whom he called his Amazons.
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They were supposed to represent one aspect of modern Libya, the guide's liberation of women.
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They are his personal guard and surround him during all his public appearances.
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In In fact, these Amazons constitute a gigantic harem of more than 400 young women at the dictator's disposal.
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But that is not enough for him.
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and all the children who sent them to the hospital, they were married.
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They were able to put them in a place like a student in the church, a family, and they were able to get them.
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A problem for Qadhafi arose when a girl became pregnant.
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To discreetly solve this, he had a clinic built in the basement of the university where abortions could be performed.
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And the house was a house.
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A house was a house.
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With many houses, with the house, with the kitchen and the kitchen.
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And the house was close to us.
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We were looking at this place a day, a year ago.
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We didn't see anything. In this
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way, hundreds of women were raped by Gaddafi, by his sons, and even by his men.
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Inside the concealed camp, underneath his fortified villa,
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Qaddafi has had a nuclear bomb shelter constructed along with a network of 40 km of tunnels, all buried 6 meters below the surface.
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A veritable underground city with bedrooms,
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salons, sports facilities, a clinic and a television studio a clinic and a television studio.
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Television is his principal tool of propaganda, and he supervises all the programs himself.
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While he is viewing one of his speeches, taped a few hours earlier, his brother-in-law, Abdullah Sanousi, chief of intelligence, arrives to announce the bad news news.
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More than a thousand prisoners have ransacked Abu Salim prison.
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Using sledgehammers they forced open the cells in buildings three and four.
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They're on the verge of escaping and the guards can no longer contain them.
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Abu Salim consists of four buildings.
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Fatih Saad, a prisoner in building one where the doors remained closed, describes what happened.
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Qaddafi orders that the prisoners who did not escape be evacuated, and orders Senussi to hold off the rioters.
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The evacuation would take all night.
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Gaddafi awaits confirmation that buildings one and two have been evacuated.
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Sunnusi, chief of intelligence, phones him.
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The evacuation has been completed.
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All the prisoners that have rioted in buildings three and four are now massed in the courtyard.
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They are enraged.
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The situation is explosive.
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There's no time to lose.
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Gaddafi orders the execution of the 1,270 prisoners.
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It is 8.30.
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Positioned on top of the prison roofs, the soldiers begin firing at the trapped prisoners.
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Suddenly, a military force arrived and literally started shooting into the prison,
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killing over 1,200 prisoners in a massacre that took hours.
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This was not something that was just over in a few minutes.
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They kept shooting and shooting and shooting till just about everybody in these two wards were dead.
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Ultimately, Gaddafi's own demise is very much linked to that decision to commit a massacre at Abu Salim.
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Because that is the spark which set off the revolution in 2011.
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In fact, in February 2011, at the height of the Arab Spring, the mothers, sisters and widows of the men killed at Abu Salim take to the streets,
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demanding to know the exact truth about the circumstances of the massacre.
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The police intervene and fire at the crowd, which unleashes the first violent confrontations and the beginning of a revolution throughout Libya that would rage for nine months.
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And would end with the lynching of Gaddafi by his own people.
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The New Testament The New Testament The New Testament The New Testament The New Testament The New Testament Years earlier,
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in one of his texts, Gaddafi had written, How I love the freedom of crowds, Their enthusiastic spirit, After their chains are cast off,
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When they burst out with a cry of joy and sing, Instead of wailing in sorrow.
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But how I fear and mistrust them, But how I fear and mistrust them, and how cruel they are when they are angry.
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They plotted against Hannibal and made him drink poison.
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They burned Savonarola at the stake, sent Danton to the guillotine, fractured Rubespierre's jaw, dragged Mussolini's body through the streets,
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spit in Richard Nixon's face.
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He dies at the age of 69 after having reigned over Libya for 42 years.
A Glimpse into a Dictator's Day: Real-Life Context for English Practice
The video paints a vivid picture of Muammar Gaddafi's life on June 28th, 1996—from his luxurious yet secure villa in Tripoli to the unfolding crisis at Abu Salim prison. This real-world scenario is packed with descriptive language and complex ideas, making it perfect for practicing English comprehension and speaking. Whether you're learning to discuss history, politics, or daily routines, the dialogue offers rich context to build your skills.
Useful Chunks & Collocations to Memorize
- "ruled with an iron fist": Describes strict, unyielding leadership (e.g., "For 27 years, he ruled Libya with an iron fist").
- "lived constantly on the alert": Means staying always prepared for danger (e.g., "After the 1986 bombing, Gaddafi lived constantly on the alert").
- "reached their limit": Indicates no longer being able to tolerate a situation (e.g., "The prisoners reached their limit after days of neglect").
- "veritable modern fortress": Emphasizes something being truly a strong, secure structure (e.g., "Bab al-Azizia was a veritable modern fortress").
- "subjected to every kind of excess": Refers to experiencing extreme indulgence (e.g., "His body suffered after being subjected to every kind of excess").
Your Shadowing Challenge: Improve Pronunciation & Fluency
Ready to practice? Try shadowspeak—a technique where you repeat phrases immediately after hearing them. Pick a 30-second clip from the video (like the description of Gaddafi's morning routine). Play a short segment, pause, and repeat it, matching the tone, speed, and stress. Focus on tricky words like "perimeter" or "institutional." For extra help, use a shadowing app or shadowing site to record yourself and compare. This exercise will boost your english pronunciation and make you more comfortable with natural speech patterns. Remember: consistency is key—even 5 minutes a day will make a difference!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.