Brian Paris
James Foley, Medill DC Newsroom
WASHINGTON James Foley, a freelance journalist with GlobalPost and Medill graduate (MSJ 2007), shared the harrowing tale of his 44-day detainment by forces loyal to Libyan Col. Muammar Gadhafi on Friday, but said despite his ordeal, “Every day I want to go back” to report from Libya.
Foley, 37, a freelance reporter who also reported from Afghanistan and Iraq, was detained by Libyan government officials along with two other freelance journalists near the oil rich town of Brega in early April.
Libyan forces loyal to Gadhafi crested a hill and and rained gunfire on the journalists, Foley said. South African photographer Anton Hammerl, a veteran of war and conflict zones, was shot and killed during the assault and left by the side of the road to die.
Foley said he called out to Hammerl to no avail, then stood up amid a break in gunfire to identify the group as journalists. The Libyan forces roughed up Foley, fellow American freelancer Clare Gillis and Spanish photographer Manu Brabo before transporting them to a detention facility in Tripoli.
Competitiveness and a desire to get the story first were two factors that led to the assault and capture, Foley said. He describes it as “a cautionary tale” and said the intoxication of covering a war zone led to “dangerous” decision-making.
“That day we were captured we took it too far,” Foley said.
Looking trim with slicked back hair and sports coat, Foley spoke for more than an hour to graduate students at Medill’s Washington newsroom about his tale and the “inhumane system” of Libyan prisons but also the compassion and heroism of Libyan detainees. “There’s a lot of systematic torture of Libyans going on,” Foley said.
He said despite language differences, he connected with Libyan detainees, many of them professionals like doctors and engineers, who would comfort Foley and say, “Just pray with us. Pray with us. Drink tea with us.”
Foley said although he was never tortured, he was interrogated for several hours and “you could say it was torturous.”
With zero contact with the outside world, Foley said rumors like 30,000 U.S. ground troops preparing to invade the country start to make sense.
“You start to believe false news, you start to believe the prison networks.”
After nearly two months of captivity, the journalists were released May 18. Foley credited Gadhafi’s son, Saadi, for facilitating their release. Saadi Gadhafi put up the journalists in a luxury villa where Foley said they lounged on gold couches, drank Turkish coffee and watched Al-Jazeera English.
He also credited Hungarian diplomats for their efforts in the release.
Despite his insistence about returning to the region, Foley said he plans to remain in the U.S. for at least the next six months. He described the guilt, amazement, and pride for his family and friends who “put their lives on hold” to start a media campaign to release him and the others. He said he didn’t want to put his family through more pain.
While Foley had previous experience embedding with U.S. troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, he hadn’t had an experience quite like reporting from Libya.
“The story gets inside us. That’s the beauty of it,” Foley said.
While he hopes to return to international reporting, Foley said more important questions remain. “What do we owe Anton [Hammerl]?”
Foley said he plans to use his website, freefoley.org, to raise money for Hammerl’s wife and three kids.