Introducing Fiasco: Benghazi

Fiasco: Benghazi unpacks the 2012 attack in Libya that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Chris Stevens—and the ensuing political storm, which raised questions about America’s role in the world, established a playbook to weaponize attention in the social media age, and ultimately changed the course of U.S. history.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Pushkin. What I told people I was making a podcast
about Benghazi. Nine times out of ten they called me
a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked why. I
was never surprised. I know that Benghazi has a bad reputation.

(00:29):
Benghazi the truth became a web of lies. It's almost
a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory. Will we
ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre? Bad faith?
Political warfare? The regime keeps lying about it.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
They're not going to let this go, are they?

Speaker 1 (00:45):
And frankly bullshit? We kill the ambassador just to cover
something up. You put two and two together. I'm Leon Napok,
co creator of Slowburn. You've heard me dig into political
firestorm like Iran Contra and Bush v. Gore. Now it's
time for a slightly more recent scandal, one that began

(01:08):
with the killing of a US ambassador and three other
Americans in Libya. Benghazi has been contested ever since. Was
it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy? The forces
that led up to the scandal and the marks that
left on America and Libya are still coming into focus.
Benghazi is a Rosetta stone for everything that's been going

(01:33):
on for the last twenty years. Over six episodes, you'll
hear what life was like in Benghazi before the attack,
under the regime of Muamar Gadafi and during the revolution
that brought him down.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
We could see the smoke of Gerdefi's convoy. It was
obvious that death is coming.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
You'll meet the late Chris Stevens, a US ambassador, set
out to redefine America's relationship with the Arab world.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
He was smart, he was fearless, and certainly one of
the best diplomats we've ever had.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
And you'll hear from people who are in Benghazi. On
the night of the attack, we saw it happen from
close range. I could hear clearly green eights and number
of shots.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
I turned to the ambassador and said, if they blow
the locks, I'm going to start shooting, and when I die,
I want you to pick up my rifle and keep
on fighting.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
It didn't take long for the attack to become simply Benghazi.
The word entered American politics before the fighting was even over,
and almost fifteen years later, it hasn't really left.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
They said, the government is lying to you. What they're
saying happened did not happen. It was a fucking mess.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
It's really hard to figure out what's going on.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Everybody's looking at these coffins silently trying to figure out
what just happened.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
From prolog projects and Pushkin industries, this is fiasco Benghazi.
What difference at this point does it make? Yes, that's right,
Lock her up. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus to binge the
entire season of Fiasco Bengazi ad free starting September eighth

(03:25):
as a Pushkin Plus subscriber who also get bonus episodes,
full audiobooks, and binge's from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors.
Find Pushkin Plus on the Fiasco show page on Apple Podcasts,
or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus