In 2011, I wanted to cover the uprising in Libya.
So, like so many journalists we snuck in through Egypt.
We knew that one of the great risks for us journalists
was getting caught by Qaddafi's forces.
So, on March 15th 2011, I was working with
Tyler Hicks, Anthony Shadid and Steve Farrell
and we were covering the frontline in Ajdabiya.
We knew that the city was going to fall
all the signs were there, civilians were fleeing.
The mortar-rounds were walking towards our position.
That's a sign that they are zooming in on a position.
We wanted to stay as long as we possibly could
to get the freshest reporting.
Our driver started getting calls saying
Qaddafi's troops were in the city
and that we had to leave, and we ignored him.
That's the first mistake, you never ignore your driver.
We stayed, we kept photographing and working on the frontline
and by the time we decided to flee
we drove directly into one of Qaddafi's checkpoints.
This is the exact position that we were taken hostage.
If you look at Bryan Denton's name
he's a photographer for the New York Times
that's where our car was stopped.
You have to make a decision
when you approach a hostile checkpoint.
"Do you stop and announce yourself as journalists
and hope that they don't kill you.
Or do you try and drive through the checkpoint
and hope that they don't open fire."
We are all yelling something different
"Drive, go, stop."
Our driver panicked, he stopped the car
and jumped out, he said we're journalists.
At that point Qaddafi's troops ripped us out of the car.
The rebels that we were with
started opening fire on that checkpoint
and we were caught in a wall of bullets.
There were bullets everywhere.
I did not get out of the car at that point.
All the men had jumped out and had been pulled out.
I was still sitting behind
where the driver had been sitting on the left-hand side.
I put my head in my lap and started
sort of prayed that it would all go away. And it did not.
And so, I felt the bullets everywhere
and I said, "Okay, I have to get out of the car."
because a car is not armored, it does not protect you.
I crawled across the backseat, jumped out
and one of Qaddafi's troops was immediately on me
pulling my cameras, of course I'm pulling back instinctively
which is not very smart, and so he's pulling back
and we're in the middle of the road
and I feel bullets everywhere.
So, I suddenly thought, "Okay, I have to make a run for it."
So, each one of us tried to get behind this cement building.
When we got behind the building
we were told to lie face down in the dirt.
Each one of us had a gun put to our heads.
They were about to execute us, and the commander came over
and said, "You can't kill them, they're American."
And we don't know why he said that
but Anthony later translated that for us.
In that moment they took my shoes off my feet
tied me up with my shoe laces
my wrists and my ankles together and carried me away.
They put me and Steve in one vehicle on the frontline
and Tyler and Anthony in another
and they kept us there for hours
while sniper-fire, bullets and bombs rained around us.
We were tied up, we couldn't go anywhere.
At that point as the fighting got closer
they decided they wanted us to live.
The entire time we were punched in the face.
The men were smashed in the back of the head with gun-butts
and I was groped.
That went on for the first three days.
We were eventually put in prison we spent a night in prison
which actually was the first time
we were allowed to speak to each other openly
because before we were blindfolded
so we were scared to speak to one another.
Then we were flown to Tripoli
and we were held there for three days
and eventually we were released.
This is our release as we were brought to the Turkish embassy.
The Turkish government was acting as a proxy
for the American government because
the Americans had pulled out of Tripoli
And this is our car.
Two weeks later Bryan Denton went back
to see if they can find our driver.
Our driver was never seen again.
We don't know if he was killed in that moment
when he jumped out of the car, or if he was executed
or if he was put in prison.
But the New York Times sent a team back
to try and look for him
and they found our car on the side of the road
and they found my shoe.