Benghazi, April 4, 12:30 am.
I’m sitting in one of Benghazi’s best hotels. For some reason, there are few journalists and TV crews in this one — this seems to be where foreign-government types hang out. The demographic leans toward Caucasian men in navy-blue suits with salt-and-pepper hair. A UN delegation stayed here a few days ago. And the Transitional National Council is staying in special quarters next door as well.
Kaboom. Loud explosion. Sounds like a car bomb.
But car bombs haven’t been a part of this war. I go into the next room.
Me: “You guys hear that?”
Ahmad (a friend): “TNT.”
Me: “You think it was an attack on the Transitional Council?”
Ahmad: “They’re fishing.”
Me: “Huh?”
Ahmad: “In Benghazi, they use TNT to blow the fish out of the water.”
(This is a technique known as blast fishing.)
