gadhafi is right hand man. visited beirut during the civil war though he never met us other. the first meeting between the a man and gadhafi occurred in one thousand nine hundred seventy five. according to our solders sun it was not amicable. we had. shaved head. between nine hundred seventy six and nine hundred seventy seven a start of intensified his efforts to end the lebanese war. many lebanese admired his courage and charisma but the found it difficult to mediate in a country so divided. came in march nine hundred seventy eight

israel invaded south lebanon under the pretext of crushing the p.l.o. . the united nations issued resolution four to five calling on israel to withdraw immediately. israel fly out of the un resolution and set up what it called a security zone in south lebanon. toward the arab world to plead the case for south lebanon. then all jury in president who are a boom in dnd recommended the man meet the libyan leader. sutter agreed and contacted gadhafi the libyan leader invited us to visit him in tripoli. lawyer his saini has followed the case of the disappearance of a mammal sutter and his to compare. thought to be. more

than cool. to me in the. remembers her brother's determination to visit libya despite warnings about gadhafi is unpredictability. only. yeah i mean i'm young so horny and work through. them and they had their foot i. the second of our solders two companions who went missing with him was a journalist bus but dean. is eldest son recalls the last moments before his father's departure. from and she.

painted us. that would us me and called to him without it was us me. the libyan embassy in beirut arranged three tickets on the middle east airlines flight from. from beirut to tripoli via benghazi. on the eve of his departure spent the night at his sister's. for. a better look at our door. by the insurer learn. more. about.

their. cell phone. cell phone all the while and. on the twenty fifth of all this nine hundred seventy eight. and his two companions lead the route for libya. at eight pm the n.e.a. flights landed at tripoli international airport. a southerner and his two companions that disembarked from the plane no one was there to meet them. at the terminal building they were eventually met by. head of the libyan foreign communication bureau. al jazeera interviewed who millard

a protocol employee at the libyan foreign communication bureau who remembers the arrival of the man and he's two companions. that awful. lot of. the new sea was libya's intelligence chief and would become one of gadhafi his closest confidants over the years. when tripoli fell to rebel fighters in two thousand and eleven as the new seize office was ransacked many

classified documents were lost or destroyed amid the chaos of the downfall of gadhafi regime any hope of discovering a paper trail in our investigation into the disappearance of mosul souther and his companions was made more difficult. i mean you stuck a ballistic about it can feel an itch or stuff but it's the feel of the stuff by them and will be the. libyan officials left the airport with their lebanese guests . saddam and his two companions were driven to the i shot the hotel in tripoli where they would stay. this is where the shot the hotel one stood. all the remains

a rusty signpost and scattered concrete ruins. and. in two thousand and seven the hotel was demolished another element in the story of assad there in libya that has disappeared. the ashanti hotel had been among the classiest in tripoli as a place hosting foreign visitors it was heavily monitored by the libyan intelligence service visit to libya coincided with the anniversary celebrations of the september first revolution in one nine hundred sixty nine when gadhafi had seized power. government employee who some milat had been assigned to the man and his two companions during their visit. to the front office of the. little kind of healthy. lead now let me have the.

only answer. we should that be has and that is in the back of stuff out. and i'll stop there are no sort of. caught up in what i said marked up well let me stop there. so too and i will in my muscle so that we see out of the. well to. be amish had one of. the foreign communication bureau who's close to the hotel once again who some notice the sudden received. of the stock will in. america be walking from one american model much the long. hall of the clock the shuttle only.

but look of the filo. ahmed shah to be the only. inshallah. malcolm. now that i will not. fail. spent five days waiting for an appointment with. the libyan government restricted the free movement of the a man and his companions. and they were provided no means of communication with the outside world. in lebanon in mom's family began to worry. well. painting on.

the all. be. highly paid that. can kill myself will really determine. your million. caylee. been. gone. on the twenty ninth of august nine hundred seventy eight jordanian journalists shack joe harry arrived at the hotel to cover the anniversary of libya's revolution he remembers meeting the mom who did not seem to him at ease. to learn from book to live the our form. so.

that we will know who those who are and if you jimi. husseini offers a reason why the a mom may have seemed anxious to be. perhaps the interim felt the phone call was to bring news of the meeting he was waiting for . for the third time the meeting was postponed. the patience of the him was wearing thin. but. what

can. be. more it. would limit. the. amount of being sad i didn't have the. more this. company was part of the official lebanese delegation in libya to attend the anniversary celebrations and which meant gadhafi. because if. so what how is. that.

how we. can. be. sure but. what about the. whole. of.

on august thirty first jordanian journalist joe henry met in the hotel lobby. we have you with. for your book. for. this to. work. with us. and the who were there. to earth and look where you were. and. who. you were there you see. you know their interests. their wanted to go to paris where his wife was in hospital this meant missing celebrations for the anniversary of gadhafi september first revolution.

hell. i would let fear away at. a lot of lead. to get. your ideas. from the shot. from book. with couple of needs a skinnier than the. teen. says. the brief conversation between. diem and dean suggests our souther was heading to

meet gadhafi that day. after checking out the bumped into journalist i'll show her in the lobby. she was the last person to see them leave the hotel. there were just what year olds who were just. a shift from. the. book work at the work of. believe or sold the meal comes a little early so you know if you have work of his so you are aware. of the look to. her mother who. is either. one of your. say. to some of us and get the.

pakistan did not have the ability to take on every network no one's also needed to fight all of them big enough to sponsor them as well in search of the missing pieces i was in every important meeting support for the moment he said i like doing all right to tell you that i was not the pakistani puzzle when you go the news of bin laden was killed were you surprised or was your reaction oh they found him the place we continue we will but we don't want anyone to know mehdi hasan goes head to head with the former pakistani foreign minister on al-jazeera. al-jazeera where every.

an ambitious health system restore that paid off the show kind of push of the medium. ten million over ninety six million citizens to receive health care without paying insurance premiums. that extraordinary story of turkey's monumental health care transformation and the people at the heart of it the people's health on al-jazeera. has. the headlines on al-jazeera donald trump's former lawyer has pled guilty to breaking campaign finance laws during the twenty sixteen election michael cohen says trump directed him to pay money to women who claimed to have had affairs the jury in virginia has found former trump campaign manager paul man afford guilty of

eight fraud charges both cases emerge from robert miller's investigation into alleged russian interference. u.s. national security advisor john bolton says a lot more pressure will be applied on iran over its nuclear plans and the war in syria has been holding three days of talks in israel bolton suggests working with russia to get iranian forces out of syria consequences of the reduction in resources available to the regime we think is already manifested in some extent in constraints on the could force in. syria in iraq and perhaps also in its assistant to the hutus in yemen and that's very important we're going to do other things to put pressure on iran as well beyond economic sanctions as a top court is hearing a challenge by the main opposition party to last month's presidential election

result opposition leader nelson chamisa says the vote was rigged in favor of president emerson and god who won with just over fifty percent of the been violent protests after prayers in indian administered kashmir on wednesday several people injured in srinagar doing demonstrations against india's rule stones were thrown at security forces who used tear gas and fired shots into the crowd protests spread to several of the towns hundreds of koreans are returning home from a rare reunion with relatives separated by the korean war really two hundred south korean spent three days in a north more reunions will take place on friday leaders of the two koreas agreed to resume the meetings in june the migrants have stormed a spanish border post and made it into the north african enclave of seven spanish police were injured after acid in the line was thrown as a group of around one hundred people told down a fence separating it from morocco last month more than six hundred migrants made

it across are clear similar assault those are the headlines now back to exit a world. in march nine hundred seventy eight lebanon was invaded by israel. souther charismatic leader of lebanon's shia muslim sect sought regional assistance . on august the twenty fifth nine hundred seventy eight southern traveled to libya to meet muammar gaddafi. six days later on august thirty first an official motorcade left tripoli's a shouty hotel carrying a souther and two colleagues shaikh mohammad and journalist

a bust and bad readin. the three men were never seen again. question soon began to be asked about what had happened to them and whether they had actually made the libyan leader or not. several days after their disappearance libyan government official who some milat who had been assigned to be ma'am and his companions was visited by an agent from libyan intelligence agent was keen to assure milat that a meeting between the a ma'am and gadhafi had never occurred or were you know a man of humanity. how the shafts. of. attack if. you're from any other cuts. are step. in suffered. far we're learning a lot more carbon

a lot of the money third job and we have a shock and the model. of the. hospital. but the economy in. the last known sighting of the a man and his two companions was them a leaving the hotel in tripoli on august thirty first one nine hundred seventy eight witnesses who saw them leave claim they were being taken to meet get happy in his private tent. it's difficult to track down anyone who was present at any such meeting but reports of filtered out that there was indeed a meeting between the m.m. and the colonel and that the meeting did not go well.

former libyan military advisor mohammad was tripoli's prosecutor at the time of the amount of the visit he heard several reports of the meeting and the topics discussed. the feel he had. what he. had committed. and had it. for.

had it. was a member of libya's revolutionary council in one nine hundred sixty nine he confirms the story of a heated exchange over religion where suddenly a. female . lawyer husseini confirms the truth is hard to ascertain without conclusive evidence . that the.

how long. it talian journalist stefan yellin miti has followed the case of us others disappearance she does not believe there was murdered on a point of religious dispute from coming day. why has an italian journalist been following the case of a lebanese a man who disappeared in libya. the answer there is an italian connection to the story three tickets were booked in the name of. and his two companions alitalia flight eight eighty one heading from tripoli to rome. the libyan authorities requested urgent entrance visas for us and yacoob from the

italian embassy in tripoli their french be uses issued in beirut were cancelled. there is evidence that passports of assad her and his companions were altered. even in the thirty first nine hundred seventy eight southerner and his two companions were driven to the departure terminal of tripoli airport. exit stamps found later in the passports were dated on that day. but did they actually leave libya. what is known is that three men carrying their passports and bearing their names did board the flight to rome. shortly before midnight the alitalia plane landed in rome airport.

men carrying the passports of a man who saw our souther and shaikh mohammed who had entry visas stamped. he. a transit to use it was issued for the man carrying the passport of. his passport has to this day never been recovered. the three men left the airport after midnight. the libyan embassy in rome it is believed that the three men spent the night here. the next morning september the first nine hundred seventy eight two men checked in at the holiday inn hotel in rome. one was bearded and dressed in a religious robe the other was in civilian clothes the two men checked in for two

rooms and paid in cash for a one week stay at the hotel. ten minutes later the two men were seen leaving the hotel both dressed in civilian clothes and carrying luggage. ten days after the disappearance of the a man italian police discovered the luggage and passports of other. crew in the hotel in rome. but. something i something i thought. either.

the italian authorities interrogated crew and passengers of the alitalia flight as well as staff at the airport and the hotel after a nine month investigation in a nine hundred seventy nine the italian authorities concluded that in southern and his two companions had not entered italy the libyan regime continued to insist that a southerner and his two companions had left tripoli for libyan assertions were unconvincing is especially as gadhafi kept changing his story. how well it. they have had. a lot of this if you want to treat it mean anything with. the killer massage and they will. whether.

they want to talk a. little more the ball more than even the many. others given what i think of it. we have to be really sure what to do. they're going to have the idea we're going to really be going to do what he would never let me leave you. we're the other thirty who were the only enemy of the general mood. and those of. the lebanese government and the families of those missing remain suspicious of gadaffi his declarations they held the libyan leader responsible for the abductions . there were also questions around a possible italian role in the strange affair. and our

start up it should be only date anti cause the level of the sport he said. much. of the story would be. all the pertinent to. this incident. for. a year after the disappearance of. other and his two companions the libyan regime machine. details of its preliminary investigation to italian authorities. italy contested the libyan account saying its conclusions were flawed to counter these charges the libyan regime produced employees who testified to the departure of the a man and his two companions from libya. al jazeera met former

immigration officer abdurahman go away lawyer who was working in tripoli airport on the night the a man and his two companions disappeared. we went with abdirahman go to his former work place at the immigration office. it was here in december nine hundred seventy nine that he is then boss called omar kuwait or had orders him to bear false witness who would your lady. of and yet out of. the america we had the. most of that. and then been. we. feel your. i look good i can.

see that it. limits the matter they can m. . fer the best of luck to her there was never that. one has said and i'm only alice or her does that to be. another libyan immigration officer who worked at the airport was also compelled by libyan security agents to testify that he had seen him. and his two companions leave tripoli. for the and. what with it because i really really believe. that i'm the. only the. which of late i want to share this.

piece together different. with other good ones. that i. should point out here. on january the first one nine hundred eighty abdurahman go weyler was summoned by libyan intelligence to confirm his testimony. but that the. source of the year was. while he. would be headed there was indeed the.

one week later the two immigration officers and the tarhouni will each summoned for further questioning by the libyan judiciary. this is what i took. with me to the battle could. you could. but. this is. what was going on at that. i mean when you have here and how do. you. there was muscle support. that there was that but what about a month or so that there was there was a battle there for a while

a lot of there was that the level had. been two thousand and five duffy asked italian prime minister silvio berlusconi to reopen the investigation into the case of. course in rome subsequently reported that there was no new evidence but the report hinted a father and his two companions might have disappeared in italy. italian lawyer has followed the case of the disappearance he's skeptical of the reports from the courts ordered by berlusconi.

but. after the fall of gadhafi regime in two thousand and eleven a number of his former aides spoke out about what had happened to. other abdul rahman who shall go i'm a former libyan foreign minister claimed the man and his companions had been killed by palestinian militant abu nidal who had been close to gadhafi. another top aide of the libyan leader ahmed ramadan claimed during a t.v. interview following his arrest that gadhafi is communication secretary. was linked to the disappearance. former government minder who is skeptical of ramadan

claims. however and fee. then they are not. only among the mom of the shut the sons of gadhafi secretary. have denied the accusations against their father they produced his death certificate stating he died on march the seventh one thousand nine hundred seventy eight in a plane crash five months before. visited libya. major abdul muna m l who also heard stories about the fate of the other has. separate.

you. never. there are numerous different and sometimes contradictory stories about the fate of saddam and his two companions the uncertainty is compounded by the fact that no bodies have ever been discovered. in beirut the lebanese judiciary and the families of those missing have never been convinced by reports from libya. who had. had a. better way. than in the early.

early. besides stories of their murder there have also been reports of the him and his two companions being held at one time or another in secret prisons in libya. a former prison guard. was arrested after gadhafi his downfall he was himself in prison and. sources from inside the prison were most odious held told al-jazeera of what he revealed under interrogation. by sewed claimed he had guarded. between one thousand nine hundred ninety two and nine hundred ninety five in a secret prison in tripoli. we were not granted permission to meet and interview must so rude. the former prison. in north tripoli holds another story. al-jazeera visited the place with witness.

and former prisoner. says he was imprisoned here in two thousand and one and he remembers seeing on the wall of his cell the words. that. time may have raised the words. to say. but how. do you weigh. that as. our from each year lebanon's shia community marks the day of the in mom's disappearance. shortly after gadhafi was

killed lebanon sent an investigation team to tripoli which visited a number of jails and detention centers in several cities. was. the team pave the way for a high level lebanese diplomatic mission to meet libya's new leaders the delegation included the son of. the lebanese and libyan government agreed to make renewed efforts to investigate the secret prisons and to question former members of the libyan regime. think. the.

act of a pub or. who is. far . more. senior in. many state secrets may have gone to the grave with colonel muammar gaddafi the disappearance and presumed murder of solder and his two companions still raises questions to this day. sutter often spoke of the need for truth and justice for those without

a voice. his words ring truer than ever not least to resolve the case of his own strange disappearance. for thousands of years families and shepherds lived off this land. but such a traditional way of life is under increasing threat. al jazeera won't travels to

the jordan valley where illegal settlements are expanding and the israeli military cordons off more of the land. what will become of the palestinian families and does the palestinian authority at any power to have shepherds of the jordan valley on al-jazeera. from a fresh coastal breeze. to watching the sunset on the australian outback. hello there we've got some rain that's pushing its way across chile at the moment the satellite picture shows that cloud approaching from the southwest so in santiago today they'll be a fair amount of cloud around maybe a few outbreaks of rain but that rain will really push in as we head through into

thursday that's when the temperatures will be dropping as well so a cool wet day in santiago with a maximum just of twelve degrees over the mountains it looks like we're going to see a fair amount of snow further east should be fine for us in buenos aires a bit more cloud around during the day on the day and the temperatures recovering force in asuncion we should make it up to around twenty five degrees for the central americans plenty of showers hey you can see the loonie on our satellite picture so sunshine and showers the order of the day as we head through the next couple of days looks like we'll see more clatter around the eastern parts of the uk a temp an inch that this area looks pretty wet as we head through wednesday and thursday to if we head up towards north america in the west it's been fine unsettled recently we're seeing a little bit more cloud here now as some of this is giving us some or all the heavy rain and gradually it's all pushing its way eastward so. still saying more or less where it is joining the day to day even edgy eastwards as we head into thursday for the eastern parts of canada or in the northeastern parts of the u.s. we've still got more clouds here and still some outbreaks of rain at times it

should clear away though as we head into thursday. the weather sponsored by cats all these. years. i really feel liberated as a journalist loves you and is going to look through all that i will that's what this job. this is zero. has i'm sick of this is the news hour live from dot coming up in the next sixty minutes. what will it all mean for president trump his lawyer and mitt's paying

hush money and his ex campaign boss is found guilty of financial crimes. zimbabwe's opposition goes to the highest court aiming to get the presidential election result from now. a desperate journey across the border thousands of venezuelans continue to flee economic and political turmoil. and support our rare china at the asian games in indonesia had failed to claim it six consecutive gold medal in the women's battle of ten after losing to japan in the final. blow we begin this hour with the fallout from two criminal cases hitting right to the heart of donald trump's presidency a guilty plea from the u.s. president's former lawyer and the conviction of his ex campaign manager fresh legal

and political challenges for trump in virginia. and a man of four two was found guilty of eight counts of fraud involving millions of dollars of foreign money and in new york times former lawyer michael cohen admitted he was directed by him to pay off two women who claimed extramarital affairs with him a legal experts say cohen's admission stablish is trump as a coconspirator but on the current justice department policy a sitting u.s. president cannot be criminally prosecuted krisna salumi has more from new york. he was the president's fixer his long time attorney the man who dealt with issues before they became big problems michael cohen arrived at the office of federal investigators in new york on tuesday representing potentially be biggest problem of donald trump's presidency he pleaded guilty to eight charges brought by federal prosecutors including that he paid an adult film star stormy daniels to keep quiet during trump's run for president after she claimed they had an affair the president

at first denied all knowledge when asked about the payments. but in court cohen said it was at the direction of then candidate trump that he made the payment as well as one to another woman a former playboy model karen mcdougal over their alleged affair. what he did was he worked to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the two thousand and sixteen campaign and to the candidate and the campaign cohen's name came across the desk of special counsel robert muller during his investigation into alleged collusion between the trump campaign and russia he referred what he found to prosecutors in new york and in april they instructed the f.b.i. to raid cohen's home an office in new york they seized boxes of documents including communications between donald trump and collins in

a statement president trump's current attorney rudy giuliani said there is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president and the government's charges against mr cohen mr collins actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time but michael cohen's lawyer lanny davis said his client had testified that quote donald trump to wrecked it him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principle purpose of influencing an election if those payments were a crime for michael cohen then why wouldn't they be a crime for donald trump michael cohen now faces up to five years in prison he's a man who once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump now people are wondering how much of a mark his case will leave on the president of the united states presidents only al jazeera new york. a lot now think and to gallop outside the white house andy the big go watery out of these two cases for right now would be. concerning

michael cohen as a been anything new on that as americans wake up today. all right. it doesn't appear that andy can hear me at the moment apologies for that we'll move on for now in the last few minutes though we have heard from the u.s. president on his preferred medium twitter he says if anyone is looking for a good lawyer i would strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of michael cohen. but james voice is a political historian specializing in politics in washington he joins us live from london thanks very much for being with a shame so what does all this mean for the u.s. president now at this point how much of a threat is this to him personally and to his presidency where it's

a great threat and perhaps i can also help out by answering the question that you were posing to your correspondent in washington that he couldn't hear because in the last couple of hours breaking news this morning lanny davis the lawyer for michael cohen has come out and said effectively that michael cohen would refuse to accept a pardon from donald trump suggesting that he's also happy and willing to cooperate fully with robert muller and to provide data about the alleged collusion with russia that donald trump of course has denied all along and was saying as late as last night effectively where's the beef where is all this heading this was meant to be about russia well michael cohen appears willing and able to offer the beans effectively on that situation so perhaps donald trump should be careful what he wishes for while a lot of people will say that the this is this is a huge blow. for trump at the moment but his supporters will continue to say that

this is all part of a grand conspiracy and that they will continue to stand behind behind him so does this really change things in that respect. well let's be honest about it support in politics can be very very fickle and certainly donald trump's caught piece of supporters within the republican party or indeed standing by him as you saw at the campaign rally last night but i think that it's entirely possible that this could move very very quickly as it did with watergate don't forget i remind everybody that richard nixon was elected in overwhelming majority in one nine hundred seventy two and less than two years later on he had been forced to resign the office so when these things move they can move very very quickly glad you brought up watergate because what happened there. is that his own party. nixon's own party turned against him. but we're not we're certainly not seeing any

indication of that from from the republicans today we're trying so what why do you think things what is there any reason for that to change in your view. well you're absolutely right and as long as the republican party sort of around the wagons around donald trump and basically inoculate him he can stay in office certainly until twenty twenty when he would face the voters one more time in a campaign for reelection. that could change change of course in one thousand nine hundred seventy four with the emergence of what was known as the smoking gun tape when richard nixon was heard directing individuals to try and block the f.b.i. investigation into watergate so if something can merge that was our primary facia evidence for example of an obstruction of justice or of a collusion with russia for example that might make life difficult for the republican party we need to see what happens of course moving forward poor man of four is facing a second trial in washington d.c. next month on unrelated charges which are very very serious indeed he already faces

spending the rest of his life in prison it's not impossible that donald trump could of course pardon for in the aftermath of those two trials if he did that that could again raise questions about obstruction of justice michael flynn will be sentenced in december he's disgraced national security adviser you know and these are just the tip of the iceberg of other people who may well be brought to trial by a man a for is going after this as one would a criminal trial against organized crime you basically bring in the lower level individuals and you slowly build a case up against the top dog effectively the top dog is the president and if interest to see how quickly these individuals are turning against their former boss but on a poor man a for this this last trial and the trial that he is he's going to be dealing with the do you mention there. as far as you know any neither one of them is connected to the accusations of russian russian involve russian interference in

the election collusion and so on. as his as donald trump supporters of right have pointed out several times so where where does this threaten the president them directly. well you're absolutely right but of course that's like saying well monica lewinsky had nothing to do with the whitewater land investigation that was the initial focus of the special prosecutor back in the one nine hundred ninety s. bill clinton was warned back in one thousand nine hundred eighty three that if you appoint a special prosecutor they become like a roving searchlight it's their job to find any think the democrats found that out to their detriment in the ninety's and the republican party and donald trump are discovering that to their sugar and no doubt here now in the twenty first century robert muller has a wide remits and he's using that to go after these lower level individuals in an attempt to get them to turn state's witness effectively against donald trump to talk about the real issue at the heart of the matter and that is the russian

collusion situation michael cohen has already said through his attorney this morning that he's prepared to do that we'll have to wait and see it seems that matter for he's hoping to basically stay silent in the hope that he will get a presidential pardon that's not impossible but again as i alluded to earlier that could indeed trigger accusations of obstruction of justice the could weaken donald trump within the rip the republican party could to get your thoughts on this james boyce joining us there from london thanks very much all right happy to report we now can go to any gallagher who can hear me now he is live outside the white house and he was talking there with. with our analyst in london about. michael cohen's lawyer who's been talking again this morning in the u.s. about michael cohen talking further about donald trump which which could be more bad news for the u.s. president. i mean an extraordinary twenty four hours for the trumpet ministration

as you said michael cohen's lawyer saying that he is more than happy to help with the miller inquiry saying specifically there is information on that now. that meeting in trump tower where they were digging for dirt on an opponent so it seems that he's more than happy to help president trump himself has just tweeted out in the last few minutes saying something along the lines of if you want to hire a lawyer i suggest you do not retain the services of michael cohen that's the only thing the president has said so far he did make a comment yesterday after the poor man a verdict came down saying that he was a good man he then went on to list all the administrations that pomona fort hood worked for in previous years in an attempt i guess to distance himself from someone who was his campaign manager for a short amount of time so this is essentially a double hurricane as it's being described here in washington d.c. within a few hours we had two president trump's close allies one a long time.