EASON JORDAN, PRESIDENT, NEWSGATHERING & INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS: A few days before the war broke out, we received a call on the international assignment desk, sort of the nerve center, in preparation for our coverage of the Gulf War. And the caller said that he was Moammar Gadhafi, and he wanted to speak on CNN to tell the world his plan to avert the Gulf War. Well, one of my colleagues turned to me who took this call and he said, "I have a caller. He says he is Moammar Gadhafi." And I said, "Well, is he speaking English?" And my deputy said, "Yes, he is speaking perfect English." And I said, "Well, we have interviewed Moammar Gadhafi many times and he always gives his interviews in Arabic, and so I doubt that he would be calling here in English." So, I politely suggested that my colleague hang up on the caller. And he called back time and time again. "This is Moammar Gadhafi," and before he could even say his full name we were hanging up the phone. We started receiving calls from outraged Libyan diplomats who wanted to know how CNN could possibly hang up on their great leader, and so I still didn't believe it. I thought it was a prank. So, I said, "Well, if that really is your great leader, Mr. Gadhafi, we would ask that you put up a satellite feed so we can see him." And so, an hour or so later, up popped Moammar Gadhafi from his tent in Tripoli, Libya. It was really him. And I said to him, "Mr. Gadhafi, where did you learn to speak such good English?" And he said, "Well, I watch CNN."
CNN 20: A Call from Gadhafi, January, 1991