“What If It’s All Fiction?”
The search for the Ghost Boat is entering a painstaking phase right now, as the remaining threads get tangled up in all kinds of complicated, messy ways—our efforts on the ground trying to work through the bureaucracy of Italian law, or the fluctuating security situation in Libya.
But the investigation is still making progress. On Wednesday, episode 7 will examine what information we can glean from search and rescue, and lay out some of the things we’ve learned in the past few days.
Today, though, we have two new pieces of evidence for you.
This Just In
First: An excerpt from Mare Monstrum, Mare Nostrum—a book by the Italian investigative journalist cristina giudici, detailing the conflict between law enforcement and people smugglers. In this particular chapter, she explores the details of Operation Tokhla and meets many of those involved in the case.
“Here in Catania, they arrest the smugglers and traffickers. The police aren’t paid to understand them.”
Some new clues in there worth considering. (Here’s the Italian original)
Second, we have narrowed down some of the vessel tracking information. Now we have a list of 40 vessels that were in the same area(s) we believe the Ghost Boat would have sailed—if it ever left the coast. We’ve opened up that spreadsheet and want you to help find out more about these boats. Maybe we’ll find more information from the owners of those boats, or even witnesses among the crew.
Morsels
Cyril Chen caught up on an idea that was being discussed a while back: What can we find out from the cellphone records of those on the boat? “I’m thinking that the Libyan phone operators would be more helpful as the passengers were in Libya when they boarded the Ghost Boat,” he writes. Meanwhile, thomdahl sums up the project for Danish readers: “Tænk hvis det hele er fiktion” (“I’m even back with the feeling: What if it’s all fiction. Like I did when I heard the brilliant Serial roll off the playlist.”)
Sadly, desperately, it’s definitely not fiction.
Onward.
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