This Week on 'Brian Ross Investigates': Reporter Exposes Houston's 'Libyan Connection'

April 4, 2011 — -- When a popular uprising exploded in Libya in mid-February, Moammar Gadhafi's son and military commander Khamis Gadhafi, charged with protecting the regime at all costs, was not there. Instead, Khamis was on a whirlwind, cross-country tour of the U.S. organized by an American company, flitting from the Port of Houston to Wall Street to the offices of major defense contractors with U.S. State Department approval.

On this week's episode of "Brian Ross Investigates," we hear from Wayne Dolcefino of KTRK-TV, the ABC owned-and-operated station in Houston, Texas, who broke the story.

The Port of Houston is one of the world's leading centers of petrochemical shipping. Dolcefino said he learned about Gadhafi's guided tour of Houston's sensitive port facilities, complete with catered lunch and photo ops, while conducting a larger investigation of the port.

"We got tips that they were very worried we would find out about this Libyan connection," said Dolcefino. "Once we got the documents and the photos we established this was just part of a two-year courtship."

The Port of Houston, explained Dolcefino, sought lucrative consulting business with Libya's ports. Libya is a major oil exporter. In a statement, the Port Authority told Dolcefino that because of an easing of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Libya it had entered into "formal agreements" to encourage trade "with the region."

Dolcefino said he thinks the story about Gadhafi's son is an "embarrassment" to the Port of Houston, but promised more stories in the coming weeks on other subjects that will also make the Port of Houston uncomfortable.

Gadhafi's trip was part of an internship program with Los Angeles-based engineering giant AECOM, set to span just over a month, and take Khamis to tours and meetings with high-profile universities and companies from Houston to L.A., San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York and Boston. Khamis visited Northwestern University, Northrop Grumman, the New York Stock Exchange and Lockheed Martin, among other destinations.

Back in Libya, Gadhafi commands a brutal military brigade named after him, and his family stands accused of hiring mercenaries to massacre civilians. Though he was rumored to have been killed in a suicide attack, last week Libyan state television featured footage of Khamis riding atop a vehicle at Gadhafi's Tripoli compound and rallying the faithful.

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