In August of 2017, CNN received footage of what appeared to be the auctioning off of African men, which appeared to have occurred somewhere in Libya. In October, they decided to travel to Libya to verify the authenticity of that video, and what they found was shocking, to say the least. You can view some of their footage here.

In an exclusive report, Nima Elbagir, with help from other CNN reporters and an anonymous source, was able to find one of at least nine sites near the capital where African migrants were being sold into slavery.

How and why did this come about, you ask? Okay, bear with me for this short history lesson. Libya is a country in North Africa in between Algeria and Egypt. In recent years, the country has been increasingly unstable and some would even call it ravished in chaos. Prior to 2011, Libya was run by an arguably sadistic dictator, Muammar al-Gaddafi. For decades, Gaddafi ruled Libya with an iron fist, denouncing any form of capitalism. In 1986, tensions arose between Libya and the U.S after the two fought one another in disputed water off of the Libyan coast. After that, Gaddafi was linked to multiple attacks, including the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco, where two U.S service men were killed, and the 1989 bombing of a plane, which was headed to New York from Scotland. In the early 2000's, the United Nations agreed to ease sanctions in Libya in exchange for Gaddafi's co-operation into the plane bombing where a single Libyan service agent was convicted. Though run by a mad-man, Libya was actually considered a stable country.

In 2003, former U.S President George Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair reached an agreement with Gaddafi, At the beginning of what we now know as the never-ending Iraq war, Gaddafi admitted to having "unconventional" weapons, and deceiving international nuclear inspectors for years. Gaddafi agreed to dispose of his weapons program, hand over information on al-Qaeda and open up his country and in return, the U.S and its allies wouldn't, for lack of a better term, pop-the-fuck-off. From then on, relations between Libya and the West had been peaceful.

Fast forward to 2011. The Middle East went through a series of uprisings, dubbed "Arab Spring." Basically, protesters in multiple Arab nations were tired of dictatorship and raised concerns over corruption, unemployment, and brutality. Naturally, Gaddafi threatened the protesters in his country and a NATO coalition jumped in to the aid the protesters. This is where things get unnecessarily interesting. At the time, Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. She decided that the U.S should join opposition forces in Libya despite the 2003 agreement. She along with the help of the Obama Administration succeeded in overthrowing Gaddafi and on October 20th 2011, he was killed by opposition fire. Sounds great, right? Well, everyone had forgotten one super important thing in this half-baked plan. Libya was a stable nation that had been run by the same leader for over 40 years. It had no idea how to pick up the pieces and become a democratic nation overnight. Since 2011, Libya has been in shambles and now that they have lost ground in Iraq and Syria, the country has been a hot-bed for jihadists.

So, what is my point? What does this have to do with slavery?

Every year thousands of migrants from varying African countries, including, Nigeria, Mali, Niger and Ghana, fleeing conflict or financial hardship pass through Libya as they attempt to smuggle themselves across the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. After Gaddafi was killed, thousands of Libyans fled the country and flooded parts of Europe, momentarily destabilizing their economies. Since then, the Libyan coastguard began cracking down on the amount of vessels leaving Libya. Because less boats are travelling to to European cities, these tens of thousands of African migrants are left in the hands of their Libyan smugglers, who prey on their vulnerability. Refuge is Europe is not guaranteed for most of these migrants. While some die at sea, most never make it to the boat as they are kidnapped by these smugglers. Many are even diverted by to Libya by other coastguards. These migrants have left their homes in various parts of Africa with little to nothing and have likely spent all the money they had on their travels to Libya and their fee to these smugglers. Their lives are now literally in the hands of their smugglers who are forced to house them to avoid detection . To "cover debts" these smugglers are now selling off these migrants as laborers for as little as what equates to $400USD, and many are held for ransom. It is slavery in 2017. And who is to deserves a large portion of the blame? Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration.

Elbagir spoke to some of these migrants who had been rescued and sent to a detention center awaiting deportation back to their countries of origin. One man named Victory told his story of being sold off multiple times and when his smugglers had decided that they had not made enough from his sales, they sent a ransom order to his family back in Nigeria. He detailed being "beaten," "mutilated," and even sodomized. His hopeful journey to Europe took him over a year, but he only made it to Libya where he was tortured. Finally rescued, he along with thousands sit it a detention room with little food or water waiting to be deported.

While these recent reports of modern say slavery have triggered a weird collective of traumatic deja vu, it really didn't come out of nowhere. According to the publication, ZeroHedge, a March 2011 intelligence brief that was uploaded to wikileaks proves that Hillary Clinton knew in 2011 that Black Libyans were being executed by anti-Gaddafi rebels backed by U.S troops.

But even years later, as such race-based war crimes have now been exhaustively documented, Hillary has consistently indicated that she has no regrets. Though her beloved Libyan rebels, legitimized and empowered through broad support from the West, were literally killing people based on the color of their skin, not a single one has ever been convicted in a court of law or punished for their crimes.

According to these reports, the former Secretary of State knew what was happening to Black bodies in the state she tore apart, but opted to wipe her hands of the situation because of course she had bigger fish to fry. She had to prepare for her second failed attempt at a presidency. The U.N estimates around 700,000 migrants in Libya and for years these migrants have told their stories, but no one was there to listen.

In the past week protesters in Paris stormed the Libyan Embassy there demanding an explanation. "How can it be that in the 21st century, we're selling human beings like merchandise?" one woman at the Paris protest said. "I cannot get my head around that!" Not surprising though, coverage in the U.S has been minimal and slow outside of the initial CNN report and the handful of celebrities posting about it on their social media. One can't help but think that if it were white people being sold into slavery that there would have been a trending hashtag by the end of the day, a Facebook profile photo filter, oh yeah, and complete outrage.

CNN handed over its evidence of what was happening to Libyan authorities, and earlier this week it was announced that a formal investigation was underway overseen by the country's Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency.

Make no mistake, this U.S led NATO Coalition is what triggered this state of affairs in Libya for these African migrants and it should be part of this current administration's agenda to step in. Why isn't this happening? It's because when Libya is struggling with its leadership and chaos ensues, it's easy for the U.S to take advantage and to tap into their resources like they've done to other parts of the African continent for centuries. Instead of worrying about Matt Lauer, golf and "fake news," The Cheeto-in-Chief should be righting this country's past wrongs on the African continent and he can start with helping to rescue these migrants.