Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi (Arabic: معمر القذافي Muʿammar al-Qaḏḏāfī); born 7 June 1942), also known as Colonel Gaddafi, has been the leader of Libya since a coup in 1969.His regime was associated with numerous acts of state-sponsored terrorism in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.From 1972, when Gaddafi relinquished the title of prime minister, he has been accorded the honorific "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" (or more concisely as "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution") in government statements and the official press.With the death of Omar Bongo of Gabon on 8 June 2009, he became the longest serving of all current non-royal national leaders and he is one of the longest-serving rulers in history. He is also the longest-serving ruler of Libya since the country became an Ottoman province in 1551 (see Ottoman Libya).Gaddafi is alleged to have amassed a multi-billion fortune for himself and his family.
In early February 2011, major political protests (inspired by recent similar events in Tunisia, Egypt and other parts of the Arab world), which quickly turned into a general uprising, broke out in Libya against Gaddafi's government. By 26 February 2011, Gaddafi was reported as having lost control of much of the country.
Name
Because of the lack of standardization of transliterating written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been transliterated in many different ways into English and other Latin alphabet languages. Even though the Arabic spelling of a word does not change, the pronunciation may vary in different varieties of Arabic, which may cause a different romanization. In literary Arabic the name معمر القذافي can be pronounced /muˈʕamːaru lqaðˈðaːfiː/. [ʕ] represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative (ع). Geminated consonants can be simplified. In Libyan Arabic, /q/ (ق) may be replaced with [ɡ] or [k] (or even [χ]); and /ð/ (ذ) (as "th" in "this") may be replaced with [d] or [t]. Vowel [u] often alternates with [o] in pronunciation. Thus, /muˈʕamːar alqaðˈðaːfiː/ is normally pronounced in Libyan Arabic [muˈʕæmːɑrˤ əlɡædˈdæːfi]. The definite article al- (ال) is often omitted.
"Muammar Gaddafi" is the spelling used by TIME magazine, BBC News, the majority of the British press and by the English service of Al-Jazeera. The Associated Press, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News use "Moammar Gadhafi". The Library of Congress uses "Qaddafi, Muammar" as the primary name. The Edinburgh Middle East Report uses "Mu'ammar Qaddafi" and the U.S. Department of State uses "Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi", although the White House chooses to use "Muammar el-Qaddafi". The Xinhua News Agency uses "Muammar Khaddafi" in its English reports. The New York Times uses Muammar el-Qaddafi. The Los Angeles Times uses Moammar Kadafi.
In 1986, Gaddafi reportedly responded to a Minnesota school's letter in English using the spelling "Moammar El-Gadhafi". The title of the homepage of algathafi.org reads "Welcome to the official site of Muammar Al Gathafi".
An article published in the London Evening Standard in 2004 lists a total of 37 spellings of his name, while a 1986 column by The Straight Dope quotes a list of 32 spellings known at the Library of Congress. ABC made a post on its blog identifying 112 possible spellings. This extensive confusion of naming was used as the subject of a segment of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update on 12 December 1981.
In short, the alternative spellings for each part of his name are shown in brackets:
Personal life and family
He is married to Safia Farkash, nee el-Brasai, former nurse from Al Bayda, who is his second wife.Gaddafi has eight biological children, seven of them sons. He has also adopted two children, Hanna and Milad.Moatessem-Billal al-Gaddafi with Hillary Clinton, Treaty Room, Washington, DC, 21 April 2009
- His eldest son, Muhammad al-Gaddafi, was born to a wife now in disfavour, but runs the Libyan Olympic Committee.
- The next eldest son, by his second wife Safia, is Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, who was born in 1972 and is an architect. He runs a charity (GIFCA) which has been involved in negotiating freedom for hostages taken by Islamic militants, especially in the Philippines. In 2006, after sharply criticizing his father's regime, Saif Al-Islam briefly left Libya, reportedly to take on a position in banking outside of the country. He returned to Libya soon after, launching an environment-friendly initiative to teach children how they can help clean up parts of Libya. He is involved in compensation negotiations with Italy and the United States.
- The third eldest, Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi, is married to the daughter of a military commander. Saadi runs the Libyan Football Federation and signed for various professional teams including Italian Serie A team U.C. Sampdoria, although without appearing in first team games.
- Gaddafi's fourth son, Moatessem-Billal al-Gaddafi, was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Libyan Army. He now serves as Libya's National Security Advisor, in which capacity he oversees the nation's National Security Council. His name مُعْتَصِمٌ (بِٱللّٰهِ) /muʿtaṣimu-n (bi l–lāhi)/ can be latinized as Mutassim, Moatessem or Moatessem-Billah. Saif Al-Islam and Moatessem-Billah are both seen as possible successors to their father.
- The fifth eldest, Hannibal Muammar al-Gaddafi, once worked for General National Maritime Transport Company, a company that specializes in Libyan oil exports. He is most notable for being involved in a series of violent incidents throughout Europe. In 2001, Hannibal attacked three Italian policemen with a fire extinguisher; in September 2004, he was briefly detained in Paris after driving a Porsche at 140 km/h (90 mph) in the wrong direction and through red lights down the Champs-Élysées while intoxicated; and in 2005, Hannibal in Paris allegedly beat model and then girlfriend Aline Skaf, who later filed an assault suit against him. He was fined and given a four month suspended prison sentence after this incident. In December 2009 police were called to Claridge's hotel in London after staff heard a scream from Hannibal's room. Aline Skaf, now his wife, was found to have suffered facial injuries including a broken nose, but charges were not pressed after she maintained she had sustained the injuries in a fall. On 15 July 2008, Hannibal and his wife were held for two days and charged with assaulting two of their staff in Geneva, Switzerland and then released on bail on 17 July. The government of Libya subsequently put a boycott on Swiss imports, reduced flights between Libya and Switzerland, stopped issuing visas to Swiss citizens, recalled diplomats from Bern, and forced all Swiss companies such as ABB and Nestlé to close offices. General National Maritime Transport Company, which owns a large refinery in Switzerland, also halted oil shipments to Switzerland. Two Swiss businessmen who were in Libya at the time have, ever since, been denied permission to leave the country, and even held hostage for some time. (see Switzerland-Libya conflict). At the 35th G8 summit in July 2009, Gaddafi called Switzerland a "world mafia" and called for the country to be split between France, Germany and Italy.
- Gaddafi's two youngest sons are Saif Al Arab (his name means "the sword of the Arabs") and Khamis. Khamis is a police officer in Libya.
- Gaddafi's only daughter is Ayesha al-Gaddafi, a lawyer who had joined the defense teams of executed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi. She married a cousin of her father in 2006.
- After the United States bombed several Libyan military airbases and barracks that had been used in supporting terrorism in Europe and elsewhere, the regime's media claimed that Gaddafi's "adopted daughter" had been killed. The name "Hanna" was given to the press. Nobody had ever heard of such daughter. Information about her also conflicted, for example, her age varying from 12 months to 6 years. Despite absurdity and variations of the stories, the campaign was so successful that a large proportion of the Western press reported the regime's stories as facts. In 2006 Gaddafi hired international artists to honor the claimed family member.
- His adopted son, Milad Abuztaia al-Gaddafi is also his nephew. Milad is credited with saving Gaddafi's life during the April 1986 bombing of the Gaddafi compound.
- Gaddafi's brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi, who is married to his wife's sister, is believed to be his head of military intelligence.
Gaddafi holds an honorary degree from Megatrend University in Belgrade conferred on him by former Yugoslav President Zoran Lilić.
Muammar Gaddafi fears flying over water, prefers staying on the ground floor and almost never travels without his trusted Ukrainian nurse Galyna Kolotnytska, a “voluptuous blonde,” according to a US document released by WikiLeaks late 2010. Galyna's daughter has denied the suggestion that the relationship is anything but professional.
Early Life
Muammar al-Gaddafi was born in a bedouin tent in the desert near Sirt in 1942. His family belongs to a small tribe of Arabized Berbers, the Qaddadfa, who are stockherders with holdings in the Hun Oasis. As a boy, Qadhafi attended a Muslim elementary school, during which time the major events occurring in the Arab world—the Arab defeat in Palestine in 1948 to Israeli forces and Nasser's rise to power in Egypt in 1952—profoundly influenced him. He finished his secondary school studies under a private tutor in Misurata, paying particular attention to the study of history.
In Libya, as in a number of other Arab countries, admission to the military academy and a career as an army officer became available to members of the lower economic strata only after independence. A military career offered a new opportunity for higher education, for upward economic and social mobility, and was for many the only available means of political action and rapid change. For Qadhafi and many of his fellow officers, who were animated by Nasser's brand of Arab nationalism as well as by an intense hatred of Israel, a military career was a revolutionary vocation.
Qadhafi entered the Libyan military academy at Benghazi in 1961 and, along with most of his colleagues from the Revolutionary Command Council, graduated in the 1965–66 period. After receiving his commission, he was selected for several months of further training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, England. Qadhafi's association with the Free Officers Movement began during his days as a cadet. The frustration and shame felt by Libyan officers who stood by helplessly at the time of Israel's swift and humiliating defeat of Arab armies on three fronts in 1967 fueled their determination to contribute to Arab unity by overthrowing the Libyan monarchy.
An early conspirator, he began his first plan to overthrow the monarchy while in military college. He received further military training in the Hellenic Military Academy in Athens, Greece and in the United Kingdom
In-Power Life
On 1 September 1969, a small group of junior military officers led by Gaddafi staged a bloodless coup d'état against King Idris while he was in Turkey for medical treatment. His nephew, the Crown Prince Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, had been formally deposed by the revolutionary army officers and put under house arrest; they abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic.
A plan was organised by David Stirling to use mercenaries to restore the monarchy after he was approached by a member of the royal family. Stirling was the founder of the Special Air Service in 1941. The mercenaries were to "spring" 150 political prisoners from Tripoli jail as a catalyst for a general uprising. The mercenaries were to slip away quietly, unseen by the media, as the locals took over. It was called the "Hilton Assignment" as an ironic comment on the comfort level at the jail. Stirling was fairly confident that the plan was achievable and politically acceptable but he was warned off at a late stage by the British Secret Intelligence Service, allegedly because the United States Government felt that Gaddafi was sufficiently anti-Marxist to be worth protecting.
Initial policies
The 27-year-old Gaddafi, with a taste for safari suits and sunglasses, then sought to become the new "Che Guevara of the age". To accomplish this Gaddafi turned Libya into a haven for anti-Western radicals, where any group, supposedly, could receive weapons and financial assistance, provided they claimed to be fighting imperialism. The Italian population in Libya almost disappeared after Gaddafi ordered the expulsion of Italians in 1970.A Revolutionary Command Council was formed to rule the country, with Gaddafi as chairman. He added the title of prime minister in 1970, but gave up this title in 1972. Unlike some other military revolutionaries, Gaddafi did not promote himself to the rank of general upon seizing power, but rather accepted a ceremonial promotion from captain to colonel and has remained at this rank since then. While at odds with Western military ranking for a colonel to rule a country and serve as commander-in-chief of its military, in Gaddafi's own words Libya's society is "ruled by the people", so he needs no more grandiose title or supreme military rank.
Ideology
- Suspension of all existing laws and implementation of Sharia
- Purging the country of the "politically sick"
- Creation of a "people's militia" to "protect the revolution"
- Administrative revolution
- Cultural revolution
Gaddafi based his new regime on a blend of Arab nationalism, aspects of the welfare state, and what Gaddafi termed "popular democracy", or more commonly "direct, popular democracy". He called this system "Islamic socialism", and, while he permitted private control over small companies, the government controlled the larger ones. Welfare, "liberation" (or “emancipation” depending on the translation), and education were emphasized. He also imposed a system of Islamic morals, outlawing alcohol and gambling. Like previous revolutionary figures of the 20th century such as Mao and his Little Red Book, Gaddafi outlined his political philosophy in his Green Book to reinforce the ideals of this socialist-Islamic state and published it in three volumes between 1975 and 1979.
In 1977, Gaddafi proclaimed that Libya was changing its form of government from a republic to a "jamahiriya" – a neologism that means "mass-state" or "government by the masses". In theory, Libya became a direct democracy governed by the people through local popular councils and communes. At the top of this structure was the General People's Congress, with Gaddafi as secretary-general. However, after only two years, Gaddafi gave up all of his governmental posts in keeping with the new egalitarian philosophy.
Gaddafi established close relations with communist regimes.
With respect to Libya's neighbors, Gaddafi followed Gamal Abdel Nasser's ideas of pan-Arabism and became a fervent advocate of the unity of all Arab states into one Arab nation. He also supported pan-Islamism, the notion of a loose union of all Islamic countries and peoples. After Nasser's death on 28 September 1970, Gaddafi attempted to take up the mantle of ideological leader of Arab nationalism. He proclaimed the "Federation of Arab Republics" (Libya, Egypt, and Syria) in 1972, hoping to create a pan-Arab state, but the three countries disagreed on the specific terms of the merger. In 1974, he signed an agreement with Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba on a merger between the two countries, but this also failed to work in practice and ultimately differences between the two countries would deteriorate into strong animosity.
From time to time, Gaddafi has responded to domestic and external opposition with violence. His revolutionary committees called for the assassination of Libyan dissidents living abroad in April 1980, with Libyan hit squads sent abroad to murder them. On 26 April 1980, Gaddafi set a deadline of 11 June 1980 for dissidents to return home or be "in the hands of the revolutionary committees".
Political repression
Gaddafi's Revolutionary committees resemble similar systems in communist countries and reportedly 10 to 20 percent of Libyans work in surveillance for these committees, a proportion of informants on par with Saddam Hussein's Iraq or Kim Jong-il's North Korea. The surveillance takes place in government, in factories, and in the education sector.Engaging in political conversations with foreigners is a crime punishable by three years of prison. In any case Gaddafi removed foreign languages from school curriculum. One protester in 2011 described the situation as: "None of us can speak English or French. He kept us ignorant and blindfolded".
The regime has often executed dissidents publicly and the executions are rebroadcast on state television channels.
Libya is the most censored country in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Freedom of the Press Index.
Wars against Chad and Egypt
See also: Chadian–Libyan conflict, Toyota War, and Libyan–Egyptian War
As early as 1969 Gaddafi waged a campaign against Chad. Part of his hostility was apparently because the Chadian president was a black African and a Christian.Libya was also involved in a sometimes violent territorial dispute with neighbouring Chad over the Aouzou Strip, which Libya occupied in 1973. This dispute eventually led to the Libyan invasion of the country and to a conflict that was ended by a ceasefire reached in 1987. The dispute was in the end settled peacefully in June 1994 when Libya withdrew troops from Chad due to a judgement of the International Court of Justice issued on 13 February 1994.
Libyan military adventures in Chad failed, e.g., the prolonged foray of Libyan troops into the Aozou Strip in northern Chad began in 1976 was finally repulsed in 1987, when extensive U.S. and French help to Chadian rebel forces and the government headed by former Defence Minister Hissan Habré finally led to a Chadian victory in the so-called Toyota War.
Gaddafi dispatched his military across the border to Egypt in 1977, but Egyptian forces fought back in the Libyan–Egyptian War and Gaddafi had to retreat.
Islamic Legion
In 1972, Gaddafi created the Islamic Legion as a tool to unify and Arabize the region. The priority of the Legion was first Chad, and then Sudan. In Darfur, a western province of Sudan, Gaddafi supported the creation of the Arab Gathering (Tajammu al-Arabi), which according to Gérard Prunier was "a militantly racist and pan-Arabist organization which stressed the 'Arab' character of the province." The two organizations shared members and a source of support, and the distinction between the two is often ambiguous.This Islamic Legion was mostly composed of immigrants from poorer Sahelian countries, but also, according to a source, thousands of Pakistanis who had been recruited in 1981 with the false promise of civilian jobs once in Libya. Generally speaking, the Legion's members were immigrants who had gone to Libya with no thought of fighting wars, and had been provided with inadequate military training and had sparse commitment. A French journalist, speaking of the Legion's forces in Chad, observed that they were "foreigners, Arabs or Africans, mercenaries in spite of themselves, wretches who had come to Libya hoping for a civilian job, but found themselves signed up more or less by force to go and fight in an unknown desert."
At the beginning of the 1987 Libyan offensive into Chad, it maintained a force of 2,000 in Darfur. The nearly continuous cross-border raids that resulted greatly contributed to a separate ethnic conflict within Darfur that killed about 9,000 people between 1985 and 1988. Janjaweed, a group that is accused by the United States of carrying out a genocide in the 2000s, emerged in 1988 and some its leaders are former legionnaires.
Attempts at nuclear and chemical weapons
In 1972 Gaddafi tried to get the People's Republic of China to sell him a nuclear bomb. In 1977, he then tried to get a bomb from Pakistan, but Pakistan deliberately severed its ties before it succeeded to build a weapon. After ties were restrained, Gaddafi tried to buy nuclear weapon from India, but instead, India and Libya agreed for a peaceful use of nuclear energy, in line with India's "atoms for peace" policy.Several people around the world were indicted for assisting Gaddafi in his chemical weapons programs. Thailand reported its citizens had helped build a storage facilities for nerve gas. Germany sentenced a businessman, Jurgen Hippenstiel-Imhausen, to five years in prison for involvement in Libyan chemical weapons.
Inspectors from the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) verified in 2004 that Libya owned a stockpile of 23 metric tons of mustard gas and more than 1,300 metric tons of precursor chemicals. Disposing such large quantities of chemical weapons was expected to be expensive.
Idi Amin and other allies
See also: Uganda–Tanzania War
Gaddafi was a close supporter of Ugandan President Idi Amin. In gratitude, Amin even married Gaddafi's daughter while in Libya, but she then divorced Amin.Gaddafi send his troops to fight against Tanzania on behalf of Idi Amin. About 600 Libyan soldiers lost their lives attempting to defend the collapsing presidency of Amin. Amin exiled from Uganda to Libya, later to move to Saudi-Arabia.
Gaddafi also aided Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the Emperor of the Central African Empire.
Gaddafi supported Soviet protege in Ethiopia Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was later convicted for one of the deadliest genocides in modern history.
Assassinations of prominent critics
Gaddafi employed his network of diplomats and recruits to assassinate dozens of his critics around the world. Amnesty International listed at least 25 assassinations between 1980 and 1987.It is the Libyan people's responsibility to liquidate such scums who are distorting Libya's image abroad.—Gaddafi talking about exiles in 1982.
Gaddafi's agents were active in the United Kingdom, where many Libyans had sought asylum. After Libyan diplomats shot at ten anti-Gaddafi protesters and killed a British policewoman, the United Kingdom broke off relations with Gaddafi's regime.
In 1980, a Libyan agent attempted to assassinate dissident Faisal Zagallai, a doctoral student at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The bullets left Zagallai partially blinded. A defector was kidnapped and executed in 1990 just before he was about to receive U.S. citizenship.
Gaddafi asserted in June 1984 that killings could be carried out even when the dissidents were on pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca. In August 1984, one Libyan plot was thwarted in Mecca.
As of 2004, Libya still provides bounties for heads of critics, including 1 million dollars for Ashur Shamis, a Libyan-British journalist.
Violence around the world
See also: Foreign relations of Libya and Active measures
In 1971 Gaddafi warned that if France opposed Libyan military occupation of Chad, he would use all weapons in the war against France including the "revolutionary weapon".On 11 June 1972, Gaddafi announced that any Arab wishing to volunteer for Palestinian terrorist groups "can register his name at any Libyan embassy will be given adequate training for combat". He also promised financial support for attacks.
On 7 October 1972, Gaddafi praised the Lod Airport massacre, carried out by the Japanese Red Army, and demanded Palestinian terrorist groups to carry out similar attacks.
Reportedly, Gaddafi was a major financier of the "Black September Movement" which perpetrated the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
In 1973 the Irish Naval Service intercepted the vessel Claudia in Irish territorial waters, which carried Soviet arms from Libya to the Provisional IRA.
In 1976 after a series of terror attacks by the Provisional IRA, Gaddafi announced that "the bombs which are convulsing Britain and breaking its spirit are the bombs of Libyan people. We have sent them to the Irish revolutionaries so that the British will pay the price for their past deeds".
In the Philippines, Libya has backed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, which continues to terrorize and murder people in the name of establishing a separatist Islamic state in the southern Philippines. Libya has also supported the New People's Army and Libyan agents were seen meeting with the Communist Party of the Philippines. Islamist terrorist group Abu Sayyaf has also been suspected of receiving Libyan funding. In 2002 he paid a random reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars to Abu Sayyaf to release a a number of kidnapped tourists. He presented it as an act of goodwill to Western countries; nevertheless the money helped the terrorist group to expand its operation.
Gaddafi also became a strong supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which support ultimately harmed Libya's relations with Egypt, when in 1979 Egypt pursued a peace agreement with Israel. As Libya's relations with Egypt worsened, Gaddafi sought closer relations with the Soviet Union. Libya became the first country outside the Soviet bloc to receive the supersonic MiG-25 combat fighters, but Soviet-Libyan relations remained relatively distant. Gaddafi also sought to increase Libyan influence, especially in states with an Islamic population, by calling for the creation of a Saharan Islamic state and supporting anti-government forces in sub-Saharan Africa.
In the 1970s and the 1980s, this support was sometimes so freely given that even the most unsympathetic groups could obtain Libyan support; often the groups represented ideologies far removed from Gaddafi's own. Gaddafi's approach often tended to confuse international opinion.
In 1981 Gaddafi was found talking about assassinating new American president Ronald Reagan. In October 1981 Egypt's President Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Gaddafi applauded the murder and remarked that it was a punishment.
American President Ronald Reagan dubbed Gaddafi the "mad dog of the Middle East". In December 1981, the US State Department invalidated US passports for travel to Libya, and in March 1982, the U.S. declared a ban on the import of Libyan oil.
In 1984 Gaddafi started plotting terrorist acts inside the U.S. One of the leading groups receiving Gaddafi's money was the Nation of Islam. Al-Rakr, another Libyan-financed gang in Chicago, declared in 1984 that it was preparing for a "race war" to "settle scores with whites". Members of the gang were arrested in 1986 for preparations to bomb government buildings and bring down American planes. Gaddafi reportedly spent hundreds of millions in Latin America.
In April 1984, Libyan refugees in London protested against execution of two dissidents. Communications intercepted by MI5 show that Tripoli ordered its diplomats to direct violence against the demonstrators. Libyan diplomats shot at 11 people and killed British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher. The incident led to the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Libya for over a decade.
After December 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks, which killed 19 and wounded around 140, Gaddafi indicated that he would continue to support the Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army as long as European countries support anti-Gaddafi Libyans. The Foreign Minister of Libya also called the massacres "heroic acts".
In 1986 Libyan state television announced that Libya was training suicide squads to attack American and European interests.
Gaddafi claimed the Gulf of Sidra as his territorial water and his navy was involved in a conflict from January to March 1986.
On 5 April 1986, Libyan agents bombed "La Belle" nightclub in West Berlin, killing three people and injuring 229 people who were spending evening there. Gaddafi's plan was intercepted by Western intelligence. More detailed information was retrieved years later when Stasi archives were investigated by the reunited Germany. Libyan agents who had carried out the operation from the Libyan embassy in East Germany were prosecuted by reunited Germany in the 1990s.
Germany and the United States learned that the bombing in West Berlin had been ordered from Tripoli. On 14 April 1986, the United States carried out Operation El Dorado Canyon against Gaddafi and members of his regime. Air defenses, three army bases, and two airfields in Tripoli and Benghazi were bombed. The surgical strikes failed to kill Gaddafi but he lost a few dozen military officers. Gaddafi then spread propaganda how it had killed his "adopted daughter" and how victims had been all "civilians". The campaign was successful as large portions of the Western press reported the regime's stories as facts.
Gaddafi announced that he had won a spectacular military victory over the United States and the country was officially renamed the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah". However, his speech appeared devoid passion and even the "victory" celebrations appeared unusual. Criticism of Gaddafi by ordinary Libyan citizens became more bold, such as defacing of Gaddafi posters. The raids against Libyan military had brought the regime to its the weakest point in 17 years.
Many Western European countries took action against Libyan terror and other activities following years.
In May 1987, Australia deported diplomats and broke off relations with Libya because Gaddafi's agents had fueled paramilitaries in the Oceania.
In late 1987 French authorities stopped a merchant vessel, the MV Eksund, which was delivering a 150 ton Libyan arms shipment to European terrorist groups.
It has also been suspected that Gaddafi was exporting weapons to the Marxist-Leninist FARC group in Colombia.
Gaddafi trained and supported Charles Taylor, who was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone.
After 1991
The Revolutions of 1989 led to the disappearance of many allies. For most of the 1990s, Libya was under economic and diplomatic sanctions as a result of Gaddafi's refusal to allow the extradition to the United States or Britain of two Libyans accused of planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, which came down on Lockerbie, Scotland. Through the intercession of South African President Nelson Mandela – who made a high-profile visit to Gaddafi in 1997 – and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Gaddafi agreed in 1999 to a compromise that involved handing over the defendants to the Netherlands for trial under Scots law. UN sanctions were thereupon suspended, but U.S. sanctions against Libya remained in force.An alleged plot by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi, when rebels attacked Gaddafi's motorcade near the city of Sirte in February 1996, was described as "pure fantasy" by former foreign secretary Robin Cook, although the FCO later admitted: "We have never denied that we knew of plots against Gaddafi."
- Lockerbie bombing victims with the remaining 20%;
- American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing;
- American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing; and,
- Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi.
On 28 June 2007, Megrahi was granted the right to a second appeal against the Lockerbie bombing conviction. One month later, the Bulgarian medics were released from jail in Libya. They returned home to Bulgaria and were pardoned by Bulgarian president, Georgi Parvanov.
Gaddafi's 2009 welcome to the return of convicted Lockerbie bomber Megrahi, who was released from prison on compassionate grounds, attracted criticism from Western leaders and has disrupted his first-ever visit to the United States to attend a UN General Session. Gaddafi often resides in a tent when travelling. His plans to erect a tent in Central Park and on Libyan government property in Englewood, New Jersey during Gaddafi's stay at the UN were both protested by community leaders and subsequently cancelled by Gaddafi. His tent was moved to an estate belonging to Donald Trump in Bedford, until the local government issued a work stop order, claiming the tent needed a permit, and Trump told him to go elsewhere.
Gaddafi and Vladimir Putin have reportedly talked about establishing a Russian military base in Libya.
23 September 2009 marked Gaddafi's first appearance at the United Nations General Assembly where he addressed world leaders at the annual gathering in New York. The Libyan leader while demanding representation for the African Union, used the occasion to scold the United Nations structure saying the 15-member body practised “security feudalism” for those who had a protected seat. The Libyan leader's appearance at the United Nations generated demonstrations both for and against Gaddafi.
Support for Slobodan Milošević
Gaddafi had close ties with Slobodan Milošević. Gaddafi aligned himself with the Orthodox Serbs against Bosnia's and Kosovo's Muslims. Gaddafi supported Milošević even when other countries accused Milošević of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.Public image campaign
Gaddafi also appeared to be attempting to improve his image in the West. Two years prior to the September 11 attacks, Libya pledged its commitment to fighting al-Qaeda and offered to open up its weapons programme to international inspection. Neither the Clinton nor Bush administrations pursued the offer at the time since Libya's weapons program was not then regarded as a threat, and the matter of handing over the Lockerbie bombing suspects took priority. Following the attacks of 11 September, Gaddafi made one of the first, and firmest, denunciations of the Al-Qaeda bombers by any Muslim leader. Gaddafi also appeared on ABC for an open interview with George Stephanopoulos, a move that would have seemed unthinkable less than a decade earlier."In his four decades as Libya's 'Brother Leader', Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has gone from being the epitome of revolutionary chic to an eccentric statesman with entirely benign relations with the West."— David Blair, diplomatic editor for The Daily Telegraph
Following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by US forces in 2003, Gaddafi announced that his nation had an active weapons of mass destruction program, but was willing to allow international inspectors into his country to observe and dismantle them. US President George W. Bush and other supporters of the Iraq War portrayed Gaddafi's announcement as a direct consequence of the Iraq War by stating that Gaddafi acted out of fear for the future of his own regime if he continued to keep and conceal his weapons. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a supporter of the Iraq War, was quoted as saying that Gaddafi had privately phoned him, admitting as much. Many foreign policy experts, however, contend that Gaddafi's announcement was merely a continuation of his prior attempts at normalizing relations with the West and getting the sanctions removed. To support this, they point to the fact that Libya had already made similar offers starting four years prior to it finally being accepted. International inspectors turned up several tons of chemical weaponry in Libya, as well as an active nuclear weapons program. As the process of destroying these weapons continued, Libya improved its cooperation with international monitoring regimes to the extent that, by March 2006, France was able to conclude an agreement with Libya to develop a significant nuclear power program.
- "35 years of total state control of the economy has left them in a situation where they're simply not generating enough economic activity to give employment to the young people who are streaming through their successful education system. I think this dilemma goes to the heart of Colonel Gaddafi's decision that he needed a radical change of direction."
In July 2007, French president Nicolas Sarkozy visited Libya and signed a number of bilateral and multilateral (EU) agreements with Gaddafi.
On 4 March 2008 Gaddafi announced his intention to dissolve the country's existing administrative structure and disburse oil revenue directly to the people. The plan includes abolishing all ministries, except those of defence, internal security, and foreign affairs, and departments implementing strategic projects.
In June 2008, Gaddafi strongly criticised US presidential candidate Barack Obama for saying Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel, "The statements of our Kenyan brother of American nationality, Obama, on Jerusalem ... show that he either ignores international politics and did not study the Middle East conflict or that it is a campaign lie."
In September 2008, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Libya and met with Gaddafi as part of a North African tour. This was the first visit to Libya by a US Secretary of State since 1953.
In January 2009, Gaddafi contributed an editorial to The New York Times, suggesting that he was in favor of a single-state solution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflicts that moved beyond old conflicts and looked to a unified future of shared culture and mutual respect.
Cooperation with Italy
On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a landmark cooperation treaty in Benghazi. Under its terms, Italy will pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation. In exchange, Libya will take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies. The treaty was ratified by Italy on 6 February 2009, and by Libya on 2 March, during a visit to Tripoli by Berlusconi. In June Gaddafi made his first visit to Rome, where he met Prime Minister Berlusconi, President Giorgio Napolitano and Senate President Renato Schifani; Chamber President Gianfranco Fini cancelled the meeting because of Gaddafi's delay. The Democratic Party and Italy of Values opposed the visit, and many protests were staged throughout Italy by human rights organizations and the Italian Radicals. Gaddafi also took part in the G8 summit in L'Aquila in July as Chairman of the African Union. During the summit a handshake between US President Barack Obama and Muammar Gaddafi marked the first time the Libyan leader had been greeted by a serving US president. Then at the official dinner offered by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister and G8 host, overturned protocol at the last moment by having Gaddafi sit next to him (just two places away from President Obama, seated on Berlusconi's right).During a two-day visit to Italy in August 2010 Gaddafi upset his hosts by stating that Europe should convert to Islam. It was during a lecture in front of 200 young women whom Gaddafi had paid a modeling agency to attend that he urged the women to convert to Islam and, according to one of them, said "Islam should become the religion of all of Europe." Each of the women was given a copy of the Qur'an. Gaddafi, in a speech that aired on Al-Jazeera TV on 10 April 2006, said: "There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe – without swords, without guns, without conquests. The 50 million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades."
Expulsion of Palestinians from Libya
In 1995, Gaddafi expelled some 30,000 Palestinians living in Libya, in response to the peace negotiations that had commenced between Israel and the PLO.Controversial views on diseases
See also: AIDS denialism
Gaddafi has characterized HIV as "a peaceful virus, not an aggressive virus". In the African Union summit in Maputo in July 2003, Gaddafi asserted "if you are straight you have nothing to fear from AIDS".Support for Omar al-Beshir
After the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed international arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir in connection to the Darfur genocide, Gaddafi complained that the ICC represents a "new form of world terrorism" that wants to recolonise developing countries.Pan-Africanism
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His views on African political and military unification have received a relatively lukewarm response from other African governments. On 29 August 2008, Gaddafi held a public ceremony in Benghazi in the presence of over 200 African traditional rulers and kings, in which he proclaimed himself to be "King of Kings of Africa" as part of a grassroots effort to encourage African heads of state and government to join with Gaddafi toward a greater political cohesion. This event was followed on 1 February 2009 by a coronation ceremony in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to coincide with the 53rd African Union Summit, at which he was elected head of the African Union for the year. His January 2009 forum for African kings, however, was cancelled by the Ugandan government (Uganda was to host the forum), since the invitation of traditional rulers to discussion of political affairs contravened Uganda's current constitution, and according to Ugandan foreign ministry spokesperson James Mugume, could have led to instability.
The title of "King of Kings" was reiterated by Gaddafi at the 2009 Arab League Summit, at which he claimed to be the King of Kings, "leader of the Arab leaders" and "imam of the Muslims" in his criticism of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia prior to storming out of the summit.
Notwithstanding his claims of concern for his African roots, Gaddafi has often expressed an overt contempt for the Berbers, a non-Arab people of North Africa, and for their language, maintaining that the very existence of Berbers in North Africa is a myth created by colonialists. He adopted several measures forbidding the use of Berber, and often attacks this language in official speeches, with statements like: "If your mother transmits you this language, she nourishes you with the milk of the colonialist, she feeds you their poison" (1985)
Gaddafi has defended the actions of Somalian pirates, "It is a response to greedy Western nations, who invade and exploit Somalia’s water resources illegally. It is not a piracy, it is self defence... If they (Western nations) do not want to live with us fairly, it is our planet and they can go to other planet."
UN General Assembly speech
On 23 September 2009, Colonel Gaddafi addressed the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, his first visit to the United States, in part because a Libyan diplomat, Ali Treki, has just become president of the General Assembly for 2009–10. Gaddafi spoke for one hour and 36 minutes. A translation of the speech courtesy of Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA) the official Libyan news agency, is available on the internet.Gaddafi spoke in favor of the preamble to the United Nations Charter, but rejected several provisions of the rest of the Charter; and criticized the United Nations for failing to prevent 65 wars, and invited the General Assembly to investigate the wars that the Security Council had not authorized, and for those responsible to be brought before the International Criminal Court. He also defended the Taliban and Somali Pirates. He also claimed that a foreign military was responsible for the H1N1 outbreak, accused Israel of assassinating John F. Kennedy, and called for a one-state solution for Palestine and Israel, and referred to Barack Obama as "son of Africa".
Following Colonel Gaddafi's speech, in which he criticized the UN Security Council (UNSC) calling it the "Terror Council", Gaddafi failed to attend a special Security Council heads-of-state meeting on 24 September 2009, when a resolution calling for a reduction in the number of nuclear weapons was passed unanimously.
Indictment for a disappearance
In August 1978, the Lebanese Shia leader Musa al-Sadr and two companions departed for Libya to meet with government officials. They were never heard from again. At the time, Musa al-Sadr founded Amal Movement, a liberal-Shia Lebanese resistance movement (which later went on to oppose the Israeli invasion of Lebanon). However Amal Movement became powerful much to the annoyance of the PLO which was based primarily in south Lebanon. Libya has consistently denied responsibility, claiming that al-Sadr and his companions left Libya for Italy. Some others have reported that he remains secretly in jail in Libya. Al-Sadr's disappearance continues to be a major dispute between Lebanon and Libya. Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri claimed that the Libyan regime, and particularly the Libyan leader, were responsible for the disappearance of Imam Musa Sadr, London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-run pan-Arab daily reported on 27 August 2006.According to Iranian General Mansour Qadar, the then head of Syrian security, Rifaat al-Assad, told the Iranian ambassador to Syria that Gaddafi was planning to kill al-Sadr. On 27 August 2008, Gaddafi was indicted in Lebanon for al-Sadr's disappearance.
Alliance with Hugo Chávez
Gaddafi developed a friendship with Hugo Chávez; in March 2009 Libya named a stadium after the Venezuelan leader.In September 2009, at the Second Africa-South America Summit on Isla Margarita in Venezuela, Colonel Gaddafi joined the host, Chávez, in calling for an "anti-imperialist" front way across Africa and Latin America. Gaddafi proposed the establishment of a South Atlantic Treaty Organization to rival NATO, saying: "The world’s powers want to continue to hold on to their power. Now we have to fight to build our own power."
2011 uprising
Main article: 2011 Libyan uprising
On 17 February 2011, major political protests (inspired by recent similar events in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Arab world) were called to begin in Libya against Gaddafi's government. During the following week, these protests continued to gain significantly in momentum and size despite stiff resistance from the Gaddafi regime. Unlike the former leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, Gaddafi has vowed to "fight to the death" in defense of his leadership of the country, and has responded to the unrest with large scale and violent military and police crackdowns in the cities of Benghazi and Tripoli, which include the use of artillery and warplanes against protesters. By late February, the country appeared to be rapidly descending into chaos as a 'credible' death toll is reported to now be approaching 1,000.Gaddafi is reported to have imported foreign mercenaries to defend his regime, and large swaths of the country, particularly in Eastern Libya, are reported to have fallen into the hands of anti-Gaddafi elements. Former top officials, including Gaddafi's former "number two" man, Interior Minister General Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, the former justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil (who became the head of the new interim government in Benghazi), and several key ambassadors and diplomats have resigned their posts in protest over Gaddafi's heavy handed response to the demonstrators. General Al-Abidi has issued a plea to whatever military personnel may still feel some loyalty towards Gaddafi to "join the people in the intifada." Already, he said, "many members" of the security forces had defected, including those in the capital, Tripoli.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she considered Gaddafi's Tuesday speech as the equivalent of "him declaring war on his own people".
People cooperating with Gaddafi
Gaddafi's influential Defense Minister resigned because he did not wish to order to shoot Libyans. Gaddafi reportedly has jailed him.The Khamis Brigade is an important asset for Gaddafi and has been killing rebelling civilians. It is led by Khamis Gaddafi, one of Gaddafi's sons who was trained in Libya and Russia. The brigade it is the best-equipped unit of the military. Gaddafi also relies heavily on two generals from his own tribe, Sayed Qaddaf Eddam and Ahmed Qaddaf Eddam. Gaddafi is reportedly paying Ghanaian mercenaries as much as 2,500 US dollars per day for their services. Advertisements for mercenaries have appeared in Nigerian newspapers.
A Serbian newspaper reported that Serbian mercenaries were among the first to kill protesting civilians. Reports from Libya have confirmed the current presence of Ukrainian and Serbian mercenaries. A Libyan economist has told that Serbian pilots are flying the planes that bomb protesting civilians because Libyan pilots refuse to do so. Gaddafi also used Serbian fighters when he put down a civilian uprising in the 1990s.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has reported that in the middle of February a Libyan transport plane visited a Belarussian military base that handles stockpiled weaponry and military equipment.
Prosecution for massacres
The United Nations has referred the massacres of unarmed civilians to the International Criminal Court.The international community has warned that anyone giving or executing orders to kill civilians will be prosecuted for the crimes.
Libyan opposition
Main article: Libyan opposition
In October 1993, there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Gaddafi by elements of the Libyan army. On 14 July 1996, a football match in Tripoli, organised by his son, was followed by bloody riots as a protest against Gaddafi.There are a number of political groups opposed to Gaddafi:
- National Conference of the Libyan Opposition
- National Front for the Salvation of Libya
- Committee for Libyan National Action in Europe
The Libyan League for Human Rights – based in Geneva – petitioned Gaddafi to set up an independent inquiry into the February 2006 unrest in Benghazi in which some 30 Libyans and foreigners were killed.
Fathi Eljahmi was a prominent dissident who was imprisoned from 2002 until his death in 2009 for calling for increased democratization in Libya.
As of February 2011, as part of the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests, the 2011 Libyan uprising are ongoing, and have become a mass uprising against Gaddafi, who has lost control of some parts of the country. Gaddafi's opponents have accused him of using foreign mercenaries to bolster his regime. Gaddafi's former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, has told the Swedish newspaper Expressen that he has evidence that Gaddafi had personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing of 1988.
Gaddafi family's wealth
Until the uprising in 2011, the Gaddafi family held vast amounts of wealth outside Libya as well as full control of the Libyan economy. The main vehicle for the Gaddafi's wealth is the $70 billion Libyan Investment Authority (LIA). Gaddafi's sons, Saif, Muatassim and Hannibal were accustomed to live in luxury in the West, circulating with other rich people and gaining honour by giving money to causes that they supported. The London School of Economics was a beneficiary of this. Many British companies have gained a foothold in the lucrative Libyan market by building relationships with the Gaddafi family.Italian companies also have a strong foothold in Libya. Also a quarter of Libya's oil and 15 per cent of its natural gas goes to Italy. The LIA owns significant shares in Italy's Eni oil corporation, Fiat, Unicredit bank and Finmeccanica. In January 2002, Gaddafi purchased a 7.5% share of Italian football club Juventus for USD 21 million, through Lafico ("Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company"). This followed a long-standing association with the Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli and car manufacturer Fiat.
The family also hold important investments in Zimbabwe, Chad, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
On 25 February 2011 it was announced that Britain's Treasury had set up a specialised unit to trace Gaddafi's assets in Britain.
Postage stamps
The Libyan Posts (GPTC General Posts and Telecommunications Company) released many postage issues (stamps, souvenir sheets, postal stationery, booklets, etc.) including the subject of Muammar al-Gaddafi. The first issue was a souvenir sheet celebrating the 6th Anniversary of the September Revolution in 1975 (ref. Scott catalogue n.583 – Michel catalogue block 18).Public works projects
The Great Manmade River is a network of pipes that supplies 6,500,000 m³ of fresh water per day from beneath the Sahara Desert, from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System fossil aquifer, to the cities in the north of Libya, including Tripoli, Benghazi and Sirt. The project consists of more than 1,300 wells, most more than 500 m deep. Muammar al-Gaddafi has described it as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" and presented the project as a gift to the Third World.The Libyan National Telescope Project, costing nearly 10 million euros, was ordered by Muammar al-Gaddafi, who has a passionate interest in astronomy. The robotic telescope, which will be two metres in diameter and remote-controlled, will be built by France's REOSC, the optical department of the SAGEM Group. It will be housed in an air-conditioned building, with a network of four weather stations deployed at a distance of 10 kilometers around it to warn of impending sandstorms that could damage its fragile optics. A desert site at 2200 meters above sea level near Kufra may be chosen as the location for the observatory, which will be North Africa's largest astronomical observatory.Bodyguards
Gaddafi's choice of bodyguards has been the subject of much media attention. His 40-member bodyguard contingent, known as the Amazonian Guard, is entirely female. All women who qualify for duty supposedly must be virgins, and are hand-picked by Gaddafi himself. They are trained in the use of firearms and martial arts at a special academy before entering service.Books and other writings
In addition to The Green Book (1975), Gaddafi has authored other works, including:- Escape to Hell and Other Stories (1998)
- "The One-State Solution", an op-ed piece which appeared in the The New York Times in 2009
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