Muammar al-Gaddafi

Muammar al-Gaddafi
Head of State of Libya
In office September 1, 1969 – October 20, 2011
Born	c. June 7, 1942 Qasr Abu Hadi, Italian Libya
Died	October 20, 2011 Sirte, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (Arabic: معمر القذافي, b. 1942 – d. October 20, 2011) was the Head of State of Libya, a partial socialist and leader until the 2011 Libyan civil war. He rose to power through a coup that he led in 1969, and he ruled Libya for more than forty years ending with his capture and death. Once he became the leader of Libya, he renamed all the months in the calendar and published the Green Book, which was a series of pamphlets on democracy, economics, and sociology.

Early life[edit]

Gaddafi was born around 1940 at an uncertain date, his parents were Mohammad Abdul Salam bin Hamed bin Mohammad,(also Abu Meniar) and Aissha al-Gaddafi, twenty miles south of the town of Sirte.^[1]

Rise to power[edit]

In the 1970s, Gaddafi attempted to assume the leadership of a pan-Arabic movement, a position left open by the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt; however, other Arab nations mostly ignored him. He attempted to extend his influence in Africa by supporting Uganda's Idi Amin in the Uganda-Tanzania War with military aid and equipment, including Tu-22 jet bombers. In the 1980s, Gaddafi became a sponsor of terrorism and President Ronald Reagan ordered a retaliatory bombing of his palace and key Libyan targets (Operation El Dorado Canyon). (In August 2003, Libya agreed to pay $2.7 billion to families of the 270 killed on board flight 103, when it blew up in December 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Just six months after the settlement, Gaddafi was visited by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Tripoli.) ^[2]

In 1989 Gaddafi founded the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights.

Relations with Israel and Palestinians[edit]

Gaddafi was a lifelong enemy of Israel and under his reign, Israel was not recognized by Libya. He also expelled Palestinian Arabs from Libya.^[3]

Restoration of relations[edit]

Cockpit of Clipper "Maid of the Seas" (Pan Am 103).

In the 1990s, Gaddafi changed course and severed all ties with terrorism to normalize relations with the West. He formally renounced terrorism in a letter to the UN Security Council in August 2003 and publicly condemned al Qaeda for the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[4]

In 1999, the Libyan government surrendered two Libyans suspected of involvement in the Pan Am 103 bombing, leading to the suspension of UN sanctions. On January 31, 2001, a Scottish court seated in the Netherlands found one of the suspects, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, guilty of murder in connection with the bombing, and acquitted the second suspect, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhima. Megrahi's conviction was upheld on March 14, 2002, but an appeals hearing was granted in June 2007 by the Scottish High Court.

UN sanctions were lifted on September 12, 2003, following Libyan compliance with its remaining UNSCR requirements on Pan Am 103, including acceptance of responsibility for the actions of its officials and payment of appropriate compensation. Libya paid compensation in 1999 for the death of British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher, a move that preceded the reopening of the British Embassy in Tripoli, and paid damages to the families of the victims in the bombing of UTA Flight 772. With the lifting of UN sanctions in September 2003, each of the families of the victims of Pan Am 103 received $4 million of a maximum $10 million in compensation. After the lifting of U.S. IEEPA-based sanctions on September 20, 2004, the families received a further $4 million.

On November 13, 2001, a German court found four persons, including a former employee of the Libyan embassy in East Berlin, guilty in connection with the 1986 La Belle disco bombing, in which two U.S. servicemen were killed. The court also established a connection to the Libyan government. The German Government demanded that Libya accept responsibility for the La Belle bombing and pay appropriate compensation. A compensation deal for non-U.S. victims was agreed to in August 2004. U.S. victims continue to pursue their claims in federal court.

War on Terror[edit]

By 2003, Libya appeared to have curtailed its support for international terrorism, although it may have retained residual contacts with some of its former terrorist clients. In August 2004, the Department of Justice entered into a plea agreement with Abdulrahman Alamoudi, in which he stated that he had been part of a 2003 plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah (now King Abdallah) at the behest of Libyan government officials.

Soon after the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S., American and British intelligene agencies forged a partnership with Muammar Gaddafi to spy on Libyan dissidents in the Western world, in exchange for permission to use Libya as a base for extraordinary rendition.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

During the 2005 UN General Assembly session, Foreign Minister Shalgam issued a statement that reaffirmed Libya's commitment to the statements made in its letter addressed to the Security Council on August 15, 2003, renouncing terrorism in all its forms and pledging that Libya will not support acts of international terrorism or other acts of violence targeting civilians, whatever their political views or positions. Libya also expressed its commitment to continue cooperating in the international fight against terrorism. On June 30, 2006, the U.S. rescinded Libya's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

In 2006 the BBC reported, the "decision of the US to restore full diplomatic relations with Libya marks the crowning success of his efforts to have his country accepted back into the international community." ^[10]

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Libya for its "excellent co-operation" in the US-led war on terror.^[11] Full diplomatic relations with the United States were restored in 2006, and the Gaddafi regime's turnaround has been heralded by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a model for others to follow.

Relations with Africa[edit]

Brother in arms with Nelson Mandela[edit]

Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela greets an old friend and ally, Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi was murdered in a violent coup in 2011 sponsored by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and NATO allies Nikolas Sarkozy and David Cameron.

African Satellite Control Center[edit]

An observer spelled out one of Gaddafi’s motivations for proposing an African Union:

Domestic affairs[edit]

Schoolboys chant pro-Gaddafi slogans, Photograph: Reuters.

The Libyan people thrived under his leadership. A delegation of medical professionals from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus wrote in an appeal "Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin that after becoming acquainted with Libyan life, it was their view that in few nations did people live in such comfort".

"China is a different kind of competitor. It is a rising economic power and America is unable to stop it. It has an unprecedented human wealth. In addition, it is a nuclear-weapon state and a permanent member of the Security Council. Everywhere in the world, China is making economic, human and political inroads. Unlike America which unwisely has chosen the harsh military approach, China is making those inroads using soft power. America continues its brazen interference in the internal affairs of states in the name of democracy and human rights. Africom is a case in point. Such interference is no longer acceptable. America itself is condemned in the field of human rights. It makes a habit of taking losers as allies... America is aware of the danger China poses. China..America..The inevitable Confrontation."

Libyan Central Bank[edit]

In an article posted on the Market Oracle, Eric Encina observed:

Ellen Brown adds,

Gaddafi’s proposal to introduce a gold dinar for Africa contravenes IMF rules and is designed to bypass them.

Capture and murder[edit]

Gadafi was brutally murdered by NATO-armed and -equipped jihadi rebels during President Obama's "humanitarian intervention" in the Libyan War of 2011.^[16]

Personal Wealth[edit]

Like Hugo Chavez, when Gaddafi died we learned about his extraordinary wealth.^[17] He was reported to be worth around $200 billion, which would have made him the richest man in the world.^[18]

External links[edit]

• Muammar Qaddafi.
• Muammar Qaddafi.
• Gadhafi ready to compensate Jews who fled Libya. Israel Insider.
• Qaddafi is Jewish and I'm His Cousin.

References[edit]