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Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qaddafi ¹ — pronounced Gaddafi — (Arabic: معمر القذافي Mu`ammar al-Qadhdhāfī) (born circa 1942 near Sirte, Libya), has been the despotic leader of Libya since 1969. Although he holds no public office or title, he is accorded the honorifics "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" or "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution".

Contents 1 Early history 2 Seizing power 3 Islamic Socialism and Pan Arabism 4 External relations 5 A new Gaddafi? 6 Personal 7 Quotation 8 Spelling 8.1 Authority preferences 8.2 Personal preferences 8.3 Lists 9 References 10 See also 11 External links

Early history

Gaddafi was the youngest child from a nomadic Bedouin peasant family in the desert region of Sirte. He was given a traditional religious primary education and attended the Sebha preparatory school in Fezzan from 1956 to 1961. Gaddafi and a small group of friends that he met in this school went on to form the core leadership of a militant revolutionary group that would eventually seize control of the country. Gaddafi's inspiration was Gamal Abdul Nasser, president of neighboring Egypt, who rose to the presidency by appealing to Arab unity and condemning the West. In 1961, Gaddafi was expelled from Sebha for his political activism.

Gaddafi went on to attend the University of Libya, where he graduated with high grades. He then entered the Military Academy in Benghazi in 1963, where he and a few of his fellow militants organized a secretive group dedicated to overthrowing the pro-Western Libyan monarchy. After graduating in 1965, he was sent to Britain for further training, returning in 1966 as a commissioned officer in the Signal Corps.

Seizing power

On September 1, 1969, a small group of military officers led by Gaddafi staged a coup d'état against King Idris, who was exiled to Egypt. The new regime, headed by the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. Gaddafi emerged as leader of the RCC and eventually as de facto chief of state, a political role he still plays, although he holds no official position. Gaddafi is referred to in government statements and the official press as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution."

Unlike other military dictators, 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 for the last thirty-five years. This no doubt appears odd to western militaries, in that a colonel can rule a country and serve as Commander-in-Chief of its military, but in Gaddafi's own words Libya's utopian society is ruled by the people, so he needs no grandiose title or a supreme military rank.

Gaddafi's remaining a colonel, while assuming control over a country, is not a new concept among dictatorships. Gamal Abdel Nasser remained a colonel after seizing power in Egypt while Jerry Rawlings, dictator of Ghana, held no military rank higher than Flight Lieutenant.

Islamic Socialism and Pan Arabism

Gaddafi based his new regime on a blend of Arab nationalism, aspects of the welfare state and what Gaddafi termed "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" and education were emphasized. He also imposed a system of conservative morals, outlawing alcohol and gambling. To reinforce the ideals of this socialist state, Gaddafi outlined his political philosophy in his Green Book, published in 1976. In practice, however, Libya's political system is thought to be somewhat less idealistic and 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 February 1980, with Libyan hit squads sent abroad to murder them.

With respect to Libya's neighbors, Gaddafi followed Abdul 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 September 28, 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.

Gaddafi also became a strong supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which 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 their 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. Notable in his politics has been the support for liberation movements, in most cases Muslim groups. In the 1970s and the 1980s this support was sometimes so freely given that even the most unsympathetic groups could get Libyan support. Often the groups represented ideologies far away from Gaddafi's own. International opinion was confused by these policies. Throughout the 1970s, his regime was implicated in subversion and terrorist activities in both Arab and non-Arab countries. By the mid-1980s, he was widely regarded in the West as the principal financier of international terrorism. Reportedly, Gaddafi was a major financier of the "Black September Movement" which perpetrated the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, and is accused by the United States of being responsible for direct control of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing that killed 3 people and wounded more than 200 others, of which a substantial number were U.S. servicemen. He is also said to have paid "Carlos the Jackal" to kidnap and then release a number of the Saudi Arabian and Iranian oil ministers.

External relations

Tensions between Libya and the West reached a peak during the Ronald Reagan administration, which tried to overthrow Gaddafi. In 1984 a British policewoman, PC Yvonne Fletcher, was shot outside the Libyan Embassy in London, while policing an anti-Gadaffi demonstration. A burst of machine-gun fire from within the building was always suspected of killing her, but the Libyan diplomats asserted their diplomatic immunity and were repatriated. The incident led to the breaking-off of diplomatic relations between the UK and Libya.

The Reagan administration saw Libya as an unacceptable player on the international stage because of its uncompromising stance on Palestinian independence, its support for revolutionary Iran in its 1980–1988 war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq (see Iran-Iraq War), and its backing for "liberation movements" in the developing world. In March 1982 the U.S. declared a ban on the import of Libyan oil and the export to Libya of US oil industry technology; Europe did not follow suit.

The U.S. attacked Libyan patrol boats from January to March 1986 during clashes over access to the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya claimed as territorial waters. Later, on April 15, 1986, Reagan ordered major bombing raids, dubbed Operation El Dorado Canyon, against Tripoli and Benghazi that killed 60 people following U.S. accusations of Libyan involvement in a bomb explosion in West Berlin's La Belle discotheque, a nightclub frequented by U.S. servicemen on April 5. Among the victims of the April 15 retaliatory attack by the U.S. was the adopted daughter of the Libyan leader.

For most of the 1990s, Libya endured economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation 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 over Lockerbie, Scotland. With the intercession of South African President Nelson Mandela, who made a high-profile visit to Gaddafi in 1997, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Gaddafi agreed in 1999 to a compromise that involved handing over the defendants to the Netherlands for trial under Scottish law. U.N.-sponsored sanctions were suspended, but U.S. sanctions against Libya remained in force.

In October 1993 there was an unsuccessful attempt on Gaddafi's life by 2,000 members of the army; in May 1994 Libyan troops withdrew from Chad after a territorial dispute that began in 1973, returning to the original borders, and in July 1996 bloody riots followed a football match as a protest against Gaddafi.

A new Gaddafi?

From the mid-1990s, Gaddafi managed to improve his connections among Middle Eastern nations and is today considered a much more moderate and responsible leader in the Arab world than he had been. Regarding the Palestinians, he has begun pushing the concept of a binational single-state solution, called "Isratine", a combination of the words Israel and Palestine.

Simultaneously, Gaddafi has also emerged as a popular African leader. As one of the continent's longest-serving, post-colonial heads of state, the Libyan leader enjoys a reputation among many Africans as an experienced and wise statesman who has been at the forefront of many struggles over the years. Gaddafi has earned the praise of Nelson Mandela and others, and is always a prominent figure in various pan-African organizations, such as the Organization of African Unity. He is also seen by many Africans as a humanitarian, pouring large amounts of money into sub-Saharan states. Large numbers of Africans have come to Libya to take advantage of the availability of jobs there. In addition, many more, primarily from Somalia and Ghana move through Libya as a means to reach Italy and other European countries.

Gaddafi also appears to be attempting to improve his image in the West. Two years prior to the the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Libya pledged its commitment to fighting Al-Qaida and offered to open up its weapons program to international inspection. The Clinton administration did not seek to pursue an inspection process since it did not yet see Libya's weapons program as a threat and wanted to first pursue closure on the Lockerbie bombing. Following the attacks of September 11th, Gaddafi offered one of the first, and firmest denunciations of the Al-Qaida bombers by any Muslim leader. In 2002, he publicly apologized for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, and the following year agreed to pay $2.7 billion compensation, or $10 million to each of the 270 victims' families. Gaddafi also appeared on ABC for an open interview with George Stephanopoulos, a move that would have seemed unthinkable less than a decade ago.

There are many explanations for the change of Gaddafi's politics. The most obvious is that the once very rich Libya became much less wealthy as oil prices dropped significantly during the 1990's. Since then, Gaddafi has tended to need other countries more than before and hasn't been able to dole out generous foreign aid as he once did. In this environment, the increasingly stringent sanctions placed by the UN and US on Libya made it more and more isolated politically and economically. Another possibility is that strong Western reactions have forced Gaddafi into changing his politics. It is also possible that realpolitik changed Gaddafi. His ideals and aims did not materialize: there never was any Arab unity, the various armed revolutionary organizations he supported did not achieve their goals, and the demise of the Soviet Union left Gaddafi's main symbolic target, the United States, stronger than ever.

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 attempted to portray Gaddafi's announcement as a direct consequence of the Iraq War by claiming 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. [1] [2]

International inspectors turned up several tons of chemical weaponry in Libya, as well as an active nuclear weapons program. The process of destroying the weapons continues, and Libya has improved its cooperation with international monitoring regimes.

In March 2004, British prime minister Tony Blair became one of the first western leaders in decades to visit Libya and publicly meet Gaddafi. Blair praised Gaddafi's recent acts, and stated that he hoped Libya could now be a strong ally in the international War on Terrorism.

Currently, a major obstacle to improving relations is the trial of Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who were arrested, tried and sentenced to death after an HIV outbreak at a children's hospital in Benghazi. The international view is that Libya has used the medics as scapegoats for pre-existing poor hygiene conditions at the hospital, and Bulgaria, the European Union and the United States have repeatedly called on Tripoli to release them. Hearing the medics' appeal on December 25, 2005 Libya's Supreme Court announced the quashing of their death penalty and ruled that there should be a re-trial.[3]Although the case therefore remains unresolved, the latest court ruling and the prospect of an eventual acquittal of the medics should help to normalize Libya's strained bilateral relations with Bulgaria, and generally assist the process of improving Libya's international relations.

Personal

Gaddafi has eight children, seven of them sons. His oldest son, Muhammad Qaddafi, is by a wife now in disfavor, but runs the Libyan Olympic Committee. The next eldest Al-Saadi Qaddafi, runs the Libyan Football Federation, plays for Italian Serie A team Udinese Calcio, and produces films. The third eldest, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, a painter, runs a charity which has been involved in negotiating freedom for hostages taken by Islamic militants, especially in the Philippines. His only daughter is Ayesha Qaddafi, a lawyer who has joined the defense team of Saddam Hussein. All are seen as possible successors. Three more sons, Al Moatassim, Hannbil, and Khamees, are less prominent. (In September 2004, Hannbil was involved in a police chase in Paris.) One adopted daughter was killed in the 1986 U.S. air raid.

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"). Though Gaddafi is an avid football fan, this more importantly continued a longstanding association with the late Gianni Agnelli, the primary investor in Fiat. Gaddafi has also become involved in chess: in March 2004, FIDE, the game's world governing body, announced that he would be providing prize money for the World Championship, held in June–July 2004 in Tripoli.

In November 2002, he hosted the Miss Net World beauty pageant, a first for Libya and as far as is known, the world's first to be held on the internet.

Quotation

"Ronald Reagan plays with fire! He sees the world like the theater".

"Irrespective of the conflict with America, it is a human duty to show sympathy with the American people and be with them at these horrifying and awesome events which are bound to awaken human conscience." — September 11, 2001

Spelling

Gaddafi's name has been transliterated in a wide variety of ways. For example, an article published in the London Evening Standard on March 29, 2004 lists a total of 37 spellings; a 1986 column by The Straight Dope counted 32. [4]

Authority preferences

The Associated Press and affiliates (such as CNN and FOX News) use the spelling Moammar Gadhafi. Al Jazeera uses Muammar al-Qadhafi. The U.S. State Department uses Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi.

Personal preferences

In 1986, responding to a Minnesota school's letter in English, he used the spelling Moammar El-Gadhafi.¹ According to his personal website, he prefers the spelling Muammar Gadafi, although the domain name gives yet another version, al-Gathafi.

Lists

The list below includes the alternatives listed on the Library of Congress name authority record:

These further alternate spellings may be found in New York Times, Associated Press Wire, and Xinhua English News sources between 1998 and 2000:

Gaddafi is also the inspiration for name of the rap artist, Yaki Kadafi and G-city artist Kadafi Santana.

References

Note 1: "Second-Graders Get Letter From Khadafy." The Associated Press 16 May 1986: Domestic News.

See also

• List of national leaders

External links

• Official web site
• http://www.qadhafi.org/

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• Reuters article on Gaddafi's Unified Africa - during G8 summit meetings on relieving African debt 4 July 2005 22:08 (UTC)
• "Meeting Muammar" by Vivienne Walt, Slate.com, Dec. 16, 2004

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• Straight Dope article on the many spellings of Moammar's name
• Find Out More About Libya

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