by Brandon Webb
For all his sins, the Western world seemed to enter into some kind of detente with Gaddafi starting in the 1980s. Despite the African leader’s forays into terrorism and assassination, it seems that the West could not ignore a nation so rich in oil, and with an apparently unhinged leader who had a growing interest in Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Margret Thatcher wrote at the time that the former President of Sudan had once called Gaddafi “a man with a split personality—both of them evil.”
After the attacks and counter-attacks between Gaddafi and the West during the 1980s, the Libyan leader sought to rehabilitate his image as the “mad dog of the Middle East,” as Ronald Reagan had once called him. He admitted to responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and turned over two suspects, his own intelligence operatives, for trial in Europe. His concession, and willingness to pay over two billion dollars in damages to the families of the victims, is seen as purely Machiavellian. Ever the shrewd manipulator, by admitting some responsibility for the bombing, Gaddafi succeeded in having UN sanctions against his country lifted.
The fun and games continued through the 1990s as well. David Rothkopf, who discusses conspiracy theories about the power elite in his book Superclass, relates a personal story in which the CEO of a major aircraft manufacturer pitches an assassination plot to Representative Pat Schroeder.
Here is the deal. I want to sell a plane to Muammar Qaddafi and he wants to buy one. But we have sanctions in place that won’t let me sell to him. The US wants this guy dead. So, what I’m thinking is, if you help me get the okay to sell him the plane, I’ll build it with explosive bolts connecting the wings to the fuselage. Then, one day he’s up flying over the Med and we push a button. He’s gone. I make my sale. Everyone’s happy.
It is unknown what ultimately became of this plan.
Ironically, Gaddafi himself faced an internal threat from Islamic extremists in the 1990s that influenced him to cooperate with American and British counterterrorism initiatives. Libya was even used as a center in the rendition flight network for detained suspected terrorists held by American operatives after the 9/11 attacks. One of these rendition prisoners appears to have been an internal political opponent of Gaddafi’s named Abdelhakim Belhadj, an Islamic extremist who fought with the Mujahdeen in Afghanistan against the soviets before becoming an emir in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. The CIA then arranged for him to be arrested in Malaysia and returned to Libya, where Gaddafi later released him as part of a de-radicalization program. Belhadj became a leader in the Libyan civil war against Gaddafi’s forces just a few years later.
With the British, French, and Americans convincing Gaddafi to abandon his Weapons of Mass Destruction program, the Bush administration removed Libya from the list of nations that support terrorism, and both MI–6 and the CIA increased intelligence-sharing and cooperation with the Libyan regime. Only after the civil war was it evident that the CIA had even written speeches for Gaddafi and helped him set up an extensive surveillance system.
At this point, there was a warming of relations between Gaddafi and the West as he signed agreements with French Prime Minister Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Burlesconi. He also opened the door to Russia, meeting with Medvedev and Putin. The once-ostracized dictator even rated a handshake from President Obama at a G8 summit in 2009.
All of which makes Gaddafi’s liquidation, with direct Western assistance, in 2011 all the more interesting.
About the Authors
JACK MURPHY is the managing editor of SOFREP.com and a former US Army Ranger with multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is an eight-year Army Special Operations veteran who served as a Sniper and Team Leader in 3rd Ranger Battalion and as a Senior Weapons Sergeant on a Military Free Fall team in 5th Special Forces Group. Acting as senior trainers and advisers to an Iraqi SWAT team, his Special Forces soldiers conducted Direct Action and other missions across Northern Iraq. Having left the military in 2010, he now studies political science at Columbia University.
BRANDON WEBB is the editor-in-chief of SOFREP.com and a former US Navy SEAL who served combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. President George W. Bush awarded the Presidential Unit Citation to Webb and his SEAL platoon following their deployment to Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. After his final combat deployment, he was Course Manager for the US Navy SEAL Sniper program, arguably the most difficult sniper courses in the world. The author of the bestselling memoir The Red Circle, Webb has appeared in the New York Times and on ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, the BBC, and other outlets.
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Copyright
BENGHAZI. Copyright © 2013 by SOFREP, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062276919
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