The shattered myth of a moderate Qaddafi heir

Posted By Elizabeth Dickinson Monday, February 21, 2011 - 3:16 PM Share

As violence grows in Libya, an urban myth -- one that has been passed around diplomatic circles for the last half decade -- has been effectively shattered: that Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, is the moderate, Western, reform-oriented heir that London, Paris, and Washington have been waiting for. 

By now, you'll have seen Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, the second oldest son of the Libyan leader,  on air defending the brutal decades-long rule of his father. In a speech that had echoes of his dad's long and rambling incoherence, Saif blaimed the ongoing protests on everyone from criminals to Islamists. He promised that Qaddafi would fight to the last protestor. And he was unapologetic about a death toll that he seems to have massively under-stated; he claimed that just 14 have died, while Human Rights Watch puts the number at over 200. For those who have long lauded Saif, and secretly hoped that he would succeed his father, this speech was a wake up call.  

It's worth a brief look back to remember just how Saif built this image to begin with. It helped get the ball rolling that the young Qaddafi, a PhD graduate of the London School of Economics, looked and acted more in touch with modernity than his eccentric father. He dresses in suits and fits into Western diplomatic circles. But the rumor officially became myth several years back, when Saif won credit for convincing his father to publicly renounce weapons of mass destruction and to compensate the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing, which Qaddafi funded years ago. Suddenly seen as a progressive interlocateur, Saif became the point person with Western governments -- a position he retains to this day; when the British foreign minster lodged a complaint against the Libyan government's treatment of protestors yesterday, it was Saif they called. 

But it's been through the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation that Saif has really made his name.  The non-profit, incorporated in Switzerland, put forward a more progressive image of Libya in which Islamists were compassionately re-integrated into daily life and poverty was combatted with every tool available. Journalists visited jihadi re-integration sites and praised what they saw.

Today we're seeing a rather different picture of Libya. From what reports are leaking through -- there is no foreign media allowed in Libya -- government forces are hoping to exorcize the country of protestors, with air strikes, live rounds, and allegedly foreign mercenaries if that's what it takes. 

So here's the biggest test: If Saif is telling the truth and the protestors really are delinquents -- and the security forces so disciplined -- why not let the international press in? That's the only chance left for this prince to manage his image. Even then, the myth of a moderate heir can't be saved.

-/AFP/Getty Images

 

GUYVER

3:44 PM ET

February 21, 2011

"moderate"

The term "moderate" is used to describe Middle East regimes that are pro-US, and is that sense, even if he bombs his people, Qaddafi is still "moderate".

 

NORBOOSE

5:09 PM ET

February 21, 2011

Do you know who Qaddafi is?

Qaddafi has always been very anti-American and Anti-western. This is not even remotely debatable, if Qaddafi is pro-US, Iran is pro-US. Look it up

 

GUYVER

5:49 PM ET

February 21, 2011

Your info is outdated

Qadafi got "in line" and was rewarded for it. Sanctions were lifted, diplomatic relations restored and was removed from the State Sponsor of Terrorism list.

 

NORBOOSE

12:29 AM ET

February 22, 2011

So?

How does that constitute support? By not calling him a sponsor of terrorism, we're somhow giving him some great power he would not have otherwise had? Tolerating a regime is not the same as supporting it.

 

NORBOOSE

12:33 AM ET

February 22, 2011

Understand my point

None of those things you said were active support. Is the US responsible for the behavior of every government in the world that it doesnt try to destroy? That is the impression Im getting, and if its true, you have some absurdly high expectations for the US.

 

MJKOCH

3:58 PM ET

February 21, 2011

The West is to blame for enabling these despots

Any government that has its thugs fire automatic weapons into crowds of unarmed protesters and sends its airforce to bomb them deserves to be overthrown and its leaders tried for crimes against humanity. Have we Americans forgotten that Gadhafi had his operatives blow up a civilian airliner over Lockerabie, Scotland murdering two hundred innocent men, women, and children? Our government unfortunately forgot because along with the United Kingdom we have been more eager to cut deals for Libyan oil than to bring to justice the people that snuffed out the lives of two hundred people. The U.K. let the perpetrator return to Libya in exchange for an agreement with British Petroleum and the Libyan government.

When you hear the Brits and the U.S. condemn Libya ask yourself where were they the past forty years when Ghadhafi was brutalizing and oppressing his people? When it comes to morality and decency western governments think of one word only - OIL. The thirst for oil sadly trumps human rights when it comes to the West, and when these regimes are finally overthrown we act surprised that the people hate us.

 

NORBOOSE

5:13 PM ET

February 21, 2011

What?

Qaddafi came to power almost entirely riding on anti-western sentiment. In recent years, hes become less vocal about it. No western country has ever done anything signifficant to support him, like ever. According to your thinking, every time the US does not actively try to overthrow a government, its supporting it. Thats just insane. How can you expect so much from the US and so little from any other country in the world? They are not children, we are not gods.

 

GRANT

9:09 PM ET

February 21, 2011

Why is it that people keep

Why is it that people keep forgetting our aerial bombardment of Libya in the 1980s? Perhaps it's because they assume if people start marching against a dictator it must mean that the dictator is pro-U.S. Indeed the very idea of people marching against an anti-U.S dictator is probably heresy to a good demagogue.

 

GRANT

9:12 PM ET

February 21, 2011

Was anyone really convinced

Was anyone really convinced that Saif was a liberal reformer? It was one thing to have hopes that he would be easier to negotiate with than his mercurial father but to think that he would be some kind of enlightened despot reforming the system suggests to me that people have forgotten all the other dictators educated in the West.

 

OLIVER CHETTLE

9:30 PM ET

February 21, 2011

Dictators' sons shouldn't be

Dictators' sons shouldn't be allowed to swan around in the West. They only enjoy the privilege of doing so by using money that their fathers have stolen. Has there ever been an example of a dictator's son who became a useful advocate of democracy after being allowed to live in the West? Not many, that's for sure.

 

GRANT

7:23 AM ET

February 22, 2011

So now we should judge

So now we should judge admissions based on a parent's morality? We shouldn't judge a student on basis of their academic ability but on whether or not their parent has done something we consider moral?

 

CHINAB2CC1

6:38 AM ET

February 22, 2011

reply

good!thank you very much!!!

 

MARTY MARTEL

7:32 AM ET

February 22, 2011

Many more such myths await shattering

Western news media and governments have created many more myths that await such shattering and will not be accepted even when proof presents itself so glaringly.

Classic case is US (government as well as news media) continuing to be under the delusion that Pakistan is its ally in fight against terrorism by deliberately ignoring Afghan Taliban’s Pakistani connections in fueling and sustaining Afghan insurgency as reported by Matt Waldman in ‘The sun in the sky‘ on 6/13/2010, corroborated by WikiLeaks leaks on 7/25/2010 and then further corroborated by Chris Alexander, Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan from 2005 until 2009 in his article on 7/30/2010 titled ‘The huge scale of Pakistan‘s complicity‘.

After forcing Pakistan to join its fight against terrorism, US also deliberately decided to whitewash Pakistani government’s role in 9/11 attacks and also allowed Musharraf to spirit away by airlift hundreds, if not thousands, of Taliban operatives cornered by the advancing Northern Alliance in Kunduz in November, 2001. Pakistan relocated those Taliban cadres including Mullah Mohammed Omar in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan and Haqqani network (HQN) in North Waziristan from where Mullah Omar’s QST and Haqqani’s HQN have been planning raids in Afghanistan killing US/NATO troops ever since.

Similarly US deliberately decided to whitewash Pakistani government’s role in nuclear proliferation by lumping all the blame on one man i.e. A Q Khan even when US knows damn well that one man can not cause such massive proliferation when entire nuclear program is under strict Pakistani military control from the very beginning.

But these Western pundits only digress on only those ‘shattered myths’ that are politically acceptable.

All Islamic countries forbid religious conversions and impose death sentence those who convert from Islam to other religion. Koran preaches its adherents to wage a jihad against infidels and kill or convert them. Woment continue to have second class status in most Islamic countries. And yet these pundits continue to spread a myth like there are moderate and fundamentalist Islamic societies.

 

ARIELY

11:40 AM ET

February 22, 2011

Kaddafi and west morals

On the reception of the Lockerbie bomber in Libya, Kaddafi son words to the bomber read by a mouth movement expert were that his freedom was on the economical negotiations with UK.
Next the bomber was received by father Kaddafi.
Those actions convey to the Arabs the message that the terrorists are heroes.
That the west is ready to give away moral values for economical benefit

 

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