A year ago, Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Qaddafi was Being Praised in the Intellectual End of the Western Media
Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Qaddafi
A year ago, Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Qaddafi was being praised in the intellectual end of the Western media as the face of a new Libya. With his doctorate from the London School of Economics, his almost-British accent and his calm, reasonable demeanor, the West was watching his obvious attempts to modernize Libya’s economy. The rumors of a split from his father over Saif’s modernization efforts were quickly dispelled when Saif was welcomed home after a brief semi-exile in Europe.
Today, that almost-British accent is being used for a Western media blitz denying that there is any revolution, asserting that it is just terrorists and illegal immigrants who are creating the disruption in peaceful Libya, predicting that without Qaddafi Libya would become the Somalia of the Mediterranean. His very Westernness recalls the Oxford-educated fake kings that the British set on the thrones of artificial countries after World War I, kings who became despots while the West ignored the rights and needs of the people. Some are now openly suggesting that Saif is “urbane, charming and psychotic.” An American diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks suggested that Saif was syphoning off oil that was delivered to European countries for his own personal wealth. Whether the money was coming from the European oil companies or Libya’s oil revenues was unknown. What is known is that Farhat Bengdara, the governor of the Central Bank of Libyawas recently in Geneva “rearranging” several of the Qaddafi family accounts and adding Saif’s name to some as a signator, along with his brother Khamis and sister Aisha, the other Qaddafi children with the most power in the country.
Calling Saif “psychotic” seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to the public position Saif has taken in the past three weeks. There are only two things in his personal background which suggest even a hint of recklessness – his friendship with Britain’s embattled Prince Andrew and his rumored romance with an Israeli actress. In his 38 years, Saif has done nothing uncivilized or even autocratic. Even his personal spending habits are far more conservative than the norm for the sons of Middle Eastern dictators or kings with treasuries full of oil money. Professor David Held of the London School of Economics, in 2008, said of Saif, “I’ve come to know Saif as someone who looks to democracy, civil society and deep liberal values for the core of his inspiration.” Now, as the school is considering how to cut itself loose from its previous praise of Saif, Professor Held has said, “My support for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was always conditional on him resolving the dilemma that he faced in a progressive and democratic direction,” Held said. “His commitment to transforming his country has been overwhelmed by the crisis he finds himself in. He tragically, but fatefully, made the wrong judgment.” Or was that judgment thrust upon him? In the early days of the revolution, all of Saif’s allies in his drive to reform Libya defected to the rebellion, leaving him alone and within arm’s reach of a clearly insane father and a brother, Khamis, who controls much of the military and police in Libya.
Saif’s dilemma became clear earlier this week in a single interview given to Time Magazine. It contrasted sharply with the other interviews he has given, the ones defending his father’s regime and lying about the use of military aircraft to attack the rebels. Analysts are now saying that Saif is looking less urbane and charming and more distressed and trapped.
In the interview, Saif finally acknowledged that superior military firepower is being used against the rebels. “Their backbone is broken. We have airplanes, reconnaissance, telling us they are escaping everywhere. They have no future.” He dismissed the effectiveness of any intervention by the West and he may be right about that. Any military intervention that comes solely from Europe would give the Qaddafi regime the propaganda it needs to reunite the country against a common enemy. The Arab League would be the only force that could intervene and be recognized as legitimate within the country, but the autocratic rulers of the Arabian Peninsula are quietly rooting for Qaddafi to win so they can justify a similar brutal repression of protests in their own countries. The Saudis have already promised deadly force as a response to any street demonstrations.
The Time interview ranged from claims of triumph over the progress the loyalists have made in retaking Zawiya and Ras Lanouf with ruminations about the “golden opportunity” this rebellion represents. Saif said that the “hardliners” within his father’s regime have had to face the fact that Saif and his allies have been right all along, that political and economic reform are necessary. Saif spoke of seizing this moment to make massive reforms within the country. The question is, who would be making these reforms? It’s not enough for him to say “Everybody is convinced that the things we said 10 years ago, five years ago, were right. To have a modern democracy, modern economy, more freedom.” He cannot just remind people that just a year ago he told Time magazine that Libyans needed open elections and “freedom like in Holland.” There was one brief moment when he could have walked out of his father’s compound, made his way to Benghazi and stood with the rebels. There was one brief moment when he could have put the country out of its misery with the oldest North African form of transfer of power – assassination. Hell, Cleopatra did it. Saif hesitated and now he is fighting for his own survival, not just against the rebels, but within his father’s regime.
With mercenaries roaming the streets of a surrealistically quiet Tripoli, with reports of a BBC journalist being tortured and injured demonstrators being dragged out of hospitals and shot in the streets, with the news lockdown being penetrated daily by any means the rebels can manage, every word that Saif says about calm and order in the capitol are exposed as lies. He has lost all credibility outside of Libya, the very thing he needed to effect reforms. Whatever he believed about the possibility of reform has died along with unknown hundreds or thousands of Libyans who originally only wanted a peaceful transition to democracy like that which happened in Egypt.
Saif has spoken of how the loyalist forces are preparing to attack Benghazi, the seat of the rebellion. With the oil facilities in Zawiya and Ras Lanouf already on fire, any attack on Benghazi would involve almost totally destroying the oil capabilities of Libya. Oil is flowing into Benghazi at a reduced rate only because the tankers have not been coming to take it away. Benghazi is Libya’s largest port for oil exportation. To attack it with air strikes as the loyalists have done in Ras Lanouf, particularly as so many countries have frozen Libya’s bank accounts, would be to commit economic suicide for the Qaddafi regime. That is irrelevant to Qaddafi. He has no qualms about regaining control of his country even if there is no one alive to rule and no oil to exploit. He would be content with millions of square miles of burning desert and a depopulated nation. The West doesn’t have the luxury of talking this out any more. Qaddafi has used his Navy in attacking Zawiya and Ras Lanouf, as well as his Air Force. A no-fly zone will not be enough to save hundreds of thousands of lives in Libya. Qaddafi has made it clear that he will kill anyone and everyone that he even thinks opposes him. That may include his own son.
by L. S. Carbonell
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