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America and Gaddafi
- 1. Bradford Tshefu
Poli 483
November 4th 2013
America and Gaddafi
The late, “Mad Dog of the Middle East”, Muammar Gaddafi, was a man often
described as insane, egotistical, and most vehemently, evil. These types of
identifiers, though not completely inapplicable, do not fully touch on the true
rationale for Gaddafi’s actions throughout his life, as his true motivation was the
eradication of all imperialism, including its modern form, neo-colonialism,
imperialist conquest through economic control and subjugation.
Gaddafi exuded the survivalist qualities that have historically defined the
Berber pirates of the North African region. Since the 16th century, these raiders
have scoured the Barbary coasts of Algiers, Tunisia, and most importantly, Tripoli,
the capital of Libya. These ships, with their perpetual plundering and seizing of
European trade ships, can be viewed as the precursors to a regime equally
combative to western powers. The religious beliefs of both the Berber pirates and
the European traders, Islam and Christianity respectively, to this day form the basis
of each faction’s identity. This can be observed in the obvious religiosity of Gaddafi
era and Post-Gaddafi Libya. Molded by, and sharing a deep connection with this
ancestry, Gaddafi’s pan-Arab, Islamic sentiments were foregone conclusions.
Confident in his abilities, Gaddafi was a man of infinite ambition, and with
this ambition he desired to usurp the hegemonic control of the United States, the
defender of capitalism, in favor of a new Pan-Arab Libyan hegemony. Gaddafi’s anti-
- 2. Bradford Tshefu
Poli 483
November 4th 2013
imperial sentiments, as well as his ability and willingness to carry out
unconventional, even terrorist, acts in order to achieve his goal, actions often
destabilizing for America or her ally’s interests within the region, defined US-Libyan
relations, as they both invariably viewed the other’s policies with contempt and
planned retribution. Ultimately, Gaddafi’s insatiable ambition, coupled with decades
of US political dehumanization and clandestine operations, proved to be his
downfall as his allies waned in numbers and his enemies exponentially increased.
Throughout this paper I will be outlining and analyzing the political and historical
events that led to not only the end of Gaddafi’s hegemonic dreams, but also the
ascension of the US as the caretaker of the Middle East.
In beginning an analysis of the relationship between the US and Gaddafi it is
imperative to outline the nature of Libya and America’s relationship prior to
Gaddafi’s rule in order to properly lay down the context for all future interactions
between the states. Following the defeat of the Italians in WWII, the region that
would come to be known as Libya fell into the control of the British and French, the
two European powers with the most interest in apportioning the lands of the Middle
East. Thanks to the lobbying efforts of the US within the UN, Libya was spared from
further European and Soviet distribution and its borders remained unchanged.
The birth of modern Libya occurred on December 24th 1951, the day in which
Britain gave Libya its independence and assisted, Idris I, who they previously
bestowed with the title of Emir of Cyrenaica, in becoming the first and only king of
Libya. King Idris had the unenviable task of ruling over a war ravaged and
- 3. Bradford Tshefu
Poli 483
November 4th 2013
economically powerless infant state, and his early actions as king did little to
alleviate the problems. He banned all political parties, placed members of powerful
families into administrative roles, and allowed US and Britain to place massive
military facilities within the country in exchange for much needed aid packages, one
such facility being the US Wheelus Air Force Base outside of Tripoli.
In 1959, the discovery of oil forever changed the dynamic between Libya, the
US, and the rest of the western world and can be seen as the beginning of a new
Libyan state. Oil allowed Libya to go from being a poor state, in which scrap metal
was the main export, to a relatively prosperous one. Despite this development, or
perhaps because of it, the problems of corruption within the government persisted
and intensified. King Idris’ pro-western leanings also clashed with the budding pan-
Arab ideologies of the Libyan youth, further alienating them from their government.
Dissension within the state reached its culmination on September 1st 1969, when a
27-year-old Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, successfully led a group of Libyan Army
officers in a bloodless coup d’état while King Idris was abroad on a routine medical
examination. This day marked the start of a drastically new Libya, and the end of the
amicable, though exploitative, relationship between Libya and the US.
Following the 1969 coup, Gaddafi immediately replaced the monarchy with a
new administrative body, the Revolutionary Command Council, a name that
obviously evoked the revolutionary hopes he had for this new government. Mere
months after gaining power Gaddafi began a series of changes to the Libyan state in
order to expel the western colonial influences, while also constructing a new Pan-
- 4. Bradford Tshefu
Poli 483
November 4th 2013
Arab socialist identity, directly imitating his childhood idol, General Gamel Nasser’s,
leftist Egypt. He immediately closed US and British military bases within the
country, as he saw them as vestiges of their imperialist aspiration and remnants of
the past administration’s western collusion. He confiscated a number of foreign
assets within the country, converted foreign banks into Libyan joint stock
companies, and removed all Libyan reserves from British banks.
The most significant of his changes were by far in regards to policies towards
Libya’s vast oil reserves, changes that would shape his foreign policy for the next 35
years. In 1971, he nationalized British Petroleum, and demanded that foreign firms
operating on Libya’s oil fields become joint partnerships, with the new regime
maintaining 51 percent ownership. These aggressive policies towards the
protection of their national wealth allowed Libya an independence that few
countries, if any, enjoyed within the region. Oil became the leverage Libya needed in
order to maintain such an aggressive foreign policy towards the western powers, as
it allowed the country to purchase $2 billion in armaments yearly, as well as the
financial capability to intervene or assist in a variety of “revolutionary” operations
throughout the region.
The US, and her main Middle Eastern ally, Israel, became the main targets of
Libya’s hostile foreign policy: the US because of its hegemonic and imperialist
ambitions, and Israel because of the seemingly illegitimate nature of its existence. In
time, Libya’s foreign policy became centered on the Israeli-Arab conflict, and
countries that did not share his contempt for Israel, such as Egypt with the signing
- 5. Bradford Tshefu
Poli 483
November 4th 2013
of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, in his eyes became just as culpable in
subverting the Arab people as Israel or the US themselves. As the chief objective of
US foreign policy within the Middle East was, and to this day, is the continued
existence of Israel, relations between the US and Libya became even more strained
and adversarial.
In part to Libya’s continued aggressive foreign policy towards the West,
specifically America, US-Libyan relations greatly deteriorated during the early
1970’s and in 1972, following Libyan demands that numerous Western states
reduce their embassy staffs to less than 15 people, the US recalled its ambassadors
within the country and eventually closed the embassy entirely in February 1980,
further eliminating the possibility of diplomacy between the two states. The reason
for the US recalling it ambassadors stemmed from Libyan unwillingness to protect
the embassy from violence, greatly endangering the US citizens employed there. The
closing of the embassy also coincided with the placement of Libya on the US’
inaugural List of State Sponsors of Terrorism released by the US State department
on December 29th, 1979.
On October 9th 1973, Libya displayed its wish for hegemonic rule of North
Africa, when it declared the entire Gulf of Sidra as Libyan territorial sea. The US
challenged this declaration for nearly a decade, in ways such as conducting at least
10 military exercises near the Gulf, surely in hopes of Libyan aggression, and thus an
excuse for military reprisal. On August 19th, 1981, the first military clash between
Libya and the US occurred when two US F-14 Tomcats shot down two Libyan Su-22
- 6. Bradford Tshefu
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November 4th 2013
Fitter attack planes 60 miles off the coast of Libya. As the Libyan aircrafts were
deployed to intercept the Tomcats, the newly elected President, Ronald Reagan,
seeking to keep his word of being strong against foreign aggression towards the US
or Israel, placed an embargo in March of 1982 on Libyan oil as well as numerous
trade restriction. These actions were retaliatory measures against not only the Gulf
of Sidra incident but also Libyan support of the US designated terrorist group, the
Palestinian Liberation Organization, in their war against Israel. The Reagan
administration attempted to persuade the European powers to place sanctions on
Libyan oil as well but their dependence on it was too great to take such measures.
In March of 1986 the Gulf of Sidra became another hot bed of conflict when
the Reagan administration conducts attacks on Libyan forces, leading to the
destruction of two Libyan naval ships. Mere weeks after this attack, an explosion
rips through the La Belle nightclub in Berlin, Germany, a frequent leisure spot for US
servicemen. This explosion kills two American soldiers and injures another 79
Americans. Gaddafi is directly implicated in this attack when radio transmissions
authorizing the bombing are intercepted from Tripoli. The Reagan administration
swiftly responded to this development by launching an intensive air raid campaign
over both Benghazi and Tripoli. This raid, with the presumed objective of killing
Gaddafi, failed to eliminate him but did lead to his adopted daughters death, as well
as the death of 15 civilians. This direct attempt on Gaddafi’s life by American hands
led to perhaps the most dramatic moment in US-Libyan relations.
- 7. Bradford Tshefu
Poli 483
November 4th 2013
On December 21st 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 left Heathrow Airport in London,
en route to New York City, destined to never reach its destination, as an explosion
rips through the aircraft causing it to crash in Lockerbie, Scotland. Of the 270 people
killed on the flight, 179 are American citizens. In the immediate hours following the
crash, numerous terrorist organizations take responsibility for the attack, greatly
complicating the joint US-UK investigation to find the suspect. Three years later,
thanks to the help of a Maltese clothing vendor, a Libyan man is identified as having
bought clothes that were allegedly in the suitcase containing the bomb. On
November 14th 1991, the US, France, and the UK issued a joint indictment listing
Abd-al-Bassit Ali al-Magrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fahimah as the suspects, as well as
not only demanding that Libya hand them over, but also declaring that the Libyan
government were accomplices in the bombing through a connection between the
Jamahiriya Security Organization (the Libyan intelligence wing) and the two
bombers.
Gaddafi denied any involvement with the bombing and refused to extradite
either man, especially into the hands of their much-hated western rivals. In January
1992, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 731, urging Libya to comply with
US-UK demands for extraditions. This resolution was ineffective in persuading
Libyan action and another resolution was passed on March 31st 1992, cosponsored
by the US that enacted a number of harsh sanctions on Libya. These sanctions, as
part of Resolution 748, included an international arms embargo on Libya, the
limiting of international flights to and from Libya to only humanitarian missions,
- 8. Bradford Tshefu
Poli 483
November 4th 2013
and the placement of a limit to the number of Libyan diplomats that could be
deployed worldwide. As many of Libya’s African and Arab allies not only respected
the Gaddafi regime in their fight against colonialism, but also were dependent on
their oil to survive, these sanctions were often viewed as illegitimate and ignored by
these states.
On August 5th 1996, President Bill Clinton, seeing a need for harsh sanctions
in order to cut support to Libya, signed the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which required
the president to take 2 of 6 sanctions against any foreign entity that invested over
$40 million per year into Libya’s energy sector. These sanctions were:
1.) Denial of export-import bank loans, credits, or credit guarantees for US exports,
2.) Denial of license for the US export of military or militarily useful technology,
3.) Denial of US bank loans exceeding $10 million in one year,
4.) (Only for financial institutions) The prohibition on its service as a primary dealer
in US government bonds and/or a prohibition on its service as repository for US
government bonds
5.) Prohibition on US government procurement from entity
6.) Restriction on imports from entity
Despite the harsh nature of these sanctions, numerous states simply ignored
them and continued business as usual, such as Turkey, who closed a $300 million
dollar bilateral trade agreement with Libya, and Italy, who closed a $3 billion dollar
deal to develop Libyan natural gas. These countries were exceptions and not the
rule, as Libya was eventually forced to begin negotiating the extradition of the
bombers.
On August 23rd 1998, the US and UK announced their plan to try the bombers
in Netherlands under Scottish Law, and in a move to encourage Libyan extradition,
the UN Security council passed a resolution promising the removal of sanctions once
- 9. Bradford Tshefu
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November 4th 2013
they complied to the US-UK plan. Gaddafi, uneasy about the thought of two Libyan
civilians serving prison time in the US or UK if convicted, initially stalled on
extraditing the prisoner but eventually agreed after the UN Secretary General, Kofi
Annan promised him that the Libyan government will not be culpable and he would
not be put on trial. On January 31st 2001, the trial concluded with the conviction of
Abd-al-Bassit and the acquittal of al-Amin Khalifa Fahimah. The newly elected US
president, George W. Bush, brought a new policy of negotiation, or lack thereof, with
perceived terrorists and in a speech following the trial stated that Libya must be
held responsible for her actions, directly going against what Gaddafi originally
negotiated in extraditing the bombers, non-affiliation with the bombing amongst the
international community. A momentous event occured on September 11th 2001 that
brought stark changes to America’s foreign policy within the Middle East, the
destruction of the two World Trade Centers in New York City and the attack against
the Pentagon.
Immediately following September 11th, Gaddafi renounced the attacks and
began the process of mending the broken relationship between his state and the
West, with his first action being the dispatch of the Libyan head of intelligence, Musa
Kusa, to meet CIA officials in order to present Libya’s list of possible suspects.
Following the Invasion of Iraq on March 20th 2003, Gaddafi, perhaps in fear of harsh
American retribution, initiated the non-proliferation of Libya’s WMD program and
sent personal envoys to meet with both the US and the UK in order to express their
cooperation in all inspections of WMD programs and their dismantlement. By the
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November 4th 2013
end of that year, on December 19th 2003, Libya announced WMD dismantling as an
official Libyan policy.
The International Atomic Energy Agency entered Libya in early 2004 to
begin their inspections and at their conclusion reported that Libya fully cooperated
and was indeed dismantling their WMD program. President George W. Bush
responded to this development by revoking the long established Iran-Libya
Sanctions Act in regards to Libya. The revocation of these sanctions allowed for
Libya to become reintegrated into the global economy, and as a gesture of good
faith, Libya takes civil responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and pays more than
$3 billion to the families of the victims. Another move towards normality occurred
when the US reopened an official liaison office in Tripoli and released a billion
dollars of frozen Libyan funds. Diplomatic relations between the US and Libya
continued to improve culminating on March 15th 2006 when US Ambassador C.
David Welch announced that Libya would be removed from the annual list of non-
cooperative states in regards to US anti-terrorism efforts, the liaison office in Tripoli
would be upgraded to an embassy, and Libya’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism
would be removed. In the waning days of the Bush administration, President Bush
requested that $350,000 be provided for International Military Education training
to Libya. These sentiments of peaceful relations are carried over into the Obama
administration in 2009, when this amount is doubled to $700,000.
Long considered a man adored by his people, 2011 brings marked change to
Gaddafi’s adoration within his country. Amidst accusations of gross human rights
- 11. Bradford Tshefu
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November 4th 2013
violations and widespread censoring, peaceful protests against his rule eventually
led to armed insurrection on February 15th 2011, marking the start to the
destructive Libyan Civil War that would be waged until his death on October 20th
2011. The international community, fed up with his antics and seeing the need to
protect civilian life, passed the UN Security Council Resolution 1970 on February
26th 2011, which formally denounced his actions, froze all his assets, and forbade his
international travel. Seeing a need for further measures against him in order to stop
the massacre of civilians, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 on March
17th 2011, which permitted the UN member states to implement and enforce a no-
fly zone over Libya as well as demanding an immediate ceasefire to hostilities. This
proved to be the turning point for the rebels’ war against Gaddafi and by the end of
August they had captured Tripoli, the capital city, and last stronghold for the
desperate despot. On September 16th 2011, the end of Gaddafi’s regime within the
international community occurs with the UN’s official recognition of the National
Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya. The following month
Gaddafi is captured while attempting to escape the city of Sirte, briefly tortured, and
summarily executed by rebel forces.
The US’ role in Gaddafi’s downfall, though not as direct as past
confrontations, harkened to the acrimonious relations between Gaddafi and the US
that defined the second half of the 20th century. Gaddafi was a man that espoused
Pan-Arabism, Islamic solidarity, and socialist ideology, the antithesis of the West.
Yet ironically enough, despite his hatred for the west and his undying love of the
