So who was right about Libya?

So who was right about Libya? Those on the left who thought the West could bring Libya back into the international fold as he had ideas that 'have common ground with some of new Labour's' or those on the right who knew he was mad, bad and dangerous to know?


For the former point of view here in the New Statesman in 2006 is Tony Blair's advisor Anthony Giddens who interestingly was also from 1997 to 2003 was director of the London School of Economics and a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Public Policy Research:

'Dressed in a brown-gold robe, he cuts an impressive figure. There are no guards or minders in view, and the occasion is a completely informal one. He is instantly recognisable and would be so to a great many people across the world, whatever their feelings about him might be. In a way, it is an extraordinary phenomenon. Libya is a tiny country in terms of population, with only 5.8 million people. Gaddafi's global prominence is altogether out of proportion to the size of the nation he leads. He is now 64, in power since 1969. Rumours abound that he is in failing health, but he looks robust.

You usually get about half an hour when meeting a political leader. My conversation with Gaddafi lasts for more than three. Gaddafi is relaxed and he clearly enjoys intellectual conversa tion. We sit close together and occasionally sip mint tea. He has a tiny notebook in front of him, into which he sometimes makes short scribbled entries. He is not a fidgety person but has a calm, articulate manner, and cracks the odd joke or two as we go along. The only other direct participant is a man who has just flown in from New York, apparently especially to do the translation.

Gaddafi speaks some English, and occasionally during the encounter makes comments to me directly. But, for most of the time, we converse through the translator. Gaddafi is interested in the debates and policies involved in social democracy in Europe, which is the reason he has invited me. He likes the term "third way", because his own political philosophy, developed in the late 1960s, was a version of this idea. It has been written up in the form of The Green Book, authored by Gaddafi, on display almost everywhere in Libya.

...

Our conversation is wide-ranging and "The Leader", as he is universally known in Libya, makes many intelligent and perceptive points. He continually reverts to the ideas of The Green Book, but makes it clear that he wants to adapt and update them. Over the past three or four years, Gaddafi has come in from the cold internationally. He has renounced his support for terrorism and Libya has paid compensation to the families of those killed in the Lockerbie attack. Libya has terminated its nuclear and chemical weapons programmes. In conjunction with Gaddafi's son Saif, a PhD student at the London School of Economics, the British Foreign Office played a large part in producing Libya's re-engagement with the wider world. UN sanctions, which had severely affected the economy, have been lifted, and Libya has been taken off the US list of states that support terrorism.

Gaddafi's "conversion" may have been driven partly by the wish to escape sanctions, but I get the strong sense that it is authentic and that there is a lot of motive power behind it. Saif Gaddafi is a driving force behind the rehabilitation and potential modernisation of Libya. Gaddafi Sr, however, is authorising these processes and retains a strong grip upon the country.Our conversation is wide-ranging and "The Leader", as he is universally known in Libya, makes many intelligent and perceptive points. He continually reverts to the ideas of The Green Book, but makes it clear that he wants to adapt and update them. Over the past three or four years, Gaddafi has come in from the cold internationally. He has renounced his support for terrorism and Libya has paid compensation to the families of those killed in the Lockerbie attack. Libya has terminated its nuclear and chemical weapons programmes. In conjunction with Gaddafi's son Saif, a PhD student at the London School of Economics, the British Foreign Office played a large part in producing Libya's re-engagement with the wider world. UN sanctions, which had severely affected the economy, have been lifted, and Libya has been taken off the US list of states that support terrorism.

Gaddafi's "conversion" may have been driven partly by the wish to escape sanctions, but I get the strong sense that it is authentic and that there is a lot of motive power behind it. Saif Gaddafi is a driving force behind the rehabilitation and potential modernisation of Libya. Gaddafi Sr, however, is authorising these processes and retains a strong grip upon the country.

...

I leave Gaddafi's tent to make the trip back to Tripoli enlivened and encouraged. Libya may be small, but it is a front-line nation in global terms because of its leader's decision to open up to the wider world after years of international isolation, and because of the abolition of its WMD programmes. The country is going in the opposite direction from Iran and North Korea and it is in virtually everyone's interest that this process be sustained. On the way back from the desert to Tripoli, I talk to some of the modernisers working to implement specific policy programmes. I am impressed both by their sophistication and their determination to reform.

...

Much will depend upon Gaddafi himself, as he sits ruminating upon the relevance of his political thinking to current times. He could play a crucial role in easing transition if he decides to support the modernisers. He does seem set on this course, but must use his influence to persuade the doubters - yet perhaps, first of all, he must fully persuade himself.'

There you have one of the left appreciating and trusting a man who is now denounced as a tyrant. Did Anthony Giddens not know in 2006 of the massacres carried out in the name of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya? Did Anthony Giddens not know of the assassination of Libyan dissidents living abroad in 1980? Did Anthony Giddens not know of the reports that Gaddafi was a major financier of the "Black September Movement" which killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Berlin Olympics? Did Anthony Giddens not know that Gaddafi was accused by the United States of being responsible for direct control of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 200, of whom a substantial number were U.S. servicemen? Did Anthony Giddens not know that British WPC Yvonne Fletcher was shot by someone within the Libyan Embassy whilst she was policing an anti-Gaddafi demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London. Did Anthony Giddens not know of Gadaffi's arms shipments to the IRA, arms that were used to kill British soldiers, members of the RUC and British civilians? Did Anthony Giddens not know that Gaddafi was a funder of various Palestinian terrorist organisations? Did Anthony Giddens not know that Libya under Gaddafi had been rated for political rights and civil liberties as "7" meaning "Not Free".

Did Anthony Giddens really not know all of this or did he just not care when he went to Libya to meet a man with blood on his hands and hatred in his heart? Was he more interested in meeting a socialist with his own ideas about a Third Way than thinking about who he was dealing with?


By way of comparison, Ronald Regan saw Gaddafi for what he was, said as much and took action. Of course Ronald Regan was belittled for this, as he was for much else but then the left 'knew' he was a moron, an idiot, a fool...



So who was the fool?