Gaddafi clan corruption fuels popular discontent

B2 WORLD Monday, February 7, 2011
THE PRESS, Christchurch
LIBYA
PEOPLE
Gaddafi clan corruption
fuels popular discontent
Michael Sheridan
The violence and corruption of
members of Colonel Muammar
Gaddafi’s family have made Libya
a gangster state with a worse
record of governance than Egypt
or Tunisia, according to leaked
United States diplomatic cables.
The documents reveal how
family greed and rivalry have
complicated British and United
States efforts to normalise
relations with Libya since it
decided to abandon nuclear
weapons and renounce terrorism.
Gaddafi’s children plunder the
country’s oil revenues, run a
kleptocracy and inflict a reign of
terror that has created simmering
hatred and resentment among the
people, according to the cables
released by WikiLeaks.
In the light of the upheavals in
the Arab world, the diplomatic
traffic also shows that far from
being stable, Libya could be
another corrupt domino poised to
fall.
One intriguing sequence of
cables tells how Switzerland faced
down threats after Swiss police
arrested Hannibal Gaddafi, a
younger son, and his wife for
allegedly abusing two of their
domestic staff.
Swiss police officers drew their
guns and fought to disarm two of
Hannibal’s bodyguards, who were
illegally carrying pistols and
attacked them when they entered
his hotel suite in Geneva.
The police found Hannibal
hiding in a bedroom with six
bodyguards. He was taken away
in an armoured Mercedes.
Aisha, Gaddafi’s fiery daughter, then flew into Geneva to raise
the stakes. The Libyans threatened to withdraw billions from
Swiss banks and cut off oil
supplies – threats that were never
carried out in full.
After petty reprisals against
Swiss companies and citizens, the
affair died down. Hannibal paid
compensation to the employees –
a Moroccan and a Tunisian – to
settle the case, and flew back to
Libya with Aisha in a private jet.
The lesson of the 2008 case, for
the Americans, was that there is a
gap between average Libyans and
‘‘a hidebound regime that sees the
state as an extension of the Gaddafi family empire’’.
Hannibal wields vast financial
power in Libya, through influence
over two oil drilling and shipping
firms. A cable calls this ‘‘another
example of the kleptocratic nature
of Gaddafi’s regime’’.
Since seizing power in a 1969
Health problems: Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi may have had a series of
small strokes in 2007 that left him unable to turn his head and made his behaviour
Photos: REUTERS
even more erratic, according to cables released by WikiLeaks.
Hannibal Gaddafi: Wields vast
financial power in Libya, owing to his
influence over two dominant oil drilling
and shipping firms.
Mutassim Gaddafi: The Libyan
national security adviser identified
with the ‘‘hard power’’ faction in his
father’s regime.
Saif al-Islam: The family’s supposed
reformer unfortunately depends on
some of the regime’s most tainted
figures.
Aisha Gaddafi: Reportedly threatened
to withdraw billions from Swiss banks
and cut off oil supplies after her
brother Hannibal was arrested.
coup, Gaddafi has claimed to run
an egalitarian ‘‘state of the
masses’’, using the oil and gas
revenues that account for 95 per
cent of Libya’s economy.
‘‘The reality is that the Gaddafi
family and its political loyalists
own outright or have a considerable stake in most things worth
owning, buying or selling in
Libya,’’ the US embassy told
Washington.
Hannibal is a minor player
compared with the two Gaddafi
sons most often identified as
potential successors.
Gaddafi, now aged 68, may
have had a series of small strokes
in 2007 that left him unable to turn
his head and may have made his
behaviour even more erratic, the
cables report. The Libyan
strongman refuses to fly more
than eight hours at a time, is too
scared to ride in a lift and will not
stay above the first floor of a
hotel, evidently for health
reasons.
So the rivalry between his sons
Mutassim and Saif al-Islam
preoccupies foreign governments.
Mutassim, the third son of
Gaddafi’s second wife, is the
Libyan national security adviser
and is identified with the ‘‘hard
power’’ faction in the regime. He
is said to have demanded US$1.2
billion (NZ$1.55b) in cash or oil
shipments for his personal use
from the head of Libya’s National
Oil Corporation, a trusted regime
figure named Shukri Ghanem.
The cable quotes friends of
Ghanem saying Gaddafi’s sons
were ‘‘undisciplined thugs’’
whom ‘‘no-one could cross’’.
‘‘Gaddafi is focused on the
appearance of reform,’’ a cable
said, but Ghanem believed there
would be ‘‘no meaningful reform
possible’’ in the leader’s lifetime.
The cables describe how even
the family’s supposed reformer,
Saif – the eldest son of the second
wife – depends on some of the
regime’s most tainted figures.
Saif won attention by making a
suave debut on the western social
scene and running a broadcasting
network that was slightly more
liberal than the totalitarian norm
until hardliners shut it down.
His adviser, Abdullah Senussi,
however, is known to the US
embassy as a former head of
military intelligence who personally took a ‘‘very tough’’ line
against releasing dissidents or
improving human rights.
Saif has also played to the
hardliners by delivering a speech
in which he said: ‘‘We will not
tolerate a foreign company to
make a profit at the expense of a
Libyan citizen.’’
In reality, Gaddafi’s regime
appears divided between compromisers and extremists united only
in their enjoyment of power and
money and their connections to
Gaddafi’s tribal clan.
Libya has been keen to cooperate with the West against the
radical Islamists who threaten its
regime. It is also slowly fulfilling
its pledge to dismantle all its
nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons facilities.
But resentment is said to be
festering. The West may be
thinking again about betting on
the stability of the Gaddafi
Sunday Times
regime.
Jamie loses permit
❯❯ Jamie Oliver, the British
celebrity chef, won’t be cooking
another course of his reality TV
show in Los
Angeles
schools. The
filming permit
for the
celebrity chef’s
ABC series
Jamie Oliver’s
Food
Revolution was
terminated last
week, said Los Angeles Unified
School District spokesman Robert
Alaniz. A spokeswoman for the
network said production on Food
Revolution would continue.
Heat on Berlusconi
❯❯ Thousands of people have
attended a rally to demand
Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s
resignation following allegations
that he paid for
sex with a
17-year-old girl
and used his
office to cover
it up. Some of
Italy’s notable
Left-leaning
intellectuals,
including
Umberto Eco
and anti-mafia author Roberto
Saviano, as well as union leaders
and others, addressed the crowd
at a Milan sports stadium.
Lohan denies theft
❯❯ Lindsay Lohan’s lawyer is
denying allegations that the
actress stole a US$2500
(NZ$3250) necklace. Attorney
Shawn
Chapman
Holley said
yesterday that
she and Lohan
will fight the
case if charges
are filed
against the
24-year-old. If
charges are
filed, it would be another blow for
the Mean Girls star, who has
struggled to complete the terms of
her probation on a 2007 drinkdriving case.
Actress charged
❯❯ American actress Jaime Pressly
has pleaded not guilty to drinkdriving charges
in Los Angeles.
Court records
show the
former My
Name is Earl
co-star entered
the plea
through her
lawyer on
Saturday.
Prosecutors in the city of Santa
Monica charged Pressly, 33, with
driving under the influence.