March 14, 2005
HOUSE GADDAFI: MURDER, MAYHEM, & BLACKMAIL
Saadi Gaddafi, subject of a gushing profile in the NY Times, is
jockeying to buy the controlling share of a well-known British soccer
club for $300 million. In the last months of infamous
2-year contract with Perugia, in which he's played exactly one
match, Saadi is coy about which club, as the Brit soccer establishment
is queasy now that Chelsea is owned by
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich & Fulham by
Mohammad al-Fayed.
Saadi (who didn't make the cut for Libya's upcoming World Cup qualifier against Egypt) claims he single-handedly reintroduced soccer to Libya after his father banned professional sports & discouraged spectator sports ("sport is a public activity that must be practiced rather than watched").
Beside being rife with errors obvious even to lowly bloggers, the Times piece treats Saadi like a legitimate if colorful businessman, when he's essentially Uday Hussein. His father-in-law is chief of Libya's sinister security apparatus, & his family has simply looted the country & squirreled billions of dollars away in European banks while Libya remains impoverished & unfree.
¶ One of the catalysts in Libya's
decision to abandon WMDs was
getting caught red-handed. In August 2003, US operatives in
Kuala Lumpur watched
as agents of
Abdul
Qadeer Khan loaded 5 containers of
nuclear equipment onto a ship bound for Tripoli. This was just 5 months
after Seif Gaddafi sat down with British intelligence to poo-poo talk of
Libyan WMDs.
In a crack intelligence op, US agents tracked the ship from Malaysia to Dubai, where the containers were moved to another ship, tracked it thru the Suez, & intercepted it in Italy. Realizing the US knew far more than he thought, Gaddafi quickly changed his tune.
¶ Around this time, Gaddafi is said to hatched a scheme to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah by making it look like an Al Qaeda plot, after an exchange of insults at an Arab League summit:
"Gaddafi accused the Saudi prince of 'making a pact with the devil' by supporting U.S. military forces in the region. Abdullah responded: 'Your lies precede you & your grave is in front of you.'
In the course of the bumbling plot, the Libyans transferred the money to the wrong bank in Medina, drew the attention of Saudi bank regulators by withdrawing huge sums of cash, & were left in the lurch when their courier got cold feet & fled. Gaddafi denies the charges, but hasn't explained what 13 Libyan agents were doing in Mecca with a million dollars trying to contact Al Qaeda (presumably not a difficult thing to do in Saudi Arabia).
¶ Gaddafi now trying to blackmail Bulgaria over case of 5 Bulgarian nurses Libya claims intentionally infected children with HIV on orders of CIA & Mossad. Libya now says it might reconsider the death sentences if the children's families were compensated by Bulgaria. Gaddafi ignored the EU's warning this week to immediately release the nurses, just as he previously ignored John Le Carre, Ian McKellen, & Noam Chomsky.
Posted by Jeff at March 14, 2005 10:47 PM
Comments
"just as he previously ignored John Le Carre, Ian McKellen, & Noam Chomsky."
And at some earlier point Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Mumbling Gadfly definately has a hearing problem.
Posted by: Martin at Blogbat at March 14, 2005 11:51 PM
The next time there is a blog awards thingy, I am going to nominate Jeff for the best Libyan blog.
Posted by: Pile On® at March 15, 2005 07:52 AM
We need a new reality show... "Growing up Gaddafi."
Posted by: Russell Wardlow at March 15, 2005 09:59 AM
I could see that on MTV
Posted by: Martin at Blogbat at March 15, 2005 11:24 AM
"...just as he previously ignored John Le Carre, Ian McKellan and Noam Chomsky."
You mean after 35 years on the job, Qaddhafi has finally demonstrated a useful skill?
P.S. The Library of Congress lists 32 variant spellings of your Favorite Fun Family's surname, which I believe is a record.
Posted by: utron at March 15, 2005 12:06 PM
Jeff provides a useful analysis that once a bastard, always a bastard. The only way we can keep these rats from running free is to either poison them, or keep the lights on in the room. Barring something catestrophic, we won't be able to poison Gaddafi, so we damn well better keep a watchful eye on him.
By the way, U.S. intelligence sure has its flaws, but how about 3 cheers for their successs in nailing the Lybians in Kuala Lampur?
Posted by: TF6S at March 15, 2005 01:01 PM
Dang, Utron, that's something productive I could have actually done today. And I bet that's not even counting the aliases.
Posted by: Martin at Blogbat at March 15, 2005 08:52 PM