Muammar Gaddafi: Difference between revisions

==Biography==

Born near Sirte, Italian Libya to a poor Bedouin family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha, later enrolling in the Royal Military Academy, Benghazi. As a young man, he looked up to [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]], the father of Arab nationalism. Within the military, he founded a revolutionary group that deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of [[Idris of Libya|Idris]] in a 1969 coup.

After seizing power, he abolished the Libyan Constitution of 1951. He established laws based on the political ideology he had formulated, called the Third International Theory and published in ''The Green Book.'' After establishing the ''jamahiriya'' ("state of the masses") system in 1977, he officially stepped down from power in 1979 and has since then held a largely symbolic role within the country's governance. He also prohibited any communist activity, declaring in 1973 that anyone who participated in communist activities would be imprisoned. He also ordered the mass expulsion of Italians and Jews in Libya in a day known as the Day of Revenge.

Rising oil prices and extraction in Libya led to increasing revenues after nationalizing oil. By exporting as much oil per capita as Saudi Arabia and through various welfare programs, Libya achieved the highest living standards in Africa. Early during his regime, Gaddafi and his relatives took over much of the economy. Gaddafi started several wars with neighboring countries Egypt and Chad and acquired chemical weapons. The United Nations called Libya under Gaddafi a pariah state. During his tenure, he warned that anyone who forms a political party will be executed.

During the [[Cold War]], Gaddafi developed strong ties to the Soviet Union and cultivated alliances with [[Idi Amin]] of Uganda (with Libya supporting Uganda during their war with Tanzania) and [[Hafez al-Assad]] of Syria during this time period, though his relations with Amin would sour later on. In 1980, Gaddafi and Assad proposed a political union, with Libya promising to pay off Syria's £1 billion debt to the Soviet Union; although pressures led Assad to pull out, they remained allies. He also sided with Palestine in the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel and forged an alliance with Palestine Liberation Organization leader [[Yasser Arafat]], but this alliance later collapsed when Gaddafi came to believe that Arafat was "too moderate" towards Israel, preferring more violent action. It has been rumored that Gaddafi funded the [[Black September]] group and aided them in carrying out the [[Munich Massacre]].  

It is also known that his regime tortured and murdered former officer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_Muhayshi Umar Muhayshi] in January 1984 who survived more than one assassination attempt.

In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration implemented sanctions against Gaddafi. Several other countries would follow suit. Gaddafi also faced growing opposition within his own borders as well during this time period, mostly from [[Militant Islam|militant Islamist]] groups such as the [[Muslim Brotherhood]]. In response, security forces raided mosques believed to be centers of counter-revolutionary preaching. In October 1993, elements of the increasingly marginalized army initiated a failed coup in Misrata, while in September 1995, Islamists launched an insurgency in Benghazi, and in July 1996 an anti-Gaddafist football riot broke out in Tripoli. The Revolutionary Committees experienced a resurgence to combat these Islamists.

Muammar Gaddafi was the intellectual author and key financier of the brutal war that left hundreds of thousands dead in Sierra Leone in West Africa in the 1990s perpetrated by [[Charles Taylor]] (currently imprisoned in Frankland). The war would not have happened in the first place had it not been for the desire of the Libyan leader to punish the rebel government of Sierra Leone.

When [[Al-Qaeda]] perpetrated the [[September 11 attacks|September 11 terrorist attacks]] on the World Trade Center in New York City, Gaddafi publicly condemned their actions and attempted to rebuild relations with the United States. However, with the beginning of the War on Terror and the US' subsequent invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq, Gaddafi rescinded his attempts to reconcile with the US, believing that this was the wrong way to handle the situation. His stance on this only got stronger as the wars dragged on through the years.

Six days after the capture of Iraqi dictator [[Saddam Hussein]] in 2003 by United States troops, Gaddafi renounced Tripoli's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs and welcomed international inspections to verify that he would follow through on the commitment. A leading advocate for the United States of Africa, he served as Chairperson of the African Union (AU) from February 2^nd, 2009 to January 31^st, 2010. In August 2010, he traveled to Italy and lectured on Islam to 500 women, giving them a copy of the Qur'an. One of the attendees said that the meeting was like a kind of catechesis and that Gaddafi told her that the first step towards Islamizing Europe was Turkey's entry into the European Union.

In February 2011, following revolutions in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, protests against Gaddafi's rule began. These escalated into an uprising that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing a government based in Benghazi named the National Transitional Council (NTC). Gaddafi and his sons responded with violence and brutality with his forces using knives and heavy weapons against unarmed protesters, mass rapes were also committed by their forces. They were also about to commit a [[genocide]] in Benghazi which caused NATO to intervene. Mohammed Nabbous, who focused on drawing international attention to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Libya during the war, was allegedly shot in the head by a sniper shortly after covering the Gaddafi's government ceasefire declaration in March 2011.  

Since Gaddafi's death, Libya's central government has effectively collapsed and civil war has continued to rage in Libya as various factions fight against each other to gain control of the country. Several factions of pro-Gaddafi loyalists have been formed over the years in attempts to restore the Jamahiriya, with no success.

==Trivia==

*He shares the same fate as former Liberian dictator [[Samuel Doe]] since they were both Africans and led a coup and died a similar state on camera.