MAIL ONLINE: Gaddafi's last moments alive: Dictator begs for his life after being dragged from a drain. Seconds later he was summarily executed » | Daily Mail Reporter | Thursday, October 20, 2011
Showing posts with label Colonel Gaddafi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colonel Gaddafi. Show all posts
Thursday, October 20, 2011
MAIL ONLINE: Gaddafi's last moments alive: Dictator begs for his life after being dragged from a drain. Seconds later he was summarily executed » | Daily Mail Reporter | Thursday, October 20, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
SKY NEWS: Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has spoken on state television, blaming the unrest on a "bunch of youths" fuelled by drugs in their coffee.
SKY NEWS: The statement, which he made over the phone to a television presenter in the town of Zawiya, marks the third time Gaddafi has spoken out since uprisings began. >>> | Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monday, July 26, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: A senior Libyan minister was entertained by Prince Andrew at St James's Palace as David Cameron prepared to hold talks with Barack Obama over the Lockerbie bomber, it has emerged.
The official, a key figure in Colonel Gaddafi's cabinet, led a delegation of Libyans who also held talks with a Tory defence minister and with senior Scotland Yard counter terrorism officers.
Abdel-Fatah Yunis al- Obeidi also met a Foreign Office minister during his UK trip.
The Government is now facing demands to explain why the Libyans had been given the 'red carpet treatment' as Mr Cameron was trying to appease the U.S. president over the controversial release last August of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. Continue reading and comment >>> Stephen Wright | Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: The US Senate is determined to uncover the truth behind the early release of the Lockerbie bomber
Alex Salmond has heaped pressure on Tony Blair over his alleged role in the controversial release of the Lockerbie bomber by claiming that the former prime minister should be forced to testify before a US Senate committee investigating the affair.
Amid growing concerns over the potential impact of the forthcoming foreign relations committee hearings, the Scottish First Minister advised senators to question Mr Blair over the infamous "deal in the desert" in 2007, when Mr Blair and the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi agreed plans to open the country up to foreign trade.
The call came as the Daily Mail claimed Mr Blair was flown to Libya for secret talks with Col Gaddafi last month, days after denying he was an adviser to the dictator.
The committee inquiry, led by Senator John Kerry, will investigate BP's alleged involvement in the release last August, on compassionate grounds, of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. But it threatens to turn into an embarrassing episode for a series of senior British figures. Both David Cameron and Foreign Secretary, William Hague, have said the release was "a mistake". But officials in Washington have confirmed that they want to ask past and present UK ministers to give evidence about their handling of the case – casting a shadow over former justice secretary Jack Straw and the Scottish Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, the man who authorised the release.
But, in an attempt to deflect criticism from his own administration, Mr Salmond suggested that the senators look elsewhere. "It is important to understand that what the American senators want to inquire about is whether there was a deal in the desert with Col Gaddafi," Mr Salmond said. "The best [way] to answer that would be to call Mr Blair and ask him directly." Continue reading and comment >>> Brian Brady and David Usborne | Sunday, July 18, 2010
Related article here
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Tony Blair lobbied Colonel Muammar Gaddafi on behalf of Shell in a letter written for him in draft form by the oil company, documents obtained by The Times reveal.
The correspondence, written while Mr Blair was Prime Minister, bears a striking resemblance to a briefing note by Royal Dutch Shell weeks earlier promoting a $500 million (£325 million) deal it was trying to clinch in Libya.
While it is common for government ministers to champion British interests abroad, Shell’s draft reveals an unusual assurance in its ability to dictate Mr Blair’s conversation with the Libyan leader. It also raises questions about the motives behind Britain’s improved relations with Libya and the subsequent release of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber. Lockerbie victims have claimed that the Government paved the way for al-Megrahi’s release as part of a deal with Libya to give British companies access to Libya’s lucrative oil and gas industry.
In the draft, Shell tells Mr Blair to discuss positive progress on weapons of mass destruction as well as the investigation into the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984. >>> David Robertson, Business Correspondent | Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: World powers have reacted with outrage to a call by Colonel Gaddafi of Libya for holy war on the "obscene, infidel" state of Switzerland.
Col Gaddafi took a long-running and personal feud with the historically neutral European country to new heights with a speech in which he attacked the ban on new minarets on mosques approved by a Swiss referendum last year.
"Those who destroy God's mosques deserve to be attacked through jihad, and if Switzerland was on our borders, we would fight it," he said. "Jihad against Switzerland, against Zionism, against foreign aggression is not terrorism."
He called for a boycott of Switzerland by the Islamic world. "Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Mohammad, God and the Koran," he said.
"The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbours and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold."
Col Gaddafi's typically eccentric row with Switzerland, which began when one of his sons was arrested along with his wife because of allegations of abuse by two members of his domestic staff, has come as a blow to western powers.
They thought that they had managed to tame the Libyan leader after he voluntarily gave up a basic nuclear weapons programme in 2003 and agreed a compensation deal over the Lockerbie bombing.
Yesterday, both the European Union and the United Nations hit out at his speech. >>> Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Friday, February 26, 2010
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: The Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has hosted a second evening event in Rome to which he invited 200 beautiful Italian women.
They were under orders not to show too much leg or cleavage. But a strict dress code for 200 glamorous young Italian women appeared to have slipped somewhat when they were entertained for a second time by Libya's eccentric leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Many of the women were photographed turning up for the unusual soiree on Monday night wearing tight black leather mini-skirts, high heels and tops with plunging necklines.
The dress code had relaxed considerably since Sunday, when another group of 200 Italian girls were invited to a reception by the Libyan leader, who is in Rome for the UN World Food Summit.
For that occasion, they were told by the modelling agency that recruited them not to wear jeans, see-through or suggestive clothing or skirts above the knee.
Col Gaddafi again used the agency, Hostessweb, to hand-pick a fresh batch of 200 women - each paid 60 euros (£53) - and have them brought by bus to the Libyan ambassador's residence.
Each was given a copy of the Koran. But unlike on Monday night, when the first group of girls sat through a meandering discourse on Islam, sexism in the West and Col Gaddafi's belief that the crucifixion of Jesus was fraudulent, this time he permitted the women to ask him questions. >>> Nick Squires in Rome | Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Libyan officials posed as Dutch diplomats to try to find Colonel Gaddafi a place to stay this week on his first visit to the US.
The envoys, including one calling himself Ronald, approached a property agent on the Upper East Side of New York to inquire about renting the Barclay Mansion, a six-storey townhouse on East 78th Street.
Jason Haber, who has a master’s degree from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, realised the ruse and the deal did not go through.
“When someone says they are representing the Dutch, you accept that at face value,” Mr Haber told The Times. “After a few conversations, the accents did not match. When the e-mails started it became quite clear. The e-mails had a Libyan Embassy address.”
Colonel Gaddafi, the world’s longest-serving leader, was due to arrive in New York last night for his first visit to the annual UN General Assembly.
After 11 years of UN sanctions, Libya now holds a seat on the 15-nation Security Council and the presidency of the 192-nation General Assembly. Colonel Gaddafi is also the head of the African Union.
His rehabilitation on the international scene has been dented by Britain’s release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi. The outcry with which the release was met in America has made it difficult for Colonel Gaddafi to find a place to stay. Libyans pose as Dutch diplomats to get Gaddafi a room in New York >>> James Bone in New York | Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: Ministers accused of not holding Tripoli to account / Calls for payouts over Ulster terrorism rejected
Britain faced fresh pressure over Libya yesterday when the government was accused of failing to challenge Tripoli over the forcing down of a British aircraft in 1971 and the son of the Libyan leader rejected paying compensation to victims of IRA terrorism.
As No 10 struggled to present a united front on Libya – with the schools secretary, Ed Balls, declaring that "none of us wanted" to see the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing – ministers were criticised for failing to act on pleas to investigate an earlier plane incident.
Ministers have faced calls since 2004, the year the then prime minister, Tony Blair, met the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, outside Tripoli, to challenge Libya over the forcing down of a BOAC VC10 over Benghazi in July 1971.
The plane was flying from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to London carrying 105 people, including Colonel Babakr al-Nur, the leader of a failed coup, and his assistant, Major Farouk Hamadalla. Both men were sent back to Sudan, where they were executed.
Hamadalla's daughter, Amani, has tried to raise the matter with the Foreign Office (FCO), but she has been met with "obfuscation after obfuscation", according to her MP, the Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather.
In an echo of the government's initial refusal to put pressure on Tripoli to pay compensation to victims of IRA terrorism, the Foreign Office brushed off Hamadalla in 2004.
Lady Symons, an FCO minister, told her to contact the Libyans herself. "It is impossible for us to raise every case, but, if a suitable opportunity presents itself, we are sometimes able to discuss individuals," Symons wrote. When Teather protested, the FCO raised the case with the Libyans and issued Tripoli with a formal "note verbale" in 2005 recording this. >>> Nicholas Watt and Henry McDonald | Monday, September 07, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Libya is planning a celebrations on the scale of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Colonel Gaddafi to power.
If anything, the superlatives will be even greater as Beijing 2008 did not boast the world's largest tent, 1,000 camels, Toureg nomads or 40 hot air balloons.
Performers are being flown in from all over the planet, from dancers and fireworks specialists to a brass band from Wales.
The giant tent, and the stage within it, longer than a football pitch, are being built by a British special events company, Atlantic Enterprise.
The director is a Frenchman and the party is being put together by a public relations company run by the British government's one-time favourite ad-man.
"Everything is bespoke for this event," said Atlantic's managing director, Shane McCarthy. "Nothing like this has ever been done before."
Organisers are expecting 300,000 Libyans to watch the show being put on next Tuesday to mark the anniversary live, with more on television.
After congregating in Libya's capital Tripoli, newly whitewashed and decorated with Gaddafi posters, hundreds of VIP guests will enjoy an evening buffet.
They will then be escorted into a smaller version of the open Bedouin tent, 130 yards by 45 yards, by 27 yards tall, in which the pageant will take place. Once they are joined by Col Gaddafi himself, the show will begin.
The scale will be vast. Four hundred performers, helped by a crew of 1,100, will lay on a pageant of Libya's history: as centre of Phoenician trade, of Roman civilisation and Arab learning.
Mr McCarthy said the firm was using 15 Antonov aircraft to fly in 8,000 tons of equipment. There would be 100 tons of equipment on the stage itself.
Reference will be made to Libya's period as an Italian colony. But Italy is now one of Libya's closest friends and the "Frecce Tricolori" or Tricolor Arrows, Italy's answer to the Red Arrows, will be joining the celebrations. >>> Richard Spencer | Friday, August 28, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: A New Jersey town with a bitter experience of terrorism is in uproar at the prospect of Muammar Gaddafi pitching his air-conditioned tent there during his first visit to the United States.
The Libyan leader is considering making his Bedouin camp in the garden of a Libyan-owned mansion in Englewood, next door to a Jewish school and a famous rabbi, when he travels to New York to address the UN General Assembly on September 23.
Officials in the wealthy commuter town, 23 miles north of Manhattan, have vowed to stop Mr Gaddafi from staying there, particularly after he welcomed the Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Englewood has its own searing memories of terrorism. The town lost five residents in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and its fire brigade helped in the recovery effort at "Ground Zero."
Congressman Steve Rothman, who represents the area and once served as Englewood's mayor, said:"Gaddafi is a dangerous dictator whose hands are covered with the blood of Americans and our allies."
Michael Wildes, the current mayor, said: "People are infuriated that a financier of terrorism, who in recent days gave a hero's welcome to a convicted terrorist, would be welcomed to our shores, let alone reside in our city."
Mr Gaddafi's attention turned to Englewood after the US refused permission for him to pitch his tent in New York's Central Park.
Libya purchased the 25-room mansion known as "Thunder Rock", set on 4.7 acres on tree-lined Englewood Avenue, in 1982. It wanted to use the property as a diplomatic mission, but federal officials bridled at the idea.
Local officials worked out a deal with the US State Department at the time restricting Libya's use of the mansion as a weekend and summer retreat for Libya's UN ambassador and visiting dignataries [sic].
The next-door neighbour is orthodox Jewish rabbi, Smuley Boteach, the star of a TV series called Shalom in the Home. >>> James Bone in New York | Tuesday, August 25, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Libya may have renounced its weapons of mass destruction, but two weapons just as powerful remain in its arsenal: its vast and barely tapped reserves of oil and gas.
Tony Blair helped to secure a £900 million gas exploitation deal for BP when he visited Libya two years ago, but the deal remains hampered by bureaucratic obstacles.
At the same meeting Mr Blair and Colonel Gaddafi discussed Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi’s release, setting the path towards a possible prisoner transfer agreement. Will his walk to freedom on compassionate grounds now lead to BP’s hurdles magically dissolving?
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s debonair son and probable heir, implied so as he accompanied al-Megrahi back to Tripoli. “In all commercial contracts for oil and gas with Britain, al-Megrahi was always on the negotiating table,” he said. It is undiplomatic of Saif to say it, but that does not stop it from being true. Libya, once a reviled pariah state, has played a long, careful game to bring itself in from the cold — including the handover of al-Megrahi in the first place, part of its effort to re-establish trade relations with the West. Saif has publicly stated that al-Megrahi was Libya’s national fall guy, handed over in the hope of re-establishing trade relations with the West. >>> Catherine Philp | Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
THE TRIPOLI POST: Tripoli-Switzerland publicly and officially apologized to Libya on Thursday for the unjustified arrest of Libyan diplomat Hannibal Muammar Al-Qathafi and his family by the Geneva police on 15 July 2008, the Libyan news agency JANA reported on.
Switzerland also apologized for actions undertaken by other Swiss officials, JANA said.
In an agreement signed by the Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz in Tripoli on Thursday and the Secretary of the GPC Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, Switzerland committed itself not to repeat such actions against Libyan officials and citizens.
Switzerland also said in the agreement that it will improve the treatment of Libyans and facilitate their procedures, reported the Libyan news agency.
"We are apologizing for what happened to Hannibal Gaddafi and the two sides agreed to form a committee to discuss the matter," Merz told reporters in Tripoli.
Al-Baghdadi said the apology and visit by the Swiss President was a beginning to addressing the matter.
"Both countries agree to set up independent arbitration to investigate the circumstances of the arrest," Merz's statement said.
Merz landed in Tripoli earlier in the day Thursday and met with Al-Mahmoudi for closed-door talks. [Source: Switzerland Publicly Apologizes to Libya – The Tripoli Post] | Sunday, August 23, 2009
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: U.K. Government Fends Off Suggestions It Had Role in Scottish Release; U.S. Steps Up Criticism
LONDON -- The political fallout from Scotland's release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber has spread to London, as questions arise about whether the U.K. government played a bigger role in the decision than it has publicly acknowledged.
On Sunday, U.S. criticism of the decision took on a more strident tone, with one senior official saying it "makes a mockery of the rule of law."
The political stakes for U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown mounted after a son of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, issued a statement on Saturday thanking "our friends in the British government who played an important role in reaching this day." He said he believed the decision to release Abdel Baset al-Megrahi would further improve relations between the U.K. and the oil-rich North African nation.
A spokesman for the U.K. Foreign Office said the decision was Scotland's alone and had nothing to do with any trade deals between Britain and Libya.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was part of a recent congressional delegation to Libya led by Sen. John McCain, noted Saif al-Islam Gadhafi's letter during a CNN television appearance on Sunday and called on "our friends in Britain" to conduct an independent investigation into "this action by the Scottish justice minister to release a mass murderer."
Both Mr. Brown and the Scottish government have maintained that the decision to free Mr. al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing that claimed 270 lives, rested entirely with Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill. Under an arrangement set up more than a decade ago, Scotland rules independently on a number of local matters, including justice. Scottish legislators gathered Monday for an emergency meeting over the release of Mr. al-Megrahi, the Associated Press
reported.
Mr. al-Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, flew home Thursday to a jubilant welcome after Mr. MacAskill released him on "compassionate grounds." >>> Alistair MacDonald and Spencer Swartz | Monday, August 24, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: It will be the biggest party Libya has ever thrown, and the whole world is invited. Whether next week’s jamboree to mark Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s 40 years in power completes his country’s journey from pariah-hood to respectability depends on one question: will the Lockerbie bomber be among the guests of honour?
“Why not?,” replied one Libyan official when asked whether Africa’s longest-serving leader would invite Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi to appear alongside him at next Monday’s celebrations.
“It would be daft,” countered a Western official, who said that an appearance by al-Megrahi would deepen the outrage engendered in the US and Britain by his rapturous welcome home last week. European contractors brought in to organise the extravaganza strongly hope that Libya’s notoriously flamboyant and unpredictable leader does not take a step that would undermine all that they are trying to achieve. But, one admitted: “No one knows what he’ll do.”
The celebrations are entitled "Celebrate Libya" and intended to mark not just the 40th anniversary of the coup that overthrew King Idris and brought Colonel Gaddafi to power, but Libya’s final break with its dark, terrorist-sponsoring, WMD-building, West-baiting past.
It has invited heads of state or government from every country and expects 60 or 70 to attend. These include most African leaders, Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Russia’s Prime Minister Putin, President Sarkozy of France and the King and Queen of Spain (they will each be given solid gold pendants in the shape of Africa with Libya marked by diamonds). Following the row over al-Megrahi’s jubilant homecoming, however, Britain and America are likely to be represented only by their ambassadors.
Libya is taking the almost unprecedented step of admitting scores of journalists and television crews from around the world, and it is sparing no expense to ensure that its guests are suitably dazzled.
An army of workers is planting thousands of palm trees along Tripoli’s long-neglected seafront, laying acres of grass on arid sand and resurfacing miles of road. Yet more are installing ornate streetlamps, removing rubbish, refurbishing hotels, demolishing or concealing unsightly buildings and painting others a brilliant white.
The streets are festooned with green flags and festive illuminations. Hot-air balloons bearing impossibly youthful pictures of Colonel Gaddafi have sprouted like mushrooms across Green Square. The city is plastered with hoardings displaying the great man in various triumphant poses and curious sartorial attires, and extolling his leadership with slogans such as “It is an honour to live in your country” or “Without you the impossible would not happen”. >>> Martin Fletcher in Tripoli | Monday, August 24, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH – Telegraph View: It is utter nonsense to suggest that the release of Megrahi is purely a matter for the Scottish justice system.
As the controversy over the release of Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi continued to rage yesterday, seriously damaging relations between Britain and America, Government ministers stuck to the line that the decision was purely a matter for the Scottish justice system. That is the most utter nonsense, and as more details of the case emerged over the weekend Gordon Brown's silence generated increasing public anger, in Britain and the United States.
President Obama has said that the release of the Lockerbie bomber to a hero's welcome in Tripoli was a "mistake". The head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, called it a "mockery of justice" that had "given comfort to terrorists around the world". Not everyone will agree that America has the right to take such a lofty view: after all, it was not troubled by (and even helped to facilitate) the release of hundreds of Northern Irish terrorists, including the most vile murderers, as part of a US-supported peace process. So America is open to a charge of hypocrisy – but not naivety. It suspects that the "compassionate" release of a dying man has a political dimension. Plenty of Britons think the same. >>> Telegraph View | Monday, August 24, 2009
Saturday, November 01, 2008
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Thursday, June 12, 2008
BBC: Libya's leader has strongly criticised US presidential candidate Barack Obama for saying Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel.
Col Muammar Gaddafi said he was either ignorant of the Middle East conflict or lying to boost his campaign.
Mr Obama was speaking to pro-Israel lobbyists in the US last week.
Referring to him as "our Kenyan brother", Col Gaddafi also said Mr Obama might suffer from an inferiority complex because of his African origins.
The issue of race could make Mr Obama's behaviour "more white than white people", Col Gaddafi suggested, rather than acting in solidarity with African and Arab nations.
The comments came during a speech to mark the 38th anniversary since the US evacuated Wheelus Air Force base in Tripoli.
Israel claims Jerusalem as its "eternal, undivided" capital, but the Palestinians want the eastern half - occupied by Israel in 1967 - as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Gaddafi Attacks Obama on Israel >>> June 12, 2008
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Friday, April 18, 2008
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