Showing posts with label Seif ul-Islam al-Gadhafi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seif ul-Islam al-Gadhafi. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
THE NEW YORK TIMES: CAIRO — A five-day-old uprising in Libya took control of its second-largest city of Benghazi and spread for the first time to the capital of Tripoli late on Sunday as the heir-apparent son of its strongman, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, warned Libyans in a televised speech that their oil-rich country would fall into civil war and even renewed Western “colonization” if they threw off his father’s 40-year-long rule.In a rambling, disjointed address delivered about 1 a.m. on Monday, the son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, played down the uprising sweeping the country, which witnesses and rights activists say has left more than 200 people dead and hundreds wounded from gunfire by security forces. He repeated several times that “Libya is not Tunisia or Egypt” — the neighbors to the east and west that both overthrew their veteran autocrats in the space of the last six weeks.
The revolt shaking Libya is the latest and most violent turn in the rebellion across the Arab world that seemed unthinkable just two months ago and now poses the greatest threat in four decades to Colonel Qaddafi’s autocratic power. The United States condemned the Qaddafi government’s lethal use of force. >>> DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MONA EL-NAGGAR | Sunday, February 20, 2011
Sunday, August 15, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: The son of Libyan dictator Colonel Gadaffi is to celebrate the first anniversary of the Lockerbie bomber's release by giving a party for him.
Saif Gadaffi, whose friends include Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson, will attend the revelry for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi in his two-storey house in Tripoli.
He will foot the bill for food and drink, following a day's fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
When Megrahi, 58, was released on August 20 last year, Scottish authorities said he had only three months to live and was 'going home to die'.
Frank Duggan, a lawyer and spokesman for the families of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie bombing, said: 'Megrahi is obviously still deemed a hero in Libya.
'Saif Gadaffi was instrumental in pulling off a public relations masterstroke to get him released on the 40th anniversary of the Libyan revolution. >>> Gerri Peev | Sunday, August 15, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Saif al-Islam, the son of Colonel Gadaffi, said the time for 'military regimes, kings, crown princes' had passed
The son of Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, who has ruled Libya with an iron fist for more than 40 years, has declared that the country no longer needs a “great leader”.
In an interview last week, Saif al-Islam Gadaffi said the time for “military regimes, kings, crown princes” had passed.
“The future is for managers — people will elect managers and not have kings or great leaders,” he said. “People should be free to elect their own leaders. The future is for democracy. There is no other way for Libya.”
The 38-year-old champion of reform, who is widely seen as a potential successor to his father, warned that his country could face “very serious trouble” if it failed to adopt a more liberal approach to relations with the West.
Dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and trainers, he strolled into the flower garden of a friend’s villa on the outskirts of Rome and said: “Hi, I’m Saif.”
Sitting beneath a wooden gazebo near a pool surrounded by palm and cedar trees, he outlined his vision of Libya as a tolerant, 21st-century state enriched by tourism.
“I would like to make Libya the Vienna of north Africa,” he said passionately, referring to his favourite European city. Luxury hotels were already being built, he added.
Gadaffi, who studied for his PhD at the London School of Economics, smiled as he claimed that tough visa restrictions for westerners would be abolished soon, starting with the British.
Measures had also been discussed to permit the sale of alcoholic drinks to foreigners in hotels, he said. “It will happen,” he added. “We will create the right environment for tourism in Libya. If you have no drink, no visa, no hotels, nobody will come.” Continue reading and comment >>> Sara Hashash and Hala Jaber | Sunday, June 27, 2010
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Buried away on the dusty shelves of a London library is a student’s vision for a new world order.
Doctoral dissertations are usually of little interest outside the world of academic research but this book casts an intriguing light on the beliefs of one of the Middle East’s most influential figures.
The publication by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the eldest son of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife, is set to fuel the debate about the pace of democratic and economic reform in his homeland.
Perhaps because it is published under the surname Alqadhafi, the blue cover of the PhD thesis appears to have been little read since it was filed at the Senate House library of the University of London last autumn. Over 428 pages, the man seen as heir apparent to the socialist dictator who has ruled Libya for 40 years calls for democracy and greater influence for business in his vision of the world’s governing institutions.
Dr Gaddafi has become an increasingly powerful voice in the oil-rich country, which has influence in both the Muslim world and the African Union. Although dismissed by critics as a playboy prince for his frequent international travel and attendance at celebrity parties, Dr Gaddafi spent four years researching his thesis at the London School of Economics.
While other doctoral students struggled to survive with occasional lecturing, the multimillionaire Libyan was also negotiating the release of the Lockerbie bomber and $1.5billion compensation for his victims, opening up his country’s oil and gas fields to international businesses and restoring diplomatic links with the US.
Dr Gaddafi, 37, introduces his work by writing: “I shall be primarily concerned with what I argue is the central failing of the current system of global governance in the new global environment: that it is highly undemocratic.”
The comments will be read with interest in Libya, where his father has ruled since a military coup in 1969 and where opponents are still ruthlessly suppressed. Dr Gaddafi says that his dissertation “analyses the problem of how to create more just and democratic global governing institutions”, focusing on the importance of the role of “civil society”. >>> David Brown | Wednesday, September 16, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: When it comes to carrying out original research, few PhD students have access to one of the world’s most prestigious corporate consultancies, with advisers including the former head of the Secret Intelligence Service.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi used Monitor Group to carry out a survey and interviews with the leaders of non-governmental organisations to provide the empirical data for his thesis at the London School of Economics.
Senior advisers at Monitor Group include Sir Richard Dearlove, who was recruited in 2005, the year after he retired as head of MI6. Sir Richard was well known to the Libyans because Colonel Gaddafi had chosen British intelligence as the go-between when he decided to surrender his country’s nuclear programme.
The company also employs Sir Mark Allen, another former MI6 agent and a senior adviser to BP. Sir Mark lobbied Jack Straw just before the Justice Secretary abandoned efforts to exclude the Lockerbie bomber from a prisoner transfer deal. Mr Gaddafi hired the company in 2004… >>> David Brown | Wednesday, September 16, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan dictator, used a firm that employs the former head of British intelligence to carry out research for his doctoral thesis.
Mr Gaddafi used Monitor Group to interview the heads of non-government organisations for a paper that argued the "central failing" of current global institutions was that the set-up was "highly undemocratic.
The 37-year-old is seen as a potential heir to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who has been dictator of Libya for 40 years. Monitor Group employs both Sir Richard Dearlove, head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) at the time of the Iraq war and Sir Mark Allen, the intelligence agent who brought Col Gaddafi's regime in from the cold.
Mr Gaddafi spent four years researching his thesis at the London School of Economics and his PhD thesis was filed at the Senate House library of the University of London last autumn. The paper runs to 428 pages and calls for democracy and greater influence for business* in multi-national affairs. >>> Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Wednesday, September 16, 2009
*What sort of nonsense is this? It is precisely because business has had far too much influence in multi-national affairs that we have just experienced the fiasco of the craven British government caving in to Libya over the release of Megrahi. If we are going to have a world in which corporations wield too much power, then we are going to have a sick world to live in! Go back to the LSE, Dr Gaddafi, you've got some learning to do! – Mark
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)