Before Libyans rose up against him, Muammar Gaddafi used money, and well-timed diplomatic overtures, to worm his way into the West's good graces. In this week's Newsweek, Christopher Dickey looks at how Bush, Blair, and Berlusconi gave the brutal dictator a makeover.
The tale is a sordid one, but let's at least begin in relatively pleasant surroundings, among the leather armchairs of the Travellers Club in London. Its rooms have been a favorite rendezvous since the 19th century for gentlemen of international intrigue-and it's where Libya's urbane, white-haired spymaster, Musa Kusa, met with representatives of the British and American intelligence services in December 2003. Their purpose was to hammer out a deal to bring Kusa's boss, Muammar Gaddafi, in from the cold.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Galliano Erased at Christian Dior
Kusa, now Libya's foreign minister, affects none of the silly props and pretenses-the tents and turbans and...
The tale is a sordid one, but let's at least begin in relatively pleasant surroundings, among the leather armchairs of the Travellers Club in London. Its rooms have been a favorite rendezvous since the 19th century for gentlemen of international intrigue-and it's where Libya's urbane, white-haired spymaster, Musa Kusa, met with representatives of the British and American intelligence services in December 2003. Their purpose was to hammer out a deal to bring Kusa's boss, Muammar Gaddafi, in from the cold.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Galliano Erased at Christian Dior
Kusa, now Libya's foreign minister, affects none of the silly props and pretenses-the tents and turbans and...
- 3/7/2011
- by Christopher Dickey
- The Daily Beast
How does a country recover from 40 years of destruction by an unchallenged tyrant? Many groups will demand accountability and representation, in a situation more reminiscent of the Balkans than Egypt, Dirk Vandewalle writes in this week's Newsweek. Plus, full coverage of Libya.
• Libya will begin afresh after Gaddafi, in a comprehensive reconstruction of everything civic, political, legal, and moral that makes up a society and its government. • Getting Libya back on its feet will be an unwieldy, and probably fractious, process in which many scores are settled against those who once supported the Gaddafi regime. • The blueprint for a dramatic restructuring of Libya contained in Gaddafi's ‘Green Book' has been calamitous for the country. • Muammar Gaddafi never envisioned that his rule would come to an end. "The Revolution Everlasting" was inscribed everywhere, from bridges to water bottles • As the confrontation between Gaddafi's old revolution and the new, popular one intensified,...
• Libya will begin afresh after Gaddafi, in a comprehensive reconstruction of everything civic, political, legal, and moral that makes up a society and its government. • Getting Libya back on its feet will be an unwieldy, and probably fractious, process in which many scores are settled against those who once supported the Gaddafi regime. • The blueprint for a dramatic restructuring of Libya contained in Gaddafi's ‘Green Book' has been calamitous for the country. • Muammar Gaddafi never envisioned that his rule would come to an end. "The Revolution Everlasting" was inscribed everywhere, from bridges to water bottles • As the confrontation between Gaddafi's old revolution and the new, popular one intensified,...
- 2/28/2011
- by Dirk Vandewalle
- The Daily Beast
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