Gaddafi

Not so long ago, western leaders were clamouring to shake hands with Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Now as Gaddafi's hold on Libya looks increasingly shaky, with the Libyan leader still clinging on to power, the same western governments are rushing to distant themselves from Gaddafi jnr. No Wonder!

Suave, urbane, goodlooking and accessible with his impeccable command of English, Dr Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi (he obtained a Phd from the LSE, of which more later) was regarded as the acceptable face of the Gaddafi regime. He had strong connections in the heart of the British establishment, among them Britain's own Prince Andrew the son of Queen Elizabeth II, Anthony Blair the former Prime Minister, Nat Rothschild a scion of the famously wealthy Rothschild family and Lord Peter Mandelson, former EU commissioner and one of Britain's most influential politicians. Blair has since denied that he is a friend of the Gaddafi family. Prince Andrew is now facing growing pressure to step down from his role as UK's trade ambassador.

In western capitals, Saif was the preferred choice as Gaddafi's heir. The colonel has seven sons but Saif Al-Islam, his second son, was always considered the most likely to become Libya's president, although another brother, Mutassim, Libya's national security adviser was a serious contender. A talented artist and professional architect with his own firm in Libya,  Saif Al-Islam (or sword of Islam) has spoken in the past of his desire to introduce democratic reforms in Libya. He was educated in London, where he obtained an MSc and PhD from the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science. While a student at LSE, he moved in exclusive circles, meeting Prince Andrew who has paid numerous visits to Libya in the past in his capacity as Britain's ambassador although Buckingham Palace has been at pains to point out that the Prince is not a personal friend of Saif's; however, it is known that Prince Andrew has hosted Saif at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. Prince Andrew and Saif share a mutual friend in Goga Ashkenazy, a fabulously wealthy and stunning beauty from Kazakhstan; Ms Ashkenazy helped the prince to find a buyer who paid above the asking price for his Berkshire mansion which had languished in the market without a buyer for three years. Ms Ashkenazy recently introduced Gaddafi jnr to Kazakhstan's president when he visited the landlocked country.

Jacob, 4th Baron Rothschild also hosted Saif at his home in Buckinghamshire; Lord Mandelson and the baron's son, Nat Rothschild were also present at the same party. Mandelson and Saif are said to have discussed the subject of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi who was still in jail at the time. Nat and Saif are said to be good friends who also have another friend in common, the controversial Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. For those not in the know, Deripaska emerged the winner in a bloody war for control of Russia's aluminium industry in the 1990s and was been banned from entering the United States in 2005. Deripaska would later feature in a political scandal involving Mandelson and George Osborne, now Britain's Chancellor. The story is as follows:

On the island of Corfu in the summer of 2008, Deripaska, Saif Al-Islam, Osborne, Mandelson and Nat were guests at the Rothschild's villa. Nat and George have known each other since they were students at the prestigious Oxford University. Again, it appears that Saif and Mandelson discussed the Megrahi affair. When George got back to London after a refreshing summer break, he denied asking Deripaska for a donation to the Tory party while Mandelson denied that he had favoured Deripaska's aliminium interests when he was EU Business Commissioner.  Osborne, perhaps still recovering from his holiday, claim that Mandelson had 'dripped poison about' the then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at that meeting. Mandelson retaliated, threatening to reveal what Osborne had told him privately about his fellow Conservatives. It was all very messy business indeed. But back to our story.

Deripaska and the Rothschilds have valuable interests in Montenegro;  Saif threw a lavish party there to celebrate his 37th birthday, inviting some of the world's most powerful business figures. Meanwhile at the LSE, Saif is said to have made a donation of £1.5m but students have called for the university to return the donation. LSE has been embarassingly forced to announce that it would investigate allegations of plagiarism in relation to Saif's PhD thesis. But Saif Gaddafi's examiner, the renowned economist Lord Desai, says that he had earned the PhD, and that the LSE had been right to accept his donation. His only regret, Lord Desai said on Thursday, was that Saif Gaddafi had failed to learn enough about democracy.

The renowned Professor David Held who admitted that he had known Saif as a student at LSE has been criticized for not going far enough in his criticism of Gaddafi jnr, with one student saying, 'all Professor Held can conjure up is that Gaddafi must have been “overwhelmed by the crisis he finds himself in”?

 Rather than rushing to condemn Saif Gaddafi, perhaps we should make note of Professor Held's comments. According to Held, 'During this time I came to know a young man who was caught between loyalties to his family and a desire to reform his country......The speech last night makes it abundantly clear that his commitment to transforming his country has been overwhelmed by the crisis he finds himself in. He tragically, but fatefully, made the wrong judgement.' In other words, Saif Al-Islam is a product of an Arab society in which family loyalty counts strongly. Additionally, in the speech that Held refers to, Saif did mention that he was sorry for the victims. Equally, his stance might be wrong in the circumstances but it is worth noting that Saif Al-Islam, despite his high profile within the Gaddafi regime, has no official position within it, unlike his brother, Mutassim who is Libya's national security adviser. Now it has transpired that even the Oxford University Press has been caught up in the saga; the book publisher, regarded as a leader in academic publishing, did a deal in which it agreed to publish Saif's thesis. It is said that Saif was so happy he even offered to buy 20,000 copies, an unusually large amount that would have placed his book in the bestseller lists.

Despite widespread speculation, there is no evidence either to suggest that Saif himself ordered the violence even though he has vehemently defended his father, however disguided he is. Remember, this is man keeps live pet tigers in his villa even though his father is said to have urged him to donate these dangerous animals to Tripoli Zoo. This may help to explain why he found that Labour Party cabinets ministers were mere pussycats during his campaign to free Al-Megrahi. The fact that he remains unmarried at the age of 38 is a source of gossip in a Libyan society where early marriages are fairly common.

How did the west get so taken in by Saif Gaddafi? This may be because he made a good impression and has charisma; tall and handsome, Saif represented the acceptable face of the Gaddafi regime but the westerners were also greedy to get their hands on Libya's oil wealth, a fact which Saif himself was aware of. It is clear that the West heard that they wanted to hear and ignored the reality of the situation in Libya. Said Dr Omar Ashour, a lecturer in the Institute of Arab abd Islamic Studies at the Unversity of Exeter, "If Libya was a country without an oil producing capacity, I don't think Saif would have convinced the West. Because of the interests [the West had in Libya] the moral dimension was pushed aside for a while or frozen for a while. But after what happened in Libya in the last few days I don't think this can continue anymore." The fact that people are still taking an interest in the ongoing Libyan crisis is also down to Saif- as well as fighting on the battlefield, the Gaddafi regime has launched a media charm offensive. Just a few days ago, Saif dismissed Cameron's response to the Libyan crisis as "as joke" and declared that US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, was "unfit to comment on Libya" as it was not "her business to talk about Libya" as "she is not Libya", assertions plenty of people, including Gaddafi's supporters will no doubt endorse.