{"id":385,"date":"2012-07-26T18:02:42","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T23:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=385"},"modified":"2016-06-15T14:06:12","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T19:06:12","slug":"a-man-with-no-limits-or-restrictions-new-revelations-from-the-court-of-muammar-qaddafi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=385","title":{"rendered":"“A Man with No Limits or Restrictions”: New Revelations from the Court of Mu’ammar Qaddafi"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Andrew McGregor<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

July 26, 2012<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to a former Libyan official who was intimately acquainted with Mu\u2019ammar Qaddafi\u2019s personal and political affairs, <\/span>\u201cAl-Qaddafi was a man with no limits or restrictions; he did anything he wished. He was tyrannical and arrogant. He thought that no one had the right to take him to account about anything.\u201d The revelations emerged in a five-part interview by a pan-Arab daily of Nuri al-Mismari, a former state protocol secretary with the rank of minister of state (al-Hayat<\/i>, July 15; July 17; July 18; July 19). Al-Mismari was one of Qaddafi\u2019s inner circle of aides and retainers, a position that gave him unique access to the personal and state secrets of the Qaddafi regime, secrets that would later place his life in jeopardy before he split from the regime in 2010. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Nuri al-Mismari (right) with Mu\u2019ammar Qaddafi<\/strong> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The chief protocol officer says he was frequently imprisoned by Qaddafi, who would also occasionally punch him in the face. After leaving for France after being tipped off about a plot to murder him, al-Mismari claims he was told by other officials that Qaddafi was \u201cpreparing a basin of acid to drown me in as soon as I returned.\u201dAfter Libya failed in its attempt to extradite al-Mismari, it sent an assassination team. The former Libyan official was placed in protective custody until the would-be assassins left France. There followed a procession of individuals trying to persuade al-Mismari to return to Libya, including the Libyan ambassador to France, members of al-Mismari\u2019s family and even a personal visit from Qaddafi\u2019s son, Mutassim al-Qaddafi (later killed in captivity after his capture during the October, 2011 Battle of Sirte).<\/p>\n

Al-Mismari shed new light on the 1978 disappearance of Musa al-Sadr, the influential Iranian-born founder of the Afwaj al-Muqawama al-Lubnaniya (AMAL \u2013 Lebanese Resistance Detachments) and two companions while visiting Libya. Libya has long claimed the three men left Libya for Italy, but Italian officials insist the men never entered the country (see Terrorism Monitor Brief, September 22, 2011). According to al-Mismari, former Libyan intelligence chief Abdallah al-Sanusi (then a junior intelligence officer) asked the chief of protocol to obtain Italian visas for the passports of Imam Musa al-Sadr and his two companions. Al-Mismari claims that Libyan intelligence took advantage of the lax inspection routine for those travelling under diplomatic passports by sending a military intelligence officer to Italy who resembled the Imam and who wore al-Sadr\u2019s clothing. The officer then returned to Libya using his own diplomatic passport while the passports of the missing men were left in a hotel room in Italy to be discovered by authorities, leaving the Qaddafi regime with documented \u201cproof\u201d that Imam al-Sadr and his companions had left Libya for Italy.<\/p>\n

Regarding the September, 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 over Niger that killed 156 passengers and 15 crew members, al-Mismari confirmed the account of former Libyan foreign minister Abd al-Rahman Shalgham, who said a year ago that the bombing was part of a Libyan intelligence plot to kill opposition leader Muhammad al-Maqrif (who turned out to not be on the plane) <\/span>(al-Hayat<\/i>, July 18, 2011).\u00a0 <\/span>Al-Mismari adds that Libyan officials also thought the plane was carrying a number of leading Chadian officials, including president Hiss<\/span>\u00e8<\/span>ne Habr<\/span>\u00e8<\/span>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Abdallah al-Sanusi and five other Libyans were tried and convicted in absentia<\/i> in a French court in 1999 for their role in the bombing. The missing men are believed to have been killed on Qaddafi\u2019s orders and buried in the desert near Sirte.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite his efforts to establish close relations with a host of African nations, Qaddafi privately mocked their heads of state, especially those who proved particularly fawning: \u201cAl-Qaddafi loved to scorn and insult heads of state. He would say \u2018bring me the black man\u2019 – meaning the head of state of an African country – who was preparing to meet with him. When this head of state would leave, al-Qaddafi would say \u2018the black man has left, give him something.\u2019\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

According to al-Mismari, Qaddafi liked to humiliate others by sleeping with their wives. His sadistic proclivities often resulted in scandalous situations that the protocol chief and others were forced to tidy up through large cash payments or the granting of government contracts. Qaddafi was also \u201cterribly sexually deviant\u2026 young boys and so on\u2026 They used to be called the \u2018services group.\u2019 All of those were boys, bodyguards and harem for his pleasure.\u201d Qaddafi would \u201cindulge his debaucheries\u201d in a vast underground residence at the Bab al-Zawiyah compound in Tripoli. According to al-Mismari, Qaddafi was advised on matters of virility by Italian president Silvio Berlusconi and was well supplied with pills by his intelligence chief and brother-in-law Abdallah al-Sanusi \u201cto raise his morale and make him feel brave and strong.\u201d Of the latter, al-Mismari remarks: \u201cHe was gentle, generous, respectful to your face. But he was bloodthirsty and carried out the orders of his master.\u201d Al-Sanusi, who is believed to have carried out the 1996 Abu Salim prison massacre of 1,200 suspected Islamists and other prisoners, is now in Mauritanian custody where he faces charges of illegal entry. Libya, France, Scotland and the ICC are all interested in his extradition to face charges in various cases of terrorism and political violence (Reuters, May 21). <\/span><\/p>\n

Having been present at all state occasions during his time as protocol chief, al-Mismari had a number of observations to offer regarding Qaddafi\u2019s relations with various world leaders: <\/span><\/p>\n