Jan - Lawmakers arrive on the first visit by a U. May - The United States says it will restore full diplomatic ties with Libya. June - Gaddafi makes a controversial first visit to former colonial power Italy.
The next month Gaddafi and U. President Barack Obama shake hands during a G8 summit in Italy. The next day, Britain condemns the celebrations in Tripoli. February 17, - Activists designate February 17 as a day of rage, a day after first riots in Benghazi. Qaddafi's first order of business was to shut down the American and British military bases in Libya. He also demanded that foreign oil companies in Libya share a bigger portion of revenue with the country. Qaddafi replaced the Gregorian calendar with the Islamic one, and forbade the sale of alcohol.
Feeling threatened by a failed coup attempt by his fellow officers in December , Qaddafi put in laws criminalizing political dissent. In , he expelled the remaining Italians from Libya and emphasized what he saw as the battle between Arab nationalism and Western imperialism.
He vocally opposed Zionism and Israel, and expelled the Jewish community from Libya. Qaddafi's inner circle of trusted people became smaller and smaller, as power was shared by himself and a small group of associates. His intelligence agents traveled around the world to intimidate and assassinate Libyans living in exile.
He involved the Libyan military in several foreign conflicts, including in Egypt and Sudan, and the bloody civil war in Chad. In the mids, Qaddafi published the first volume of the Green Book , an explanation of his political philosophy. The three-volume work describes the problems with liberal democracy and capitalism, and promotes Qaddafi's policies as the remedy.
Qaddafi claimed that Libya boasted popular committees and shared ownership, but in reality this was far from true. Qaddafi had appointed himself or close family and friends to all positions of power, and their corruption and crackdowns on any kind of civic organizing meant much of the population lived in poverty. Meanwhile, Qaddafi and those close to him were amassing fortunes in oil revenue while the regime murdered those it deemed as dissidents. Qaddafi's ruling style was not just oppressive, it was eccentric.
He had a cadre of female bodyguards in heels, considered himself the king of Africa, erected a tent to stay in when he traveled abroad, and dressed in strange costume-like outfits. His bizarre antics often distracted from his brutality, and earned him the nickname "the mad dog of the Middle East. In addition to his destructive rule at home, Qaddafi was despised by much of the international community.
His government was implicated in the financing of many anti-Western groups around the world, including some terror plots. The Irish Republican Army allegedly had links to Qaddafi. Because of the regime's links to Irish terrorism, the United Kingdom cut off diplomatic relations with Libya for more than a decade.
In , Libyan terrorists were thought to be behind the bombing of a West Berlin dance club that killed three and injured scores of people. The United States in turn, under President Ronald Reagan's administration, bombed specific targets in Libya that included Qaddafi's residence in Tripoli.
In the most famous instance of the country's connection to terrorism, Libya was implicated in the Lockerbie bombing. A plane carrying people blew up near Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all on board, with falling debris killing 11 civilians on the ground.
Libyan terrorists, including an in-law of Qaddafi's, were also believed to be behind the destruction of a French passenger jet in , killing all on board. In s, the relationship between Qaddafi and the West began to thaw. As Qaddafi faced a growing threat from Islamists who opposed his rule, he began to share information with the British and American intelligence services.
In , Nelson Mandela persuaded the Libyan leader to hand over the suspects from the Lockerbie bombing. It wasn't long before Qaddafi had mended relations with the West on many fronts. Qaddafi was welcomed in Western capitals, and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi counted him among his close friends. Qaddafi's son and heir apparent, Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, mixed with London's high society for several years.
Muammar, Moamar, Moammer? Hell, no one knows! A former supporter of terrorism, a rabid egomaniac, a hyper hypochondriac, and a life-long tent-dweller with an all-female, all-virgin, ninja-skilled personal bodyguard, the man epitomizes the worst of the worst qualities that dictatorships have to offer.
The dude is Libyan loco! He lead a bloodless military coup at the age of 27, overthrowing a crappy-ass monarchy, and replaced a crappy-ass king with his own crappy-ass dictatorship! He never took any official title like President or Prime Minister , instead retaining his military pedigree and overt military backing by retaining the title of Colonel…seriously, he has all the power in the country, and only makes himself a Colonel?
What a whack-job. He could have at least promoted himself to Generalissimo. Anyways, Gaddafi was born in in a small Bedouin family in the Libyan desert region of Sirte. During his early years, Gaddafi first planned a coup to overthrow the monarchy while still in military college.
Gaddafi admired the pan-Arabism ideals of then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and thus started his lifelong ambition to unite the Arab world via socialist and nationalist ideology…in other words, he thought Arab countries should all work together to help solve their problems, expel foreign influence, and work together economically.
Too bad Muammar was nuts and the Arab world was terribly fractured; facts which are true to this day. After grabbing power from King Idris, Gaddafi came up with this idea of pan-Arab, anti-imperialist philosophy with some aspects of Islam thrown in there for good measure. He then tried to merge Libya, Egypt and Syria into a federation.
Do you remember how the Trade Federation from Star Wars ended? Yep, same thing here: the whole thing blew up!
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