Gadhafi’s Son Reveals ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ Persona

Henry Srebrnik [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer

As Libya’s mad tyrant, Moammar Gadhafi, was killings hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his own people in an attempt to hang on to power, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the murderer’s son, spoke on Libyan state television the evening of Feb. 20.

Dressed, unlike his father, in an expensive suit and tie, he blamed the uprising in Libya on tribal factions and Islamists acting on their own agendas. He warned that a civil war would ensue and “rivers of blood” would flow if people dared oppose the regime, because his father would “fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.”

He returned to the airwaves four days later to claim that the reported death tolls had been exaggerated.

This, by the way, is the same man who was granted a PhD from the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science in 2009. The topic of his thesis was “The Role of Civil Society in the Democratization of Global Governance Institutions: From ‘Soft Power’ to Collective Decision-Making?”

 He also gave a presentation in a prestigious lecture series at the university that year, entitled “Libya: Past, Present, and Future.”

As the semi-sanctioned internal voice for reform in his father’s dictatorship, he had pushed publicly for changing the country’s laws and freeing political prisoners. It was felt that with his support, some genuine political liberalization was possible and civil society might be able to breathe more freely.

But he showed his true colours once the Libyan people demanded an end to tyranny.

“We thought Saif was the new light,” a Libyan businessman told the British journalist Robert Fisk. “Now we realise he is crazier and more cruel than his father.”

Born on June 25, 1972 in Tripoli, Saif is the second of Gadhafi’s six sons. He lived in a $16- million home in London purchased by his father while enrolled at the university, and rubbed shoulders with American and British billionaires.

His persona became that of an urbane sophisticate who was comfortable meeting with Western businessmen and diplomats. And, perhaps not coincidentally, he was the Chairman of the Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity and Development, which gave the LSE $2.4 million to create a “virtual democracy centre,” the Centre for the Study of Global Governance.

“This donation will support us as we work to increase understanding of global problems and to encourage interaction between academics and policy makers,” Professor David Held, a well-regarded academic and co-director of the center, said. “It is a generous donation from an NGO committed to the promotion of civil society and the development of democracy.

“I have known Saif al-Islam Gadhafi for several years since he did a PhD at the LSE,” stated Held, one of Saif’s supervisors and an authority on issues of globalization and democracy. (I have used some of his books in my own courses.)

“In many discussions and meetings I encouraged the development of his reform agenda and subsequently sought to support it” through research funded by the foundation, the professor said.

“The only way I can make sense of his speech is that the speed of change in the Middle East has caught him unawares and overwhelmed him. The position he has taken compromised him in every way, and made him the enemy of ideals he once proclaimed.”

I wonder if Held really believes this. If so, he may be an authority in his field, but he clearly lacks “street smarts.”

The university, now understandably embarrassed, has returned Gadhafi’s money and said, in the wake of the massacres in Libya, it wants no more involvement with him.

This tawdry story illustrates two important points: culture usually trumps education, and universities will do almost anything for money in these cash-strapped times.