Libya was the go-to bad guy in movies (remember "Back to the Future"?) and synonymous with terror in the 1980s. Following evidence linking Libya to the April 5, 1986, discoteque bombing in West Berlin that killed two American servicemen, the U.S. launched airstrikes against strategic targets in Libya 10 days later. One of those killed was Gadhafi's adopted toddler daughter, which further hardened anti-Western fervor in Tripoli.
Libyan intelligence agents were convicted in 1991 of the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 on the aircraft and 11 on the ground. Only in 2003 did Libya admit responsibility -- not guilt, in the game of semantics -- in the form of a letter to the United Nations Security Council.
But this century saw an unexpected turn of events: Moammar Gadhafi, still as eccentric as ever but suddenly fancying himself a peacemaker, wanted to be taken seriously on the world stage. And when I say "stage," that means his performance art at its finest: His rambling, 96-minute address to the UN in September 2009 wore out multiple translators and wove Turtle Bay, jet lag, the Iraq war, swine flu and the JFK assassination into one insane tapestry.
Before tweeting was the rage among tweens and world leaders alike, Gadhafi had set up a website to carry his sometimes inane ramblings. "Al-Gathafi speaks..." proclaimed the site in English and other languages as the dictator highlighted his essays on everything from how to solve the global problem of terrorism to his Middle East peace solution -- "Isratine." The site is now translated into several languages with essays, speeches and audio clips. Scintillating material, all.
Relations have warmed between Libya and its historical archenemies, with embassies exchanged between Washington and Tripoli after Libya was taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 2006. In June 2010 Libya opened its doors to U.S. tourists, and Tripoli has experienced leaps in foreign investment and visitors curious to take a peek at the country's Greek and Roman ruins.
And Gadhafi's son and potential heir apparent seems, well, normal, when juxtaposed with the antics of his dear old dad. Educated abroad, Saif al-Islam is an architect who founded the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, negotiating both hostage situations and diplomatic minefields. Another potential successor, Moatassem-Billah Gaddafi, serves as national security adviser. And yet another son has gone Hollywood: Natural Selection, the production house financed in part by $100 million of Saadi Gadhafi’s money, finalized a deal this month to produce “The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer,” with Mickey Rourke attached to star.
For his part, the dictator has taken to jet-setting and hobnobbing with world leaders such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy or Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, taking along his camouflaged all-female bodyguard squad and bedouin tent. The man once considered a menace is now a curiosity, making economic deals in place of brazen threats.
But has Libya really been reborn, or is this sheep's clothing designed to look warm and fuzzy to make gains in the world community?
Libya has paid $2.16 billion in compensation to the families of Pan Am Flight 103 victims -- money it wanted back if its intelligence agent Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was ever exonerated on appeal. On BBC in 2008, Saif described the "greedy" families of the Lockerbie victims as "trading with the blood of their sons and daughters."
"They were asking for more money and more money and more money," he said, adding that Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing not out of contrition but to get trade sanctions lifted.
And something stinks in the release of al-Megrahi, who arrived home to a hero's welcome after being set free by Scottish authorities in August 2009 under a statute allowing the release of anyone with three months or less to live.
More than a year later, al-Megrahi, suffering from prostate cancer, is alive and living at a villa built for him by the Libyan government. A doctor who put that three-month lifespan assessment on the bomber at the behest of the Libyan government now says he could live for "10 years, 20 years."
Human rights remain a top concern in Libya, as well. The country accused five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian medical intern of conspiring to infect more than 400 children with HIV at a Benghazi hospital in 1998. They were sentenced to death, and Saif admitted years later that they had been tortured to extract confessions. After international pressure and a commutation to life in prison, they were extradited to Bulgaria in 2007 and promptly pardoned. Libya continues to raise a stink about this, even though medical experts point to poor hygiene at the hospital as the reason for the HIV outbreak.
It's far from just outsiders suffering, though. Freedom House gives Libya the worst score possible on both political rights and civil liberties. Political parties are illegal and organizing opposition can mean death. Reporters Without Borders dubs Gadhafi a "predator" of press freedom, noting one anonymous journalist's summation: “In Libya, you can criticise Allah but not Gaddafi.” There is no free press, though growing satellite networks in the Arab world are whetting Libyans' appetites for something other than spoon-fed propaganda.
Human Rights Watch, citing official Libyan numbers, reported in December 2009 that -- even though they've been acquitted of all charges or served their full prison terms -- 500 political prisoners remained in custody. One political prisoner, Fathi al-Jahmi, died in May 2009 after seven years in custody. His crime? Publicly calling for democracy, a constitution and free speech in his country.
This week, al-Jahmi's brother, the Lockerbie Victims Association, one of the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian medic joined human-rights groups asking the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to take Libya off the controversial body, to which Libya won a seat this year.
Serious defects need to be corrected before Libya can truly take its place at the table, and dare to lecture other nations on justice and human rights.
