GADDAFI OR GHADAFI OR QUADHAFI?

Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qaddafi

Colonel Gadaffi is the leader of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Gadaffi has no official title, although he is effectively Head of State and has been since 1969.

Muammar Abu Meniar el-Gaddafi was born in the North African desert, south of Sirte, Libya in 1942. The son of a poor Bedouin nomad, Gaddafi lived in his family’s remote desert camp until he went away to school at age 9. One of his teachers once (as a child) publicly slapped Gaddafi. Many say that this is the source of his resentment for academics, apparent in many of his speeches and essays.

Gaddafi overthrew the monarchy of Libya in the so-called “Green Revolution” in 1969, establishing a socialist Arab state under his leadership.

Gaddafi has eight children, seven of them sons. Gaddafi’s reportedly adopted daughter, Hanna, was killed in the 1986 USAF bombing raid.

His “Green Book” was “an attempt to explain the dialectic which exists between Marxism and Capitalism,” and in it Gadaffi proposes his Third Universal Theory – claiming that there is a third way, beyond communism and capitalism, through which social harmony can be achieved.

His ideas are allegedly based around democracy, equality, and communion with nature. In addition to his Green Book, al-Gaddafi is the author of a 1996 collection of short stories, Escape to Hell.

Gadaffi is infamous for his support of terrorist organizations including the IRA in Ireland, and the Spanish Basque separatist movement ETA. He has also shown support - both moral and financial - for Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, who has been exposed as a tyrant. For many years he harbored the two terrorists responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland, and to this day refuses to accept responsibility or pay compensation.

Gaddafi’s personal Bodyguard, the Amazonian guard, is composed of 40 African women who are martial arts experts and highly-trained in the use of weapons. The Amazonian Guard sparked an international incident in 2006 when Gaddafi landed in Nigeria with over 200 heavily armed female guards for a summit. Nigerian security officials refused to allow the Libyans entry based on their armaments, and Gaddafi angrily resolved to set off on foot 40 km to Nigeria’s capital from the airport. The Nigerian President personally intervened, and a compromise was sought. However, the Libyans rejected mediation and threatened to fly home, whereupon the Nigerians revoked their compromise offers and announced that the Libyans could only bring in 8 pistols, which is the limit for international delegations. The Libyans finally backed down and complied with the Nigerians after several hours. In a prevoius assassination attempt on Gaddafi, one of the girls, Aisha, eventually gave her life as she shielded the leader.