Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi (born June 25, 1972, Arabic: سيف الإسلام معمر القذافي, translated as "Sword of Islam, Muammar of the Qaddafa"), is a Libyan engineer and politician. He is the second son of Muammar Gaddafi, leader of Libya, and his second wife Safia Farkash.

Education and career

In 1994, Saif al-Islam graduated with a BSc in Engineering Science from Tripoli's Al Fateh University, earned an MBA from Vienna's IMADEC University in 2000.

His paintings made up the bulk of the international Libyan art exhibit, "The Desert Is Not Silent" (2002–2005),^[2] a show which was supported by a host of international corporations with direct ties to the Gaddafi regime.^[3]

In 2008, he was awarded a PhD from London School of Economics, for a thesis entitled "The role of civil society in the democratisation of global governance institutions: from 'soft power' to collective decision-making?"^[4][5] Examined by Meghnad Desai (London School of Economics) and Anthony McGrew (University of Southampton), among the LSE academics acknowledged in the thesis as directly assisting with it were Nancy Cartwright, David Held and Alex Voorhoeve. Professor Joseph Nye of Harvard University is also thanked for having read portions of the manuscript and providing advice and direction.^[6][7] In a later investigation by Channel 4 News, they found that 6% of the 93,000-word thesis was copied from other sources.^[8]

He is an architect^{[citation needed]} with his own architectural agency in Tripoli—the National Engineering Service and Supplies Company.

Saif is the president of the Libyan National Association for Drugs and Narcotics Control (DNAG). In 1997, he founded the official charity, the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, which has intervened in various hostage situations involving Islamic militants and the crisis of the HIV trial in Libya and the resulting European Union-Libyan rapprochement. Saif also performs public relations and diplomatic roles on behalf of his father. He has been mentioned as a possible successor, though he has denied this.^[9]

Speaking in Sabha on August 20, 2008, Saif said that he would no longer involve himself in state affairs. He noted that he had previously "intervene[d] due to the absence of institutions", but said that he would no longer do so. He dismissed any potential suggestion that this decision was due to disagreement with his father, saying that they were on good terms. He also called for political reforms within the context of the Jamahiriya system and rejected the notion that he could succeed his father, saying that "this is not a farm to inherit".^[10]

International diplomacy

On December 10, 2004, shortly before a trip by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to Tripoli, Saif requested in an interview with The Globe and Mail a formal apology from the Canadian government, for joining U.S.-led sanctions against Libya after the Lockerbie bombing, and for denying him a student visa to study in Canada in 1997. His request was met with incredulity in Canada, and the Canadian government announced that no apology would be forthcoming.

Saif introduced the Isratine proposal to permanently resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a secular, federalist, republican one-state solution.^[11] The first ever opinion poll survey to be undertaken in both Pakistani and Indian-controlled Kashmir, conducted by King's College, London, and the polling organisation IPSOS-MORI, was also Saif's brainchild,^[12] having arisen out of discussions he had with British academic Robert Bradnock, the author of the 2010 Chatham House report on the survey.^[13]

Interviewed by French newspaper Le Figaro on December 7, 2007, Saif said that the seven Libyans convicted for the Pan Am Flight 103 and the UTA Flight 772 bombings "are innocent". When asked if Libya would therefore seek reimbursement of the compensation paid to the families of the victims ($2.33 billion), Saif replied: "I don't know."^[14]

Saif was involved in negotiating compensation from Libya's former colonial power, Italy, and on 30 August 2008 a Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation Agreement was signed in Benghazi by his father and Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.^[15] He is also negotiating with the United States in order to conclude a comprehensive agreement making any further payments for American victims of terror attacks that have been blamed on Libya — such as the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing, the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing — conditional upon U.S. payment of compensation for the 40 Libyans killed and 220 injured in the 1986 United States bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi. On August 14, 2008, the U.S.-Libya Comprehensive Claims Settlement Agreement was signed in Tripoli. Former British Ambassador to Libya Oliver Miles described the agreement as "a bold step, with political cost for both parties" and wrote an article in the online edition of The Guardian querying whether the agreement is likely to work.^[16]

In an August 2008 BBC TV interview, Saif Gaddafi said that Libya had admitted responsibility (but not admitted "guilt") for the Lockerbie bombing simply to get trade sanctions removed. He further admitted that Libya was being "hypocritical" and was "playing on words", but Libya had no other choice on the matter. According to Saif, a letter admitting "responsibility" was the only way to end the economic sanctions imposed on Libya. When asked about the compensation that Libya was paying to the victims' families, he again repeated that Libya was doing so because it had no other choice. He went on to describe the families of the Lockerbie victims as "trading with the blood of their sons and daughters" and being very "greedy": "They were asking for more money and more money and more money".^[17]

Nicolas Sarkozy

In 2007, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Tripoli, with whom it is alleged he helped broker an arms deal, including missiles.^[18][19][20]

Condoleezza Rice

In November 2008, Saif made a high-profile visit to the United States where he met with US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. During the meeting, Rice raised the case of Libya's jailed political dissident and democracy activist, Fathi El-Jahmi.^[21]

2011 Libyan civil war

On February 20, 2011 at 18:00 EST, he made an extemporaneous speech on Libyan state TV. In it, he blamed the civil war on tribal factions and Islamists acting on their own agendas, drunken and drugged. He promised reforms, and said the alternative would be civil war causing no trade, no oil money, and the country taken over by foreigners. He promised tens of thousands dead if protests continued, and "a river of blood".^[22] He closed by saying, "We will not let Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and BBC trick us." Many analysts disagreed with his assessment, including Oliver Miles, a former British Ambassador to Libya.^[23][24] In an interview to ABC news reporter Christiane Amanpour Saif al-Islam denied that his father's regime is killing civilians.^[25] On February 28, 2011 a video became available online in which Saif Qaddafi appears to spur on a crowd of followers to fight the opposition, and promises weapons to them, while brandishing a G36 assault rifle.^[26]

Personal life

In 2006, Saif al-Islam Muammar Gaddafi was romantically linked to the Israeli actress, Orly Weinerman.^[27][28] In 2009, he threw a party in Montenegro for his 37th birthday. Notable guests included Oleg Deripaska, Peter Munk and Prince Albert of Monaco. He previously hosted similar parties in St Tropez and Monaco.^[29]

British society

Gaddafi has been hosted at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle by the British royal family. Gaddafi claims that former Prime Minister Tony Blair is a personal friend who took an interest in advising Libya on oil revenues and finance. In 2009, he spent a weekend at Waddesdon Manor, home of financier Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, where he was the guest of Lord Mandelson and Nathaniel Philip Rothschild. He later stayed at the Rothschild holiday home in Corfu. Nathaniel Rothschild was a guest at Saif's 37th birthday celebration in Montenegro.^[30][31][32]

Links with the London School of Economics

Saif received his PhD from the London School of Economics in 2008.^[33][34] LSE Professor David Held was one of the mentors of Saif Gaddafi according to a New York Times article.^[35] Through the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, Saif subsequently pledged a donation of £1.5 million to support the work of the LSE's Centre for the Study of Global Governance on civil society organizations in North Africa. Following the LSE Libya Links affair, the LSE has issued a statement indicating that it will cut all financial ties with the country and will accept no further money from the Foundation, having already received and spent the first £300,000 installment of the donation.^[36]

Like the thesis of former German minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, of the vice president of the European parliament, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Veronica Sass, daughter of former Bavarian minister president Edmund Stoiber, and Mathias Pröfrock, a German CDU politician, Saif's thesis is analyzed using crowdsourcing.^{[citation needed]}

Commentators claim that passages appear to have been plagiarised from other sources without attribution.^{[citation needed]} Pressure is being put on the LSE to revoke his qualification^[37] and investigate the claims.^[38][39]

References

External links

• Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation
• Profile at GlobalSecurity.org
• Saif Gaddafi's vision for Libya, BBC News, 16 November 2004
• Libya 'tortured' Bulgarian medics, BBC News, 9 August 2007
• Qaddafi's son declares he's leaving politics, The New York Times, August 22, 2008
• ABC interview
• Gaddafi son calls for democracy, BBC News, 16 September 2009
• Unknotting Father’s Reins in Hope of ‘Reinventing’ Libya, Landon Thomas Jr., The New York Times, February 28, 2010
• Gaddafi's son talks of conspiracy, Aljazeera English, February 20, 2011
• Translated transcript of February 20, 2011 speech
• Factbox: Facts about Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Reuters, February 21, 2011
• Profile: Libya's Saif al-Islam, Aljazeera English, February 21, 2011
• Saif Al-Gaddafi, "The Role of Civil Society in the Democratization of Global Governance Institutions: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making?" PhD Thesis, London School of Economics, 2008.

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