Erratic,brutal,defiant

He received dignitaries in his signature sprawling white tent,which he erected wherever he went: Rome,Paris and New York,on a Westchester estate in 2009. But he hedged his bets by financing and arming a cornucopia of violent organisations,including the Irish Republican Army and African guerrilla groups,and he became an international pariah after his government was linked to deadly terrorist attacks,particularly the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie,Scotland,which killed 270 people.

He ruled through a small circle of advisers,including his sons,and continued to destroy any institution that might challenge him. By the time he was done,Libya had no parliament,no unified military command,no political parties,no unions,no civil society and no NGOs.

He always presented himself as beloved guide and chief clairvoyant,rather than ruler. I am a glory that Libya cannot forgo and the Libyan people cannot forgo,nor the Arab nation,nor the Islamic nation,nor Africa,nor Latin America,nor all the nations that desire freedom and human dignity and resist tyranny! Gaddafi shouted in February. Gaddafi is history,resistance,liberty,glory,revolution!

Early years

By all accounts,Muammar Gaddafi was born to illiterate Bedouin parents in a tent just inland from the coastal town of Surt in 1942. His father herded camels and sheep. He showed enough promise to enter the Royal Military Academy at Benghazi,and in 1966 was sent to England for a course on military communications. He learnt English.

On September 1,1969,he led a group of young officers in seizing the government in just a few hours while King Idris was abroad. They dissolved Parliament and set up a 12-member Revolutionary Command Council to rule Libya.

Libya had been desperately poor until oil was discovered in 1959. The new government forced the major companies to cede majority stakes in exchange for continued access to the countrys oil fields,and it demanded a greater share of the profits. With the increased revenue,Gaddafi set about building roads,hospitals,schools and housing.

Guiding Philosophy

The Green Book,Gaddafis three-volume political tract that was required reading in every school,offered his third universal theory to improve on capitalism and socialism,condemning sports like boxing as barbarism and pointing out that men and women are different because women menstruate. He nevertheless exhibited women as a symbol of the success of the Libyan revolution. None had a higher profile than his female bodyguards,who wore camouflage fatigues,red nail polish and high-heeled sandals,and carried submachine guns.

Gaddafi tried to eliminate or isolate all of the 11 other members of the original Revolutionary Command Council. Meanwhile he was cementing Libyas rogue-state status by bankrolling terrorist and guerrilla organisations. That set him on a collision course with the West.

Nearly a decade of international isolation started in 1992,with Libya refusing to hand over two suspects indicted by the United States and Britain in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The United Nations imposed economic sanctions,and then fellow Arabs enforced them.

In 1999,Libya finally handed over two Lockerbie suspects for trial in The Hague and reached a financial settlement with the French. The international sanctions were lifted in 2003 after it accepted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay 2.7 billion to the families of victims in the bombing and in other attacks. The Libyans made it clear that they were simply taking a practical step toward restoring ties with the West.

Tripoli truly began to emerge from the cold after the September 2001 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda. Gaddafi condemned them and shared Libyas own intelligence with Washington. Britain and the United States re-established diplomatic relations.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice led a parade of world leaders to Gaddafis tent seeking trade deals. Before the visit,Gaddafi was effusive about Rice. I support my darling black African woman, he said on Al Jazeera. I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders. Yes,Leezza,Leezza,Leezza I love her very much.

Family Life

Gaddafi married at least twice. His eldest son,Mohammed,from his first marriage,became a businessman and the agent for foreign companies in Libya.

Seven other children six sons and a daughter came from his marriage to Safia Farkash,a former nurse. Seif al-Islam,the oldest son,had been the face of modern Libya,establishing an international charity and forever pledging that political reform was just around the corner. He was later indicted by the International Criminal Court,accused of crimes against humanity during the uprising.

Among Seifs brothers,Muatassim,Hannibal and Khamis were military officers who commanded their own brigades. Muatassim headed the National Security Council but was better known for carousing in hot spots like the Caribbean island of St Barts,where he was reported to have paid several singers,including Mariah Carey,1 million each for appearing at his holiday parties.

Hannibal gained notoriety for beating his wife and servants in luxurious European hotels. After Hannibal was arrested in Switzerland in 2008,Gaddafi broke off diplomatic relations and held two Swiss businessmen hostage.

The anti-Gaddafi forces said they killed Khamis in late

August.

Another son,Saadi,a military officer,had been a professional soccer player who was allowed onto Italian teams more for the publicity than for his skills. The seventh son,Seif al-Arab,had no public profile.

The daughter,Aisha,gained attention as a lawyer after she offered to join the large legal defence team of Saddam Hussein.

Gaddafi was also believed to have adopted two children: Hanna and Milad,a nephew.

As the opaque circle around Gaddafi shrank,his sons

increasingly became his advisers,but it was never clear if he had anointed any one of them as his successor. He was believed to play one off against the other,granting and then withholding favour,just as he did with anyone who might challenge his authority.

Quirks

Libyans suffered under his dictates. He decided that he disliked the names of both the Western and Eastern months,so he renamed them. February was Lights. August was Hannibal.

Gaddafi once declared that that any money over 3,000 in anyones bank account was excessive and should revert to the state. Another time he lifted a ban on sport utility vehicles,then changed his mind a few months later,forcing everyone who had bought one to hide it.

When he unleashed his forces during the uprising,he rejected the idea that Libyans were rioting. All his people loved him and would die for him,he said.

In the past Libyans lacked an identity, Colonel Gaddafi roared in the February speech. When you said Libyan,they would tell you Libya,Liberia,Lebanon they didnt know Libya! But today you say Libya,they say Libya Gaddafi,Libya the revolution!NEIL MacFARQUHAR