History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafibecame thede factoleader ofLibyaon 1 September 1969 after leading a group of youngLibyan Armyofficers againstKing Idris Iin abloodless coup d'état. When Idris was inTurkeyfor medical treatment, theRevolutionary Command Council(RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished themonarchyand theconstitutionand established theLibyan Arab Republic, with the motto "Unity, Freedom, Socialism".The name of Libya was changed several times during Gaddafi's tenure as leader. From 1969 to 1977, the name was theLibyan Arab Republic. In 1977, the name was changed toSocialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.Jamahiriyawas a term coined by Gaddafi,usually translated as "state of the masses". The country was renamed again in 1986 as theGreat Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, after the United States bombing that year.
After coming to power, the RCC government initiated a process of directing funds toward providing education, health care and housing for all. Public education in the country became free and primary education compulsory for both sexes. Medical care became available to the public at no cost, but providing housing for all was a task the RCC government was unable to complete.Under Gaddafi, per capita income in the country rose to more than US$11,000 in nominal terms,and to over US$30,000 inPPPterms,the 5th highest in Africa. The increase in prosperity was accompanied by an anti-imperialist, anti-West foreign policy, and increased domestic political repression.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Gaddafi, in alliance with theEastern BlocandFidel Castro'sCuba, openly supported liberation  movements likeNelson Mandela'sAfrican National Congress,Yasser Arafat'sPalestine Liberation Organization, theProvisional Irish Republican Armyand thePolisario Front. Gaddafi's government was either known to be or suspected of participating in or aiding attacks by these and other liberation alliance forces. Additionally, Gaddafi undertook several invasions of neighboring states in Africa, notablyChad in the 1970s and 1980s. All of his actions led to a deterioration ofLibya's foreign relationswith several countries, mostlyWestern states,and culminated in the1986 United States bombing of Libya. Gaddafi defended his government's actions by citing the need to supportanti-imperialistand anti-colonial movements around the world. Notably, Gaddafi supportedanti-Zionist,pan-Arab,pan-Africanist,Arabandblackcivil rightsmovements. Gaddafi's behavior, often erratic, led some outsiders ( from the West, perhaps as propaganda) to conclude that he was not mentally sound, a claim disputed by the Libyan authorities and other observers close to Gaddafi. Despite receiving extensive aid and technical assistance from theSoviet Unionand its allies, Gaddafi retained close ties to pro-American governments inWestern Europe, largely by courting Western oil companies with promises of access to the lucrative Libyan energy sector. After the9/11 attacks, strained relations between Libya andNATOcountries were mostly normalised, and sanctions against the country relaxed, in exchange fornuclear disarmament.
In early 2011,a civil warbroke out in the context of the widerArab Spring. The rebelanti-Gaddafi forcesformed a committee named theNational Transitional Councilin February 2011, to act as aninterim authorityin the rebel-controlled areas. After killings by government forcesin addition to those by the rebel forces,amultinational coalitionled by NATO forces intervened in March in support of the rebels.TheInternational Criminal Courtissued an arrest warrant against Gaddafi and his entourage in June 2011. Gaddafi's government was overthrown in the wake of thefall of Tripolito the rebel forces in August, although pockets of resistance held by forces in support of Gaddafi's government held out for another two months, especially in Gaddafi's hometown ofSirte, which he declared the new capital of Libya in September.The fallof the last remaining sites in Sirte under pro-Gaddafi control on 20 October 2011, followed by the subsequentkilling of Gaddafi, marked the end of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
The discovery of significantoil reservesin 1959 and the subsequent income frompetroleum salesenabled theKingdom of Libyato transition from one of the world's poorest nations to a wealthy state. Although oil drastically improved the Libyan government's finances, resentment began to build over the increased concentration of the nation's wealth in the hands ofKing Idris. This discontent mounted with the rise ofNasserismandArab nationalism/socialismthroughout North Africa and the Middle East.
On 1 September 1969, a group of about 70 young army officers known as the Free Officers Movement and enlisted men mostly assigned to theSignal Corps, seized control of the government and in a stroke abolished the Libyan monarchy. The coup was launched atBenghazi, and within two hours the takeover was completed. Army units quickly rallied in support of the coup, and within a few days firmly established military control inTripoliand throughout the country. Popular reception of the coup, especially by younger people in the urban areas, was enthusiastic. Fears of resistance inCyrenaicaandFezzanproved unfounded. No deaths or violent incidents related to the coup were reported.
The Free Officers Movement, which claimed credit for carrying out the coup, was headed by a twelve-member directorate that designated itself the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). This body constituted the Libyan government after the coup. In its initial proclamation on 1 September,the RCC declared the country to be a free and sovereign state called theLibyan Arab Republic, which would proceed "in the path of freedom, unity, and social justice, guaranteeing the right of equality to its citizens, and opening before them the doors of honorable work." The rule of the Turks and Italians and the "reactionary" government just overthrown were characterized as belonging to "dark ages", from which the Libyan people were called to move forward as "free brothers" to a new age of prosperity, equality, and honor.
The RCC advised diplomatic representatives in Libya that the revolutionary changes had not been directed from outside the country, that existing treaties and agreements would remain in effect, and that foreign lives and property would be protected. Diplomatic recognition of the new government came quickly from countries throughout the world. United States recognition was officially extended on 6 September.
In view of the lack of internal resistance, it appeared that the chief danger to the new government lay in the possibility of a reaction inspired by the absent King Idris or his designated heir, Crown PrinceHasan, who had been taken into custody at the time of the coup along with other senior civil and military officials of the royal government. Within days of the coup, however, Hasan publicly renounced all rights to the throne, stated his support for the new government, and called on the people to accept it without violence.
Idris, in an exchange of messages with the RCC through Egypt's PresidentNasser, dissociated himself from reported attempts to secure British intervention and disclaimed any intention of coming back to Libya. In return, he was assured by the RCC of the safety of his family still in the country. At his own request and with Nasser's approval, Idris took up residence once again in Egypt, where he had spent his first exile and where he remained until his death in 1983.
On 7 September 1969, the RCC announced that it had appointed a cabinet to conduct the government of the new republic. An American-educated technician,Mahmud Suleiman Maghribi, who had been imprisoned since 1967 for his political activities, was designated prime minister. He presided over the eight-member Council of Ministers, of whom six, like Maghribi, were civilians and two –Adam Said HawwazandMusa Ahmad– were military officers. Neither of the officers was a member of the RCC.
The Council of Ministers was instructed to "implement the state's general policy as drawn up by the RCC", leaving no doubt where ultimate authority rested. The next day the RCC decided to promote Captain Gaddafi to colonel and to appoint him commander in chief of the Libyan Armed Forces. Although RCC spokesmen declined until January 1970 to reveal any other names of RCC members, it was apparent from that date onward that the head of the RCC and newde factohead of state was Gaddafi.
Analysts were quick to point out the striking similarities between the Libyan military coup of 1969 and that in Egypt under Nasser in 1952, and it became clear that the Egyptian experience and the charismatic figure of Nasser had formed the model for the Free Officers Movement. As the RCC in the last months of 1969 moved vigorously to institute domestic reforms, it proclaimed neutrality in the confrontation between the superpowers and opposition to all forms of colonialism and imperialism. It also made clear Libya's dedication to Arab unity and to the support of the Palestinian cause against Israel.
The RCC reaffirmed the country's identity as part of the "Arab nation" and its state religion asIslam. It abolished parliamentary institutions, all legislative functions being assumed by the RCC, and continued the prohibition against political parties, in effect since 1952. The new government categorically rejected communism – in large part because it wasatheist– and officially espoused an Arab interpretation of socialism that integrated Islamic principles with social, economic, and political reform. Libya had shifted, virtually overnight, from the camp of conservative Arab traditionalist states to that of the radical nationalist states.
Following the formation of theLibyan Arab Republic, Gaddafi and his associates insisted that their government would not rest on individual leadership, but rather on collegial decision making.
The first major cabinet change occurred soon after the first challenge to the government. In December 1969, Adam Said Hawwaz, the minister of defense, and Musa Ahmad, the minister of interior, were arrested and accused of planning a coup. In the new cabinet formed after the crisis, Gaddafi, retaining his post as chairman of the RCC, also became prime minister and defense minister.
Major Abdel Salam Jallud, generally regarded as second only to Gaddafi in the RCC, became deputy prime minister and minister of interior.This cabinet totaled thirteen members, of whom five were RCC officers.The government was challenged a second time in July 1970 when Abdullah Abid Sanusi andAhmed al-Senussi, distant cousins of former King Idris, and members of the Sayf an Nasr clan of Fezzan were accused of plotting to seize power for themselves.After the plot was foiled, a substantial cabinet change occurred, RCC officers for the first time forming a majority among new ministers.
From the start, RCC spokesmen had indicated a serious intent to bring the "defunct regime" to account. In 1971 and 1972, more than 200 former government officials (including seven prime ministers and numerous cabinet ministers), as well as former King Idris and members of the royal family, were brought to theLibyan People's Courtto be tried on charges of treason and corruption.
Many, who lived in exile (including Idris), weretriedin absentia. Although a large percentage of those charged were acquitted, sentences of up to fifteen years in prison and heavy fines were imposed on others. Five death sentences, all but one of themin absentia, were pronounced; among them, one against Idris. Former QueenFatimaand former Crown Prince Hasan were sentenced to five and three years in prison, respectively.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi and the RCC had disbanded theSenussi orderand officially downgraded its historical role in achieving Libya's independence. He also declared regional and tribal issues to be "obstructions" in the path of social advancement and Arab unity, dismissing traditional leaders and drawing administrative boundaries acrosstribal groupings.
The Free Officers Movement was renamed "Arab Socialist Union" (ASU) in 1971 (modeled after Egypt'sArab Socialist Union), while also becoming thesole legal partyin Gaddafi's Libya. It acted as a "vehicle of national expression", purporting to "raise the political consciousness of Libyans" and to "aid the RCC in formulating public policy through debate in open forums".Trade unions were incorporated into the ASU and strikes outlawed. The press, already subject to censorship, was officially conscripted in 1972 as an agent of the revolution. Italians (and what remained of the Jewish community) wereexpelledfrom the country, their property confiscated in October 1970.
In 1972, Libya joined theFederation of Arab RepublicswithEgyptandSyria; the previously-intended union of pan-Arabic states, never coming to fruition, went effectively dormant after 1973.
As months passed, Gaddafi, caught up in hisapocalypticvisions of revolutionaryPan-Arabismand Islam (both locked in mortal struggle with what he termed the "encircling, demonic forces of reaction, imperialism, and Zionism"), increasingly devoted attention to international rather than internal affairs. As a result, routine administrative tasks fell to Major Jallud, who became prime minister in place of Gaddafi, in 1972. Two years later, Jallud assumed Gaddafi's remaining administrative and protocol duties to allow Gaddafi to devote his time to revolutionary theorizing. Gaddafi remained commander-in-chief of the armed forces and effective head of state. The foreign press speculated about an eclipse of his authority and personality within the RCC, but Gaddafi soon dispelled such theories by his measures to restructure Libyan society.
After the September coup, U.S. forces proceeded deliberately with the planned withdrawal fromWheelus Air Baseunder the agreement made with the previous government. The foreign minister,Salah Busir, played an important role in negotiating the British and American military withdrawal from the new republic. The last of the American contingent turned the facility over to the Libyans on 11 June 1970, a date thereafter celebrated in Libya as a national holiday. On 27 March 1970, the British air base in El Adem and the naval base in Tobruk were abandoned.
As relations with the U.S. steadily deteriorated, Gaddafi forged close links with theSoviet Unionand otherEastern Bloccountries, all the while maintaining Libya's stance as a nonaligned country and opposing the spread of communism in the Arab world. Libya's army—sharply increased from the 6,000-man pre-revolutionary force that had been trained and equipped by the British—was armed with Soviet-built armor and missiles.
The economic base for Libya's revolution has been its oil revenues. However, Libya's petroleum reserves were small compared with those of other major Arab petroleum-producing states. As a consequence, Libya was more ready to ration output in order to conserve its natural wealth and less responsive to moderating its price-rise demands than the other countries. Petroleum was seen both as a means of financing the economic and social development of a woefully underdeveloped country and as a political weapon to brandish in the Arab struggle against Israel.
The increase in production that followed the 1969 revolution was accompanied by Libyan demands for higher petroleum prices, a greater share of revenues, and more control over the development of the country's petroleum industry. Foreign petroleum companies agreed to a price hike of more than three times the going rate (from US$0.90 to US$3.45 per barrel) early in 1971. In December, the Libyan government suddenly nationalized the holdings ofBritish Petroleumin Libya and withdrew funds amounting to approximately US$550 million invested in British banks as a result of a foreign policy dispute. British Petroleum rejected as inadequate a Libyan offer of compensation, and the British treasury banned Libya from participation in theSterling Area.
In 1973, the Libyan government announced the nationalization of a controlling interest in all other petroleum companies operating in the country. This step gave Libya control of about 60 percent of its domestic oil production by early 1974, a figure that subsequently rose to 70 percent. Total nationalization was out of the question, given the need for foreign expertise and funds in oil exploration, production, and distribution.
Insisting on the continued use of petroleum as leverage against Israel and its supporters in the West, Libya strongly urged the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) totake action in 1973, and Libyan militancy was partially responsible for OPEC measures to raise oil prices, impose embargoes, and gain control of production. On 19 October 1973, Libya was the first Arab nation to issue an oil embargo against the United States after US President Richard Nixon announced the US would provide Israel with a $2.2 billion military aid program during theYom Kippur War.Saudi Arabia andother Arab oil producing nationsin OPEC would follow suit the next day.
While the other Arab nations lifted their oil embargoes on 18 March 1974,the Gaddafi regime refused to do so.As a consequence of such policies, Libya's oil production declined by half between 1970 and 1974, while revenues from oil exports more than quadrupled. Production continued to fall, bottoming out at an eleven-year low in 1975 at a time when the government was preparing to invest large amounts of petroleum revenues in other sectors of the economy. Thereafter, output stabilized at about two million barrels per day. Production and hence income declined yet again in the early 1980s because of the high price of Libyan crude and because recession in the industrialized world reduced demand for oil from all sources.
Libya's Five-Year Economic and Social Transformation Plan (1976–80), announced in 1975, was programmed to pump US$20 billion into the development of a broad range of economic activities that would continue to provide income after Libya's petroleum reserves had been exhausted. Agriculture was slated to receive the largest share of aid in an effort to make Libya self-sufficient in food and to help keep the rural population on the land. Industry, of which there was little before the revolution, also received a significant amount of funding in the first development plan as well as in the second, launched in 1981.
The "remaking of Libyan society" contained in Gaddafi's ideological visions began to be put into practice formally in 1973, with a cultural revolution. This revolution was designed to create bureaucratic efficiency, public interest and participation in the subnational governmental system, and national political coordination. In an attempt to instill revolutionary fervor into his compatriots and to involve large numbers of them in political affairs, Gaddafi urged them to challenge traditional authority and to take over and run government organs themselves. The instrument for doing this was the people's committee. Within a few months, such committees were found all across Libya. They were functionally and geographically based, and eventually became responsible for local and regional administration.
People's committees were established in such widely divergent organizations as universities, private business firms, government bureaucracies, and the broadcast media. Geographically based committees were formed at the governorate, municipal, and zone (lowest) levels. Seats on the people's committees at the zone level were filled by direct popular election; members so elected could then be selected for service at higher levels. By mid-1973 estimates of the number of people's committees ranged above 2,000. In the scope of their administrative and regulatory tasks and the method of their members' selection, the people's committees purportedly embodied the concept ofdirect democracythat Gaddafi propounded in the first volume ofThe Green Book, which appeared in 1976. The same concept lay behind proposals to create a new political structure composed of "people's congresses". The centerpiece of the new system was theGeneral People's Congress(GPC), a national representative body intended to replace the RCC.
During this transition, on 7 April 1976, students of universities in Tripoli and Benghazi protested against human rights violations and the military's control over "all aspects of life in Libya"; the students called for free and fair elections to take place and for power to be transferred to a civilian government. Violent counter-demonstrations took place, with many students imprisoned. On 7 April 1977, the anniversary of the event, students (including Omar Dabob and Muhammed Ben Saoud) were publicly executed in Benghazi, with anti-Gaddafi military officers executed later in the week. Friends of the executees were forced to participate in or observe the executions. Annual public executions would go on to continue each year, on 7 April, until the late 1980s.
On 2 March 1977, the General People's Congress (GPC), at Gaddafi's behest, adopted the "Declaration of the Establishment of the People's Authority"and proclaimed theSocialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya(Arabic:الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الإشتراكيةal-Jamāhīrīyya al-'Arabīyya al-Lībīyya al-Sha'bīyya al-Ishtirākīyya). In the official political philosophy of Gaddafi's state, the "Jamahiriya" system was unique to the country, although it was presented as the materialization of theThird International Theory, proposed by Gaddafi to be applied to the entireThird World. The GPC also created the General Secretariat of the GPC, comprising the remaining members of the defunct Revolutionary Command Council, with Gaddafi as general secretary, and also appointed the General People's Committee, which replaced the Council of Ministers, its members now called secretaries rather than ministers.
TheLibyan governmentclaimed that the Jamahiriya was adirect democracywithout any political parties, governed by its populace through local popular councils and communes (namedBasic People's Congresses). Official rhetoric disdained the idea of anation state,tribalbonds remaining primary, even within the ranks of thenational army.
Jamahiriya(Arabic:جماهيريةjamāhīrīyah) is anArabicterm generally translated as "state of the masses";Lisa Andersonhas suggested "peopledom" or "state of the masses" as a reasonable approximations of the meaning of the term as intended by Gaddafi. The term does not occur in this sense inMuammar Gaddafi'sGreen Bookof 1975. Thenisba-adjectivejamāhīrīyah("mass-, "of the masses") occurs only in the third part, published in 1981, in the phraseإن الحركات التاريخية هي الحركات الجماهيرية(Inna al-ḥarakāt at-tārīkhīyah hiya al-ḥarakāt al-jamāhīrīyah), translated in the English edition as "Historic movements are mass movements".
The wordjamāhīrīyahwas derived fromjumhūrīyah,which is the usual Arabic translation of "republic". It was coined by changing the componentjumhūr—"public"—to its plural form,jamāhīr—"the masses". Thus, it is similar to the termPeople's Republic. It is often left untranslated in English, with the long-form name thus rendered asGreat Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. However, inHebrew, for instance,jamāhīrīyahis translated as "קהילייה" (qehiliyáh), a word also used to translate the term "Commonwealth" when referring to the designation of a country.
After weathering the 1986 U.S. bombing by the Reagan administration, Gaddafi added the specifier "Great" (العظمىal-'Uẓmá) to the official name of the country.
The changes in Libyan leadership since 1976 culminated in March 1979, when the General People's Congress declared that the "vesting of power in the masses" and the "separation of the state from the revolution" were complete. The government was divided into two parts, the "Jamahiriya sector" and the "revolutionary sector". The "Jamahiriya sector" was composed of the General People's Congress, the General People's Committee, and the localBasic People's Congresses. Gaddafi relinquished his position as general secretary of the General People's Congress, as which he was succeeded byAbdul Ati al-Obeidi, who had been prime minister since 1977.
The "Jamahiriya sector" was overseen by the "revolutionary sector", headed by Gaddafi as "Leader of the Revolution" (Qā'id)and the surviving members of the Revolutionary Command Council. The leaders of the revolutionary sector were not subject to election, as they owed office to their role in the 1969 coup. They oversaw the "revolutionary committees", which were nominally grass-roots organizations that helped keep the people engaged. As a result, although Gaddafi held no formal government office after 1979, he retained control of the government and the country.Gaddafi also remained supreme commander of the armed forces.
All legislative and executive authority was vested in the GPC. This body, however, delegated most of its important authority to its general secretary and General Secretariat and to the General People's Committee. Gaddafi, as general secretary of the GPC, remained the primary decision maker, just as he had been when chairman of the RCC. In turn, all adults had the right and duty to participate in the deliberation of their local Basic People's Congress (BPC), whose decisions were passed up to the GPC for consideration and implementation as national policy. The BPCs were in theory the repository of ultimate political authority and decision making, embodying what Gaddafi termed direct "people's power". The 1977 declaration and its accompanying resolutions amounted to a fundamental revision of the 1969 constitutional proclamation, especially with respect to the structure and organization of the government at both national and subnational levels.
Continuing to revamp Libya's political and administrative structure, Gaddafi introduced yet another element into the body politic. Beginning in 1977, "revolutionary committees" were organized and assigned the task of "absolute revolutionary supervision of people's power"; that is, they were to guide the people's committees, "raise the general level of political consciousness and devotion to revolutionary ideals". In reality, the revolutionary committees were used to survey the population and repress any political opposition to Gaddafi's autocratic rule. Reportedly 10% to 20% of Libyans worked in surveillance for these committees, a proportion of informants on par withBa'athist IraqandJuche Korea.
Filled with politically astute zealots, the ubiquitous revolutionary committees in 1979 assumed control of BPC elections. Although they were not official government organs, the revolutionary committees became another mainstay of the domestic political scene. As with the people's committees and other administrative innovations since the revolution, the revolutionary committees fit the pattern of imposing a new element on the existing subnational system of government rather than eliminating or consolidating already existing structures. By the late 1970s, the result was an unnecessarily complex system of overlapping jurisdictions in which cooperation and coordination among different elements were compromised by ill-defined authority and responsibility. The ambiguity may have helped serve Gaddafi's aim to remain the prime mover behind Libyan governance, while minimizing his visibility at a time when internal opposition to political repression was rising.
The RCC was formally dissolved and the government was again reorganized into people's committees. A new General People's Committee (cabinet) was selected, each of its "secretaries" becoming head of a specialized people's committee; the exceptions were the "secretariats" of petroleum, foreign affairs, and heavy industry, where there were no people's committees. A proposal was also made to establish a "people's army" by substituting a national militia, being formed in the late 1970s, for the national army. Although the idea surfaced again in early 1982, it did not appear to be close to implementation.
Gaddafi also wanted to combat the strict social restrictions that had been imposed on women by the previous regime, establishing theRevolutionary Women's Formationto encourage reform. In 1970, a law was introduced affirming equality of the sexes and insisting on wage parity. In 1971, Gaddafi sponsored the creation of aLibyan General Women's Federation. In 1972, a law was passed criminalizing the marriage of any females under the age of sixteen and ensuring that a woman's consent was a necessary prerequisite for a marriage.
Remaking of the economy was parallel with the attempt to remold political and social institutions. Until the late 1970s, Libya'seconomy was mixed, with a large role for private enterprise except in the fields of oil production and distribution, banking, and insurance. But according to volume two of Gaddafi's Green Book, which appeared in 1978, private retail trade, rent, and wages were forms of exploitation that should be abolished. Instead,workers' self-managementcommittees and profit participation partnerships were to function in public and private enterprises.
A property law was passed that forbade ownership of more than one private dwelling, and Libyan workers took control of a large number of companies, turning them into state-run enterprises. Retail and wholesale trading operations were replaced by state-owned "people's supermarkets", where Libyans in theory could purchase whatever they needed at low prices. By 1981 the state had also restricted access to individual bank accounts to draw upon privately held funds for government projects. The measures created resentment and opposition among the newly dispossessed. The latter joined those already alienated, some of whom had begun to leave the country. By 1982, perhaps 50,000 to 100,000 Libyans had gone abroad; because many of the emigrants were among the enterprising and better educated Libyans, they represented a significant loss of managerial and technical expertise.
The government also built a trans-Sahara water pipeline from major aquifers to both a network of reservoirs and the towns of Tripoli, Sirte and Benghazi in 2006–2007.It is part of theGreat Manmade Riverproject, started in 1984. It is pumping large resources of water from theNubian Sandstone Aquifer Systemto both urban populations and new irrigation projects around the country.
Libya continued to be plagued with a shortage of skilled labor, which had to be imported along with a broad range of consumer goods, both paid for with petroleum income. The country consistently ranked as the African nation with the highest HDI, standing at 0.755 in 2010, which was 0.041 higher than the next highest African HDI that same year.Gender equality was a major achievement under Gaddafi's rule. According to Lisa Anderson, president of the American University in Cairo and an expert on Libya, said that under Gaddafi more women attended university and had "dramatically" more employment opportunities than most Arab nations.
As early as 1969, Gaddafi waged a campaign againstChad. Scholar Gerard Prunier claims part of his hostility was apparently becauseChadian PresidentFrançois Tombalbayewas Christian.Libya was also involved in a sometimes violent territorial dispute with neighbouring Chad over theAouzou Strip, which Libya occupied in 1973. This dispute eventually led to theLibyan invasionof Chad. The prolonged foray of Libyan troops into the Aozou Strip in northern Chad, was finally repulsed in 1987, when extensive US and French help to Chadian rebel forces and the government headed by former Defence MinisterHissein Habréfinally led to a Chadian victory in the so-calledToyota War. The conflict ended in a ceasefire in 1987. After a judgement of theInternational Court of Justiceon 13 February 1994, Libya withdrew troops from Chad the same year and the dispute was settled.Libyans heavily opposed this war considering the fact that thousands of high schoolers were taken out of their schools and were forced into battle by the Gaddafi regime. This left many families confused and worried about their kids who did not return home from school.
In 1977, Gaddafi dispatched his military across the border to Egypt, but Egyptian forces fought back in theEgyptian–Libyan War. Both nations agreed to a ceasefire under the mediation of thePresident of AlgeriaHouari Boumediène.
In 1972, Gaddafi created theIslamic Legionas a tool to unify and Arabize the region. The priority of the Legion was first Chad, and then Sudan. InDarfur, a western province of Sudan, Gaddafi supported the creation ofTajammu al-Arabi, which according toGérard Prunierwas "a militantly racist and pan-Arabist organization which stressed the 'Arab' character of the province."The two organizations shared members and a source of support, and the distinction between them is often ambiguous.
This Islamic Legion was mostly composed of immigrants from poorerSaheliancountries,but also, according to a source, thousands of Pakistanis who had been recruited in 1981 with the false promise of civilian jobs once in Libya.Generally speaking, the Legion's members were immigrants who had gone to Libya with no thought of fighting wars, and had been provided with inadequate military training and had sparse commitment. A French journalist, speaking of the Legion's forces in Chad, observed that they were "foreigners, Arabs or Africans,mercenariesin spite of themselves, wretches who had come to Libya hoping for a civilian job, but found themselves signed up more or less by force to go and fight in an unknown desert."
At the beginning of the 1987 Libyan offensive in Chad, it maintained a force of 2,000 in Darfur. The nearly continuous cross-border raids that resulted greatly contributed to a separate ethnic conflict within Darfur that killed about 9,000 people between 1985 and 1988.
Janjaweed, a group accused by the US ofcarrying out a genocide in Darfur in the 2000s, emerged in 1988 and some of its leaders are former legionnaires.
In 1972, Gaddafi tried to buy a nuclear bomb fromChina. He then tried to get a bomb fromPakistan, but Pakistan severed its ties before it succeeded in building a bomb.In 1978, Gaddafi turned to Pakistan's rival,India, for help building its own nuclear bomb.In July 1978, Libya and India signed amemorandum of understandingto cooperate in peaceful applications of nuclear energy as part of India's Atom of Peace policy.In 1991, thenPrime MinisterNavaz Sharifpaid astate visitto Libya to hold talks on the promotion of aFree Trade Agreementbetween Pakistan and Libya.However, Gaddafi focused on demanding Pakistan's Prime Minister sell him a nuclear weapon, which surprised many of the Prime Minister's delegation members and journalists.When Prime minister Sharif refused Gaddafi's demand, Gaddafi disrespected him, calling him a "corrupt politician", a term which insulted and surprised Sharif.The prime minister cancelled the talks, returned to Pakistan and expelled the Libyan ambassador to Pakistan.
Thailand reported its citizens had helped build storage facilities for nerve gas.Germany sentenced a businessman, Jurgen Hippenstiel-Imhausen, to five years in prison for involvement in Libyan chemical weapons.Inspectors from theChemical Weapons Convention(CWC) verified in 2004 that Libya owned a stockpile of 23 metric tons ofmustard gasand more than 1,300 metric tons of precursor chemicals.
When Libya was under pressure from international disputes, on 19 August 1981, a navaldogfightoccurred over theGulf of Sirtein theMediterranean Sea. USF-14 Tomcatjets fired anti-aircraft missiles against a formation of Libyan fighter jets in this dogfight and shot down twoLibyanSu-22 Fitterattack aircraft. This naval action was a result of claiming the territory and losses from the previous incident. A second dogfight occurred on 4 January 1989; US carrier-based jets also shot down twoLibyanMiG-23 Flogger-Esin the same place.
A similar action occurred on 23 March 1986; while patrolling the Gulf, US naval forces attacked a sizable naval force and various SAM sites defending Libyan territory. US fighter jets and fighter-bombers destroyed SAM launching facilities and sank various naval vessels, killing 35 seamen. This was a reprisal for terrorist hijackings between June and December 1985.
On 5 April 1986, agents“La Belle" nightclub in West Berlinwas bombed, killing three and injuring 229.  The plan was intercepted by several national intelligence agencies and more detailed information was retrieved four years later fromStasiarchives. The agents who had carried out the operation, who many Western governments claimed to be acting on Gaddafi’s orders, were prosecuted by the reunited Germany in the 1990s.
In response to the discotheque bombing, joint US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps air-strikes took place against Libya on 15 April 1986 and code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon and known as the1986 bombing of Libya. Air defenses, three army bases, and two airfields inTripoliandBenghaziwere bombed. The surgical strikes failed to kill Gaddafi but he lost a few dozen military officers. Gaddafi spread propaganda how it had killed his "adopted daughter" and how victims had been all "civilians". Despite the variations of the stories, the campaign was successful, and a large proportion of the Western press reported the government's stories as facts.
Following the 1986 bombing of Libya, Gaddafi intensified his support for anti-American government organizations. He financedJeff Fort'sAl-Ruknfaction of the ChicagoBlack P. Stonesgang, in their emergence as an indigenous anti-American armed revolutionary movement.Al-Rukn members were arrested in 1986 for preparing strikes on behalf of Libya, including blowing up US government buildings and bringing down an airplane; the Al-Rukn defendants were convicted in 1987 of "offering to commit bombings and assassinations on US soil for Libyan payment."In 1986, Libyan state television announced that Libya was training suicide squads to attack American and European interests. He began financing the IRA again in 1986, to retaliate against the British for harboring American fighter planes.
Gaddafi announced that he had won a spectacular military victory over the US and the country was officially renamed the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah".However, his speech appeared devoid of passion and even the "victory" celebrations appeared unusual. Criticism of Gaddafi by ordinary Libyan citizens became more bold, such as defacing of Gaddafi posters.The raids against Libyan military had brought the government to its weakest point in 17 years.
A renewed serious threat to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya came in February 2011, with the2011 Libyan revolution. Inspiration for the unrest is attributed to the uprisings inTunisiaandEgypt, connecting it with the widerArab Spring.In the east, theNational Transitional Councilwas established in Benghazi. The novelist Idris Al-Mesmari was arrested hours after giving an interview withAl Jazeeraabout the police reaction to protests in Benghazi on 15 February.
Many Libyan officialshad sided with the protesters and requested help from the international community to bring an end to the massacres of civilians. The government inTripolihad lost control of half of Libya by the end of February,but as of mid-September Gaddafi remained in control of several parts ofFezzan. On 21 September, the forces of NTC captured Sabha, the largest city of Fezzan, reducing the control of Gaddafi to limited and isolated areas.
Many nationscondemnedGaddafi's government over its use of force against civilians. Several other nations allied with Gaddafi, accusing the uprising of being a "plot" by"Westernpowers" to loot Libya's resources.TheUnited Nations Security Councilpassed aresolutionto enforce ano-fly zoneover Libyan airspace on 17 March 2011.
The UN resolution authorized air-strikes against Libyan ground troops and warships that threatened civilians.On 19 March, the no-fly zone enforcement began, with French aircraft undertaking sorties across Libya and a navalblockadeby the BritishRoyal Navy.Eventually, the aircraft carriersUSSEnterpriseandCharles de Gaullearrived off the coast and provided the enforcers with a rapid-response capability. U.S. forces named their part of the enforcement actionOperation Odyssey Dawn, meant to "deny the Libyan regime from using force against its own people"according to U.S.Vice AdmiralWilliam E. Gortney. More than 110"Tomahawk" cruise missileswere fired in an initial assault by U.S. warships and a British submarine against Libyan air defences.
The last government holdouts inSirtefinally fell to anti-Gaddafi fighters on 20 October 2011, and, following the controversialdeath of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya was officially declared "liberated" on 23 October 2011, ending 42 years of Gaddafi's leadership in Libya.
Political scientistRiadh Sidaouisuggested in October 2011 that Gaddafi "has created a great void for his exercise of power: there is no institution, no army, no electoral tradition in the country", and as a result, the period of transition would be difficult in Libya.
On 21 July 1977, there were first gun battles between troops on the border, followed by land and air strikes. Relations between the Libyan and Egyptian governments had been deteriorating ever since the end of theYom Kippur Warfrom October 1973, due to Libyan opposition to PresidentAnwar Sadat's peace policy as well as the breakdown of unification talks between the two governments. There is some proof that the Egyptian government was considering a war against Libya as early as 1974. On 28 February 1974, duringHenry Kissinger's visit to Egypt, President Sadat told him about such intentions and requested that pressure be put on the Israeli government not to launch an attack on Egypt in the event of its forces being occupied in war with Libya.In addition, the Egyptian government had broken its military ties with Moscow, while the Libyan government kept that cooperation going. The Egyptian government also gave assistance to formerRCCmembers Major Abd al Munim al Huni and Omar Muhayshi, who unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Gaddafi in 1975, and allowed them to reside in Egypt. During 1976 relations were ebbing, as the Egyptian government claimed to have discovered a Libyan plot to overthrow the government in Cairo. On 26 January 1976, Egyptian Vice PresidentHosni Mubarakindicated in a talk with the US AmbassadorHermann Eiltsthat the Egyptian government intended to exploit internal problems in Libya to promote actions against Libya, but did not elaborate.On 22 July 1976, the Libyan government made a public threat to break diplomatic relations with Cairo if Egyptian subversive actions continued.On 8 August 1976, an explosion occurred in the bathroom of a government office inTahrir Squarein Cairo, injuring 14, and the Egyptian government and media claimed this was done by Libyan agents.The Egyptian government also claimed to have arrested two Egyptian citizens trained by Libyan intelligence to perform sabotage within Egypt.On 23 August, an Egyptian passenger planewas hijackedby persons who reportedly worked with Libyan intelligence. They were captured by Egyptian authorities in an operation that ended without any casualties. In retaliation for accusations by the Egyptian government of Libyan complicity in the hijacking, the Libyan government ordered the closure of the Egyptian Consulate in Benghazi.On 24 July, the combatants agreed to aceasefireunder the mediation of thePresident of AlgeriaHouari Boumedièneand thePalestine Liberation Organization ChairmanYasser Arafat.
Gaddafi was a close supporter ofUgandan PresidentIdi Amin.
Gaddafi sent thousands of troops to fight against Tanzania on behalf of Idi Amin. About 600 Libyan soldiers lost their lives attempting to defend the collapsingregime of Amin. After thefall of Kampala, Amin was eventually exiled from Uganda to Libya before settling in Saudi Arabia.
Gaddafi also aidedJean-Bédel Bokassa, theEmperorof theCentral African Empire.He also intervened militarily in the restored Central African Republic during the2001 coup attempt, to protect his allyAnge-Félix Patassé. Patassé signed a deal giving Libya a 99-year lease to exploit all of that country's natural resources, including uranium, copper, diamonds, and oil.
Gaddafi supported Soviet protégéMengistu Haile Mariamof Ethiopia.He also supported the Somali rebel groups,SNMandSSDFin their fight to overthrow thedictatorshipofSiad Barre.
Gaddafi was a strong opponent ofapartheidinSouth Africaand forged a friendship withNelson Mandela.One of Mandela's grandsons is named Gaddafi, an indication of the latter's support in South Africa.Gaddafi funded Mandela's1994 election campaign, and after taking office as the country's first democratically elected president in 1994, Mandela rejected entreaties from U.S. PresidentBill Clintonand others to cut ties with Gaddafi.Mandela later played a key role in helping Gaddafi gain mainstream acceptance in the Western world later in the 1990s.Over the years, Gaddafi came to be seen as a hero in much of Africa due to his revolutionary image.
Gaddafi was a strong supporter ofZimbabwean PresidentRobert Mugabe.
Gaddafi's World Revolutionary Center (WRC) near Benghazi became a training center for groups backed by Gaddafi.Graduates in power as of 2011 includeBlaise Compaoréof Burkina Faso andIdriss Débyof Chad.
Gaddafi trained and supported Liberian warlord-presidentCharles Taylor, who was indicted by theSpecial Court for Sierra Leonefor war crimes andcrimes against humanitycommitted during the conflict in Sierra Leone.Foday Sankoh, the founder ofRevolutionary United Front, was also Gaddafi's graduate. According toDouglas Farah, "The amputation of the arms and legs of men, women, and children as part of a scorched-earth campaign was designed to take over the region's rich diamond fields and was backed by Gaddafi, who routinely reviewed their progress and supplied weapons".
Gaddafi's strong military support and finances gained him allies across the continent. He had himself crowned with the title "King of Kings of Africa" in 2008, in the presence of over 200 African traditional rulers and kings, although his views on African political and military unification received a lukewarm response from their governments.His 2009 forum for African kings was canceled by the Ugandan hosts, who believed that traditional rulers discussing politics would lead to instability.On 1 February 2009, a 'coronationceremony' inAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, was held to coincide with the 53rd African Union Summit, at which he was elected head of the African Union for the year.Gaddafi told the assembled African leaders: "I shall continue to insist that our sovereign countries work to achieve theUnited States of Africa."
In 1971 Gaddafi warned that if France opposes Libyan military occupation of Chad, he will use all weapons in the war against France including the "revolutionary weapon".On 11 June 1972, Gaddafi announced that any Arab wishing to volunteer for Palestinian militant groups "can register his name at any Libyan embassy will be given adequate training for combat". He also promised financial support for attacks.On 7 October 1972, Gaddafi praised theLod Airport massacre, executed by the communistJapanese Red Army, and demanded Palestinian terrorist groups to carry out similar attacks.
Reportedly, Gaddafi was a major financier of the "Black SeptemberMovement" which perpetrated theMunich massacreat the1972 Summer Olympics.In 1973 theIrish Naval Serviceintercepted the vesselClaudiain Irish territorial waters, which carried Soviet arms from Libya to the Provisional IRA.In 1976 after a series of terror activities by theProvisional IRAduringthe Troubles, Gaddafi announced that "the bombs which are convulsing Britain and breaking its spirit are the bombs of Libyan people. We have sent them to the Irish revolutionaries so that the British will pay the price for their past deeds".
In the Philippines, Libya backed theMoro Islamic Liberation Front, which continues to carry out acts of violence in an effort to establish a separatist Islamic state in the southern Philippines.Libya has also supported theNew People's Armyand Libyan agents were seen meeting with theCommunist Party of the Philippines.Islamist terrorist groupAbu Sayyafhas also been suspected of receiving Libyan funding.
Gaddafi also became a strong supporter of thePalestine Liberation Organization, which support ultimately harmed Libya's relations with Egypt, when in 1979 Egypt pursued a peace agreement with Israel. As Libya's relations with Egypt worsened, Gaddafi sought closer relations with the Soviet Union. Libya became the first country outside the Soviet bloc to receive the supersonicMiG-25combat fighters, but Soviet-Libyan relations remained relatively distant. Gaddafi also sought to increase Libyan influence, especially in states with anIslamicpopulation, by calling for the creation of a Saharan Islamic state and supporting anti-government forces insub-Saharan Africa.
In the 1970s and the 1980s, this support was sometimes so freely given that even the most unsympathetic groups could obtain Libyan support; often the groups represented ideologies far removed from Gaddafi's own. Gaddafi's approach often tended to confuse international opinion.
In October 1981 Egypt's PresidentAnwar Sadatwas assassinated. Gaddafi applauded the murder and remarked that it was a "punishment".
In December 1981, theUS State Departmentinvalidated US passports for travel to Libya, and in March 1982, the U.S. declared a ban on the import of Libyanoil.
Gaddafi reportedly spent hundreds of millions of the government's money on training and arming Sandinistas in Nicaragua.Daniel Ortega, the President of Nicaragua, was his ally.
In April 1984, Libyan refugees in London protested against execution of two dissidents. Communications intercepted by MI5 show that Tripoli ordered its diplomats to direct violence against the demonstrators. Libyan diplomats shot at 11 people and killed British policewomanYvonne Fletcher. The incident led to the breaking off ofdiplomatic relationsbetween the United Kingdom and Libya for over a decade.
After December 1985Rome and Vienna airport attacks, which killed 19 and wounded around 140, Gaddafi indicated that he would continue to support theRed Army Faction, theRed Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army as long as European countries support anti-Gaddafi Libyans.The Foreign Minister of Libya also called the massacres "heroic acts".
In 1986, Libyan state television announced that Libya was training suicide squads to attack American and European interests.
On 5 April 1986, Libyan agents were alleged withbombing the "La Belle" nightclub in West Berlin, killing three people and injuring 229 people who were spending evening there. Gaddafi's plan was intercepted by Western intelligence. More-detailed information was retrieved years later whenStasiarchives were investigated by the reunited Germany. Libyan agents who had carried out the operation from the Libyan embassy in East Germany were prosecuted by reunited Germany in the 1990s.
In May 1987, Australia broke off relations with Libya because of its role in fueling violence in Oceania.
Under Gaddafi, Libya had a long history of supporting theIrish Republican Armyduring the Troubles. In late 1987 French authorities stopped a merchant vessel, theMV Eksund, which was delivering a 150-ton Libyan arms shipment to the IRA.Throughout the conflict, Gaddafi gave the Provisional IRA with over $12.5 million in cash (the equivalent of roughly $40 million in 2021) and six huge arms shipment.In Britain, Gaddafi's best-known political subsidiary is theWorkers Revolutionary Party.
Gaddafi fuelled a number of Islamist and communist groups in the Philippines, including theNew People's Armyof theCommunist Party of the Philippinesand theMoro Islamic Liberation Front.
In Indonesia, theFree Aceh Movementwas a Libyan-backed militant group.Vanuatu's ruling party enjoyed Libyan support.
In New Zealand, Libya attempted to radicalizeMāoris.
In Australia, there were several cases of attempted radicalisation ofAustralian Aborigines, with individuals receiving paramilitary training in Libya. Libya put several left-wing unions on the Libyan payroll, such as the Food Preservers Union (FPU) and the Federated Confectioners Association of Australia (FCA). Labour Party politicianBill Hartley, the secretary of Libya-Australia friendship society, was long-term supporter of Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein.
In the 1980s, the Libyan government purchased advertisements in Arabic-language newspapers in Australia asking forAustralian Arabsto join the military units of his worldwide struggle against imperialism. In part, because of this, Australia banned recruitment of foreign mercenaries in Australia.
Gaddafi developed a relationship with theRevolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, becoming acquainted with its leaders in meetings of revolutionary groups regularly hosted in Libya.
Some publications were financed by Gaddafi. The Socialist Labour League'sWorkers Newswas one such publication: "in among the routine denunciations of uranium mining and calls for greater trade union militancy would be a couple of pages extolling Gaddafi's fatuous and incoherent green book and the Libyan revolution."
Gaddafi was a lifelong supporter ofKurdish independence. In 2011, Jawad Mella, the president of theKurdistan National Congressreferred to Gaddafi as the "only world leader who truly supports the Kurds".
Libya was accused in the 1988 bombing ofPan Am Flight 103overLockerbie,Scotland; UN sanctions were imposed in 1992.UN Security Councilresolutions (UNSCRs) passed in 1992 and 1993 obliged Libya to fulfill requirements related to the Pan Am 103 bombing before sanctions could be lifted, leading to Libya's political and economic isolation for most of the 1990s. The UN sanctions cut airline connections with the outer world, reduced diplomatic representation and prohibited the sale of military equipment. Oil-related sanctions were assessed by some as equally significant for their exceptions: thus sanctions froze Libya's foreign assets (but excluded revenue from oil and natural gas and agricultural commodities) and banned the sale to Libya of refinery or pipeline equipment (but excluded oilproductionequipment).
Under the sanctions Libya's refining capacity eroded. Libya's role on the international stage grew less provocative after UN sanctions were imposed. In 1999, Libya fulfilled one of the UNSCR requirements by surrendering two Libyans suspected in connection with the bombing for trial before a Scottish court in the Netherlands. One of these suspects, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, was found guilty; the other was acquitted. UN sanctions against Libya were subsequently suspended. The full lifting of the sanctions, contingent on Libya's compliance with the remaining UNSCRs, including acceptance of responsibility for the actions of its officials and payment of appropriate compensation, was passed 12 September 2003, explicitly linked to the release of up to $2.7 billion in Libyan funds to the families of the 1988 attack's 270 victims.
In 2002, Gaddafi paid a ransom reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars toAbu Sayyaf, a Filipino Islamist militancy, to release a number of kidnapped tourists. He presented it as an act of goodwill to Western countries; nevertheless the money helped the group to expand its operation.
In December 2003, Libya announced that it had agreed to reveal and end its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and to renounce terrorism, and Gaddafi made significant strides in normalizing relations with western nations. He received various Western European leaders as well as many working-level and commercial delegations, and made his first trip to Western Europe in 15 years when he traveled toBrusselsin April 2004. Libya responded in good faith to legal cases brought against it in U.S. courts for terrorist acts that predate its renunciation of violence. Claims for compensation in the Lockerbie bombing, LaBelle disco bombing, and UTA 772 bombing cases are ongoing. The U.S. rescinded Libya's designation as astate sponsor of terrorismin June 2006. In late 2007, Libya was elected by the General Assembly to a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2008–2009 term. In the intercession between normalization and theLibyan Civil Warin 2011,Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Saharawas fought in Libya's portion of theSahara Desert. This involved usage of American military assets, such asC-130sin combination with Libyan military infrastructure, namely theAl-Watiya Air Base.
In 1994, theGeneral People's Congressapproved the introduction of "purification laws" to be put into effect, punishing theft by the amputation of limbs, and fornication and adultery by flogging.Under the Libyan constitution, homosexual relations are punishable by up to five years in jail.
Throughout his long rule, Gaddafi had to defend his position against opposition and coup attempts, emerging both from the military and from the general population. He reacted to these threats on one hand by maintaining a careful balance of power between the forces in the country, and by brutal repression on the other. Gaddafi successfully balanced the varioustribes of Libyaone against the other by distributing his favours. To forestall a military coup, he deliberately weakened theLibyan Armed Forcesby regularly rotating officers, relying instead on loyal elite troops such as hisRevolutionary Guard Corps, the special-forcesKhamis Brigadeand his personalAmazonian Guard, even though emphasis on political loyalty tended, over the long run, to weaken the professionalism of his personal forces. This trend made the country vulnerable to dissension at a time of crisis, as happened during early 2011.
The term "Green Terror" is used to describe campaigns of violence and intimidation against opponents of Gaddafi, particularly in reference to wave of oppression during Libya'scultural revolution, or to the wave of highly publicized hangings of regime opponents that began with theExecution of Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy. Dissent was illegal under Law 75 of 1973.Reportedly 10 to 20 percent of Libyans worked in surveillance for Gaddafi's Revolutionary Committees,a proportion of informants on par withSaddam Hussein's Iraq orKim Jong Il's North Korea. The surveillance took place in government, in factories, and in the education sector.
Following an abortive attempt to replace English foreign language education with Russian,in recent years English has been taught in Libyan schools from a primary level, and students have access to English-language media.However, one protester in 2011 described the situation as: "None of us can speak English or French. He kept us ignorant and blindfolded".
According to the 2009Freedom of the Press Index, Libya was the most censored country in the Middle East and North Africa.Prisons were run with little or no documentation of inmate population, and often neglected even such basic data as a prisoner's crime and sentence.
During the late 1970s, some exiled Libyansformed active opposition groups. In early 1979, Gaddafi warned opposition leaders to return home immediately or face "liquidation". When caught, they could face being sentenced and hanged in public.
Gaddafi employed his network of diplomats and recruits to assassinate dozens of his critics around the world.Amnesty Internationallisted at least twenty-five assassinations between 1980 and 1987.
Gaddafi's agents were active in the UK, where many Libyans had sought asylum. After Libyan diplomats shot at 15 anti-Gaddafi protesters from inside the Libyan embassy's first floor and killeda British policewoman, the UK broke off relations with Gaddafi's government as a result of the incident.
Even the U.S. could not protect dissidents from Libya. In 1980, a Libyan agent attempted to assassinate dissidentFaisal Zagallai, a doctoral student at theUniversity of Colorado at Boulder. The bullets left Zagallai partially blinded.A defector was kidnapped and executed in 1990 just before he was about to receive U.S. citizenship.
Gaddafi asserted in June 1984 that killings could be carried out even when the dissidents were on pilgrimage in the holy city ofMecca. In August 1984, one Libyan plot was thwarted in Mecca.
As of 2004, Libya still provided bounties for heads of critics, including 1 million dollars forAshur Shamis, a Libyan-British journalist.
There is indication that between the years of 2002 and 2007, Libya's Gaddafi-eraintelligence servicehad a partnership with western spy organizations includingMI6and theCIA, who voluntarily provided information on Libyan dissidents in the United States and Canada in exchange for using Libya as a base forextraordinary renditions. This was done despite Libya's history of murdering dissidents abroad, and with full knowledge of Libya's brutal mistreatment of detainees.
In the 1990s, Gaddafi's rule was threatened by militantIslamism. In October 1993, there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Gaddafi by elements of the Libyan army. In response, Gaddafi used repressive measures, using his personalRevolutionary Guard Corpsto crush riots and Islamist activism during the 1990s. Nevertheless,Cyrenaicabetween 1995 and 1998 was politically unstable, due to the tribal allegiances of the local troops.