page_title: LSE–Gaddafi affair
section_title: Faculty
hierarchical_section_title: LSE–Gaddafi affair / LSE reactions / Faculty
caption_attribution_description: Meghnad Desai
context_page_description: The LSE–Gaddafi affair was a scandal in the United Kingdom that occurred as a result of relationship that existed between the London School of Economics and the Libyan government and its leader Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.
  The NGO Gaddafi Foundation pledged to donate £1.5 million over five years to a research centre, LSE Global Governance, of which £300k were paid. In addition, LSE Enterprise established a contract worth £2.2 million to train Libyan officials. In 2008, the LSE granted a PhD degree to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, for a dissertation. Currently, allegations circulate that Gaddafi's thesis was ghost-written and/or plagiarised.
  In December 2010, Muammar Gaddafi addressed members of the School in a video link-up where he was addressed as "Brother Leader" and received an LSE cap previously given to Nelson Mandela.
  At the time of the 2011 Libyan Civil War, the relationship between the LSE and the Gaddafi regime, and the conduct of individual members of LSE's staff was called into question.
  As a result of the scandal, the LSE's Director, Sir Howard Davies, resigned on 3 March 2011, citing "errors of judgement".
context_section_description: Professor Meghnad Desai, defended LSE's actions, arguing that "Academic research needs money — Rockefeller was a robber baron once, but we take his money". "It was only after bullets started flying in Libya that Saif Gaddafi was found to have cheated. Nor had anyone until then objected that the LSE had received a donation from Saif Gaddafi's Foundation."
  Professor David Held issued a statement saying that "in many discussions and meetings I encouraged the development of Gaddafi's reform agenda and subsequently sought to support it through research on the North Africa Programme funded by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation."
  
  Saif Gaddafi, said Alex Voorhoeve, "seemed genuinely moved by the desire to study democratic ideals and practice and my colleagues had therefore hoped he would have a liberalizing influence on the Libyan regime. ... I had hoped that at such a crucial moment, he would defend the democratic ideals that he wrote about in his thesis.
  These reactions were echoed by Alia Brahimi, who claimed to be "tremendously surprised" by Saif Gaddafi's "Rivers of Blood Speech."  Saif Gaddafi, she said, had been a reformer for many years but now "seemed to be backpeddling". "I’ve got nothing to apologise for. Saif told me he was keen that democratic reform should happen soon in Libya."
  Henning Mayer, a former employee of David Held, defended the decision to accept Gaddafi's money saying it was made based on information available at the time.
  In a statement Fred Halliday's wife said she recalled that her late husband had been opposed to accepting Gaddafi as a student.
  The Financial Times reported on 3 March 2011, that the LSE had started to edit official university websites in an attempt to "remove references to Libyan links from its academics’ workplace biographies".
  Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty had also faced criticism over the affair, due to her position on the governing council of LSE. The "Students Rights" organisation accused her of hypocrisy "for being "the director of a human rights group while legitimizing murderous regimes". She later admitted her embarrassment and shame about the Gaddafi affair and finally in April 2013 Chakrabarti's spokesman confirmed that she had severed all links with The LSE.
caption: Lord Desai, co-founder, LSE Global Governance
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