INTERVIEW EITH MU-AMMAR AL-QADHDHAFI

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP05-01559R000400410036-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 30, 2012
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: March 12, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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~?
JPRS?NEA-86-050
18 April x986
INTERVIEW WITfI MU'AMMAR AL-QADHDHAFI
Buenos Aires SOMOS in Spanish 12 Mar 86 pp 32-34
[Passages enclosed in sl.antlines printed in italics]
[Text] W hen I arrive, the /guide of the revolution/ is ensconced in his camp,
Aziziya headquarters, protected by armored tanks and blocks of reinforced
cement through which my driver must negotiate. The /man of the desert/ takes
on an imperial air in his tent, amid rugged surroundings. Stately, a little
theatrical, like al.l Bedouins, Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi (his surname means
/builder/), the /terrorist/ who has the world's leaders trembling, speaks with
a voice worthy of the Comedie Francaise. He knows perfectly well what people
say about him, and he responds to it al.l. Those who call him /crazy/ are
mistaken. Clearly he is malicious, astute, fol.lo wing his own logic. His
father Amoumediar used to say that he was at once quick-witted, pensive and
quiet. As a youth he was flashy and boisterous. As he grew older, he
developed a propensity for loud proclamations. But now he has become more
mistrustful, suspicious, obsessed with politics, blindly determined, and
religious to the point of piety. He does not smoke or drink. He is a
soldier, a thinker, a man of action. IIe appears worried. Two problems are of
the utmost importance to Qadhdhafi right now: Chad and terrorism.
Ifis answers reveal. what concerns him: He wants to make it possible for his
protege, Goukouni Oueddei, to have free rein. Oueddei is champing at the bit
in his impatience to test France and probably to resume negotiations. He
knows that Moscow does not abstain from giving advice directly to the leaders
of the Oueddei Provisional National Union (CUNT). A sudden flare-up in Chad
would certainly divert attention at least momentarily from the- massacres in
Afghanistan.
Terrorism to Spread
There were a lot of people in Tripoli when I was there: ferocious-looking
Palestinians, enlightened ayatollahs, revolutionaries of all stripes.
Qadhdhafi chaired the meeting of the high /Revolutionary Command of the Arab
Nation,/ that is, 22 of the most extremist organizations. Thus, I was able to
observe all. the /hardliners/ of the Palestinian resistance: Abu Nizar, the
sidekick of "public enemy number one;" Abu Nidal, Marbache, Ha watmeh, fibril,
Abu Moussa. These sky jackers and bomb-planters, furious that the Israelis
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were able to divert a Libyan plane, have declared a war without quarter on the
Zionists anti their American protectors. And they have announced that they
will blow up al. ]. civilian aircraft of the Jewish state and the United States.
Also present were Iraqi opponents of Saddam Hussein, adversaries of the
moderate Arab regimes, Iranian assassins. In sum, the entire /Gotha/ of.
terrorism was there..
Ito one here believed fora minute that the U.S. aircraft carriers /Coral Sea/
and /Saratoga,/ which were patrolling off the Libyan coasts, could launch an
attack while 2,000 Americans are living here under circumstances that are much
more privileged than those enjoyed by other foreigners, such as the 1,000
Frenchmen, the 8,000 Italians, and the /12,000 Soviet advisers./ But this
demonstration has served to provoke all those who want to destroy capitalist
society.
[Question] So you support the new position taken by these extremists?
[Answer] One thing I do know is that the war between the Palestinians and the
Zionists has been going on since 1936, and that the Americans have
consistently encouraged Israel's violence. Therefore, the Palestinians are
obliged to follow suit.
[Question] How do you explain the fact that this Palestinian-Israeli war is
exporting terrorism to the Western nations?
[Answer] The problem is that there are no particular rules for managing
violence. It is the Israelis who first moved this war outside of Palestine.
In my opinion, both sides are responsible for what you call /terrorism./
(Indeed, Libya has proposed that an international conference be convened to
define the difference between acts of war and terrorism.)
[Question] Do you accept, then, mid-air explosions of aircraft with innocent
victims on board?
[Answer] That decision is up to the Palestinians.
[Question] What about the indiscriminate bombings in Paris?
[Answer] Some wars fall within the context of this Palestinian-Israeli war,
and others are outside the Pa]:estinian context. I consider participants in
the latter to be terrorists. For example, the bombs in Kuwait, and the latest
bombings in Paris. These are clear acts of terrorism.
[Question] And what is your attitude toward this kind of terrorism?
[Answer] I repudiate it unconditional.l_y.
[Question] You always talk about the /Arab nation,/ but the Arabs never stop
fighting among themselves.
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[Answer] That is simple. Imagine France divided into 22 states, most of
them occupied by a foreign country. At a given moment the Israelis take over
Bordeaux (/Qadhdhafi has read my dossier and knows that I was born there/).
Do you think there could be unanimity to kick out the invader?
[Question] Finally, then, no one wants that unity, much less the great
powers?
[Answer] Exactly. But we must distinguish between the superpowers. The
Americans are imperialists; the Soviets can be considered friends. Believe
me, however: Libya is not in the Soviet camp. On the contrary, it is among
the non-aligned countries. Therefore, it is not necessary for Libya to be in
complete agreement with Moscow. We are alert, and we are prudent.
Specter, utopia, dream, l.ie. There is a little of all. this in the enigmatic
Qadhdhafi. He asserts, among other things, that he has nothing to do with
international terrorism, while numerous sources claim that there are 18
terrorist training camps in his territory. He denies it. According to him, a
deliberately aggressive element of the press is telling these stories. A
controlled, directed press. It is almost always very close to the positions
of Libya's enemies. In revenge, Qadhdhafi has often officially supported
liberation movements: Obviously, for him the Palestinians are the highest
priority; then there are the /Polisario/ (although he has cut off that aid
since his /alliance/ with Hassan II), the revolutionaries in Ethiopia before
Mengistu, those in Guinea-Bissau, those in Mozambique, those in Rhodesia, the
Moro Muslims in the Philippines, the IRA, and even, a few years ago, the
/Black Panthers/ in the United States. He is extremely discreet with regard
to the Afghan resistance. In all these cases, he does not specify whether the
bombings are acts of war or of terrorism.
/Libya might well not have existed. It is Qadhdhafi who has made it a modern
state, overthrowing the old and corrupt King Idris who was allied with Great
Britain. Libya is three times as big as France, and has 3 million
inhabitants, half of them foreigners. Seventy percent of its territory is
desert. Oil is its only resource. The saturation of the oil market has
caused it to lose 50 percent of its financial revenues. The coastal strip is
now a hotbed of activity: refineries, steel plants, model farms. Its Navy
(80,000 men, plus 10,000 volunteers from all the Arab and African states,
wretches struggling for survival who have joined the Islamic Legion) is
disproportionately large. It has 550 jet fighters (of which 100 are French
Mirages; France is Libya's second-largest supplier of weapons after the Soviet
Union), 3,000 tanks, 4,000 artillery pieces, and all kinds of missiles. Its
military budget amounts to more than 26 percent of the gross national product.
Mu'ammar Qadhdhafi is a mystic, but not a fundamentalist. He is above all a
believer and a thinker; he has come up with a third path (his Green Book)
between capitalism and socialism. Power belongs to the people through
consultation, popular committees and congresses of the masses. Therefore
there is no parliament or deputies (who betray the people), nor are there
elections. He goes regularly to the desert to meditate. His faith is
unshakable. He has survived four attempts on his life./
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Socialist messianism is not peculiar to him. The /French Socialist Party/
began to do the same thing the day after its victory in 1981. Our Socialists
were ready to support the battles of all. guerrillas throughout the world. It
is also true that now Qadhdhafi has made the Tripoli Airport off limits to air
pirates. The man cannot be classified as completely black or white. But it
is true that portraying him constantly as the great orchestrator of
international terrorism hides the true culprits. We must look in other
places: in Syria, where Hafez al-Assad is lighting fuses all over the Middle
East; in Iran, where Khomeini is continuing his blackmail with the four French
hostages; and in Moscow, which holds the record for air piracy, having killed
the 289 passengers of the Korean Airlines flight in mid-air, and having tried
to assassinate the Pope. I left Qa dhdhafi, and he went off to pray in the
desert, 400 kilometers from Tripoli. Thus he renewed his religious quest, his
crazy dream of an Islamic republic extending from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.
8926
CSO: 4548/1
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