Dr. Bob Goes to Libya
Weird tales from Al-Gaddafi's tent palace...and Beyond
By Dr. Bob Fitrakis - News & Analysis |
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Editor's Note: Dr. Bob Fitrakis, a professor at Columbus State Community College and the editor of The Free Press, has written for publications ranging from The Guardian to the Huffington Post, and has covered politics for everything from The Columbus Alive! to Hustler magazine. A long time activist and election-protection watchdog, Dr. Fitrakis was recently asked to be part of a delegation to Libya. Arriving with 11 other members for what he thought was a standard press assignment, the good Doctor was in for more than a few surprises.
Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi lives in a really big air-conditioned tent with cushy rugs and incredible chandeliers. How do I know? I visited the tent on the 40th anniversary of the September 1, 1969 Libyan revolution, when a 27-year-old al-Gaddafi overthrew the Libyan government, Che Guevara-style.
The controversial Libyan leader, who has helped train and fund insurgent groups all over the world, now wants to compete in the marketplace of ideas - and he and his supporters think his Green Book may offer a new perspective. The Green Book was written as a manifesto to describe his goals for his Libyan society, much like Chairman Mao's Little Red Book or Karl Marx's famous guide to communism. Al-Gaddafi's aim was to marry capitalism and socialism, or at least ride the line between the two as carefully as possible. One Green Book idea: every citizen is entitled to one mortgage-free house, or tent. That's the way it is for 5.5 million Libyan citizens.
Following al-Gaddafi's high-profile trip to the United States in September, where he spoke for an hour and a half at the United Nations - questioning the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. - the "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution" (Gaddafi's title -he holds no "official" government post) decided that he should have a group of U.S. citizens visit Libya. Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was charged with organizing a delegation to visit Libya and attend the First International Conference of the Green Book Supporters Society.
After a nine-hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany, and a three hour hop to the shores of Tripoli, I arrived Thursday morning, October 22, greeted by supporters of the Society at the airport. The 11-member U.S. delegation was whisked off to the Bab-Al Bahre Hotel to mingle with hundreds of diplomatic representatives from around the world.
Many Green Book supporters were shocked to see a U.S. delegation, as we were the first noteworthy delegation from our country since President Ronald Reagan attempted to assassinate al-Gaddafi with over a dozen F-111F fighter jets in 1986, instead killing his 5-year-old adopted daughter. After years of tension, U.S. sanctions against Libya were lifted in 2004, and in 2006 the U.S. removed the country from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list - but the U.S. has been slow to engage with al-Gaddafi.
In the meantime, however, the countries of Africa voted him the President of the African Union, and businessmen from China, Japan, South Korea, and Russia have flooded the scenic Mediterranean port city of Tripoli. Construction cranes are everywhere, and 2,000 miles of undeveloped and unpolluted Mediterranean coastline beckon; this would make Tripoli a tourism Mecca in North Africa, which is only a short cruise from Europe.
Initially, I thought I was in Libya as a reporter, although I began to wonder what exactly was written on my nametag as delegate after delegate asked me for my analysis of President Barack Obama and recent happenings in U.S. politics. I shrugged it off, and on Thursday and Friday, I worked with the other U.S. delegates, drafting a statement of friendship to be read at the conference. It concluded: "We know that a better world is possible. We are here to build it in solidarity with each and every one of you, and with our brothers and sisters around the world."
Muammar al-Gaddafi at the AU Summit
Photo:http://dandyscotchbrawlers.files.wordpress.com/
Hell, if Richard Nixon could embrace Chairman Mao and his Little Red Book supporters, and we can trade so exuberantly with (still communist) China, we can dialogue with al-Gaddafi. After all, as the Colonel likes to point out, he was the first man to send out a warrant through Interpol to arrest the terrorist Osama bin Laden.
Journalist Wayne Madsen and I wandered through the old walled city of Tripoli, run-down and hard-hit by the U.S. sanctions, yet currently under renovation in anticipation of a flourishing tourist trade. Libya is in the process of building the largest airport on the African continent, and expects the country to be a destination for people from all nations. While we were warned that we shouldn't be there without an interpreter or guide, we felt safe strolling through the incredible ancient fortress.
Four of us shopped in Tripoli's central market. Sadly, I found it virtually impossible to buy any authentic Arab wear. Most of the clothes being sold were knock-offs of U.S. styles with names like "Calvin Place," manufactured in China or Cambodia. The ubiquitous satellite dishes offered four English-speaking channels: the BBC, CNN, Fox's Action Movies, and another U.S. action-adventure channel. I wondered about the wisdom of inundating the Libyan people with movies like Mission: Impossible and Rambo, Part III.
On Sunday, the conference of 400 or so participants convened. Oddly, a conference organizer ushered me into the first row of VIP-reserved seats, right in front of the Secretary General. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't think much of it until our assigned interpreter asked me to read the Society's founding charter - to the entire convention. Puzzled, I asked why I was to receive this unexpected "honor."
"You are the head of the U.S. delegation," he replied matter-of-factly. "Your badge says so."
I was stunned.
Perhaps I'm at fault for not taking basic Arabic in college. Apparently, with Congresswoman McKinney representing the North American continent (and giving a speech of her own, later that day) I had somehow become the leader of the U.S. delegation to Libya, none the aware.
It could have been worse. I could have been asked to play ping-pong, a la China in the '70s. During the introduction, I managed to catch the phrase "Green Party, Governor Ohio." A few years ago, I ran for Governor in Ohio on the Green Party's ticket. I desperately hoped there wasn't some confusion here, between Colonel al-Gaddafi's ruling Green Party of Libya and the tattered remnants of aging hippies who gave me 1 percent of the vote in the 2006 election. After giving as exuberant and populist-flavored a speech as possible, before a sea of TV cameras, and only occasionally stumbling over the words like Jamahiriya (Republic), and "jihad" (which I was assured as the "good kind," a historical reference only), I improvised by ending with the slogan "All power to the people, all power to the People's Congress!"
They suddenly postponed the conference on Sunday and Abdurahmane, our interpreter, told us we were going to meet a special guest. Select conference members boarded buses and headed along the seashore highway in Tripoli. The bus pulled into a military compound and we were ushered through heavy security, to none other than al-Gaddafi's mobile palace.
I never thought I'd be hanging out in his famed big tent, in a compound with a shrine dedicated to his dead daughter. Once again, I found myself in the front row next to Congresswoman McKinney. Behind me, a man called my name.
"Ro-bairt!" I turned around.
"I wrote the statement you gave yesterday," said the Libyan speechwriter. "It was the Great Leader's idea that someone from America should read the speech. You did well, but you improvised a little." I wasn't sure if that was good or bad.
Finally, the Colonel came in and we observed a moment of silence for the thousands of Libyans kidnapped and relocated by Italian occupational forces in October 1911. Al-Gaddafi then spoke for more than an hour; the theme of his speech the failings of Western corporate capitalism, and the viability of the Green Book's version of mixed capitalism and socialism.
He stressed over and over again that people should actually read his Green Book, and not merely listen to Western propaganda about it. He emphasized that true democracy must be rooted in the religious and cultural traditions particular to each society and area, citing the Torah, the Bible, and the Koran as pertinent sources for law and democracy. His voice was strong, and he spoke slowly. It is clearly legacy time for the aging leader of both Pan-Arab and Pan-African unity, and al-Gaddafi, former guerilla, is now the elder statesman for both Libya, and Africa as a whole.
"The rich create the Parliament," he said, "they own the press... They have a right to steal, you have the right to protest."
He boldly addressed what he sees as the failings of America's trickle-down economy.
"The wealth of society is the property of all Americans," he intoned, "and should be distributed that way."
In our current climate of economic collapse, some of the ideas in al-Gaddafi's Green Book may make sense, at least to some - yet it seems implausible that the great vilified enemy of the U.S. would rise up from the political ashes of near-assassination to influence U.S. politics.
But it is intriguing that a robed, revolutionary Bedouin living in a tent in Tripoli seems to have a more realistic assessment of the U.S. economy and the state of our democracy than many of our own elected officials.
Originally Published: December 1, 2009
