Secret UK profile on Gaddafi revealed

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was an intelligent but misguided zealot who sincerely believed he had been called by God, according to a secret profile compiled 30 years ago by the British government.

The document, released today by the Public Records Office, was compiled in June 1972 by the British Embassy in Tripoli.

The confidential briefing note said "strict principles" underpinned Gaddafi's leadership, but added there was still "crazy logic" in what he did and said.

Gaddafi overthrew Libya's king in 1969. The 27-year-old colonel was determined to run the former Italian colony on revolutionary lines. He renamed the country the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and produced his own political philosophy - a vision between capitalism and socialism summed up in little "Green Books" of Gaddafi's sayings.

The British diplomat SL Egerton, who wrote the profile, described how the French in Tripoli had coined a revealing phrase about Gaddafi: "He has a kamikaze attitude to politics but he never loses his head."

The diplomat added in his own words: "As well as being misguided, Gaddafi is both intelligent and a zealot; I think he genuinely believes that he has been 'called'."

Britain severed relations with Libya in 1984 after a British police officer was gunned down by shots apparently coming from the Libyan Embassy in London.

In 1999, Britain announced that diplomatic ties would resume after Libya - which the United States accuses of sponsoring terrorism - accepted responsibility for the shooting death of the policewoman and agreed to hand over suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

"His logic is not of course ours, nor at this post do we believe that it is the logic of most Arabs or of their leaders," said the document. "The danger is that his logic may gain ground in their hearts, if the frustrations facing the Arab world are allowed to mount much further."

Interesting, written 31 years ago. Mention of the "logic" vs. illogical thinking of the Arabs and their leaders. Also, the "frustrations" facing the Arab world.

Quite prophetic, for the analysts to classify those observations. Today, the middle east arabs are led by Arafat, Saddam, mullahs, and princes. Overall, pretty much capable of poor logic, at best.

Medical doctors in Egypt think the Jews flew the planes into the WTC and the Pentagon. Not very logical, but approximately the expectation which is reasonable from these folks.

And the "frustrations." Who is supposed to mitigate their frustrations? Allah, the mullah, the terrorist mob-leader?

Is it possible their frustrations arise, from a religion, based upon a false prophet, who preached a cruel immoral set of societal rules? Come home, to roost, with no chickens on the table.

If we truly all worship the same God, he may intervene for the sake of justice. I wonder what they will conclude, about their Allah and mohammed, if they are utterly defeated and driven to several more decades of poverty (of property and morality)?

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