The Political Leader And His Social Background, Muammar Gaddafi, The Libyan Leader

Top British diplomats and MI6 officers have spent nearly two weeks questioning Libya’s former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa in the hope that they can unlock the secrets of Colonel Gaddafi’s war strategy and end his hated regime.

But a crucial insight into the Libyan leader’s mindset has already been provided by Koussa – the top-flight Gaddafi aide who defected to Britain – in a 226-page study of the dictator written more than 30 years ago.

The Mail on Sunday has uncovered a university dissertation – titled The Political Leader And His Social Background, Muammar Gaddafi, The Libyan Leader – written by Koussa when he was studying at Michigan State University in the United States in the Seventies. The document has been buried in the college archive until now.
For his dissertation, part of a master’s degree course in sociology, Koussa conducted a series of interviews with Gaddafi, and his work reveals vital clues about the source of the dictator’s hatred of the West and in particular the British, linking this animosity to a previously unknown visit to London at height of the swinging Sixties.

Gaddafi, who was sent to England in 1966 to complete his military training, claims that during his four-month stay in England he was insulted by British Army officers whom he accused of ‘oppressing’ him for days.

Further secret National Archive reports, also uncovered by The Mail on Sunday, show that by the time Gaddafi came to power in 1969 the British Government considered him mad, moronic, messianic and a genuine threat to the security of the region.

These papers also reveal how Gaddafi’s table manners during a state occasion caused acute embarrassment – as he drank the water from a finger bowl because he didn’t know what it was for – and that the dictator was once a sex symbol in Sri Lanka.

Koussa’s interviews with Gaddafi took place in 1977 and 1978. Koussa was unknown to the Libyan leader and had to rely on wealthy family connections to secure privileged access to him in order to complete his dissertation.

These first meetings between Gaddafi and Koussa are believed to have taken place when Koussa travelled to the dictator’s palace in Tripoli, but they laid the foundation for their future relationship. Koussa became ambassador in London in 1979 and went on to become Libya’s most senior intelligence officer. He was often referred to as Gaddafi’s ‘fingernail-puller-in-chief’.

Gaddafi graduated from his Libyan army school in August 1965 and the following April was sent to London to finish his military training. Britain had maintained close ties with Libya’s pro-Western leader, King Idris, after independence in 1951.

In the dissertation, Koussa wrote that Gaddafi told him about his arrival in the UK and described his encounter with a customs officer who accidentally pricked his finger on the young Libyan’s sewing kit.

Gaddafi said to him: ‘To begin with, I remember the customs officer who started to search my bag. A needle pricked his finger. I had brought the needle with me because it is important for every soldier.’

After a night in a hotel, Gaddafi and fellow Libyan officers were dispatched to an unnamed British military training camp.

Gaddafi told Koussa: ‘We met a British major of Norwegian origin. He represented to us the typical ugly British colonialist. He asked many questions concerning our national feelings.

'His dress had been startling...he was a sex symbol for the Sri Lankan girls'

‘It was obvious that he hated the Arabs and wanted to know our reactions. He emphasised the ugly territorial tendencies.’

Gaddafi said he found the questioning – about Arab nationalism, Libyan oil and Palestine – so offensive that he pretended he couldn’t speak English. ‘For days, we sustained oppression and insults, until we were about to leave. Then we moved to another school where we met some Arab brothers from Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iraq and we formed a solid group.’

Gaddafi not only objected to the British soldiers who had been given the job of training the Libyan officers, but he also found the British culture unpalatable. Gaddafi told Koussa that he shunned London nightlife and all that the swinging Sixties had to offer. Describing a trip to the West End, Gaddafi said: ‘I put on my Al-Jird [Arab robes] and went to Piccadilly. I was prompted by a feeling of challenge and a desire to assert myself. But I did not explore the cultural life in London.

‘We preferred spending the vacation in the countryside. We became self-absorbed and introverted in the face of Western civilization, which conflicts with our values.’