“Africa is closer to me in every way than Iraq or Syria.”
Interview (2001), quoted in BBC News (6 February 2001) "Analysis: Gaddafi's revolution" by Gerald Butt
Interviews
Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi , commonly known as Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, and then as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. He was initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism but later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.
Born near Sirte, Italian Libya, to a poor Bedouin family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha, later enrolling in the Royal Military Academy, Benghazi. Within the military, he founded a revolutionary group which deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of Idris in a 1969 coup. Having taken power, Gaddafi converted Libya into a republic governed by his Revolutionary Command Council. Ruling by decree, he deported Libya's Italian and Jewish populations and ejected its Western military bases. Strengthening ties to Arab nationalist governments—particularly Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt—he unsuccessfully advocated pan-Arab political union. An Islamic modernist, he introduced sharia as the basis for the legal system and promoted "Islamic socialism". He nationalized the oil industry and used the increasing state revenues to bolster the military, fund foreign revolutionaries, and implement social programs emphasizing house-building, healthcare and education projects. In 1973, he initiated a "Popular Revolution" with the formation of Basic People's Congresses, presented as a system of direct democracy, but retained personal control over major decisions. He outlined his Third International Theory that year, publishing these ideas in The Green Book.
Gaddafi transformed Libya into a new socialist state called a Jamahiriya in 1977. He officially adopted a symbolic role in governance but remained head of both the military and the Revolutionary Committees responsible for policing and suppressing dissent. During the 1970s and 1980s, Libya's unsuccessful border conflicts with Egypt and Chad, support for foreign militants, and alleged responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland left it increasingly isolated on the world stage. A particularly hostile relationship developed with the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel, resulting in the 1986 US bombing of Libya and United Nations–imposed economic sanctions. From 1999, Gaddafi shunned Arab socialism and encouraged economic privatization, rapprochement with Western nations, and pan-Africanism; he was Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 to 2010. Amid the 2011 Arab Spring, protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya. The situation descended into civil war, in which NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council . The government was overthrown, and Gaddafi retreated to Sirte, only to be captured and killed by NTC militants.
A highly divisive figure, Gaddafi dominated Libya's politics for four decades and was the subject of a pervasive cult of personality. He was decorated with various awards and praised for his anti-imperialist stance, support for Arab—and then African—unity, and for significant improvements that his government brought to the Libyan people's quality of life. Conversely, many Libyans strongly opposed his social and economic reforms, and he was posthumously accused of sexual abuse. He was condemned by many as a dictator whose authoritarian administration violated human rights and financed global terrorism. Wikipedia

“Africa is closer to me in every way than Iraq or Syria.”
Interview (2001), quoted in BBC News (6 February 2001) "Analysis: Gaddafi's revolution" by Gerald Butt
Interviews
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975)
The Green Book (1975)
Time (9 April 1979) " World: An Interview with Gaddafi http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920211-1,00.html" <br class="br">Interviews
Televised address to the nation, quoted in guardian.co.uk (22 February 2011) " Gaddafi urges violent showdown and tells Libya 'I'll die a martyr' http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/22/muammar-gaddafi-urges-violent-showdown?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487" by Ian Black <br class="br">Speeches
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975)
The Green Book (1975)
Context: Any class which becomes heir to a society, inherits, at the same time, its characteristics. That is to say that if the working class crushes all other classes, for instance, it becomes heir of the society, that is, it becomes the material and social base of the society. The heir bears the traits of the one he inherits from, though they may not be evident at once. As time passes, attributes of other eliminated classes emerge in the very ranks of the working class. And the possessors of those characteristics take the attitudes and points of view appropriate to their characteristics. Thus the working class turns out to be a separate society, showing the same contradictions as the old society.
“Those rats … were attacked by the masses tonight and we eliminated them.”
Radio address on rebel forces in Tripoli, as quoted in "Libya conflict: Col Gaddafi faces rebel uprising on streets of Tripoli" in The Telegraph (21 August 2011) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8713761/Libya-conflict-Col-Gaddafi-faces-rebel-uprising-on-streets-of-Tripoli.html <br class="br">Speeches
Sermon to a prayer meeting in Niger (30 March 2007), quoted in Reuters UK (30 March 2007) "Gaddafi says only Islam a universal religion" by Salah Sarrar
Speeches
Statement (8 March 2011), as quoted in "Libya on the Line: An interactive timeline Browse through a collection of conversations between Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and other senior Libyan officials" at Aljazeera (11 May 2012) http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/libyaontheline/2012/05/201251173614897923.html <br class="br">Al Jazeera's mobile phone wiretaps
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975), Letter to Barack Obama
Closing remarks at the African Union summit (4 February 2009), quoted in RFI English (4 February 2009) " Kadhafi closes AU summit, division over plans for 'United States of Africa' http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/110/article_2801.asp" by Zeenat Hansrod
The Pittsburgh Press (3 August 1986) "Gadhafi, the man the world loves to hate" by Marie Colvin (UPI)
The Pittsburgh Press (3 August 1986) "Gadhafi, the man the world loves to hate" by Marie Colvin (UPI)
The Pittsburgh Press (3 August 1986) "Gadhafi, the man the world loves to hate" by Marie Colvin (UPI)
The Pittsburgh Press (3 August 1986) "Gadhafi, the man the world loves to hate" by Marie Colvin (UPI)
Last will and testament
Time (9 April 1979) " World: An Interview with Gaddafi http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920211-1,00.html" <br class="br">Interviews
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975), Letter to Barack Obama
Remarks at African Union headquarters, quoted in Daily Nation (5 February 2009) " Gaddafi defends Somali pirates http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/525348/-/13rtrgiz/-/index.html" by Argaw Ahine
Speech to the women of Sabha, October 4 2003; cited in ilfoglio.it http://www.ilfoglio.it/zakor/82 <br class="br">Speeches <br class="br">Variant: The woman must be trained to fight inside the houses, to prepare an explosive belt and to blow herself up with the enemy soldiers. Anyone with a car has to prepare it and know how to fix the explosive and turn it into a car bomb. We have to train women to dispose of explosives in cars and make them explode in the midst of the enemy, to blow up the houses to make them collapse on enemy soldiers. You have to prepare traps. You have seen how the enemy controls the baggage: you have to manipulate these suitcases to make them explode when they open them. Women must be taught to undermine the cabinets, bags, shoes, children's toys, so that they burst on enemy soldiers.
“My brother! You are my brother for the rest of my life!”
Gaddafi expressing his gratitude to Nicolae Ceauşescu after receiving a Romanian translation of the Koran, quoted in Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief (1987) by Ion Mihai Pacepa, p. 101
“Nothing would please me more, but who else would pump the oil that we need? God damn America.”
Response to a question on expelling Americans from Libya (March 1973), quoted in Time (2 April 1973) " The Arab World: Oil, Power, Violence http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907040-6,00.html"
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975)
The Green Book (1975)
Radio broadcast from Benghazi (1 September 1969), quoted in The Libyan Revolution: Its Origins and Legacy (2009) by Nicholas Hagger
Speeches
Interview with Al Jazeera (27 March 2007)
Interviews
Speech to heads of justice of the Jamahiriya (20 May 2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rM64DYglBk <br class="br">Speeches
Interview with Marie Colvin, 20 June 1986. Sun-Sentinel http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-06-20/news/8602060350_1_moammar-gadhafi-white-house-wife
Audio message broadcast on the pro-Gaddafi Syrian Al Rai TV on 20 September 2011, as quoted in Libya conflict: Muammar Gaddafi urges mass protests http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15206478, BBC World News, 6 October 2011 <br class="br">Speeches
“Libya lived for 5000 years without oil and it is ready to live another 5000 years without it.”
Quote from oil fields nationalisation speech.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12688033
Remarks to captors minutes before death, quoted in msnbc.com (2011 October 21) "Even stashed in a meat locker, Gadhafi divides Libya" http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44986347/ns/today-today_news/t/battle-over-body-delays-gadhafis-burial/
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews
Statement (5 April 2011), as quoted in "Libya on the Line: An interactive timeline Browse through a collection of conversations between Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and other senior Libyan officials" at Aljazeera (11 May 2012)
Al Jazeera's mobile phone wiretaps
Speeches (March 2007) quoted in MEMRI Special Dispatch Series No. 1535 (6 April 2007) " In Overture to Iran, Qaddafi Declares North Africa Shi'ite and Calls for Establishment of New Fatimid State http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD153507" <br class="br">Speeches
SBS Dateline (8 October 2003) "The New Libya"
Speech on the 38th anniversary of the closure of Wheelus Air Force, quoted in BBC News (12 June 2008) " Gaddafi attacks Obama on Israel http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7450000.stm" <br class="br">Speeches
“1. There is Nato intervention politically as well as military.”
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975), Letter to Barack Obama
Speech in Conakry, Guinea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JDct2pJeZM (25 June 2007) <br class="br">Speeches
Remarks after insulting King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and having his microphone cut (30 March 2009), quoted in The Scotsman (31 March 2009) " Gaddafi walks out of summit after attack on Saudi king http://news.scotsman.com/world/Gaddafi-walks-out-of-summit.5123610.jp" by Salah Nasrawi
“There is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet.”
Video lecture at Columbia University (23 March 2006), quoted in BBC News (23 March 2006) "Gaddafi gives lesson on democracy"
Speeches
Remarks quoted in The Pittsburgh Press (3 August 1986) "Gadhafi, the man the world loves to hate" by Marie Colvin (UPI)
The Pittsburgh Press (3 August 1986) "Gadhafi, the man the world loves to hate" by Marie Colvin (UPI)
“The integrity of China was more important than [the people] in Tiananmen Square.”
Televised address to the nation, quoted in guardian.co.uk (22 February 2011) " Gaddafi urges violent showdown and tells Libya 'I'll die a martyr' http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/22/muammar-gaddafi-urges-violent-showdown?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487" by Ian Black <br class="br">Speeches
“I am a Bedouin warrior who brought glory to Libya and will die a martyr.”
Televised address to the nation
Speeches
Time (8 June 1981) " An Interview with Gaddafi http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922551-2,00.html" <br class="br">Interviews
Remarks (2003), quoted in Nonproliferation Norms (2009) by Maria Rost Rublee, p. 161
Interview with Al Jazeera (27 March 2007)
Interviews
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews
Audio message broadcast on the pro-Gaddafi Syrian Al Rai TV on 1 September 2011, quoted on Al Jazeera live blog http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/09/201191141151339449.html. <br class="br">Speeches
Remarks at African Union headquarters, quoted in Daily Nation (5 February 2009) " Gaddafi defends Somali pirates http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/525348/-/13rtrgiz/-/index.html" by Argaw Ahine
Remarks quoted in Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief (1987) by Ion Mihai Pacepa, p. 110
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews
Video lecture at Columbia University (23 March 2006), quoted in BBC News (23 March 2006) "Gaddafi gives lesson on democracy"
Speeches
Speech (10 April 2006), quoted in New York Sun (6 September 2009) "Terrorists Promise More Attacks Like 9/11" by Steven Stalinsky
Speeches
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975)
The Green Book (1975)
Reaction to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, quoted in CBSNews.com (12 September 2001) "Global Outrage At Terror Attacks"
Speeches
Time (8 June 1981) " An Interview with Gaddafi http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922551-2,00.html" <br class="br">Interviews
Statement (11 April 2011) as quoted in "Gaddafi clung to a fading reality" at Aljazeera (21 May 2012) http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/libyaontheline/2012/05/201256134918771317.html <br class="br">Al Jazeera's mobile phone wiretaps
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews
Interview with Al Jazeera (27 March 2007)
Interviews
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975), Letter to Barack Obama
Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews
About a program to develop a rocket. In HyperNormalization. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2cDKyFdyU&t=59m54s <br class="br">Interviews
“The most tyrannical dictatorships the world has known have existed under the aegis of parliaments.”
Muammar Gaddafi book The Green Book
The Green Book (1975)
The Green Book (1975)
