I have only met Muammar al-Gaddafi from afar on the sidelines of Arab summits, without ever talking to him or listening to his petulance or insanity. During the Algeria summit in March 2005, I was able to take a look at Gaddafi's face up-close as I was standing with a limited number of journalists on the entry of a hotel in Algiers being visited by the Arab leaders (the deposed, the fleeing and those still in power) to attend a dinner in honor of the presidents upon an invitation from President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. At the time, Saudi-Libyan relations were quasi severed after Colonel Gaddafi tried to assassinate King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz back when he was heir to the throne. The Saudi monarch thus abstained from attending the summit and dispatched Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal to represent him. The Colonel came to the dinner party wearing a white suit and dark sunglasses on a night lit with chandeliers and tribal and Amazigh dances. The Colonel arrived to the hotel in a luxurious bulletproof car, accompanied by the Prince of Qatar. What had brought them together at the time was their common disgruntlement toward Riyadh's policy in light of the tensions that were prevailing over the relations between Riyadh on one hand, and Tripoli and Doha on the other. They stayed in the car while talking and laughing for over thirty minutes, completely disregarding the guards who kept signaling them to step down, move their car and allow the reception of the other guests. When they came out of the vehicle, the journalists tried to come closer to the Colonel to talk to him about the statement of the summit and the Arab issues on the agenda, but he looked at us with disdain and went ahead of everyone to the dinner room while wrapping his scarf around his body. I cannot deny the fact that Gaddafi's “hallucinations” and insanity provoke me and prompt me to listen to his statements due to their oddness, not to his reason and political poise. The journalists perceive Gaddafi as being a laughingstock and a comic material to lighten up the climate during official meetings that only witness traditional statements that are quasi known in advance, while the summits are usually governed by constant official positions issued before the camera lenses and changing ones issued away from them. But Gaddafi, with his insanity, always surprises the attendees with something new, either by lighting up a cigar or by mocking the Arab situation in a funny way, to the point where he became the star of television channels and media outlets wherever he is. Sometimes, the “fugitive” Colonel attributes his behavior, such as his smoking for instance, to the fact that he is upset about the Arab reality, while disregarding the fact that he and his likes are the reason behind the setback affecting the nation and ignoring the reality of his criminal practices against the Libyan youth. During the Tunisia summit in 2004, he proposed the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict through the establishment of the state of Isratine. During the Algeria summit, he “hallucinated” for two hours as usual, and considered that the African-Arab union was the “safety raft for the Arabs,” calling for the accession of the Levant region which includes Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq to it. As for the Arab Gulf countries, he called on them to join “other regional spaces” to save themselves - not knowing he will be unable to save himself from the revolutionaries' grip - describing the Palestinians and the Israelis as being stupid and assuring that this was the reason why they had not resolved the problem until now. During the Sharm al-Sheikh summit in 2003, King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz (who was heir to the throne at the time) became aware of the blames which Gaddafi was attempting to cast against his country and the Gulf states in regard to Saddam's occupation of Kuwait. He thus immediately responded by saying: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not the agent of colonialism like you among others. Who brought you to power? Who brought you? Do not tackle issues in which you have nothing to do. Lies are behind you and the grave is ahead of you.” The Saudi monarch said harsh and different words which Gaddafi was not used to hearing, and which made him go mad and launch a retaliation mission as soon as he returned to Tripoli by polarizing oppositionists in London and allocating millions to arrange the attempted assassination of the Saudi King. After all that was said, a prominent Saudi official held a brief session with journalists in Jeddah – and I was among them – to confirm that the future Saudi positions will not humor those speaking outside of history and that a new era had started to confront the latter extremists, in reference to Gaddafi and his regime. In mid-Ramadan 2003, I contacted colleague George Semaan (the chief editor of Al-Hayat at the time) in London, to inform him about an exclusive report I wished to publish, saying that Gaddafi planned Prince Abdullah's assassination and that the group which was engaged in the attempt was apprehended. We did not carry the report, and a few months later, the New York Times published the news regarding Gaddafi's attempted assassination of King Abdullah with details close to the ones we enjoyed. And after he tried to attack King Abdullah during the Doha Summit in 2008, I sat with a Libyan colleague who was sent to live in exile in London, talking about what Gaddafi had said. He assured: “It is as if he has seven lives. He only knows killing, destruction and displacement. He is insane.” Today, the honorable Libyans are achieving victory, the cowards are retreating and the revolutionaries are ousting Gaddafi and his sons from Bab al-Aziziyah and the fort of steadfastness. Gaddafi is still undercover, on the run and scared for his life, while history will turn his dark page sooner or later because he is a criminal dictator who despised his own people, and dealt with Libya's youth by use of threats, prisons, torture and all forms of cruelty. During the Arab summit in Damascus, Gaddafi predicted that the “guillotines” will pursue the Arab leaders one after the other following Saddam's execution – and this is exactly what history has done to him quite fast. This constitutes yet another proof for the fact that he did not draw the lessons and did not think about his people as much as he tried to turn them into an “open cupboard” before the Africans, so that they would shower him with praise and positive descriptions. What is certain is that Gaddafi asked the Libyan people to “rebel, rebel,” and that the people did not hesitate to rebel and retaliate against him. This is how the totalitarian police regimes end, which should prompt the others to learn from history and restore consideration to their people without presenting any justifications that will bring the “delusional” down, shatter their chairs and throw them in the trash bin of history. There is one question which many come to me with. Saudi Arabia has not yet proclaimed its recognition of the transitional council, despite the “extremely cold” relations between Riyadh and Tripoli. Why is that?!
