Libya Snapshot: The Last Appeals of the Qaddafi Regime to the US (Dehghan)

Saeed Kamali Dehghan writes for The Guardian of London:

The Qaddafi regime carried out an extraordinary clandestine lobbying operation to try to stop NATO's bombardment of Libya, and believed the western allies were likely to launch a full-scale invasion in "either late September or October".

Secret documents in Tripoli seen by The Guardian reveal the desperate attempts made by the Libyan government in its final months to influence US and world opinion. It approached key international opinion formers from the US president Barack Obama downwards.

The regime tried to persuade the Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich --- a well-known rebel who voted against NATO military action in Libya, and opposed the Iraq war --- to visit Tripoli as part of a hastily arranged "peace mission". The Libyan government offered to pay all Kucinich's costs related to the trip, including "travel expenses and accommodation".

On 22 June a letter sent to Libya's prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, by a US-based lobbyist for the regime, Sufyan Omeish, noted that Kucinich was "concerned that his personal safety in Tripoli could not be guaranteed". He preferred to conduct meetings with regime officials outside Libya. The plan was for Kucinich to meet "senior Libyan officials, including Qaddafi". The proposed trip never took place. Kucinich visited Syria instead.

He confirmed the invitation and said he had discussed it directly with the Libyan prime minister, but ultimately declined because of security concerns.

"Because of the efforts I had made early on to bring an end to the war, I started to get calls from Libya, including from the prime minister," the congressman told The Guardian. "He had taken note of the fact I was making an effort to put forward a peace proposal. I had several requests to go to Libya. I made it clear I could not negotiate on behalf of the administration. I said I was speaking as a member of Congress involved in the issue and willing to listen to what they had to say. But given that Libyan was under attack, it did not seem a promising place to hold meetings."

He said that on one occasion he held an hour-long telephone conversation with the prime minister. He also confirmed Omeish had been in touch, acting as an intermediary for and supporter of the regime.

On 23 June the prime minister – who has since fled to Tunisia --- wrote a surprisingly sycophantic letter to Obama. He addressed him as "Mr President", and politely complained about Washington's "unprecedented decision" to confiscate the Libyan regime's assets --- "to please" the rebels. He also wrote to leading US senators, chiding Republican John Boehner after he described a letter by Gaddafi as "incoherent".

The documents surfaced in a city still subject to a power struggle between rebel fighters and remnants of Qaddafi's security forces, who exchanged fire for much of the day around a cluster of multi-storey blocks of flats in north Tripoli, the site of a last stand by some loyalists.

Rebels also closed in on pro-Gaddafi strongholds in Sirte and Sabha.

Read full article....