chief
Leaked documents also reveal that US firm Monitor Group organised
meetings between Gaddafi and former LSE director
• 'A programme to enhance Libya's reputation'
• 'A proposal for expanding the dialogue around Gaddafi'
Rajeev Syal and Jeevan Vasagar
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 March 2011 20.00 GMT
Anthony Giddens says his trips were 'an opportunity that had to be
explored' Photograph: Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian
A trip to Libya in 2006 by Anthony Giddens, the former London School
of Economics director and eminent sociologist, when he met Muammar
Gaddafi in his tent, was first vetted by the Libyan leader's head of
intelligence, leaked documents show.
Lord Giddens, guru of Labour's third way, twice met Gaddafi on trips
in 2006 and 2007 organised by Monitor Group, a US lobbying firm.
Leaked documents show at least one trip was disclosed in advance to
Abd Allah al-Sanusi, blamed for atrocities in the present uprising.
Giddens, 73, was director of the LSE for six years until 2003, and is
the author of at least 34 books and credited with devising the "third
way" adopted by Tony Blair.
Monitor Group was paid more than £2m by the Libyan government in 2006
to conduct a "cleansing" campaign of its image, according to leaked
documents.
A letter sent in July 2006 by executives at Monitor Group to al-
Sanusi, also known as Abdullah Senussi, is about targeting influential
academics to emphasise the emergence of "the New Libya".
"We will create a network map to identify significant figures engaged
or interested in Libya today ... We will identify and encourage
journalists, academics and contemporary thinkers who will have
interest in publishing papers and articles on Libya," the letter
claims.
"We are delighted that after a number of conversations, Lord Giddens
has now accepted our invitation to visit Libya in July," the letter
adds. It ends by saying to al-Sanusi: "We very much look forward to
hearing from you with any questions or comments that you may have."
There is no implication that Giddens knew al-Sanusi's approval was
sought.
He is married to a sister of Gaddafi's wife, and is considered his
most trusted aide. He is number two on an opposition list of wanted
"war criminals" topped by Gaddafi. He has been blamed for killings of
rebels in Benghazi, as well as recruiting the regime's mercenaries.
Libyans hold him responsible for a 1996 massacre of 1,200 inmates at
Abu Salim prison.
Described as head of military intelligence with the rank of general,
he is part of Gaddafi's "ahl al-Khaimah" (people of the tent), his
closest entourage.
Monitor also claimed in the letter that they were paying an
"honorarium", and that they would help identify academics who had an
interest in publishing articles on Libya. When given questions from
the Guardian asking if he had been paid an honorarium, fees or
expenses for attending events in connection with the Libyan
government, Giddens did not respond.
Sir Howard Davies, who resigned as current director of the LSE on
Thursday night, said that he had quit because of "two errors of
judgment": to advise that a donation from Saif Gaddafi's foundation
was acceptable, and the other was agreeing to act as an economic envoy
to Libya.
Richard Sennett, LSE emeritus professor of sociology, blamed the
crisis on a "desperate search for funds, [in which] the notion of
having clear water between the desires of the donors and the standards
of the university is just eroded".
Lord Desai, the Labour peer who set up the LSE centre for global
governance, defends the LSE in the Guardian: "It was only after
bullets started flying in Libya that Saif Gaddafi was found to have
cheated. Nor had anyone until then objected that the LSE had received
a donation from Saif Gaddafi's Foundation."
According to another document from Monitor, sent a year later, Giddens
made two visits to Libya, the first in July 2006, resulting in bylined
articles in the New Statesman, El País and La Repubblica. In the New
Statesman, he said Libya had been transformed from the pariah state of
old. "Gaddafi's 'conversion' may have been driven partly by the wish
to escape sanctions, but I get the strong sense it is authentic and
there is a lot of motive power behind it. Saif Gaddafi is a driving
force behind the rehabilitation and potential modernisation of Libya.
Gaddafi Sr, however, is authorising these processes."
His second trip organised by Monitor was an extraordinary public
discussion hosted by Sir David Frost, the TV interviewer, with a panel
of three "thinkers" – Giddens, Gaddafi and Benjamin Barber, author of
Jihad vs McWorld. After this visit, he wrote an article for the
Guardian.
In a statement, Giddens said that he had no involvement while the
LSE's director; the objective of his visits in 2006 and 2007 was to
encourage the emergence of a market-based economy and draw up a
democratic constitution.
"Mr Gaddafi had by that date renounced his nuclear weapons programme.
His stated intention was to move the country towards the west and open
up to the wider world. It was an opportunity that certainly had to be
explored and for a period did seem to lead to significant reforms. Mr
Gaddafi's actions in the present are entirely abhorrent and I condemn
them absolutely," he said.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
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