Bizarre and Menacing, Gadhafi Died as Fugitive in Own Land

 

By RICHARD BOUDREAUX

 

Col. Moammar Gadhafi in 1987

He was a bizarre and menacing figure—the "mad dog" sponsor of international terrorism and self-styled revolutionary philosopher in sunglasses and flowing robes, whose brutality at home provoked an armed popular revolt backed by the West.
Col. Moammar Gadhafi's reported capture and death Thursday in Sirte, Libya, his hometown and final stronghold, ended the mercurial career of an iconic dictator who led a country for nearly 42 years, longer than any of the world's current chief executives, and spent his final weeks as a fugitive in his own land.
His fall from power in August, when North Atlantic Treaty Organization airstrikes drove him from his fortified compound in Tripoli, capped one of the bloodiest of this year's Arab Spring revolts and erased Libya's longtime identity as a pariah state. But his death, reported by NATO-backed rebels who tracked him down, leaves a nation torn by war, devoid of civic institutions and difficult to govern.

Col. Moammar Gadhafi died from wounds sustained during a final push to seize control of his hometown of Sirte, according to Libyan military and political leaders, John Bussey reports on Markets Hub. Photo: Reuters.

Jerry Seib on Lunch Break discusses any U.S. official reaction to the death of Moammar Gadhafi and how U.S. relations are likely to change with post-Gadhafi Libya.

The 69-year-old colonel's whereabouts had been unclear since rebel forces seized control of Tripoli, the capital, nearly two months ago. He was variously reported to have vanished into the empty desert spaces in southern Libya or to be hiding out near Sirte, 225 miles east of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast.
From hiding, he had broadcast short, sporadic audio messages to his armed followers as they retreated to make a last stand in Sirte, vowing to leave the stage as he had entered it, as a self-proclaimed revolutionary defender of Libya.
"The blood of the martyrs of the Libyan people will not go to waste," he said in his last known broadcast, on Oct. 6, urging supporters to fight NATO and Libya's new National Transitional Council. "Be courageous! Rise up! Take to the streets!"