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

Secret documents in Tripoli reveal desperate attempts by the Libyan government in its final months to influence US and world opinion. It approached key figures from President Obama downwards.

The Libyan government tried to convince Dennis Kucinich to visit Tripoli as part of a hastily arranged "peace mission".
They certainly chose someone amenable to their position, but sadly without any influence whatsoever
Tut tut, he has enormous influence over the Kos Kiddies, enormous I say...
The regime offered to pay all costs related to the trip, including "travel expenses and accommodation".

A letter sent to Libya's prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, by a US-based lobbyist for the regime, Sufyan Omeish, stated that Kucinich was "concerned that his personal safety in Tripoli could not be guaranteed". His preference was to conduct meetings with regime officials outside Libya. There was a plan for Kucinich to meet "senior Libyan officials, including Gaddafi" which never materialized. Kucinich visited Syria instead.
Everyone can see how much good that trip did.
On 23 June the prime minister -- now reported to be in Tunisia -- wrote a surprisingly sycophantic letter to Obama. He addressed him as "Mr President", and politely fussed about Washington's "unprecedented decision" to confiscate Libya's assets -- "to please" the rebels. He also wrote to leading members of the US Congress, criticizing John Boehner after he described a letter by Gaddafi as "incoherent".

Gaddafi's furtive global campaign took place as the increasingly paranoid regime
It's not paranoia when the powers-that-be really are out to get you...
believed the US was planning to invade. On 28 June, Omeish, a US-based film maker, warned that the US Senate's decision to extend US involvement in Libya for another year prepared the way for a ground assault.

The letter to Baghdadi says: "It is clear that the NATO coalition forces have no intention of ending their military campaign over Libya anytime soon ... What is most concerning is that there are highly credible analysts and intelligence personnel in the United States who are exposing growing evidence of covert logistical military planning for a future ground invasion in either late September or October of this year."

He then discusses the urgent proposed peace mission to Libya. He writes: "We have already obtained confirmation of the involvement of a high-profile US congressman to participate ... and are making additional overtures to obtain further congressional involvement from other members.

"Moreover, we have also obtained a new confirmation from a high-profile Princeton professor of international law and a former UN fact-finding commissioner to join our delegation." Omeish also claimed that he was also working with "award-winning/Oscar-nominated filmmakers to help document the truth about Libya ... to ensure maximum world-wide exposure."

The correspondence shows that the Libyan regime was surprisingly well informed -- even if its sources were inaccurate at times. Baghdadi's personal papers include copies of the WikiLeaks documents written by US ambassador Gene Cretz. Cretz was forced to leave Libya after mentioning Gaddafi's "voluptuous" Ukrainian nurse. Someone had carefully annotated the English copy with Arabic.
Posted by: ryuge 2011-08-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=328694