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| Africa North |
| US Group Had Offered to Help Al Qathafi for a Hefty Fee |
| 2011-11-19 |
| [Tripoli Post] To a colourful group of Americans - the Washington terrorism expert, the veteran CIA officer, the Republican operative, the Kansas City lawyer - the Libyan gambit last March looked like a rare business opportunity, is how The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... introduced am interesting report, entitled: Group in US Hoped for Big Payday in Offer to Help Al Qadaffy ... who is now napping peacefully in the dirt... It goes on to report that even as NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... bombed Libya, the Americans offered to make Col. Muammar Al Qadaffy their client - and charge him a hefty consulting fee. Their price: a $10 million retainer before beginning negotiations with Colonel Al Qadaffy's representatives. The newspaper reported that a draft contract, with capital letters for emphasis, had been prepared that said: "The fees and payments set forth in this contract are MINIMUM NON-REFUNDABLE FEES. The fees are an inducement for the ATTORNEYS AND ADVISORS to take the case and nothing else." Neil C. Livingstone, 65, the terrorism specialist and consultant, told NYT that he helped put together the deal after hearing that one of Al Qadaffy's sons, Seif al-Islam was interested in an exit strategy for the family. Mr Livingstone said that he and his partners were not going to work for free. "We were not an eleemosynary organization," he told the US daily. Mr. Livingstone, a television commentator and prolific author moved home to Montana this year to try a run for governor. He said he had long been a vocal critic of the former Libyan dictator and was briefly tossed in the slammer by the Libyan regime on a visit to Libya in the 1970s. The goal of the consulting deal, he insisted, was not to save Al Qadaffy but to prevent a bloodbath in Libya by creating a quick way out for the ruler and his family. "The idea was to find them an Arabic-speaking sanctuary and let them keep some money, in return for getting out," he said. The consultants promised to help free billions of dollars in blocked Libyan assets by steering the government into compliance with United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... resolutions. But the Americans did not get the Treasury Department license they needed to accept payment from Libya, which was then subject to sanctions. Now the confidential documents describing the proposed deal have surfaced on the Internet. The papers revealed a three-page letter addressed to Al Qadaffy on April 17 by another partner in the proposed deal, a Belgian named Dirk Borgers, who offered the former Libyan leader the lobbying services of what he called the "American Action Group" to outmanoeuvre the rebels and win United States government support. Noting that the rebels' Transitional National Council was gaining control of Libyan assets abroad, and attaching a registration form showing that the rebels had engaged their own lobbyists, Mr. Borgers said it was time for Al Qadaffy to fight back with his own Washington representatives. "Our group of Libyan sympathisers is extremely worried about this and we would like to help to block the actions of your international enemies and to support a normal working relationship with the United States Government," the letter said. "Therefore it is absolutely required to speak officially and with one strong voice with the American Government." Mr. Borgers. 68, ended the letter with the words "Your Obedient Servants," signing his own name and adding those of the four Americans. In the letter, Mr. Borgers described Mr Livingstone in the proposal as the "recognised best American anti-terrorism expert".. But Mr. Livingstone told the NYT that he had never seen the letter before this week and that it distorted his intentions. "That doesn't reflect our view at all," Mr. Livingstone said. "Our whole goal was to get the Al Qadaffys out of there as fast as possible." Another member of the proposed American team is Marty Martin, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who led the agency's Al Qaeda department from 2002 to 2004 and retired from the CIA in 2007. He said he too, was chagrined to see Mr. Borgers's letter this week. Mr Marting was reported saying: "We were not there to be lobbyists for Al Qatahafi. I was not told anything about that letter." The other American partners were Neil S. Alpert, who had worked for the Republican National Committee and the pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Kansas City lawyer Randell K. Wood who, according to the report, has represented Libyan officials and organizations since the 1980s. (Neither Mr. Alpert nor Mr. Wood would comment) Reached at his home in Belgium by the newspaper, Mr. Borgers, dismissed his former partners' complaints about his letter to Colonel Al Qadaffy - though he said he "might not" have shared its text with them. "Let's not argue about semantics," he said. He was in Tripoli at the time, he said, watching the chaos and violence escalate, and he thought Al Qadaffy should remain in power at least until an election could be held. He said he, too, wanted to "stop the butchering," but he offered a positive spin on Al Qadaffy's record. "I don't think he was that brutal a dictator," Mr. Borgers said. "He created a country out of nothing over 42 years. He created a very good lifestyle for the people." Of the $10 million fee the group sought, Mr. Borgers said, "The aim was not to make money." On the other hand, he added, "If you want to put up a serious operation in Washington, I think you need at least $10 million." Mr. Borgers said he was a project engineer who had worked on infrastructure projects in many countries. He added that he was told by Libyan officials a week after sending his letter to Al Qadaffy that the proposal had been rejected. He said he had no idea if the former leader saw it. Seven months after the $10 million deal that was not to be, Al Qadaffy is dead, while his son Seif al-Islam is believed to be in hiding. Mr. Livingstone is focused on the problems of Montana, and Mr. Borgers said he was "trying to retire." |
| Posted by:Fred |