Educational Media Reviews Online

Muammar Gaddafi has ruled Libya with an iron hand for the last 35 years. For most of that time he was known as a friend of terrorists and leftist liberation movements in the developing world. His regime was extremely anti-Western and anti-American, and sponsored terrorist attacks against Western targets. The best know of these was the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. This bombing resulted in U.S. and U.N. sanctions being imposed against Libya for well over a decade. These crippled the Libyan economy, and threatened the stability of the Gaddafi regime. To end the sanctions and revitalize his country’s economy, in the late 1990’s Gaddafi began a process of reconciliation with the West, and especially with the United States. Restitution was paid to the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims, and in 2003, Libya announced it was discontinuing its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. This resulted in the lifting of sanctions in 2004. This film examines this process of reconciliation, how it started, where it’s going, and how Libya has and has not changed because of it.

Libya’s new relationship with the West is the result of years of careful maneuvering by Gaddafi’s government. They’ve worked to mollify the West’s anger against them, through payments to the families of the Lockerbie victims and by other means. They’ve also exploited a change in the United States’ global priorities. In the late 80’s and through the 90’s the U.S. gradually shifted its focus from fighting communism and socialism in countries like Libya, to battling other foes, chiefly Islamic fundamentalism. By the beginning of the “War on Terror” in 2001, Libya had ceased to be a significant threat to the West, and gradually came to be seen by the many in America as a potential ally against the fundamentalists, many of whom were not friendly to Gaddafi. When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, it supposedly did so for two reasons. The first of these was to keep Saddam from supporting international terrorism, but secondly and more importantly to deprive him of the weapons of mass destruction he was assumed to possess. This was all part of a larger plan by the Bush administration to put the world on notice that the U.S. would not tolerate the development or maintenance of WMD programs by any states unfriendly to it. Once this precedent was established, Libya turned the situation to its advantage. After the invasion of Iraq, a shipment of centrifuges meant for Libya’s nascent nuclear program was intercepted at sea and confiscated by U.S. agents. Not long after that, Gaddafi’s government unexpectedly announced it would dismantle all of its WMD programs, apparently submitting to American pressure to do so. By taking this action, Libya gave what was seen as tacit validation to the Bush administration’s WMD policy, and indirectly, to its invasion of Iraq. This dramatically improved the image of both Libya and Gaddafi in American eyes, and lead to the dropping of additional sanctions not long afterward. The makers of this film suggest that the interception of Libya’s centrifuges by the U.S. was not a surprise to Gaddafi, but on the contrary was actually orchestrated by Libyan agents. By making this arrangement and then renouncing his WMD programs afterward, Gaddafi could endear himself to the Bush administration, and encourage the cancellation of the sanctions he had so long worked to remove. Therefore, the dismantling of Libya’s weapons of mass destruction was not a loss to either it or Gaddafi, but instead the crowning achievement in his attempt to end his regime’s international isolation. Since many of the sanctions were ended, much has changed in Libya, but very much more has not. American and other foreign investment has poured into the country, especially into its oil industry. Its economic orientation has changed from an inefficient socialist model to one that is much more capitalistic. While this new model encourages foreigners to do business in Libya, it has done little to change the way Libyans do business among themselves. Despite its new openness to foreign investment, and relatively pro-Western foreign policy, the political situation in Libya itself has not changed, and shows no indication of doing so any time soon. Gaddafi’s Libya was and is a police state. Although outside investment has helped the economy in many respects, much of the money from these transactions goes into the pockets of Gaddafi, his friends, relatives and supporters. Those not within these select groups feel few benefits from that investment. So for many average Libyans, little seems to have changed. They still live in a state that does not allow dissent or free expression, and in which violence and torture are used to stomp out opposition, be it real or imagined. In the end, the person who has benefited most from the lifting of sanctions is Gaddafi himself. With political power in Libya still firmly in his hands, with the country on a more stable economic footing, and with the Americans well disposed to him and his government, his political survival now seems assured.

This film is made up of news clips showing the relevant events in Libyan history in the last 35 years, as well as interviews with Gaddafi’s family members, supporters and opponents, as well as certain “Libya watchers”, all of which give their opinions on the issues and events described above. These various viewpoints are tied together into a coherent whole by an effective narration, provided in English. The only other language used is Arabic, but it is always subtitled in English. The film-maker presents the issues and events described above in a clear and compelling manner. The picture quality is good, but the sound is at times problematical. The volume of the narration is noticeably higher than that of the interviews, making the latter difficult to hear while the former is often booming! Much of the English spoken in the film is heavily accented and hard for many American ears to understand, and that when coupled with the sound problems makes certain sections of the film unintelligible. Despite these problems this film is informative and engaging, and well worth watching.