There is an old saying that when you shake hands with the devil you shouldn't be surprised when you lose your hand. For Moammar Qadhafi that saying has proven devastatingly true and as it now stands he is in danger of losing far more than his hand if the hodgepodge of rebels that, with the assistance of NATO, ran him from power have their way when and if they capture him. The Wests imperial intervention in Libya, under the guise of humanitarian assistance, closes the door on the West's rehabilitation of Moammar Qadhafi.

NATO's military intervention in Libya was not motivated by a desire to protect or assist the Libyan people or rescue them from Qadhafi's abuses during his 42 year rule. As recently as 2010 Qadhafi was being praised by the United States and for his assistance and cooperation in battling Islamic militants in North Africa and Western diplomats, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, flocked to Qadhafi’s Tripoli headquarters to conference with him on issues of economic and security cooperation. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised as a reliable partner sf the United States and complimented him on his leadership of the African Union. The once "Mad Dog" of the Middle East, as Ronald Reagan famously described him, had suddenly become the eccentric darling of the West must now be kicking himself in the rear for trusting the same nations that in the 1980s attempted to assassinate him on numerous occasions, including murdering his infant daughter in an air strike in 1986.

At the root of the West’s military intervention in Libya was control over the country's oil reserves, the largest in Africa. While Qadhafi may have been a reliable partner, he was not reliable puppet, as the United States prefers. The classified diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks revealed that the United States, France and Great Briton were concerned as recently as early 2009 that Qadhafi intended to increase Libya's interest in its oil companies from around 45% to over 50%. Qadhafi even threatened to re-nationalize Libya’s oil fields as he had done when he seized power in 1969 (only to partially privatize them in 2004 as a concession to neoliberalism in exchange for diplomatic relations with the West). Although Qadhafi had proven a reliable ally in the United States war of terror, including participating in the ClA‘s rendition program that allowed alleged Islamic militants to be flown into Libya to be tortured under CIA interrogation, the U.S. and its allies still did not trust Qadhafi to manage Libya's vast oil fields. Also the United States and its allies were aware that the only reason Qadhafi was cooperating in the so-called war on terror was because Islamic activists and combatants had been waging a successful insurgency against Qadhafi’s regime. Qadhafi had chosen to adopt the age old adage that "the enemy of my enemy is a friend" yet in choosing to adopt the Machiavellian logic of the West, Qadhafi has found out the hard way that the West has no friends in Third World nations that possess vast natural resources.

Qadhafi however should have known this for it was he after all who nationalized Libya's oil industry and kicked out the United States and Great Britain’s military installations when he seized power in 1968. It was also Qadhafi who generously funded and supported the liberation movements in Africa in the 1970’s who were battling the last holdout of European colonialism in Southern Africa. Qadhafi was at the forefront of confronting Western imperialism and intervention in the Third World yet despite his revolutionary credentials, his greatest weakness was his failure or inability to build a movement at home beyond his personality, personal ideology, family circle and tribal base after years in power. This is the main reason Qadhafi's regime collapsed and he was ousted from power, not because of Western military intervention.

Unbeknownst to many within the radical community and to people in general, Qadhafi’s regime had been battling a well organized Islamic insurgency that possessed enormous grassroots support throughout Libya, particularly in Eastern Libya. Since the 1990's the Libyan regime waged battle; conducted cease-fires, and granted amnesties with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). The LIFG presented a problem for Qadhafi because unlike previous threats to his government the LIFG was not supported by the West and was a homegrown movement. After the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States by members of Al-Qaeda the United States and Libyan intelligence agencies began to cooperate under the auspices of fighting Islamic terrorism and since the LIFG was an Islamic movement committed to establishing an Islamic State that made them fair game to the United States. The LIFG was promptly classified a terrorist organization and its members were hunted down and imprisoned across Europe’s large Libyan exile community. The irony cannot be missed in Western intelligence agencies hunting down and arresting Libyans for threatening the regime of Qadhafi when prior to September 11th Western intelligence agencies were plotting to undermine and/or assassinate Qadhafi. How quick the tables turn, and turn the tables did again because now Qadhafi is on the run from these same intelligence agencies.

On September 2nd, 2011 in the days following the collapse of Qadhafi’s regime, CNN International Correspondents in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, were taken to the former Libyan Ministry of the Interior by Libyan rebels. The building was partially looted however files from Libyan intelligence revealed a close relationship between Libyan intelligence and the CIA right up until the last months of Qadhafi’s regime. Among the revelations was Libyan intelligence's enthusiastic participation in the United States "rendition program" that was run by the CIA and allowed alleged terrorists to be flown into Libya to be tortured by Libyan intelligence agents while interrogated under the supervision of CIA personnel. Many of these persons identified as terrorists disappeared and are buried somewhere in Libya‘s vast deserts. The fact that a man who considered himself a revolutionary could participate in program run by an agency that has since its inception undermined and assasinated revolutionaries in the Third World is shameful and almost incomprehensible. Yet it shouldn’t be incomprehensible when you consider that for a man who remains in power for over 40 years the only thing that matters is power and somewhere along the line Qadhafi became addicted to power.

The extensive revolutionary credentials Qadhafi established throughout the years was ultimately squandered when he decided to shake hands with the devil, the United States and its allies, and participate in their imperial agenda in the Islamic world. He should have known better but he sacrificed his revolutionary principles and anti-imperialism ideas at the altar of power as in the end the only thing he was concerned about was maintaining his grasp on power. His position was also not helped by having maniacal sons who wasted hundreds of millions of Libya’s currency living lavish lifestyles and showering millions of dollars on Western celebrities to entertain them at opulent parties. The West did not need a grand conspiracy to overthrew Qadhafi. His actions and addiction to power had isolated him from most of the Libyan population that had grown wary of his 40 years in power..

As Qadhafi somewhere in hiding now rants against the “Libyan rats" that drove him from power, attention has turned to the Libyan rebels that control much at the country. Many of the figures that compose the Libyan Transitional Government were Libyan exiles that lived in the United States and Europe. There is ample evidence that many of them were and are on the payroll of the CIA. This is not surprising as prior to Qadhafi’s rehabilitation in the early part of this decade he was a target of the CIA so many of the figures in the transitional government (not all) were merely reactivated from these networks the CIA created to undermine Qadhafi’s regime. What is a little surprising is members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) had been reported to be working with Western intelligence agencies in the ousting of Qadhafi. These same intelligence agencies were hunting down and turning members of the LIFG over to the Qadhafi regime for torture and assassination just (6) months ago. It is not surprising that the United States would turn to Islamic fundamentalists or activists to do its bidding as it would deal with anyone willing to advance its interests in the region. What is surprising is members of the LIFG would be so naive to cooperate with the United States at a time when the United States has identified Islamic movements as the greatest impediments to its imperial designs in the region. Already reports have some to the surface that the United States is uncomfortable with the influence “Islamists” appear to be gaining in the new Libya. The LIFG had better beware of the hand that feeds them or continues to feed them because the United States has an extensive history of turning on Islamic movements that were naive enough to cooperate with them.

As Qadhafi new faces the prospect of being executed at the hands of Libyan rebels or worst and even more ironic, facing rendition to the Hague to stand trial at the so-called International Court of Justice (when will it ever prosecute a Western leader?) there are lessens to be learned for revolutionaries and radicals challenging empire across the world. When it comes to neoliberalism and cooperation with its global enforcer, the United States, there can be no back room deals or compromises even when at first glance it appears you or the movement are in danger of losing power or its base“ When the United States removed Qadhafi's regime from its target list in exchange for his cooperation in its global war of terror Qadhafi should have understood that, to quote Jamil Al-Amin (U.S. Political Prisoner) "the United States only releases its grip on you to get a better grasp". Movements therefore that are built around the personality of a leader as opposed to revolutionary ideology and decentralized leadership will always risk eventually alienating themselves from the people and are easy targets of imperialism because the West operates under the principle of cutting the head to kill the body.

The United States is hoping this principle applies in Venezuela as president Hugo Chavez battles cancer. The Bolivarian Revolution that Chavez ushered in has changed the dynamics of power in Latin America, transferring power back to the people as opposed to global corporations and right wing dictators. Chavez is not perfect and has his share of flaws when it comes to exercising power or criticising his policies but only an idiot (or liberal) would argue that Venezuela and Latin America are not in a better position because of him. If Chavez does not win his battle with cancer, the Bolivarian Revolution will face an enormous test as the United States will attempt to take advantage of his absence to reassert its complete domination of the regime. For the sake of the Bolivarian Revolution and Chavez's legacy he must prepare a movement that can carry on and sustain itself without his charismatic personality, including preparing for the transition of power to a younger generation.

Revolutionaries should not be judged by how long they can remain in power but rather how successful they are in transferring power and ideas to younger generations of revolutionaries. Their strength should not be measured in how well they compromise with global imperialism, there‘s nothing shrewd about shaking hands with the devil to enhance or preserve one‘s power base or position. To the United States and its global allies this is only interpreted as a weakness of the movement and an invitation to military or political intervention to crush opposition to neoliberal economic policies or military dominance of a region.

In short, to use the language of the streets, there‘s no half stepping when it comes to challenging the United States pursuit of Empire. There’s no middle ground and movements and leaders that fail to heed this learn that former US. president: George W. Bush's statement "you’re either with us or against us" becomes fatally true. Qadhafi thought he could play the middle of the road, not knowing that the middle of the road is the worst place to be. He is now paying the ultimate price for shaking hands with the devil.

Robert L. Holbrook #BL-5140
SCI-Coal Township
1 Kelley Drive
Coal Township, PA 17866

9.25.11