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[truedelphi]

15. Gaddafi was a thug, to the ministers and purposes of Western interests.

journalists had stopped going there, way, way back in the 1980's.

BUT there were reasons that he was a thug to Western Interests. He knew full well whose CIA had installed Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

And he also fully understood whose CIA had ousted one democratically elected Mossadeq in Iran. Our CIA helped to fund and organize some rallies for the more conservative types to take to the streets in protest. At this point, the Shah left the country for “medical reasons.”

While British intelligence backed away from the debacle, the CIA continued its covert operations in Iran. Working with pro-Shah forces and, most importantly, the Iranian military, the CIA cajoled, threatened, and bribed its way into influence and helped to organize another coup attempt against Mossadeq. On August 19, 1953, the military, backed by street protests organized and financed by the CIA, overthrew Mossadeq. The Shah quickly returned to take power and, as thanks for the American help, signed over 40 percent of Iran’s oil fields to U.S. companies.

Mossadeq was arrested, served three years in prison, and died under house arrest in 1967. The Shah became one of America’s most trusted Cold War allies, and U.S. economic and military aid poured into Iran during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In 1978, however, anti-Shah and anti-American protests broke out in Iran and the Shah was toppled from power in 1979. Angry militants seized the U.S. embassy and held the American staff hostage until January 1981. Nationalism, not communism, proved to be the most serious threat to U.S. power in Iran.

And it certainly has not been helpful for the purpose of liberalizing Libya, that in March of 2003, our Armed forces began an eleven year war against the Iraqi people -- a war that existed supposed to help drive out Saddam Hussein, the very man our CIA had installed. The resulting years of terror, destruction and one millin deaths would not lead a person like Qaddafi into becoming more available to assist Western Interests.