“The individual without a family has no value or social life,” wrote Colonel Gaddafi in the Green Book, his book of political doctrine.
But today his own family of nine high-living children is shattered.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi
Brother Leader-in-waiting. Born 1972
At large – last reported to be in Bani Walid with his father
Gaddafi’s second son and the dictator’s favoured heir, Saif al-Islam appeared at his father’s compound to boast “we have broken the back of the rebels” just hours after the National Transitional Council claimed he had been seized by “rebel special forces”
An engineer by training, Saif al-Islam, 38, studied for an MBA in Vienna in 1997, before controversially being awarded a PhD by the London School of Economics in 2008. Sir Howard Davies, the director of the university, later resigned after it emerged Saif had made a £1.5m donation.
Before the uprising Saif was seen as the voice of reform within the regime. While studying in London in 2003, he was said to have approached MI6 to warn them of his father’s weapons of mass destruction and led the discussions to have them dismantled. He was instrumental in winning compensation from Italy, Libya’s former colonial ruler, and he pushed the awarding of compensation to the victims of Libyan-sponsored terrorist attacks, including the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie and UTA Flight 772 over Chad.
But he later claimed the deals were only done to get international sanctions lifted and said the families of the dead were “very greedy” who were “trading with the blood of their sons and daughters”. He met Lord Mandelson, then business secretary, at the Rothschild family’s Greek villa a week before al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing was set free.
He owns an eight-bedroom house in Hampstead and calls Tony Blair a “personal family friend.”
It was reported father and son had exchanged angry letters after Saif admitted that six Bulgarian nurses who were imprisoned in Libya and accused of deliberately infecting children with HIV had been tortured with electric shocks.
But dreams of reform were cast aside when pro-democracy protests began in Benghazi in February. He was described as Libya’s “de facto prime minister” by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the ICC. Indicted for crimes against humanity along with his father and Abdullah al-Senussi, the regime’s intelligence chief, he is accused of recruiting the foreign mercenaries which attacked protestors.
Asked what he thought of that indictment, he said: “Screw the criminal court.”
Mohammed Gaddafi
The telecoms chief. Born 1970.
Believed to be in Algeria
The Colonel’s eldest son, Mohammed was head of the Libyan Olympic Committee and ran the main state-run telecommunications firm. His firm was Libya’s main internet provider, and cut off links to the rest of the web soon after protests began in February.
He told Al-Jazeera news he had been detained by rebels as they punched through the suburbs of Tripoli and was under house arrest.
“They are besieging my house. Yes, the gunfire is inside my house,” he said, before the line was suddenly cut off.
But it later emerged he too had escaped the rebels after being snatched by “maybe Gaddafi’s forces,” according to Ali Suleiman Aujali of the National Transitional Council.
Mohammed is believed to have fled to Algeria along with his mother Safiya, sister Aisha and brother Hannibal.
Saadi Gaddafi
The playboy prince. Born 1973
Reported captured. Whereabouts unknown – last reported to be in Bani Walid
A member of his father’s inner circle, Saadi, 38 was reported to have been arrested alongside his brother Saif. That claim now looks doubtful: Saif resurfaced within 24 hours, while Saadi’s whereabouts are unknown.
Saadi, 38, is a former international footballer, commander of the regime’s special forces and a businessman who has invested in numerous Hollywood movies. During his career in Italian football he joined three clubs but played just two games in four seasons amid claims teams were paid handsomely to sign him. Witnesses claimed he personally ordered his troops to shoot unarmed demonstrators in Benghazi. He is wanted by Interpol along with 15 other regime figures.
According to US diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks, “Notoriously ill-behaved Sa’adi has a troubled past, including scuffles with police in Europe (especially Italy), abuse of drugs and alcohol, excessive partying, travel abroad in contravention of his father’s wishes.” A former girlfriend claimed he spent £500,000 hiring pop group The Pussycat Dolls to perform at his birthday in Cannes and owned a £1m Bugatti Veyron sports car. “Saadi will never look at the price. Someone else always pays the bill,” Dafinka Mircheva told a newspaper.
Hannibal Gaddafi
The brawling sailor. Born 1976.
Believed to be in Algeria
The trained seaman who branched out into shipping is believed to be part of the Gaddafi convoy that crossed into Algeria on Monday. The pair were leading the defence of Gharyan, south of Tripoli. Hannibal repeatedly made headlines for his erratic, playboy behaviour: he attacked three Italian policemen with a fire extinguisher in 2001; was detained for drink-driving in his Porsche on the Champs-Elysees in Paris; and was given a four-month suspended prison sentence for beating his pregnant girlfriend. His attack on two Swiss staff caused a diplomatic crisis which saw two Swiss businessmen jailed and Libyan sanctions against Switzerland.
Mutassim Gaddafi
The security chief. Born 1977.
Unknown, believed fled.
One of Gaddafi’s most powerful sons and a rival to Saif al-Islam, Mutassim is the country’s National Security Adviser who met Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State in Washington DC in April 2009. He tried to engineering a meeting with Obama, and met Senators Joe Liebermann and John McCain in 2009, during which he asked for the US to supply non-lethal weaponry and military equipment including helicopters as a “symbol of faith”. He told them: “There are 60 million Algerians to the West, 80 million Egyptians to the East, we have Europe in front of us, and we face Sub-Saharan Africa with its problems to the South.”
Described as “not intellectually curious” in the Wikileaks files, he commanded Libyan forces in the fierce battles around Brega. Dissidents allege he ordered the planting of land mines around the city. He was last seen fleeing for Algeria with his brother, Hannibal.
Saif al-Arab Gaddafi
The student tearaway. Born 1982
Killed in Nato bombing raid
Saif al-Arab was killed in a Nato bombing raid on April 30 while in the same villa as his father. The least known of Gaddafi’s children, he studied at Munich’s Technical University. He was once accused of trying to smuggle an assault rifle from Germany to Paris in a car with diplomatic plates. He was also accused of ordering an acid attack on a nightclub bouncer, after his girlfriend was thrown out a club for attempting to perform a strip-show. Iranian television reported he had been sent by his father to eastern Libya to crush the rebels and claimed he had defected to the rebels.
Aisha Gaddafi
Libya’s Claudia Schiffer. Born 1976. 
Believed to be in Algeria
Gaddafi’s daughter was dubbed the “Claudia Schiffer of North Africa” by the Arab press. She is a lawyer who joined the defence team of Saddam Hussein and helped represent Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at President George W Bush in Baghdad. She heads Libya’s biggest charity and was made a UN goodwill ambassador working on HIV and women’s rights, before being stripped of the role as the civil war erupted. A Lieutenant General in the Libyan army, she warned Nato against intervention, saying: “The opposition in Iraq told the West that when you come to Iraq they will greet you with roses. Almost 10 years later they are receiving the Americans with bullets, and, believe me, the situation in Libya will be much worse.”
Aisha is believed to have fled to Algeria alongside her mother and brothers Mohammed and Hannibal, where has given birth to a baby girl.
Khamis Gaddafi
The soldier. Born 1983.
Unknown, reported dead by rebels
The dictator’s youngest son leads the feared 32nd Reinforced Brigade, also known as the Khamis Brigade, of the Libyan Army. His death during the civil war has been claimed by the rebels several times, including when a Libyan airforce jet pilot flew his plane into Gaddafi’s compound in a ‘kamikaze’ attack. Yesterday rebels claimed to have found his body alongside that of al-Senussi, the regime’s intelligence chief.
He suffered head injuries aged three during the 1986 US bombing of Libya in response to the Berlin discotheque bombing. He was expelled from his MBA course at IE Business School, Madrid, earlier this year, because of his role in the attacks on Libyan protestors. Just before the uprising he spent four weeks in the US as part of an internship with AECOM, a global infrastructure company, and toured US ports and military facilities. The company claimed the US government had approved the plan and offered advice; the State department denied any role in planning or paying for the trip.
Hana Gaddafi
The adopted daughter
Reported killed in Nato bombing in 1986; rumoured alive
The tyrant’s adopted daughter was reported to have been killed during the 1986 US bombing. But this month the Daily Telegraph uncovered papers in the Libyan embassy in London suggesting that she has been given medical treatment by British doctors. German papers newspaper have reported she is alive, working as a doctor and regularly travels to
Source Telegraph.co.uk By Matthew Holehouse
Araweelonews
Office
E-mail; Info@araweelonews.com
jaamac132@gmail.com
shalcaw2@hotmail.com