Word: qaddafi
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Hanging in Nelson Mandela's secretary's office was a photograph of the South African president posing in front of a tent with a grinning Muammar el-Qaddafi at some location in Libya. Pointing to the picture, I said somewhat apologetically, "I've got to be honest, that's the one thing about the man that I think is unfortunate...
Prompting some to seriously question the aging black leader's sanity, Mandela said at one point that he claimed Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat (who, we recall, was at the time still considered by most to be a dangerous terrorist), Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi, as his comrades-in-arms. It was a statement that raised more than a few eyebrows and prompted Mandela's handlers to suggest that, in the future, he refrain from moving too far from scripted statements...
Mandela recently bestowed South Africa's highest honor, the Order of Good Hope, upon Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Perhaps in a testament to their ideological ties, both Qaddafi and Mandela have in the past played host to Louis Farrakhan, the unashamedly anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam. It was Qaddafi's generous offer to the black American leader that raised the ire of the Clinton administration. While Mandela offered no official financial support to Farrakhan, he did receive him warmly, disquieting Jewish communities in South Africa and the U.S. alike...
...same Qaddafi honored by Mandela has refused to hand over the two Libyan men suspected of carrying out the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which resulted in the deaths of 270 people. The same Qaddafi leads a country which is on our state department's list of terrorist-sponsoring regimes...
Indeed, an uncomfortable irony seems to have escaped the notice of most observers: While Libya remains on the state department's terrorism blacklist, Qaddafi was given the Good Hope award precisely for his early assistance of the ANC in its struggle against Apartheid, a struggle which often took the form of terrorist attacks against South African civilians...