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Just over six years ago, Saif coaxed his father into abandoning Libya's chemical- and nuclear-weapons program. Muammar Gaddafi's stunning aboutface, which followed longstanding demands from Washington, ended Libya's isolation from the West. Trade embargoes and an air blockade that had sealed most Libyans from the outside world for decades were lifted. In late 2008 the U.S. confirmed its first ambassador to Tripoli since 1972. More than 100 oil companies, including U.S. majors like Chevron and ExxonMobil, and European giants such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell, arrived to tap Libya's vast oil reserves, betting that...
More Than a Man of the West No one looms larger than Saif in the push for change. Given that he was raised in the bosom of the revolution and holds no official government position, that is unusual. Saif was born a little under three years after his father's bloodless 1969 coup. After graduating in engineering in Libya, he earned an M.B.A. in Vienna, and then a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics...
...photo books called Hip Hotels sits on a table in his entrance hall. Despite his privileged lifestyle, his name creeps frequently into conversations with businessmen, analysts, consultants and regular citizens. He is, many believe, the one person capable of pushing through serious change. He is also the West's favorite to succeed his father. Says U.S. ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz: "Many people consider Saif the de facto future of the country...
Sending Mixed Messages Really standing up to Gaddafi will require confronting one of the strongest themes of his rule: opposition to the West. Despite the lifting of sanctions, Gaddafi's ban on things such as English signage remains. Even the street signs to Tripoli's international airport are in Arabic only. "In our cooperation with the U.S. and Europe, we are not serious enough, we send confusing messages," Saif says. (See "Gaddafi vs. Switzerland: The Leader's Son on What's Behind the Feud...
Many of the most violent municipalities in the country are remote and lawless areas reminiscent of the Wild West. Settlers struggle for control of land and the small and ill-equipped police officers and justice officials are powerless to stop them. Three of the 10 towns with the highest homicide rates are in the Arc of Deforestation that runs around the Amazon's eastern and southern fringe. "That is closely related to the presence of loggers, slave labor, land grabbers and the local political and economic powers," he says...