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biography
| name: |
Gaddafi or Qaddafi, Colonel Muammar
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pronunciation:
[gadafee]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1942– )
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| biography:
| Libyan political and military leader, born into a nomadic family. After secondary school he entered the Libyan Military Academy in 1963, and formed the Free Unionist Officers Movement which overthrew King Idris in 1969. He became chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, promoted himself to colonel (the highest rank in the revolutionary army) and became commander-in-chief of the Libyan armed forces. As de facto head of state, he set about eradicating colonialism by expelling foreigners and closing down British and US bases. He developed his own political philosophy, the ‘third international theory’ which he expounded in his Green Book. A somewhat unpredictable figure, he openly supported violent revolutionaries in other parts of the world while ruthlessly pursuing Libyan dissidents both at home and abroad. He waged a war in Chad, and threatened other neighbours, and in 1986 the US bombed Libya in an attempt to eliminate him. In 1999 he released for trial the alleged perpetrators of the bombing of the American PanAm flight which crashed on Lockerbie, Scotland (1988). He has continued to rule Libya in an eccentric yet fairly effective manner. |
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