An anecdote about Khamis Qadhafi
Issandr El Amrani
Khamis Qadhafi
As I write these lines, Khamis al-Qadhafi, the most militarily-connected of Muammar al-Qadhafi's sons, is said to be leading his Khamis Brigade to the center of Tripoli in what may very well turn out to be his last stand. Khamis, the seventh and youngest son of the Brother Leader, operated discreetly at the repressive core of his father's regime for years, the military counterpart to his brother Seif's diplomatic role, tasked with protecting the family.
Several months ago, I heard a chilling story about Khamis. It came from an Egyptian acquaintance of mine who has done business in Libya for many years and was well-introduced with regime figures. The Egyptian's company, involved in construction and various state-financed projects, operated in Libya the way most foreigners did. They had regime-connected figures on the payroll, whose role was to smoooth out any problems with the government and make sure hurdles could be removed. It was just the cost of doing business in Libya, where the government could often prove unwilling to honor agreements and everyone needed a little help from a part of the mafia state the Qadhafis ran.
The key sponsor the Egyptian company had was a man in his late 60s who had long been a companion of Muammar Qadhafi. "He was a nice guy, a family guy, often very funny," my acquaintance said of him, adding shortly thereafter that his sponsor had been a figure in the Revolutionary Guards' repression of student uprisings in the 1970s, when several students in Benghazi ended up being hanged from lamp-posts. The sponsor, whom I'll call Saeed, used his proximity to Qadhafi to cut through red tape, help get contracts, expedite customs issues and more. He was not a politically powerful person in the Libyan government, but his personal friendship with Qadhafi and record in the regime provided him enough clout to get business done.
One day in February, just has the February 17 movement was getting started in Benghazi, Saeed decided to go visit Qadhafi. The official pretext was that his son had recently gotten married, and he wanted to introduce him and his new wife to the Leader in person. The three went to one of Qadhafi's house, received his blessing for the marriage, and stayed to have a talk. Khamis was there too, as other members of his father's entourage.
Saeed, because he had known Qadhafi back in the days of the Free Officers, broached the topic of the Arab uprisings and the trouble brewing in Benghazi. He began to give his opinion that, the regional environment being what it is, the regime should be cautious about repressing what were still relatively minor protests in Benghazi. Instead, he argued, it should engage the protestors and be cautious about the potential for the movement to get much bigger, as it did in Tunisia and Egypt so recently.
This enraged Khamis. He stood up and shouted at Saeed, accusing him of being a traitor and a weakling, and said his father would never have to give in to the vermin in Benghazi. Saeed respectfully stated he was just giving his advice, in light of what was happening elsewhere in the Arab world — just being cautious. But this only further incensed Khamis (who may have been on some kind of drugs), and the argument kept escalating.
Finally, Khamis lost it. He pulled out his sidearm and shot Saeed, killing him instantly. Saeed's son jumped towards his father, and the son's wife wailed. Khamis turned out and emptied his gun into them, killing them both. All of this right in front of his father and his entourage.
The incident was covered up, and not reported much, but rumors about it spread in Libya. Saeed's other sons began to make plans to leave the country, and the Egyptian company, having lost its protector, hastened plans already underway to stop their activities. No doubt, within regime circles, that Khamis' murder of Saeed and the newlywed couple sent a chilling warning: show total loyalty to the regime and never doubt my father's choices, or else.
The Qadhafis chose to live in denial of reality to the very end.
Reader Comments (19)
WOW
The Egyptian must have known about this from witnesses at the scene. If they are still alive they can testify against Khamis when he is put before a court. It's surely not the only act of barbarity that he committed.
If everyone was killed by Khamisi, then who witnessed this to be able to narrate with such details?
There were other people there.
Do you have any kind of substantial evidence to back this up besides having heard a rumor?
I wouldn't want to speak for the author of the post, J.P. but doesn't prefacing the post with the information that it's a story heard second-hand cover your evident concerns? No-one's trying to pull the wool over your eyes (though you seem sharp enough). It's just a question of trusting the judgement of the people that brought you the story and its plausibility, and if you don't want to accept it, you might ask yourself why not.
Shades of Uday Saddam Hussein...
I can't vouch for the accuracy of the anecdote, although I trust its source who had direct contact with "Saeed" and his family. I retold here merely as an indication of what was being said about Khamis.
Holy shit
In other news Gadhafi's sons are arrested by the rebels ...
(Just as believable)
This shows how men of great power can often manipulate and use their power for their own advances. But when their own family takes advantage of that power then that man in power is put into a predicament.
WikiLeads revealed that Khamis was known for his dirty tricks and members of the State Dept thought his brother Saif was afraid of Khamis. There was a NTY article that reported that Saif and Khamis had lists of US military weapons they were interested in purchasing. The article said that Saif submit to Khamis’ wishes and withdrew his list. Khamis’ list was for his Special Forces not the Libya army.
ABC News reported in April 2011 that Khamis enrolled and attended courses at NU Kellogg under a false name although the State Dept understood he was here on family business with AECOM. ABC also reported Khamis' Special Forces have slaughtered civilians who opposed his father.
The Germany on-line news service der Spiegel has articles reporting that the dictator's children (Except two: One son tried to remove his father and fled but was later forgiven; another son is supposed to be a none-starter) are eccentric and can be violent.
Whether the rumor is true or not about Khamis, hopefully no country will harbor his family after the rebels force them out. They should be tried for their crimes against humanity.
Sounds like a load of shit frankly.
Yeah, I agree with Bobby, it sounds very implausible. I am no fan of Qaddhafi or his family, but if they have managed to rule for over 40 years then it seems unlikely that they were stark raving lunatic like this anecdote makes them out to be.
Again, I have no independent confirmation of this story but it was told to me by people with no incentive to lie. As for the Qadhafis not being able to maintain their rule while being stark raving lunatic - er, have you heard Qadhafi Sr. speak? Have you heard how Saddam and his sons terrified the population? Ever heard of Idi Amin. There is nothing to indicate that sadistic rulers can't last.
Great!
I thought he was dead
the it turned out he was alive
then he died again
then he was alive
I dont trust the NTC as far as I could throw them
I have no doubt the Gaddafi Family have had their evil moments but pretty sure I have heard this story about Qusay Hussein. I think you need to state that this post is rumour unless you can prove that this family is dead.
Amazing how some people can still be sceptical about the brutality and madness of these elite families. All tyrants become dysfunctional after time, and their families also because they are brought up in this environment. Saif has gone from the 'moderate reformer', learnt in London, but in fact has shown how crazy he is and (according to some) is high on coke.
In fact they are immature and dizzy on wealth and power.
Hopefully these countries are beginning to stop this terrible state of things, but they have a long way to go.
For all the sceptics, go talk to some escaped victims, go visit the jails, the torture chambers and go with UN now in Syria, where demonstrators were killed after the UN convoy passed
Courage to all freedom fighters wherever they are, and however they fight, by the word or the gun, when they have to. I don't include religious fanatics in that term; for me they aren't fighting for freedom but more tyranny.
Kind of reminds me of the factual rumours we've always heard about Uday Saddam Hussein!!
However, reading through comments it is evident that the NTC has lost a lot of credibility in non-biased circles. In my opinion, the Gaddafi media and its propaganda machine were winning the tussle at some point just by proving the NTC and Arab media wrong.