Nice family you've got there, Muammar
Mutassim Gaddafi with Hillary Clinton
The New York Times, yesterday
Two Qaddafis Fought Over Business, Cables Show
By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — Soon after Coca-Cola decided to move into Libya in 2005, it received a harsh lesson in how the personal jealousies and brutality of the feuding family of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi shape the nation’s economy.
Two of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons began to fight for control of the local Coca-Cola bottling company, and their battle turned into an armed confrontation dominated by a militia loyal to one of the sons, according to American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. The dispute was settled when Colonel Qaddafi’s daughter intervened, but only after at least one worker was hurt, one Qaddafi cousin was stuffed into the trunk of a car and the Coca-Cola plant was shut down for months, the cables said.
The episode provides a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Qaddafis and more broadly underscores how the whims of ruling families have tainted the climate for economic development in parts of the Arab world.
In the 1990s, with Libya chafing under international sanctions, Coca-Cola did not have a bottling plant in the country. Instead, it was distributed through a franchise in neighboring Tunisia.
It was only after Colonel Qaddafi abandoned his nuclear weapons program in 2003 and sanctions were relaxed by the West that American companies, including Coca-Cola, began to invest there again.
Coca-Cola’s new bottling plant opened in 2005 through a local franchise known as the Global Beverage Company.
But almost immediately, two of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, Mutassim and Mohammed, began to compete for control of Global Beverage. The feud burst into view in late 2005, just two weeks after the plant opened, when security troops loyal to Mutassim occupied the bottling plant in Tripoli, according to a 2006 State Department cable. His militia occupied the plant until February 2006, blocking production.
The State Department cable recounts how on Dec. 28, 2005, “Two military cars carrying armed personnel without clear identification illegally broke into the facility, asked the employees to leave the premises and shut down the plant.”
Mutassim’s forces quickly took control of the plant after one foreign worker was injured and some equipment was destroyed.
During the plant’s occupation, managers were initially allowed to enter the plant “singly or in pairs,” but later Coca-Cola employees were barred completely.
Over the following weeks, company shareholders received extortion demands from “freelancers” while anonymous callers threatened the plant’s foreign workers with “political problems” or physical harm, according to the cable.
“At no time did any Libyan authority offer a legal justification for the plant’s shutdown,” the cable said, recounting complaints from business officials involved.
The battle reached a peak in February 2006, when men loyal to Mutassim went to Mohammed’s residence, where they abducted and assaulted one of his cousins, who is also one of Mohammed’s in-laws, in order to “send a signal to The Engineer (Mohammed),” according to the cable.
[DAPHNE’S NOTE: Mohammed and Mutassim are half-brothers. Mohammed is Muammar Gaddafi’s oldest son, and was born to his first wife. Therefore the cousin mentioned here is Mohammed’s cousin but not Mutassim’s.]
Mutassim’s associates arrived at “Mohammed’s residence and began shouting for him to come out,” the cable says, quoting a witness. “Receiving no response, they left in search of one of Mohammed’s cousins, whom they stowed in the trunk of one of their cars and brought back to the residence.”
One of the company’s board members received a hurried call warning him to leave Tripoli before Mutassim’s men could find him.
Finally, their sister, Aisha Qaddafi, appeared to have become fed up with the fighting and brokered a deal between her brothers. According to the cable, the compromise called for Mohammed to sell his shares in the bottling operation, and in return Mutassim would call off his men and leave the company alone.
One person caught in the middle of the fight told an official from the United States Embassy, according to one of the cables, that “although he had heard stories about doing business in Libya, he never imagined that what transpired was still possible here. ‘You know the movie, ‘The Godfather’? We’ve been living it for the last few months.’ ”
On Wednesday, Kerry Tressler, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta, acknowledged that in 2006 there had been “a period of uncertainty about the local ownership of the bottler” in Libya, but that the problem was eventually resolved.
She said that production and distribution at the bottling plant have now stopped because of the protests and unrest.
The State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said it would have no comment on the cables’ revelations.
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Oh, thank goodness that the Libyan business of Coca Cola is controlled by the Gaddafi family. That means no one can put any drugs in it as they did with milk and coffee.
And here’s their dad, taking on Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JDct2pJeZM
Horrible suit – the one on the left.
Maybe Mohammed and Mutassim were only “figure heads” at Coca Cola.
These yahoos remind me of the McCoys and Calhoons in South Carolina, related, but hated each other.
The feud was about control of the moonshine stills.
Probably much more important to them than a Coke. They killed each other off and no one won. Too bad that the Gadaffi sister got involved. The inevitable demise of this evil family could have been a lot easier.
Dear Daphne,
Just to inform you there’s an interesting story in bbc.co.uk on the Head of LSE’s resignation for advising the LSE that ‘reasonable’ to accept money from the Gaddafis.
Salvu
[Daphne – Yes, I’ve just read it. What an awkward and difficult situation – but one of their own making.]
The money was meant to finance scholarships for Libyan students. It turns out Gaddafi was to select them himself, rather than letting the LSE do that. They were to be the ‘future leaders of Libya’ – the next Gaddafi regime, in other words.
Sort of like Malta’s Commonwealth and Chevening scholarship selection boards?
H.P. Baxxter
No. Whatever was wrong with the selection boards you mention, none of them represented a bloody dictatorial regime.
The LSE’s mistake was to think that there was no difference between the Gaddafi scholarship scheme and the ones you mention.
The reverence I hold for LSE has been dimmed somewhat. I was fortunate enough to take a number of post graduate courses at their Economic Intelligence Unit many years ago. However, I am sure the academic excellence of the institution will be maintained.
Seems to me that Gaddafi’s ‘family’ is akin to a Heinz 57 concoction.
With regards to the sons’ upbringing, what would one expect being raised by the African King of Kings who welcomes heads of states in a tent in order to make believe that he is an ‘ordinary down-to-earth chap’ living in a humble abode, while at the same time he has (had) mansions and palaces with indoor Olympic sized pools and underground bomb- proof bunkers complete with generators, air filters and conditioners and supplies which would last for a minimum of six months?
I suppose even Americans can be duped.
The Gaddafis are a family of thugs. No wonder Labourites like them so much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSa4RSrUyw
The Eritrean community’s appeal for help for family and friends trapped in LIbya.
Cheat sheet to the Green Book:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-02/gaddafis-green-book-the-top-10-quotes/?om_rid=NsgR$D&om_mid=_BNb-zIB8Zce2pM
Aha! Now Joey and Karmenu can build (plagiarise) on this brilliancy and, presto, a ‘New’ Labour manifesto.
Dear Daphne,
I am sure you heard Dr Frank Portelli speak re: Commission to withdraw honours of the republic, particularly to Gaddafi. What are your thoughts?
http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/csm-photo-galleries-images/in-pictures-images/qaddafi-a-look-back/04/9701716-1-eng-US/04_full_600x400.jpg
[Daphne – http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2011/02/27/strip-him-of-his-maltese-gongs/ ]
@ La Redoute, horrible suit the one on the left? Well, at least he’s not wearing jeans. Maybe you could have a look at most of our MPs and the way they dress and let us have your comments. Thanks.
I have yet to see one wearing a metallic, bronze-coloured suit.
http://www.infowars.com/liberated-libya-rejects-us-intervention/
Mutassim somehow reminds me of ‘Fusellu’ of the Golden Years.
Amazingly, James Tyrell hasn’t emerged to tell Malta what it should do about Gaddafi.
Maybe he’s finally found something to do in County Antrim, with or without people like the FAA.
Carmel Cilia’s another one with a cunning plan.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110303/local/eritreans-plead-for-help-for-asylum-seekers-stranded-in-libya
Carmel Cilia
It seems in Malta everybody has the right and chance to protest except us Maltese. Who and when is somebody going to organise a protest against illigal immigration. I hope the usual channels would not tell us that today it is not right to protest.
If we let one single man from this mess into our island we would no longer be able to stem the surge. I hope that our political leaders bothe Dr. Gonzi and Dr. Muscat realise this.
They would be help responsible for what could happen to maltese citizens if this rock is invaded by foreignors of this sort. It is also about time that we show the back door to all those who recommend that because of our religion we should accept these multitudes.
Our existence would depend on what we do today.
What a world of contrasts we live in. Contrasts of every shape, colour and size. Makes the planet so beautiful. However, there are no less contrasts than in the human condition.
Many countries in the world are ruled by despots. Some as vicious, others less so, than Gaddafi. Look at the Ivory Coast and so many others. I think, actually, that there are more people in the world living under the yoke of dictators than people living in liberal democracies.
At this stage I am certainly at a loss of what the democracies of the world should do about the rest. There are simply too many oppressed. Even the media spot lights are not evenly distributed and cannot cope with the coverage.
Sometimes, when I hear of massacres here and massacres there, I would not know what to say and think. Sometimes I actually think that the free world has too much on its plate to solve all the world’s problems (and I am talking only about regime change here!). Anyway, enough of my ramblings, maybe I am wrong, who knows.