Continued from previous page “People believed his son Saif [al-Islam Qaddafi] when he started to show a different face than his father. When we established diplomatic relations with the United States, we thought there might be a chance for this man to listen to members of Congress. I thought that having relations with Western countries would help.� He added: “I always believed that if there were good people in positions in government, they could change things for the better. So for many of these people who had a different view of things [than Qaddafi], when they had a chance, they spoke out.� That included several of Aujali’s diplomatic colleagues around the world, as Qaddafi’s ambassadors to the United Nations and elsewhere abandoned the longtime leader shortly after the fighting broke out. On a smaller scale,Aujali’s own about-face has in many ways mirrored the twists and turns of a conflict that’s forever altered the course of Libyan history. In recent months, as the anti-Qaddafi protests escalated back home, the situation in Washington got more uncomfortable for the seasoned envoy, who could no longer hide his true feelings. He finally decided to break with the regime he’d represented for decades once and for all in late February, after watching TV footage of Qaddafi’s ruthless response to peaceful protests outside a courthouse in Benghazi. “It was a symbolic gathering. But Qaddafi learned from the Tunisian and Egyptian protests that his only option was to hit back strong and without any mercy. So he started killing people. I called my colleagues to find out what was going on in my country. It was terrible seeing women screaming into their cell phones as they were being attacked.� But his son Saif — the urbane, impeccably dressed, fluent English-speaking reformer with a
CREDIT: UN PHOTO / OCHA / DAVID OHANA
A refugee wanders a transit camp shrouded in an air of uncertainty. The violent standoff between pro-government loyalists and a ragtag rebel army has forced around 325,000 people to flee Libya, possibly killed thousands, and sparked a foreign military intervention.
Ph.D. from the London School of Economics who became Libya’s gentler public face to the Western world — turned out to be the biggest shocker of all for Aujali. In a nationally televised speech, Saif warned fellow Libyans that “rivers of blood would flow� if the protests aimed at toppling his father didn’t stop. “It was unbelievable,� Aujali recalled. “When he started speaking, I was just about to collapse. I had never expected him to say such things. Saif had been wearing a mask these last 18 years, talking about reform, democracy, free speech, the role of NGOs, the future Libya. But he was cheating us all
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this time. Nobody expected this.� On the afternoon of Feb. 25, with TV cameras rolling and surrounded by noisy supporters, Aujali joyously replaced the drab green flag of the Qaddafi regime atop the official Libyan residence on Wyoming Avenue with the green, black and red tricolor of Libya’s pre-1969 monarchy. “Our goal is freedom. Our goal is democracy,� Aujali told the raucous crowd, in a speech that left no doubt about this diplomat’s real sympathies. Yet the same can’t be said for all his embassy colleagues. At one point, pro-Qaddafi personnel even changed the locks to keep their boss out,
prompting Aujali to call the police. Eventually, those staffers were ordered to leave the premises. In any event, the embassy — located on the seventh floor of the Watergate building — suspended its operations March 15 on orders from the State Department. “It’s now under the custody of a local staff member,Anwar Gusbi, a Libyan-American who’s worked at the embassy since 2004. He cannot issue visas or do any official functions; he’s there only to pay bills,� Aujali told The Diplomat, adding that in the meantime,“I have to find a place where I can function. I have so much work to do. We have so many issues to handle.� Initially, the Obama administration appeared on the verge of cutting ties to Aujali, with former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley telling reporters March 1 that Aujali “no longer represents Libya’s interests in the United States.� However, that decision was later reversed, with officials telling Foreign Policy’s “The Cable� blog that it still regarded Aujali as its top interlocutor with the Libyan Embassy, although he’s no longer a formal ambassador. The diplomat says it’s vital for the Obama White House to maintain official contacts with the budding opposition in Libya — rather than fomenting an uprising but maintaining ties with the regime that uprising is supposed to overthrow. He told “The Cable� that envoys such as himself who have broken with Qaddafi “must be recognized as the legitimate representatives of the new Libya� or the movement will have no voice overseas. As of this writing, 10 of Aujali’s former staffers have already left the United States; the remainder will have to return to Libya by April 15, unless they opt to support the transitional government declared in Benghazi.Aujali, meanwhile, remains in a state of legal limbo as the drama back home plays out — a private citizen who’s a quasi representative for a shadow government. “I have credentials from the National Interim
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The Washington Diplomat
April 2011