BBC
Since Muammar Gaddafi's
ignominious death at the hands of a rebel mob in October 2011 much has
been written and said about him. But now a new film, with unprecedented
access to those close to Gaddafi, provides a comprehensive study of
Libya's brutal and contradictory long-time leader.
Ali Aujali, Gaddafi's former ambassador to the United States, is an exceptionally charming man.
He is also something of a magician. He began
his career in the Libyan diplomatic service a couple of years after
Gaddafi seized power in 1969.
In a series of postings from London to Latin America, he
explained away the excesses of the Gaddafi regime. So I was rather
surprised to sit with Mr Aujali surrounded by the staggeringly ornate
Libyan embassy in Washington and hear him tear the colonel to pieces.
Mr Aujali defected to the rebels in February 2011 and became their ambassador to the United States.
According to him, there was literally nothing good about the man whose regime he had served most of his adult life.
Secret after secret spilled out. We checked as many of his claims as we could.
There were anecdotes we could not follow up, such as his
claim that a young man had been tied to two cars and ripped in half
after complaining that Gaddafi had had sex with his wife.
But there were other claims we could check.
One was that on 22 December 1992, almost four years to the
day after Pan Am 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, a Libyan Arab Airlines
727 was shot down on Gaddafi's orders.
A total of 157 people - Libyans and foreigners - had died.
