Moussa Muhammad El-haj Nemr Koussa | |
|---|---|
 Koussa in September 2010 | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs of Libya | |
| In office 4 March 2009 – 30 March 2011 | |
| Prime Minister | Baghdadi Mahmudi |
| Leader | Muammar Gaddafi |
| Preceded by | Abdel Rahman Shalgham |
| Succeeded by | Abdelati Obeidi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1949? Tajura,Libya |
| Alma mater | Michigan State University |
Moussa Muhammad El-Haj Nemr Koussa (Arabic:موسى كوسا,Arabic pronunciation:[ˈmusaˌkosa]; born 1949?)[1] is aLibyan political figure and diplomat, who held several high-profile positions in theLibyan government, lastly asMinister of Foreign Affairs from March 2009, into theLibyan Civil War, when he resigned his position on 30 March 2011.[2]
Koussa previously headed theMukhabarat el-Jamahiriya (national intelligence agency) from 1994 to 2009, and was considered one of the country's most powerful figures and a member of Gaddafi's inner circle.[3] When he arrived in theUnited Kingdom in March 2011, theUK Foreign and Commonwealth Office released an official statement saying that Koussa no longer wished to represent the Libyan government[4] and intended to resign.[2] No charges were pressed against him by the British government, and in the following months financial sanctions on him were lifted by the Obama administration. He now lives in a small house in a suburb ofDoha,Qatar, after being asked to leave his suite in Doha's luxuriousFour Seasons hotel.[5]
Koussa was born in theTripoli suburb ofTajura[citation needed] into a respected middle-class family with no significant tribal or other power base. He attendedMichigan State University inEast Lansing,Michigan, earning a degree insociology in 1978 with a 200-plus pages study ofColonel Qaddafi titled "The political leader and his social background: Muammar Qadafi, the Libyan leader".[dubious –discuss] Koussa was offered the chance to continue to study for a doctorate but instead returned to Tripoli. As a student, Koussa took great care with his work, interviewing Gaddafi twice, his family, childhood teachers, friends, and military colleagues, allowing him to paint a vivid picture of the influences and motivations of Gaddafi's revolutionary visions in his thesis, which may be the most comprehensive, revealing document in English about Libya's enigmatic leader. According to his thesis adviser,Christopher K. Vanderpool, Koussa would have had a promising career in academia had he not abandoned plans to study for a doctorate to become one of Gaddafi's closest confidants.[4][6][7] He taught at theUniversity of Tripoli for decades, even while serving the Libyan government in different roles.
After his return to Libya, Koussa was appointed Secretary of the Libyan People's Bureau inLondon in 1979. He was expelled from the United Kingdom in 1980, after commenting too candidly[8] in an interview withThe Times newspaper about his government's intention to eliminate two political opponents who were living in the UK.[9]
From 1984 to 1992, Moussa Koussa was head ofAl-Mathaba Aalamiya (meaning "The Safe house/place"), an ideologicalanti-imperialist organization known in the West as Libya's Center to Resist Imperialism, Racism, Backwardness and Fascism. Its leading members includedNelson Mandela,Fidel Castro,Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,Yoweri Museveni, andRobert Mugabe. Under his tenure, Al-Mathaba played a leading role with theAfrican National Congress againstapartheid in South Africa. Instead, the organization in the West became widely known as a source of training, funding, and supporting revolutionary groups.
Moussa Koussa served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1992 to 1994. In 1994, Gaddafi firedAbdullah Senussi as head of theLibyan intelligence agency and reorganized the agency under a newly formed External Security Organization (ESO), headed by Moussa Koussa from 1994 to 2009. During this phase Moussa Koussa was the key figure in the normalization of relations between Libya and manyNATO nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom. He played a crucial role in securing the release ofAbdelbaset al-Megrahi, the allegedPan Am Flight 103 bomber, whose involvement in the story is quite controversial. Several legal experts as well as the UN observer at theLockerbie trial have vehemently challenged the verdict that convicted Megrahi. Koussa is also credited with the expulsion ofAbu Nidal from Libya, whom he describes as a ruthless murderer and terrorist that Gaddafi allowed to live in Libya in 1986, the year the United States launchedOperation El Dorado Canyon against Gaddafi for his association and harboring of terrorists.[10] On 23 August 2002, the BBC reported that Abu Nidal was 'behindLockerbie bombing'.[11] In October 2008, Moussa Koussa, listed as an interpreter, met both British and Scottish government officials, while on a second visit in January 2009, he was listed as Minister of Security.[9]
In 2004, he allegedly played a leading role in the failed assassination plot againstAbdullah of Saudi Arabia.[12]
Over the decades, Koussa gained a reputation as an urbane and worldly figure "who would not have looked out of place as aWestern ambassador," according to the formerCentral Intelligence Agency agent Paul R. Pillar.[13]
Koussa is further credited by theCIA,British MI6, as well asFrench Intelligence Services for unraveling a labyrinth of Islamic radical and fundamentalist cells and movements in neighboring Sudan, Niger, Mali, and Chad. Such groups would come to be known asAl-Qaeda.[dubious –discuss] On 16 March 1998, five months before the Al-Qaedabombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Libya ordered the first alert toInterpol for the capture ofOsama bin Laden, a fact unbeknown to the wider public.[14] The warrant was forwarded toInterpol in France, where it was formalized on 15 April 1998.
In 2004,George Tenet credited Libya for issuing the first international red notice Interpol alert and arrest warrant forOsama bin Laden.[15] Koussa was also credited for negotiating Libya's decision to give up itsWMD program, thus facilitating Libya's reintegration into the international community.[11]Leaked US diplomatic cables reveal that the U.S. viewed Moussa Koussa as a character of high interest with a combination of intellectual acumen, operational ability, and political weight.[16]Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Tripoli, stated Koussa is "straightforward and reliable ... I found him a perfectly reasonable person to deal with."[17][18] Another leaked cable described him as "a useful and powerful interlocutor who has been mostly cooperative in liaison channels and key to our re-engagement."[19]
Koussa was appointed Foreign Minister in 2009, replacingAbdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham, who was appointed Libyan ambassador to the United Nations in New York. In the May 2009 cable, Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa expressed concerns about theCanadian Government led by Stephen Harper over the issue of ransom payments, which would only further strengthen Al-Qaeda's traction in the Saharan belt and parts of North Africa. There had been eight kidnappings in the past six months, including two Canadian officials who had been released in return for money.[20]
Koussa accompaniedMutassim Gaddafi on a visit to the United Nations headquarters inNew York soon after Libya emerged from international isolation. A U.S. embassy cable quoted Koussa, in a private conversation, as saying that Mutassim was not a keen student of international relations and had to be prompted to read books on the subject. Before theLibya crisis, there were indications that Koussa was no longer at the center of the country's ruling circle. He was held responsible for the defection ofNuri Mesmari to France in October 2010 and his passport was allegedly confiscated by Gaddafi.[21] At an international summit in Tripoli in December 2010, Koussa spent much of his time smoking in the public buffet area while the rest of Gaddafi's entourage were cloistered in a private room.[22]
Koussa, accompanied by his deputyAbdul Ati al-Obeidi,[23] departed Tripoli by car and arrived inTunis,Tunisia, on 28 March 2011, via theRas Ajdir border crossing. A Tunisian government spokesman stated viaTunis Afrique Presse that Koussa had arrived on a "private visit."[24] On 30 March 2011, Koussa departed fromDjerba on aSwiss-registeredprivate jet, while Obeidi returned to Tripoli. Koussa arrived atFarnborough Airfield, England, according to Libyan sources on a diplomatic mission.[25] TheForeign and Commonwealth Office later released an official press statement, stating that Koussa no longer wished to represent the Libyan government and intended to resign,[2][4][7][26] unhappy withLibyan Army attacks on civilians.
Scottish prosecutors interviewed Koussa about theLockerbie bombing, and found no judicial reason or evidence to hold him in captivity.[27] At the time, Koussa was a leading member of Al-Mathaba.[28]
Koussa left the United Kingdom and moved toQatar following a European Union decision to lift sanctions against him, meaning he no longer faces travel restrictions or an asset freeze.[29] Moussa Koussa's role in the torture and deaths of Libyan people was alleged by theBBC TelevisionPanorama programme in October 2011, after which Koussa issued a statement to the press through his lawyer, strongly denying the allegations.[30][31]
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| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Unknown | Head of theLibyan Intelligence Agency 1994–2009 | Succeeded by Unknown |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs of Libya 2009–2011 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
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