LSE–Gaddafi affair

The affair of the LSE Libya Links refers to the various connections that existed between the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Libyan government and its leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and his family, allegedly involving influence-peddling and breaches of academic standards of conduct. In an effort to improve its international image, the Libyan government donated £1.5 million to a research centre, LSE Global Governance, and signed an additional contract worth £2.2 million for LSE to train Libya officials. In addition, in 2008 LSE granted a PhD degree to Saif al-Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, for a dissertation which allegedly was ghost-written. In December, 2010, Muammar al-Gaddafi addressed the School in a video link-up where he was addressed as "Brother Leader" and received an LSE cap previously given to Nelson Mandela. Since starting to receive Libyan money, LSE academics have written about the country in favorable terms.

In connection with the civil uprising in Libya in February and March, 2011, the links between LSE and the Gaddafi regime, and the conduct of individual members of LSE's staff, came increasingly to be questioned. As a result of the revelations, the LSE's Director, Sir Howard Davies, resigned on March 3, 2011, citing "errors of judgement." In a New York Times op-ed piece on March 7, 2011, Roger Cohen wrote, in reference to events that had transpired at the School, "It may be possible to sink to greater depths but right now I can’t think how. ...The Arab Spring is also a Western Winter."

LSE and the Monitor Group

Main article: Monitor Group

Muammar Gaddafi at the African Union meeting, Feb 2009.

In 2004 Libya's government engaged Monitor Group, a Boston-based consultancy firm founded by Harvard Business School professor Mark Fuller, as advisors on matters of public relations. According to leaked documents, Monitor Group received £2 million "in order to enhance international understanding and appreciation of Libya and the contribution it has made and may continue to make to its region and to the world." In addition, "the goal is to introduce Muammar Qadhafi as a thinker and intellectual, independent of his more widely known and very public persona as the Leader of the Revolution in Libya."

One way to achieve this aim was to recruit prominent journalists and intellectuals who were prepared to travel to Libya and write in positive terms about the country. One prime target was academics associated with the LSE, such as professors Anthony Giddens and David Held. In 2006 and 2007 the company organized two trips to Libya for Giddens, when the former LSE Director met with Muammar al-Gaddafi. Giddens has declined to comment on the financial compensation he received on these occasions.

Giddens' first visit to Libya resulted in articles in the New Statesman, El País and La Repubblica, where he argued that Libya had been transformed. In the New Statesman he wrote: "Gaddafi's 'conversion' may have been driven partly by the wish to escape sanctions, but I get the strong sense it is authentic and there is a lot of motive power behind it. Saif Gaddafi is a driving force behind the rehabilitation and potential modernisation of Libya. Gaddafi Sr, however, is authorising these processes." During the second visit, Monitor Group organized a panel of "three thinkers" — Giddens, Gaddafi, and Benjamin Barber, author of the book Jihad vs. McWorld — chaired by the veteran journalist Sir David Frost. Returning from Libya, Giddens wrote about his "chat with the colonel," in the Guardian, concluding that "If Gadafy is sincere about reform, as I think he is, Libya could end up as the Norway of North Africa."

LSE grants PhD degree to Saif al-Gaddafi

File:Saif al-Islam.jpg

Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi

In 2008, Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, received a PhD from the Department of Philosophy at the LSE with a dissertation entitled "The Role of Civil Society in the Democratization of Global Governance Institutions: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making?" His supervisor was Nancy Cartwright, a philosopher of science, and Alex Voorhoeve, a political philosopher, advised on chapter 4 and the first half of chapter 5. In the text David Held is acknowledged as having "directly advised" the work. The internal examiner, Meghnad Desai, is together with David Held, a co-director of LSE Global Governance, and the external examiner, Anthony McGrew, has collaborated with David Held on seven jointly written or co-edited books. There is some confusion regarding when the degree itself was awarded. The preface of the dissertation says it was submitted in September, 2007; the library of the University of London received its copy in the autumn of 2008; but David Held is on record as saying Saif Gaddafi "received his PhD from the LSE in 2009." What is clear, however, is that the examiners raised concerns at the time of the viva which required revisions to be made and the dissertation to be resubmitted.

In the acknowledgements, Saif Gaddafi thanks "a number of individuals at Monitor Group with whom I worked to design and conduct the NGO Survey which provides empirical data for this thesis." This team consisted of Libyan and foreign academics, led by Professor Omran Bukhres, and included Bruce J. Allyn and Flora Rose, a Cambridge graduate who works for the leader of the House of Lords. When questioned, Monitor Group admitted to having contributed to the dissertation and acknowledged that such assistance had been a mistake. Our aim, they said, had been to "help the Gaddafi regime bring about change." The exact extent of the help provided by the team from Monitor Group is not established, and neither is it clear whether their contribution is in accordance with the rules of the University of London. In addition, it has been claimed that parts of the dissertation have been plagiarized.

"We read the thesis and examined Mr Gaddafi orally for two-and-a-half hours," Meghnad Desai commented, "at no stage did the supervisors or anyone else suggest to us that plagiarism was suspected and we found no reason to do so ourselves." "I can hardly be confident that nobody else helped him," said Nancy Cartwright, "since there's evidence that he lifted bits, but I'm confident that it isn't in the sense done by anybody else start to finish." "We take these accusations seriously, of course," said Voorhoeve, "like any accusations of plagiarism." The claims of plagiarism are to be investigated by the LSE.

According to John Christensen, an LSE lecturer who tutored Saif Gaddafi in economics, "he lacked the intellectual depth to study at that level, and showed no willingness to read let alone do course work." "He claimed to be studying at the LSE," said his neighbors in Knightsbridge, "but there was nothing in his flat which suggested he was a typical student, such as books or files."

Gaddafi donates money to LSE's North Africa Programme

Even before Saif Gaddafi had been examined for his PhD, according to a senior LSE source, the Pro-Directors of the School were "anticipating the solicitation of a donation." The donation finally arrived in June 2009 when the LSE Council accepted a £1.5 million donation from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, of which Saif Gaddafi is the chairman and professor David Held at the time was a member of the board of trustees. This is, said an LSE press release, "a generous donation from an NGO committed to the promotion of civil society and the development of democracy."

The donation was used to create a "North Africa Programme" of which David Held was made director. Kristian Coates-Ulrichsen was recruited as deputy-director and Alia Brahimi, as research fellow, as the minutes of a 2010 meeting show. Brahimi met Saif Gaddafi in Greece and Libya on several occasions to ask Gaddafi how to spend his donation. The programme commissioned scholars to write research reports on various topics relating to North Africa - £10,000 for a 10,000 word report being the standard fee.

Responding to calls that LSE return the donation, David Held explained to the LSE Council that a “public signing ceremony had been undertaken and a U-turn at this juncture might affect the school’s relations with Libya and cause personal embarrassment to the chairman of the foundation”.

LSE trains "Libya's future elite"

The Times reported on March 3, 2011 that the LSE had secured a £2.2 million deal to train hundreds of members of Libya's elite. The School agreed to bring 400 "future leaders" from Libya for training in leadership and management, with an additional 250 people due to be trained in Libya itself. The private commercial arrangement was made by Saif al-Gaddafi. According to WikiLeaks, American diplomats were told in September 2009 by Libya’s National Economic Development Board that they were “co-operating with the U.K. government and the London School of Economics, among other U.K. institutions, on an exchange program to send 400 people to London for leadership and management training." Professor Francis Terry, Dept of Public Management, was academic director for the Libya programme and Julius Sen, LSE Enterprise, the co-director. Professor Terry described his involvement as "a very stimulating experience." According to press reports, references to the program on LSE's website have subsequently been removed.

Fred Halliday: "A Dissenting Note"

Main article: Human rights in Libya

On October 4, 2009, Fred Halliday, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the LSE and the School's leading expert on the Middle East, wrote a memorandum to the LSE Council regarding the proposed cooperation with the Gaddafi Foundation. "I have repeatedly expressed reservations about formal educational and funding links with that country." Halliday said, and in several meetings with David Held, "the leading proponent of our accepting this grant," he had expressed his misgivings, yet Held insisted on pushing the matter forward.

While Held and others who favour accepting the donation argue that "Libya is changing internally," most informed observers agree that while some of the worst excesses for the moment have ceased, the rights of its people are badly protected. Libya "remains a country run by a secretive, erratic and corrupt elite." Since 9/11 the Libyan government has reached compromises with the West on a number of issues, notably the Lockerbie bombing and nuclear weapons. Yet tactical changes in foreign policy are not sufficient for the purposes of evaluating political and academic links. There are also ways in which Libyan foreign policy has not changed: the country continues to call for the destruction of Israel; Muammar Gaddafi recently called for the abolition of Switzerland (!), and he receives the leader of the Somali pirates operating off the Horn of Africa as honoured guests of state. Moreover, Libya's handling of the Lockerbie bombing "has not been characterised by either consistency or clarity,"

I have in the past, Halliday noted, defended accepting grants from authoritarian regimes such as the Gulf states, "but there should be clear limits on this, depending on the degree of political and human rights abuses perpetrated with them and on their ongoing foreign policy conduct." Whitehall and the City are now happy to do business with Libya, but it does not follow that the LSE should do the same. Responsible leaders throughout the Middle East continue to express reservations regarding Libya, including "its more prominent 'liberal' representatives." We must remember, Halliday concluded, that the "liberal" wing within a regime such as Libya does not have the function of producing change but its role is instead "to reach compromises with internal hard-liners that serve to lessen external pressure." A good case in point are the proposals LSE now is considering. It is, as LSE alumni in positions of responsibility in the region caution, "far too early for the School to take this step."

David Held and Saif Gaddafi's Ralph Miliband Lecture

On May 25, 2010, Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi gave a "Ralph Miliband lecture" at the LSE, named after Ralph Miliband, a Marxist scholar and former LSE lecturer. Gadaffi spoke on the topic of "Libya: Past, Present, and Future." In introducing the speaker, professor David Held told the audience that "I have come to know him very well and I must say I have come to like him a great deal." He continued:

Saif is committed to resolving contentious international and domestic issues through dialogue, debate and peaceful negotiations. ... Within his own country Saif has spearheaded efforts to open with Islamic militants about the nature and form of their struggle in order to find ways of bringing them back into the political process. ... His success was based on the use of the language of "soft power," that is, the language of dialogue. ... Throughout this time I've come to know Saif as someone who looks to democracy, civil society and deep liberal values for the core of his inspiration.

On the evening of the lecture, a fight broke out between anti-Gaddafi protesters and pro-Gaddaffi supporters. The police were eventually called in to break up the altercation. In a comment on March 6, 2011, David Miliband, the son of Ralph Miliband and the former UK Foreign Secretary, was critical of LSE's decision to invite Saif Gaddafi:

The Ralph Miliband Programme at the LSE was founded by a former student of my dad's ... The idea of Saif Gaddafi giving a lecture under his name is just horrific to him and horrific to the whole family obviously,

Alia Brahimi and LSE's video link-up with Gaddafi

On December 2, 2010, in a video-link conference hosted by the LSE, Alia Brahimi, of LSE Global Governance, introduced Muammar al-Gaddafi as "Brother Leader," and referred to him as "the world's longest serving national leader."

I will be chairing this on behalf of Howard Davis, the LSE's Director who unfortunately couldn't make it this evening, but who sends the following message, “You are most welcome here Colonel Gaddaffi. We wish you had been able to deliver some Libyan weather at the same time”[Aside from Brahimi]- -this is the message from Howard Davis -- “We are pleased to be asked to train Libya officials, and we hope the relationship will continue.”

Gaddafi used the occasion to denounce the Lockerbie bombing as a "fabrication and creation" of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and revealed that the Libyan national, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the bombing and imprisoned in Scotland in 2001, but returned to Libya in 2009 on health grounds, was preparing a multi-million pound ­compensation claim against ­Britain for false imprisonment and medical neglect. At the end of the lecture, Brahimi gave Muammar Gaddafi a black baseball cap bearing the bright red LSE logo. "You're in good company," she assured him. "Mandela, Kofi Annan, and Bill Clinton also have them." Recounting these felicitations of Gadaffi by Dr. Brahimi, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote, "It may be possible to sink to greater depths but right now I can’t think how." In an interview with Channel 4 News in March 4, 2011, Brahimi said that she now very much regretted becoming involved in the event:

As the only scholar working on Libya at the LSE I was asked to step in at very short notice. ... My words were largely scripted and I was told immediately before the event ... that the speaker would only answer to 'Brother Leader.' I am devastated by the impact of my decision.

Saif al-Gaddafi's "Rivers of Blood" speech

On February 20, 2011, Saif al-Gaddafi delivered an address to the nation on Libyan state television stating that if no agreement could be found between protesters and the government "thousands of deaths, and rivers of blood will run through Libya". He also insisted that his father remained in charge with the army's backing and would "fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet."

On February 28, 2011, CBS News showed a clip of Saif al-Gaddafi addressing a group of supporters in Tripoli. Holding a Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle in the air, he told the crowd that "weapons are on the way." A day earlier, Saif al-Gaddafi had told Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview for ABCNews that the Libyan government "didn't use force to stay in power," and asked her to show him "a single attack, a single bomb, a single casualty". On March 5, 2011, he told CNN's Nic Robertson in an interview that his family won't step down: "I am the government. If we would hold tomorrow election (sic!) my father would win with a big majority". Saif further told CNN that the world should not worry about the "200, 300 even 1000 militia...because now everybody is armed in Libya." In an interview with Benjamin Harvey from Bloomberg, Saif al-Gaddafi said March 8, 2011 that the crisis in Libya was "a passing cloud. This is an historic opportunity for Libya to become a first- class democratic state.”

The contrast between his appearance in Tripoli in 2011 and his appearance as a guest speaker at LSE, said the BBC, "could not have been more stark."

Director Howard Davies resigns

Howard Davies at the Davos Summit

LSE Director Howard Davies resigned on March 3 over the revelations. In a comment Davies said he had left the job because of "two errors of judgment": 1) his advice that a donation from Saif Gaddafi's foundation was acceptable, and 2) his decision to act as a financial adviser to the Libyan government. Davies acknowledged in his resignation letter that it would “be right for me to step down, even though I know that this will cause difficulty for the institution I have come to love.” He added, “The short point is that I am responsible for the school’s reputation, and that has suffered.”

In a statement the LSE's Board of Governors accepted Howard's resignation with "great regret."

Colin Talbot, who holds a PhD degree from the LSE and is currently the Chair of Public Policy and Management at Manchester Business School, told UTv News on March 4, 2011 that Howard Davies should not be blamed for carrying out what amounted to "British diplomatic strategy". Talbot, who also taught on the LSE's Libya program further said that Davies was not the only person responsible for tarnishing the university's reputation, because the British government had encouraged Davies to establish close ties to the Gaddafi family.

The LSE said in a statement on February 21, 2011, that its engagement with the Libyan authorities has already finished or has been stopped following recent events in the country. The School said no more of the £1.5m donation would be accepted. About half of the £300,000 already accepted had been spent and the LSE Council would next consider what to do with the remaining funds, taking into account the views of LSE students.

LSE reactions

Students

Several protest actions were undertaken by LSE students in response to the revelations of the School's links to the Libyan regime, including sit-ins and demonstrations. The students have insisted that LSE repay the donation from Gaddafi's foundation and revoke Saif al-Gaddafi's status as LSE alumnus. According to Ashok Kumar, an officer the LSE students' union, "It's reprehensible that the university continues to benefit from money that was stolen from the Libyan people and it's only right to return it to the people who are now being murdered in the streets fighting for their freedom." Sachin Patel, editor of The Beaver, the LSE student newspaper, stressed the importance of an ethical investment policy for the School.

In an on-line petition, present and former LSE students urged the School to revoke Saif Gaddafi's status as alumnus and to cease all cooperation with the Libyan regime. "We were shocked to find out that the LSE has accepted a £1.5 million donation from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation; an NGO headed by Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.... We are astonished that the donation was accepted in the first place." A Facebook group, "Campaign to Revoke Saif Al Islam's Qaddafi's LSE Degree," has been set up.

Faculty

Lord Desai, co-founder, LSE Global Governance

Professor Meghnad Desai, defended LSE's actions, arguing that "Academic research needs money — Rockefeller was a robber baron once, but we take his money". "It was only after bullets started flying in Libya that Saif Gaddafi was found to have cheated. Nor had anyone until then objected that the LSE had received a donation from Saif Gaddafi's Foundation."

Professor David Held issued a statement saying that "in many discussions and meetings I encouraged the development of Gaddafi's reform agenda and subsequently sought to support it through research on the North Africa Programme funded by the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation."

Saif Gaddafi, said Alex Voorhoeve, "seemed genuinely moved by the desire to study democratic ideals and practice and my colleagues had therefore hoped he would have a liberalizing influence on the Libyan regime. ... I had hoped that at such a crucial moment, he would defend the democratic ideals that he wrote about in his thesis.

These reactions were echoed by Alia Brahimi, who claimed to be "tremendously surprised" by Saif Gaddafi's "Rivers of Blood Speech." Saif Gaddafi, she said, had been a reformer for many years but now "seemed to be backpeddling". "I’ve got nothing to apologise for. Saif told me he was keen that democratic reform should happen soon in Libya."

Henning Mayer, a former employee of David Held, defended the decision to accept Gaddafi's money saying it was made based on information available at the time.

In a statement Fred Halliday's wife said she recalled that her late husband had been opposed to accepting Saif Gaddafi as a student.

The Financial Times reported on March 3, 2011, that the LSE had started to edit official university websites in an attempt to "remove references to Libyan links from its academics’ workplace biographies".

Saif Gaddafi's replies to LSE reactions

In response to the reactions of LSE members of staff, Saif al-Gaddafi was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying "Just a few months ago we were being treated as honoured friends. Now that rebels are threatening our country, these cowards are turning on us. The way my former friends at the LSE have turned against me and my father is particularly upsetting."

Other universities with Libyan links

On May 19, 2009, the French-language journal Jeune Afrique published an investigative report on the Gaddafi family's public relations campaign set up by Monitor. Titled 'Al-Qadhafi: Mirror, Mirror, Tell Me Who is the Most Handsome' (Kaddafi : miroir, miroir, dis-moi qui est le plus beau...) the article detailed how the Monitor group had been organizing visits to Libya by leading academics from US-and UK-based universities in order to meet Gaddafi the 'thinker and intellectual'. In addition to Michael Porter from the Harvard Business School, Francis Fukuyama, Professor of International Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University, Richard Perle, a prominent neoconservative who advised the Bush presidency on the Middle East, as well as Robert Putnam from Harvard University travelled to Tripoli to meet Gaddafi. All the meetings had been organized by the Monitor group.

In the context of the scandal over LSE's Libya connections, it emerged that also Michigan State University had established a program to train future Libyan leaders. Mussa Kussa, Libya's foreign minister and the second most powerful man in Libya after the Qaddafi family received a Master's Degree in Sociology from Michigan State in 1978.

On March 6 2011 the UK Daily Mail reported that the University of Huddersfield was in the process of training 100 Libyan police officers, on master's courses. The University did not deny the allegation.

External links

• London School of Economics and Political Science, official web site.
• Monitor Group, official web site.
• Gaddafi International Foundation For Charity and Development, official web site.
• Fred Halliday, "LSE: and the Qaddafi Foundation: A Dissenting Note", October 4, 2009.
• Saif Al-Islam Alqadhafi, "The Role of Civil Society in the Democratization of Global Governance Institutions: From 'Soft Power' to Collective Decision-Making?" PhD Thesis, London School of Economics, 2008.
• "For the LSE to Revoke the Alumni Status of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and to Cease All Cooperation with the Libyan Regime,".
• Human Rights Watch, "World Report, 2011, New York, 2011, pp. 562-567.