How Qaddafi (Castro) Hoodwinked Italy (Spain)

March 6, 2011

BY: CAPITOL HILL CUBANS

There's a great column in Foreign Policy on Qaddafi's relationship with its former colonial power, Italy.

Simply substitute Qaddafi for Castro and Italy for Spain, and note the eerie similarities.

Here's an excerpt:

Roman Ruins

How Muammar al-Qaddafi hoodwinked Italy for decades.

Given all this, you might find it odd -- as I still do -- that Qaddafi's closest European ally is, or was until very recently, none other than the Italian government. During his four decades of rule, the colonel managed to convince Italian leaders not only that their country owed Libya a historical debt, but that Rome couldn't do without Tripoli's help on everything from terrorism to immigration to oil. He extracted huge concessions from Rome and won huge economic windfalls for cronies including Farhat Bengdara, governor of the Central Bank of Libya, who became vice chairman of UniCredit, the biggest Italian bank, in 2009. Perhaps most significantly, he convinced Italy to be an evangelist for Libya's reintegration into the world community. The result is an absurdly asymmetrical relationship between the two countries; Qaddafi was always the winner.