After seizing power, Gaddafi proceeded to eliminate any opposition and severely restricted lives of ordinary Libyans. Gaddafi's ideology was termed the Third International Theory and it was described in the Green Book. Gaddafi's family took over much of the economy. Gaddafi used billions of his rising oil revenues on international projects. He started several wars, had role in others, and spent on acquiring both chemical and nuclear weapons. More discreetly, he directed the country's revenues to sponsor terror and other political activities around the world. The United Nations called Libya under Gaddafi a pariah state. In the 1980s Gaddafi's support for terror led countries around the world to establish sanctions against Gaddafi Gaddafi succeeded to get rid of sanctions in the 1990s and 2000s.
In the wake of Arab Spring in February 2011, a movement demonstrating against Gaddafi spread across the country. Gaddafi responded by dispatching the military and plainclothes armed men on streets to attack demonstrators; however, many switched sides. Gaddafi went into a civil war with the movement. Since then he has lost control of most of eastern Libya. In August 2011, Gaddafi lost much of Tripoli to the uprising. Gaddafi's forces continue warfare in some locations.
Gaddafi's current location is unknown. He faces prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. Billions of dollars of his assets have been frozen around the world.
And although the man whom Ronald Reagan christened “the mad dog of the Middle East” has survived several assassination attempts in these 41 years, and been subjected a succession of military strikes and economic coercion for his active involvement in terrorist strikes targeting the West, his cardinal mistake was giving up his nuclear weapons as part of a “rapprochement” with the West in 2003-04.
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