Why did the U.S. and its allies bomb Libya? I wrote about how illicit funds Sarkozy is said to have received from Gaddafi in the run-up to Sarkozy's 2007 presidential election influenced France's decision to intervene in 2011: interc.pt/2jdu2jZ
The story of Sarkozy’s strange relationship with Gaddafi begins in 2003, when the United Nations lifted harsh sanctions against Libya that were imposed in the wake of the Lockerbie bombing. France was also developing a close business and intelligence relationship with Libya. 2/
In 2006, Gaddafi bought a surveillance system from a French company close to Sarkozy, (at the time France’s interior minister) After he was elected president, Sarkozy received Gaddafi for a five-day state visit, his first trip to France in 30+ years. 3/
During the visit, Gaddafi said Libya would purchase $5.86 billion of French military equipment. That was still under negotiation when protests broke out in Tunisia in 2011, and Sarkozy was badly embarrassed by diplomatic blunders in Tunisia as the Arab Spring took form. 4/
As protests broke out in Libya and Gaddafi put them down violently, France was at first reticent to intervene militarily in Libya. When Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice + staffs telegraphed that they wanted Gaddafi gone and got the Arab League on board, Sarkozy changed his tune. 5/
On March 10, 2011, Sarkozy showed he was leading the fight against Gaddafi by becoming the 1st head of state to recognize the National Transitional Council as Libya’s legitimate government. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said this was “a crazy move by France.” 6/
Two days after the no-fly zone resolution passed, Sarkozy held a meeting at the Élysée on 5/19 to plan the military strategy with Obama, Cameron, NATO, + the Arab League. A gung-ho Sarkozy sent 20 French jets to carry out the first sorties four hours ahead of schedule. 7/
Gaddafi first asserted that he paid Sarkozy’s campaign in an interview two days before the first NATO bombs were dropped. His son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi made similar statements shortly thereafter. These claims were largely dismissed by French media as desperate smear attempts. 8/
In 2012, however, the French investigative news website @Mediapart published a Libyan document signed by Gaddafi’s spy chief, Moussa Koussa, arranging for 50 million euros to support Sarkozy’s campaign, which French authorities later found to be authentic. 9/
Ziad Takiéddine, a French-Lebanese arms dealer who helped arrange Sarkozy’s 05 visit to Libya (Sarkozy was interior minister) has testified in court that in 06/07 he fetched suitcases stuffed with millions of euros in cash in Libya + delivered them to Sarkozy + Claude Guéant. 10/
Claude Guéant (who became interior minister after the election), opened a large vault at BNP in Paris for seven months during Sarkozy's presidential campaign. When asked what he used the vault for, he said it was to hold Sarkozy's campaign speeches. 11/
The former Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi has asserted in media interviews that payments were made. French authorities have also examined handwritten notes by Gaddafi’s oil minister, Shukri Ghanem, that detailed three payments totaling 6.5 million euros to Sarkozy. 12/
Austrian police found Ghanem’s body in the Danube on April 29, 2012, one week after the 1st round of pr elections that Sarkozy was contesting. American ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens said, “not one Libyan I have spoken to believes he flung himself into the Danube." 13/
1 of the ppl said to have organized payments, head of Libyan investment portfolio, Bashir Saleh, was smuggled to Tunisia by French special forces, acc to @Mediapart. “He is suspected of having swapped records for help from France to save him from the jaws of the revolution." 14/
In 2012, a photograph showed Saleh walking freely in Paris despite an Interpol arrest warrant. Saleh then flew to Johannesburg, where he has been living ever since. In March '18, Saleh was shot while coming back to his house from the airport in Johannesburg. 15/
Sarkozy’s successor, François Hollande, wrote in his book (while comparing himself to Sarkozy) that “as President of the Republic, I was never held for questioning. I never spied on a judge, I never asked anything of a judge, I was never financed by Libya.” 16/
Last month, French police detained and questioned Sarkozy about the Gaddafi payments. A few days later, Sarkozy was ordered to stand trial for corruption and influence-peddling in a case in which he had sought information on the Gaddafi inquiry from an appeals court judge. 17/
The French courts' investigations into Sarkozy's Gaddafi funding is not likely to stop anytime soon. But seven years after the intervention, Sarkozy's narrative positioning himself at the forefront of a pro-democracy, anti-Gaddafi intervention demands another look. 18/18 (END)
This is an image of Bashir Saleh's Nigérien diplomatic passport from Niger 
Related: “The public interest in understanding Britain’s policy towards Libya is overwhelming,” Ashton said. “It seems extraordinary that the Cabinet Office has resisted my freedom of information request at every turn.” gu.com/p/8j33c/stw
