Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat – Musa Kusa’s defection from the Gaddafi regime represents just one more surprising incident in the surprising life of this former senior Libyan government official, and close confidant of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Musa Kusa is a man who, as the former Libyan intelligence chief and foreign minister, knows where the bodies are buried, and his defection represents a major blow to the Libyan regime.
Musa Kusa was born into a well-respected middle class family in Tripoli on 23 March 1949. He was a bright student, eventually winning a scholarship to study in the US, obtaining an MA in Sociology from Michigan State University in 1978. Kusa later joined the Gaddafi government, working variously in the fields of diplomacy and security and intelligence.
Kusa began his career in Libyan intelligence, working as a security specialist for Libyan embassies in northern Europe, before being appointed Libya’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1980. However he remained in this position for less than a year, being expelled by Britain for publicly advocating the killing of Libyan dissidents abroad. He reportedly told The Times newspaper in 1980 that “the revolutionary committees have decided to kill two more people in the United Kingdom. I approve of this.” On another occasion, he reported professed his admiration for the IRA militants fighting the British state. Tripoli claimed that he had been misquoted.
What is strange is that Kusa’s expulsion was not a hindrance, but rather helped to draw attention to the young radical Libyan official, bringing him to the attention of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi at the height of Libya’s intransigence towards the West. Gaddafi viewed Kusa – a young, well-educated and radical Libyan official – as having stood up to western imperialism, and rewarded him accordingly with a good government position.
However this is not the first known contact between Gaddafi and Kusa, and this relationship can be traced to the early 1970s and Kusa’s time as a Michigan State university student. Indeed, the then 30-year old Libyan postgraduate student wrote a 209-page Masters thesis about the dictator. According to reports, Kusa interviewed the Libyan leader twice, in addition to Gaddafi family members, childhood teachers, friends, and military personnel, as part of his dissertation research. It seems that the radical Libyan student caught Colonel Gaddafi’s eye, for he convinced him to abandon his academic plans and return to Libyan and join the Revolutionary Committee. One of Kusa’s former professors, Christopher K Vanderpool, told the Los Angeles Times that “He [Kusa] was a very bright guy” adding “if he had become a professor or a social planner, he would have done very well.”
Following his expulsion from Britain, Kusa worked in Libyan intelligence and security, reportedly being responsible for so-called “black” or deniable operations carried out against Libyan opposition figures, and these included assassination campaigns against Libyan dissidents abroad. This led to him being given the name “the envoy of death” and a number of western states, in addition to Arab states, have accused Kusa of being the mastermind behind a number of terrorist operations believed to have been carried out by the Libyans during the 1980s. These include the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, the UTA Flight 772 bombing in 1989, the Berlin discotheque bombing in 1986, as well as the murder of British Police Officer Yvonne Fletcher outside of the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.
Kusa returned to the diplomatic scene in 1992 as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, during a period which saw international sanctions being imposed upon Libya. In 1994, he was appointed head of the Libyan intelligence service, known as the External Security Organization, holding this position for the next 15 years.
Kusa played a prominent role in bringing Libya in from the cold, playing a key role in negotiating compensation for the families of victims of the Lockerbie and Niger airliner bombings. He also played a key role in securing the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset el-Megrahi. This all began following the September 11 attacks, with some reports claiming that Kusa personally flew to London shortly following this attack, bringing with him Libya’s intelligence dossiers of known Al Qaida terrorists. This ended with Kusa negotiating the dismantling of Libya’s nuclear project, in return for sanctions being lifted, and Libya being removed from the international terrorist list, ending the country’s international isolation.
In March 2009, the wheel turned once more, and Kusa again found himself returning to diplomacy, however this time as Libya’s Foreign Minister, replacing Abdul Rahman Shalqam who was made Libyan permanent representative to the UN.
Whilst in July 2010, he also simultaneously took over as Libya’s National Security Adviser, replacing Mutasim Gaddafi who was relieved of this position due to differences of opinion with his father’s inner circle.
Kusa’s various posts within the Gaddafi regime, not to mention his close relationship with Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, means that he is in possession of much sought-after insider knowledge, and that is why his defections represents such a blow to the Gaddafi regime. Indeed, Libyan representative to the UN, Abdul Rahman Shalqam described Kusa as being “the black box” of the Libyan regime, the keeper of its secrets.
However some reports indicate that Kusa fell out of favor with Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi over the past few years, whilst his relationship with the Gaddafi children has always been precarious. In fact, some rumors claim that Mutasim Gaddafi punched the then Libyan Foreign Minister in the face in 2010 during an argument.
Kusa’s defection from Libya on 30 March 2011, came as a complete shock to the Gaddafi regime, with officials first denying this, claiming that he was on a “diplomatic mission” to London, and later attempting to play down the significance of this news, describing Kusa as being “tired and exhausted” and “an old man” who “cannot take the pressure.”
Following this, sources close to Colonel Gaddafi informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the Libyan leader was speechless upon hearing the news of the defection of his former foreign minister, and said that Gaddafi was feeling isolated and alone.
US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks, reveal that the US views Musa Kusa as being “rare among Libyan officials – he embodies a combination of intellectual acumen, operational ability, and political weight.” There can be no doubt that the Gaddafi regime, however long it remains, and regardless of the information that Kusa reveals to the West, will solely miss their envoy of death.