Rebels find photos of Gadhafi ‘darling’ Condoleezza Rice in compound

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This article was published 26/08/2011 (5136 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan rebels who took control of Moammar Gadhafi’s sprawling compound found a photo album with pictures of Condoleezza Rice in one of the buildings.

Over the years, Gadhafi’s comments and actions related to the former U.S. secretary of state have raised a few eyebrows.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television in 2007, he hinted then-U.S. president George W. Bush’s top diplomat wielded considerable influence in the Arab world.

“I support my darling black African woman,” he said. “I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders…. Leezza, Leezza, Leezza… I love her very much. I admire her, and I’m proud of her, because she’s a black woman of African origin.”

The following year, Gadhafi and Rice met when she visited Libya as a step toward normalizing relations between the countries.

Gadhafi hosted Rice in his home — which former U.S. president Ronald Reagan once ordered bombed in retaliation for Libya’s attack on a German disco — for the meal that ends the daytime fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He repeatedly addressed Rice — “Condi” to her friends — as “Leezza,” her aides said.

He presented Rice with gifts worth $212,000 — a diamond ring, a lute, a locket with an engraved likeness of himself and an inscribed edition of The Green Book, his personal political manifesto. (Rules prevent U.S. officials from keeping gifts from foreign leaders.)

Rice did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the photo album.

“Bizarre and creepy are good adjectives to describe much of Gadhafi’s behaviour, so (it) doesn’t surprise me,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “It’s deeply bizarre and deeply creepy, though, if it is as you described.”

 

— The Associated Press