h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7135788.stm

(Does the article mention that the minister of foreign affairs dodged the official Monday evening dinner?)

So "France received a head of state who renounced terrorism". What is Sarkozy trying to achieve now (apart from sealing commercial deals)? Will Gaddafi be our new Arafat? And should Sarkozy have received him despite opposition from his government?

The Blair government courted Gadaffi too and I don't think Gordon Brown has changed his position. At the time, Jack Straw rather stupidly demonstrated the normalisation of relations by referring to "President Gadaffi" a title I don't believe he has ever claimed. Gadaffi's role is rather like that of the Roman Emperors: he holds absolute power unofficially but officially he's just a colonel in the army and the country is run by "committees".

As for the reason: Gadaffi's politics are a mixture of socialism (by local democracy in theory although this isn't what happens) and a moderate form of Islam. Despite the repressiveness of the regime and absoluteness of Gadaffi's rule, his actual political beliefs strike me as quite mild, even slightly leftist. Because of this he is strongly anti-Islamist and therefore a natural enemy of movements like Al-Quaida. I think this explains why European governments are courting him.

His reputation is largely due to his previous support for leftist or nationalist terrorists which he has since abandoned (largely, I think, because the sort of terrorist movements he supported have declined sharply).

There's an obvious hypocrisy here. Gadaffi is still a dictator and his regime is still repressive and this stinks of the sort of Kissingerite realpolitik we keep being reminded led to all the trouble in the Middle East and the rise of the likes of Saddam Hussein in the first place...

"(apart from sealing commercial deals)"

There's also that. Libya has oil and, despite what some think, the best way of getting access to a country's oil isn't to invade it but to build strong links to its rulers whoever (and whatever) they might be.

Having said that, France is one of the few countries that really understands what a weakness a reliance on foreign oil is and is striving to be energy-independent via nuclear power.

Wasn't there a stink previously about France trading uranium and nuclear technology with Libya for oil ?

Not sure but the French government has pretty unclean hands when it comes to dealing with dictators. Do you have any sort of reference?

My memory.