Gaddafi: From Arabs' Hero to Zero

DAMASCUS - I never got the chance to meet Muammar Gaddafi in person, although I applied for an interview in 2009 when invited to Tripoli to attend the 40th anniversary of the September coup that had catapulted him to power. Gaddafi did not commit to a time schedule, and I ended up not going. I was later told that the colonel had presented all media guests with a golden Rolex embedded with his photograph.

A friend chuckled, "It wasn't a bribe for us to write something good about the man. Rather, it was a bribe for us to say nothing bad about him! Keeping quiet is one thing, but saying good things about Gaddafi is a completely different story." I ended up with no interview, no expensive watch and by all means, nothing good to say about Gaddafi.