# Muammar Gaddafi

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Muammar Gaddafi," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/muammar-gaddafi/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Libya's ruler and, in John Kiriakou's telling, the cautionary tale that teaches every proliferator never to disarm. In February 2003 the CIA's Steve Kappes secretly visited Gaddafi with an ultimatum — the U.S. was about to overthrow Saddam, and Libya would meet the same fate unless it surrendered its weapons of mass destruction. Gaddafi complied — and was later overthrown and lynched anyway, "at the insistence of the United States." A bad guy, Kiriakou stresses, but one Washington had a healthy working relationship with, who hated al-Qaeda as much as America did; flipping sides to destroy him was "a terrible policy error" that left anarchy.*

- **Who:** Ruler of Libya, 1969–2011
- **The 2003 ultimatum:** Steve Kappes's secret trip — disarm or meet Saddam's fate
- **The compliance:** Gaddafi surrendered his WMD programs
- **The lesson (per Kiriakou):** Disarmed anyway — which is exactly why Iran wants deterrence

**Muammar Gaddafi** ruled Libya for four decades — and his end supplies [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) with one of his most-repeated lessons about American promises.

## The Libya model

In February 2003, Kiriakou recounts, [Steve Kappes](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/steve-kappes) — then the CIA's associate deputy director for operations — made a secret trip to Libya and told Gaddafi the United States was about to attack Iraq and overthrow [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein); if Gaddafi didn't want to meet the same fate, he would have to turn over all his weapons of mass destruction. *"And that's exactly what he did."*[1][2]

Then came 2011: Gaddafi — disarmed — was overthrown and *"lynched by his own people at the insistence of the United States."* The Iranians watched, Kiriakou says, and drew the only rational conclusion: develop a homegrown weapons industry and never trust the deal. The gap between what the United States says and what it does is the whole story.[3]

## The serial prediction

Kiriakou has since folded Libya into a second argument, in which Gaddafi's removal is not an isolated error but the middle term of a pattern he attributes to [Benjamin Netanyahu](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/benjamin-netanyahu). Prefacing it as *"maybe be a little controversial"*, he points to video of Netanyahu testifying before Congress in 2002 that [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein) was an existential threat to Israel and to the United States, and that overthrowing him would bring peace to the Middle East. *"And then there wasn't."*[4]

The same testimony followed, he says, in 2008 or 2009, with the name changed: *"If we overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and the Libyan government, they're an existential threat to the United States and to Israel. We'll have peace in the Middle East."* Kiriakou's verdict on the outcome is four words long — *"And we did that, and it just made everything worse."* A year before he spoke, the same argument was made a third time about the Iranian government.[5]

He states the pattern flatly when he sets out the three claims in sequence — Saddam, Gaddafi, then Iran, each removal promised to bring peace to the Middle East: *"Nothing that he tells us is true. Nothing."*[6] His objection is to the price rather than the prediction: *"We do all of Israel's dirty work for it. We kill thousands, tens of thousands of people, and what do we get out of it? Nothing."*[7]

The argument closes back on the Libya model. Having laid out the three overthrows, Kiriakou asks what a leader of Iran can rationally do to protect himself, and answers that the only thing available is to build a nuclear weapon — noting that nobody is having a conversation about North Korea.[7] Gaddafi disarmed and was killed; the lesson he draws is the one he says Tehran drew.

## "A terrible policy error"

Kiriakou is unsentimental about the man — *"a very bad guy"* — but the policy verdict is severe: Washington had a healthy working relationship with Gaddafi, who hated al-Qaeda as much as America did. *"Flipping sides at the last minute... to overthrow Gaddafi was a terrible policy error. Look at the place now — it's literally anarchy."*[8][9] Libya's aftermath — shifting desert borders, tribal society, gun-running from the first days of the uprising — became a no-man's-land.[10] He cited the Libya disaster in real time as the reason not to repeat the play against Assad,[11] and notes the speculation that Gaddafi's gold-dinar project — a threat to the dollar — was part of why Libya was destroyed.[12]

Gaddafi also features in Kiriakou's standing complaint about the "crazy" reflex: Saddam was crazy, Gaddafi was crazy, bin Laden was crazy, Arafat was crazy — *"everybody that we don't like is crazy. They're not crazy."*[13][14]

## See also

- [Steve Kappes](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/steve-kappes)
- [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein)
- [Osama bin Laden](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/osama-bin-laden)

## Sources

1. This Is What They Don't Tell You About Iran / Harry Berger & (2025-05-10), at 06:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sKiso0Zyko&t=402s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-05-10-neutrality-studies-this-is-what-they-don-t-tell-you-about-iran-h/
2. This Is What They Don't Tell You About Iran / Harry Berger & (2025-05-10), at 07:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sKiso0Zyko&t=432s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-05-10-neutrality-studies-this-is-what-they-don-t-tell-you-about-iran-h/
3. This Is What They Don't Tell You About Iran / Harry Berger & (2025-05-10), at 07:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sKiso0Zyko&t=464s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-05-10-neutrality-studies-this-is-what-they-don-t-tell-you-about-iran-h/
4. Is It Over For Netanyahu? Poll Shows Most Americans Support His ARREST | Ep. 6 (2026-07-30), at 09:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-utK73sjrc4&t=592s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-30-john-kiriakou-is-it-over-for-netanyahu-poll-shows-most-amer/
5. Is It Over For Netanyahu? Poll Shows Most Americans Support His ARREST | Ep. 6 (2026-07-30), at 10:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-utK73sjrc4&t=624s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-30-john-kiriakou-is-it-over-for-netanyahu-poll-shows-most-amer/
6. REVEALS the Dark Reality of Intel Ops (2026-06-08), at 27:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5osl-M9do&t=1676s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-08-the-sharpe-exchange-reveals-the-dark-reality-of-intel-ops/
7. Is It Over For Netanyahu? Poll Shows Most Americans Support His ARREST | Ep. 6 (2026-07-30), at 10:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-utK73sjrc4&t=654s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-30-john-kiriakou-is-it-over-for-netanyahu-poll-shows-most-amer/
8. John Kiriakou - Reluctant Spy (2024-09-18), at 26:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0fzn4Ur3ZU&t=1594s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-09-18-opperman-report-john-kiriakou-reluctant-spy/
9. John Kiriakou - Reluctant Spy (2024-09-18), at 27:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0fzn4Ur3ZU&t=1626s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-09-18-opperman-report-john-kiriakou-reluctant-spy/
10. John Kiriakou - Reluctant Spy (2024-09-18), at 35:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0fzn4Ur3ZU&t=2125s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-09-18-opperman-report-john-kiriakou-reluctant-spy/
11. My interview w/ whistleblower John Kiriakou (2015-12-14), at 22:41. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tXTtCHZs0g&t=1361s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-12-14-arn-menconi-my-interview-w-whistleblower-john-kiriakou/
12. REAL Reason Trump Sent Troops To Saudi Oil (2019-09-30), at 12:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es2hDUTNsfg&t=754s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-09-30-the-jimmy-dore-show-real-reason-trump-sent-troops-to-saudi-oil/
13. Scheer Intelligence: Kiriakou on Biden's Groveling (2022-07-24), at 44:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wj4fhopkfc&t=2686s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-07-24-scheerpost-scheer-intelligence-kiriakou-on-biden-s-grove/
14. An Interview With John Kiriakou (CIA Whistleblower On Th (2022-07-23), at 07:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULlvbl5ym8E&t=438s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-07-23-the-darkened-hour/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/muammar-gaddafi/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt