What Qaddafi Said

Excerpts from Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's Last Televised Address  

February 22, 2011

Muammar Qaddafi has no official post so that he can pout and resign from it, like other presidents did. Muammar Qaddafi is not a president. He is a revolutionary leader. Revolution means perpetual sacrifice until death.

This is my country, the country of my forefathers and of your forefathers. We planted it and watered it with the blood of our forefathers. We are more worth of Libya than those rats and hirelings. Who are those hirelings, paid for by foreign intelligence services?! God damn them! They brought shame to their children, their families and their tribes, that is if they have children, families and tribes.

But they don't have tribes, for Libyan tribes are honorable, fighter and combatant tribes, and they are rallying around me during this month.

All the tribes ... They are all shouting the same thing. They are all confronting. We have confronted America -- with its might and power. We challenged the the great nuclear states of the world and we came out victorious. They bowed their heads here. Italy kissed the hand of the son of the martyr, the sheikh of all martyrs, Omar al-Mukhtar. This is a glory beyond all glories. Not just for Mnifa [Mukhtar's tribe] ... but for all Libyans, Arabs and Muslims.

This is the victory they want to tarnish.

Italy, the empire at the time, was smashed on Libyan soil along with its hordes.

I am greater than the positions held by presidents and notables. I am a fighter. A mujahid. A combatant. A revolutionary from the tent. From the desert. All cities, villages and oases united with me in a historic revolution that brought glories to the Libyans, that they will enjoy for generation after generation. Libya will remain at the top, leading Africa and Latin America and Asia; indeed, the whole world.

This handful of alien hirelings cannot stop this triumphant course -- these cats and mice that jump from street to street, alley to alley, in the dark.

I have paid the price of staying here. My grandfather, Abdul Salam Buminyar, was the first martyr to fall in al-Khums during the first battle in 1911. I cannot betray this great sacrifice. I cannot leave my grandfather's pure remains in al-Marqab. In the end, I will die pure as a martyr. The remains of my father are in al-Hani. He was mujahid, a hero among the heroes of al-Qardabiya and Tala. And my uncle, Sheikh al-Saadi, lies in the cemetery of Mnaydar. I will not leave these pure remains; these are mujahids. Bashir al-Saadawi said, "Freedom is a tree in whose shade no one can sit except the one who planted it with his hands and watered it with his blood." Libya is a tree in whose shade we sit, for it is we who planted it with our hands and watered it with our blood.

I am addressing you from this steadfast place. This house in Tripoli which was raided by 170 planes led by the great nuclear states, America and Britain and NATO. 40 Boeing planes were assisting in refueling the campaign. They bypassed all the palaces and all the houses -- all your houses, they left your houses behind -- looking for the house of Muammar Qaddafi. Why? Because he is president of the republic? If he were a president, they would have treated him like they have treat other heads of state. But Muammar Qaddafi is history, resistance, liberation, glory and revolution. This is recognition from the greatest power in the world, that Muammar Qaddafi is not a president, or an average person we either kill with poison or start a protest against to topple him.

When bombs were falling here in this place, pounding my house and killing my children, where were you, you alien riffraff? Where were you, you who sport beards? ... Where were you? You were with America, applauding your American masters, while Muammar Qaddafi and his family were in this place being bombed.

170 planes bypassed kings, presidents, bypassed the palaces of all the Arab world and came to Muammar Qaddafi's tent and house. This is glory that should not be squandered by Libya or the Libyan people, or the Arab nation, or the Islamic nation, of Africa or Latin America, or all people who desire freedom and human dignity and who resist tyrannical might.

We resisted the tyrannical might of America, Britain and the nuclear states. We resisted the tyrannical might of NATO. We did not surrender. We remained steadfast right here.

Now, a small group of young men, who were given pills, are raiding police stations here and there like rats. They raided barracks. They used relative safety and security that Libya had enjoyed, and they raid unwary barracks, because we are not in a state of wars for us to tighten security on our warehouses and forts. ... They raided some forts and stations and burned the files which contained their criminal records, and attacked the courts that held their files and the police stations where their interrogation records where kept.

But these young men bear no fault. They are young -- sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old. They sometimes mimic what is happening in Tunisia and Egypt. This is normal. Sometimes they hear that in some city in Libya, a group of young men attacked a courthouse and they say: "Let us go and attack the courthouse in our city." It's mimicry. They say, "they got hold of weapons. Why don't we get hold of weapons?"

However, there is a small sick group, implanted in the cities, and is giving out pills, and sometimes money, to these young men, and thrusting them into these side battles.

Those who were killed were members of the police and armed forces as well as these young men, but not those who were manipulating them. Those are in their houses or abroad, enjoying safety, comfort and leisure with their children, while manipulating your children and giving them pills, telling them: "go, get weapons. Raid, burn, you heroes!" So that your children die and we start fighting each other.

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Get out of your homes, go out to the streets, secure the streets, seize the rats, do not be afraid of them. We did not yet use force. And [armed] force is to support the Libyan people. If it reaches a point where we have to use force, then we will use it. According to the international law, and according to the Libyan constitution and Libyan laws. Starting tomorrow, by God, starting tonight even, you should go out. All the Libyan cities, towns and oases that love Muammar Qaddafi -- because Muammar Qaddafi is glory. If I had an official position, if I were president I would have thrown my resignation in your faces, and [in the faces of] these germs. But I don't hold an official position. I don't have anything from which to resign. I have my rifle. I will fight until the last drop of my blood. And the Libyan people are with me. I have lived my life not afraid of anything. You are facing a solid rock, against which America's fleets have crashed.

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Pull your children from the streets. They took your children away from you and inebriated them in order to throw them into the fire so they would die. Your children are dying. For what reason? For what purpose? For nothing, but to burn Libya. Your children have died. But their children did not die. They are in America, and in Europe. What is this fear of these gangs? Gangs, like rats, they represent nothing. They do not represent one out of a million of the Libyan people. They are worth nothing. They are a handful of young men, imitating what was happening in Egypt and Tunisia, and who were given pills, and were given orders to burn and loot. Mimicry! Rats!

Starting tomorrow the police and the army will impose security. They will open roads and remove all barricades. All barricades should be removed. You remove them yourselves out of your cities. Go out after them. Chase them everywhere. Do you want Benghazi to be ruined? Cut off from electricity and water? Who will bring you water and electricity? These rats can reach the oil fields and blow it up. And you would return to darkness, to 1952. I built Benghazi myself, brick by brick, and we are proud of it and we are building it anew. And they are come to destroy it, using your own children.

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Three tanks were burned. Even the airport, they tried to ransack. Civilian flights have stopped using the airport. Ships said we cannot dock in Benghazi port, because the rats will attack us when we arrive and loot the ships. Darnah has been ruined. ... As of today, one of those who sport beards [is in charge] ... and he told them to start bringing him donations, saying "I am a Caliph." I am a follower of Bin Ladin and Zawahiri. ... Do you want Americans to come and occupy you? To turn you into Afghanistan and Somalia and Pakistan and Iraq? This is what will happen to our country Our country will become like Afghanistan. Do you like that? If not, go out to the streets and block them. Seize them and chase after them. Take away their arms. Arrest them and prosecute them. Hand them over to security. They are a tiny few. ... They are a terrorist few. They are turning Libyan into the emirates of Zawahiri and Bin Ladin. Is this the where we will end up? So that America can come in and say they have a new Afghanistan here in North Africa, and so bring us colonialism and drop bombs on our country?

All free officers have been distributed to all their areas and their tribes, so that they could lead these areas and tribes to secure and cleanse them from these rats. And arrest those who tricked our young children and bring them to trial. And that will be their punishment according to the law.

Listen to the chants in the streets: "Our souls and our blood we sacrifice for you, our Leader."

Look at their crimes. This is the Libyan Penal Code from before the revolution. Anyone who bears arms against Libya shall be punished by death. Scheming with foreign countries to incite war against Libya. Anyone who does so is punishable by death. This is the Penal Code. Undermining the territorial sovereignty of the state and facilitating war against it is punishable by death. Anyone who facilitates the entry of enemies into the country, or hands over cities, or fortifications or installations or locations or ports to them. These kinds of acts will lead to the handing over of locations to America. ... Entering military installations; if the enemy benefits from this, the punishment will be a death sentence. ... They have committed all these crimes. ... They have handed all our secrets to the enemy. This is not the fault of the children. ... It is those who are behind them and who are tricking you, whose fate will be before tribunals, where they will cry and lift their hands and beg for forgiveness. But this time we will not forgive them. ... Anyone who employs force, or any other means not allowed by law and the constitution, in order to change the constitution and the system of governance, is punishable by death. They are changing the rule of the people. Their punishment is death according to the law. ...

No, please stop to listen. You are all excited, but please stop chanting so that the people can hear what I have to say. This is very serious. This is a different matter than bullets. I haven't yet given the order to use bullets. When the order is given to use force, we will be ready. Then everything will be burned.

Usurping military command, like what happened in al-Bayda and Benghazi. Unlawfully usurping a military command and refusing to relinquish it is punishable by death. Any use of force against state authorities is punishable by death. Acts of sabotage, looting and murder is punishable by death. All of their crimes which they have committed from that day until now are punishable by death according to Libyan law; the Libyan Penal Code written before the revolution. Civil war: anyone who perpetrates an act whose aim is to start a civil war in the country is punishable by death. These acts will lead to civil war. Like Sayf al-Islam told you, we are all armed tribes. No one tribe can rule over another. ... This will lead to civil war, if you do not apprehend them right away.

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Lastly, gentlemen, if these things are not fulfilled: handing over the weapons, the prisoners, the troublemakers who tricked our children, and the removal of all blockades and returning life to normal ... if this not fulfilled, and if Libya's unity is endangered ... if we see this happening, we will prevent it. Then we will declare the march. ... We will declare the holy march. Oh yes. ... We will issue a call to the millions, from the desert to the desert. And I and the millions will march in order to cleanse Libya, inch by inch, house by house, home by home, alley by alley, individual by individual, so that the country is purified from the unclean. We cannot allow for Libya to be lost from our hands without justification. ... I have millions on my side. I have God on my side, who has made me victorious over the great powers.