A Victory Lap for Whom? The Hidden Agenda Behind Libya’s Demise
In October 2011, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously celebrated the brutal killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi with a chilling quip: “We came, we saw, he died!” . Her victory lap came after a NATO-led military intervention that overthrew the Libyan government, leaving the once-prosperous African nation in ruins. While Western powers justified their intervention as a humanitarian necessity, newly revealed emails from Clinton’s private server tell a different story—one of economic imperialism aimed at preventing African financial independence and maintaining colonial-era control over the continent’s resources.
For the Pan-African community, these revelations confirm what many have long suspected: that Libya’s destruction was not about protecting civilians but about crushing a viable alternative to Western economic domination and preventing the emergence of a truly independent Africa.
The Gold Dinar Revelation: Libya’s Threat to Western Financial Dominance
Among the most explosive revelations from Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails is the detailed discussion of Gaddafi’s plan to establish a pan-African gold-backed currency that would have liberated African nations from the Western-controlled financial system .
An April 2011 email sent to Clinton by her confidant Sidney Blumenthal laid out the alarming (from a Western perspective) prospect:
“Qaddafi’s government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver… This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA)” .
The email further noted that French intelligence discovered this plan and that it was “one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya” . This revelation is particularly significant for Francophone Africa, which has remained tied to France through the CFA franc system—a colonial-era currency that maintains French economic influence over its former colonies.
Beyond Humanitarianism: The Multiple Faces of Western Intervention
The leaked emails reveal that the publicly stated humanitarian concerns concealed multiple strategic motivations:
· Resource Control: French desires for “a greater share of Libya oil production”
· Political Calculations: Nicolas Sarkozy’s aim to “improve his internal political situation in France”
· Military Posturing: The opportunity “to provide the French military with an opportunity to reassert its position in the world”
· Regional Influence: Addressing “the concern of his advisors over Qaddafi’s long term plans to supplant France as the dominant power in Francophone Africa”
Conspicuously absent from these confidential discussions is any mention of the humanitarian concerns that dominated public discourse . Instead, the correspondence reveals a premeditated effort to justify military action through whatever means necessary, including promoting unverified claims about Gaddafi distributing Viagra to troops to encourage mass rape—a claim that Blumenthal himself admitted was based on rumor .
Humanitarian Pretext Versus Reality
The contrast between the stated humanitarian goals and actual outcomes could not be more stark:
Table: Libya Before and After NATO Intervention
Resistance to African Economic Sovereignty
Gaddafi’s vision extended beyond Libya’s borders. As chair of the African Union in 2009, he championed the creation of a United States of Africa with a single gold-backed currency to be implemented by 2023 . This initiative represented the most serious effort since the days of Kwame Nkrumah to achieve genuine economic independence for the continent.
Libya had already demonstrated financial independence with its 100% state-owned central bank , and Gaddafi was financing major infrastructure projects across Africa, including the Great Man-Made River—an engineering marvel that brought water from desert aquifers to coastal cities . Notably, this $33 billion project was funded interest-free without foreign debt through Libya’s state-owned bank .
The NATO bombing campaign deliberately targeted this critical infrastructure, not only damaging the pipeline but also destroying the factory that produced the pipes needed for repairs . This destruction reveals that the true goal was not merely regime change but the elimination of Libya’s economic model—a model that demonstrated Africa could develop without reliance on Western financial institutions.
The Aftermath: A Continent Destabilized
The consequences of NATO’s intervention have been catastrophic, exactly as predicted by critics at the time:
· Human Rights Catastrophe: “Thousands of detainees [including children] languish in prisons without proper judicial review,” and “kidnappings and targeted killings are rampant”
· Institutional Collapse: With no police to uphold law, Libyans have turned to armed militias for security
· Regional Instability: The conflict has “destabilize[d] the region, fuel[ed] the refugee crisis in Europe and allow[ed] the Islamic State to establish a Libyan haven”
The leaked emails also contain admissions of rebel war crimes that Clinton was aware of but did not prevent . A March 27, 2011, intelligence brief from Blumenthal noted that rebels were “summarily execut[ing] all foreign mercenaries captured in the fighting” —a term often used to justify the ethnic cleansing of black Libyans and sub-Saharan African migrants .
Conclusion: The Lesson for Africa
The story revealed in Hillary Clinton’s emails serves as a stark warning for Africa. It demonstrates that Western powers will pursue regime change not when African leaders are dictators, but when they successfully challenge Western economic hegemony.
The gold dinar initiative represented a direct threat to the dollar-based petrocurrency system and French monetary control in West Africa. Gaddafi’s vision of a financially independent Africa, capable of funding its own development through sovereign wealth and state banking, could not be tolerated.
As we move toward greater African integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we must remember the fate of Libya. Economic sovereignty remains the final frontier of true liberation, and as Libya shows, there are powerful external forces determined to prevent Africa from achieving it.
The leaked emails provide documentary evidence of what Pan-Africanists have long understood: that the greatest threat to African progress is not any single leader but the persistence of colonial economic structures designed to maintain Western dominance. If Africa is to truly achieve the vision of the African Union’s “Agenda 2063,” it must develop its own financial systems and protect its economic sovereignty with the same determination with which it fought for political independence.
The tragedy of Libya should serve as both a cautionary tale and a clarion call for Africa to unite against economic imperialism in all its forms.
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