Just a little sneak peak into the future of my current timeline!
Ever since his bloodless coup against the elderly King Idris in 1969, relations between Gaddafi and the West had become increasingly tense. Under Gaddafi, Libya supplied multiple notorious militant resistance groups, including most notably the IRA and PLO, throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, this support was sometimes so freely given that even organizations with little support and sympathy, (often representing ideologies far removed from Gaddafi's own) could obtain Libyan support. Gaddafi represented a high priority target for the United States, his support for violent organizations, Pan-Arab (later Pan-African) ambitions and intentions to lead Libya into becoming a nuclear power, where highly alarming for US interests.
The 1980s would prove to be a focal point in Gaddafi's relation with the West. In 1981, President Reagan authorized a large naval force to be dispatched to the Gulf of Sidra (a disputed area in which the US had been conducting Freedom of Navigation operations following Libya's claim it was part of their territorial waters), resulting in a direct confrontation with the Libyan air force. Between 1980-1986, Gaddafi had ordered the deaths of several exiled opponents of his regime; bombings and shootings, targeted at Libyan dissidents, occurred in Manchester and London. In response to a series of public executions of citizens alleged to be members of the
National Front for the Salvation of Libya following a failed coup attempt in 1986, a public demonstration was organized by Libyan emigres outside the embassy. The protest would quickly become a massacre, as three gunmen would open fire from the first floor of the embassy, killing thirteen protestors and three policemen. Diplomatic ties between the UK and Libya were immediately severed. Subsequently in the year, the Libyan-financed IRA would assassinate the British Home Secretary during a visit to Northern Ireland. In the midst of a series of terrorist attacks during the year, Gaddafi indicated that he would continue to support violent resistance organizations as long as European governments supported anti-regime Libyans.
Following an economic embargo and yet another confrontation in the Gulf of Sidra, Libyan agents would perpetrate a series of attacks against US military personnel in Western Europe. In retaliation, the US and UK would jointly launch a series of airstrikes in early 1987, causing 98 Libyan causalities, among these would be two of Gaddafi's children: Hana and Saif Al-Arab. Gaddafi himself would be wounded in the attack, losing his left eye to debris (the cause of his notorious eyepatch) during the strike on his Bab-al Aziziya compound. Vowing vengeance on the United States, Libya would intensify its support for anti-American government organizations. In 1989, US airliner would be downed flying over New York City in one of the deadliest air disasters in American history. Despite denying responsibility, notwithstanding praising the attack, Libyan involvement would be alleged with the FBI and CIA indicting multiple senior Libyan intelligence officers. The outpouring of public support would quickly transform into demands for an immediate military retaliation. In October 1989, the US would launch a devastating series of airstrikes, crippling the Libyan armed forces, while killing dozens of senior regime officials. Meanwhile the CIA would quadruple its supplies to anti-Gaddafi organizations. UN sanctions would be applied in 1990, resulting in Libya's (total) political and economic isolation.
Entering the 1990s, the Gaddafi regime was at its weakest. Humiliated in Chad, crippled by intensive US airstrikes and hindered by a rapidly declining economy, Libya seemed fertile ground for an uprising. In Tripoli 1992, protestors briefly occupied the Old City and Green square before being brutally supressed. The "Green Terror" would see a wave of brutal reprisals, involving campaigns of violence and intimidation, including hundreds of documented public executions. The widely publicised Old City Massacre and Abu Salim Prison Massacre would further vilify Gaddafi in the eyes of the American public. Elements of the army, notably lead by Khalifa Haftar, would align themselves with the NFSL, launching an uprising in eastern Cyrenaica. Meanwhile Islamist organizations such as the newly founded Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, would begin fighting to topple Gaddafi. By 1995, Gaddafi was facing a nationwide insurgency with Libya teetering on the brink of civil war.
In the midst of the crisis, allegations had begun to appear in January 1996 that the Gaddafi regime had utilised chemical weapons against insurgents in the mountains of eastern Cyrenaica. Reports would emerge that Gaddafi had renewed calls for nuclear weapons and pursued new avenues for nuclear technology procurement, while recruiting scientists and attempting to gain access to nuclear technology from the crumbling USSR. The prospect of a nuclear Libya was deeply frightening, increasing calls for a military intervention. On the second of March 1996, Benghazi would briefly be captured by rebel forces, yet such a victory would prove short lived. The widely publicised subsequent recapture and ferocious reprisal (dubbed the "Sack of Benghazi) would result in hundreds, if not thousands, of causalities.
Developments would rapidly ensue, the actions of the Libyan government would be widely condemned harbouring further UN sanctions. In the United States, testimonies of Libyan refugees and exiles to Congress would allege multiple war crimes, including mass sexual violence and the use of forbidden chemical weapons in Benghazi. Furthermore exaggerated, if not arguably false, intelligence reports stated Gaddafi had an alarmingly large stockpile of WMDs and was on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon. Public opinion strongly supported a military invasion, which would be approved following rigorous debate in Congress. The US, joined by the UK, France, Canada and Italy, would launch a bombing campaign in June 1996, followed by a ground invasion of Libya. Deeply controversial internationally, the invasion would be condemned by the Arab League and the Non-Aligned Movement, along with major domestic opposition in the United Kingdom.
Coalition forces would swiftly defeat Gaddafi forces, toppling the regime and capturing Gaddafi and multiple highly wanted intelligence figures. An interim government headed by the NFSL would be declared in Tripoli in August 1996. While the perpetrators of the NYC air disaster, Abdelbassat al-Meghari and Lamin Fhimah, would be extradited to face trial in the US, the newly-formed Libyan Supreme Court, headed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, would be tasked with the trial of the now deposed dictator. While there had been calls for Gaddafi to face International Court of Justice, it was deemed appropriate by the Coalition to let the revolutionary administration handle the trial.
Critics viewed the trial as a show trial, criticised as a "Kangaroo Court" by Gaddafi's attorney team, which ironically included his own daughter Ayesha. Gaddafi appeared confident and defiant throughout the course of the tribunal, at one point becoming so hostile in his questioning of the legitimacy of the court that he had forcibly removed from the room. During proceedings Gaddafi would notably insult the magistrates describing them as "treacherous rats", emphatically objecting to be referred to as a former leader, insisting the people of Libya were not protesting against him. In a noteworthy testimony, Gaddafi continued speaking for twenty minutes even after the judge demanded that he cease, remaining defiant in rejecting the tribunal's legitimacy and independence from the control of the foreign occupation. Gaddafi would accuse the Coalition of terrorism, along with stating that Libya had been the only democratic nation on the planet and those who opposed him where Islamists who "did not deserve to live." An extremely high-profile trial, the verdict would be witnessed on television by millions worldwide.
