The Gaddafi boys were big spenders Washington
February 24, 2011

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AFTER New Year's Day 2009, Western media reported that Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, had paid Mariah Carey $US1 million to sing four songs at a bash on the Caribbean island of St Bart's.

In the newspaper he controlled, Seif denied the report - the big spender, he said, was his brother, Muatassim, Libya's national security adviser, according to a US diplomatic cable from the capital, Tripoli.

It was Muatassim, too, the cable said, who had demanded $US1.2 billion in 2008 from the chairman of Libya's national oil corporation, reportedly to establish his own militia. That would let him keep up with yet another brother, Khamis, commander of a special-forces group that ''effectively serves as a regime protection unit''.

Advertisement: Story continues below As the Gaddafi clan conducts a bloody struggle to hold on to power in Libya, cables obtained by WikiLeaks offer a vivid account of the lavish spending, rampant nepotism and bitter rivalries.

The glimpses of the clan's antics in recent years that have reached Libyans despite Gaddafi's tight control of the media have added to the public anger. And the tensions between siblings could emerge as a factor in the chaos in the oil-rich country.

Although the Gaddafi children are described as jockeying for position as their father ages, three sons fought to profit from a new Coca-Cola franchise.

''All of the Gaddafi children and favourites are supposed to have income streams from the National Oil Company and oil service subsidiaries,'' one cable from 2006 says.

NEW YORK TIMES