Libyan Ambassador Ali Aujali Speaks at GW Amid Controversy

Libyan Ambassador Ali Aujali spoke Monday at the Jack Morton Auditorium in the School of Media and Public Affairs. The moderately successful event was held by the International Affairs Society and open to the public. Mr. Aujali, who has been in the news since defecting from the Gaddhafi regime in February, stressed the desire of the Libyan people to live in freedom and peace, and explained his reasons for defecting from the regime in order to better serve the Libyan people. He further implored audience members to stand alongside the Libyan people through the crisis happening there now. His talk was cut short, however, at the behest of President Obama, whose administration just hours before the event was scheduled invited Mr. Aujali to attend a speech given by the President in Arlington Monday.

The event was moved forward, with Mr. Aujali abruptly exiting after his speech and having to cancel his participation in a Question and Answer session afterwards as well as a reception.


Yet even before his brief appearance, questions about Mr. Aujali’s background were already causing a stir. Mr. Aujali has worked for the Libyan Foreign Service since 1971, eventually becoming the ambassador to the United States in January 2009 after serving in such countries as Britain, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil and Canada. Many have accused Mr. Aujali as complicitly serving the Gadhafi regime throughout his career, having been the public face of Libya in the United States since 2004. Further, his motives for defecting from the regime only in February 2011, amid a wave of defection by his colleagues, have been questioned as being opportunistic, contrary to his claims of doing so to represent the interests of the Libyan People.

Most controversially, as Ambassador in September 2009, he wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal titled “Why Libya Welcomed Megrahi,” in which he denied Mr. Megrahi’s involvement in the Lockerbie, Scotland bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 in December 1988, in which 270 people, mostly Americans, were killed, and explained his and the Gadhafi regime’s support for returning Mr. Megrahi to Libya. The release of Mr. Megrahi, widely believed to be guilty, from Scottish prison in 2009 to Libya was highly controversial. Mr. Aujali also stated Libya has had a strong record of opposing terrorism, despite new accusations that Moammar Gadhafi personally ordered the bombing.

Further, in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper in February 2011, Mr. Aujali claimed he has no regrets for his career in service to the Gadhafi regime.

After the discussion I spoke with Mr. Zakout Wael, Libyan-American World Bank Associate and alum from George Washington University, who was brought in as a last minute fill-in for Ambassador Aujali. Mr. Wael, who has been a long-standing critic of the Gadhafi regime, noted that Mr. Aujali’s unwillingness to strongly criticize the Gadhafi regime may be related to the continuing presence of family members in Libya who may be threatened.