Gaddafi, Muammar al-

Gaddafi, Muammar al- (b. Sept. 1942). Libyan leader 1969–  Born into a nomadic family near Sirte (Fezzan), he was expelled from school in 1961 for his political activities, to which his admiration for Nasser had led him. He enlisted in the army in 1963 and, following the example of Nasser's Free Officers, he eventually founded the Free Unitary Officers group which deposed King Idris I and established the Libyan Arab Republic. He fervently believed in the ideal of Arab unity, which led him to propose short-lived federations with Syria and Chad. A charismatic orator, he maintained power through vastly improving the economic conditions for the majority of the population. As a result, Libya is perhaps the only oil-producing country in Africa and Latin America where the revenues of oil exports are widely distributed among the population. Gaddafi's popularity was enhanced through his use of nationalist and Islamic rhetoric which appealed to the country's cultural and religious traditions. His support of terrorist groups in Egypt and other countries during the 1980s transformed him into an internationally destabilizing figure. He became perhaps the world's most reviled leader, until that distinction passed on to Saddam Hussein in 1990. From the 1990s, he worked hard and successfully to distance himself from the terrorist organizations he had done so much to encourage. He brokered a peace deal between government and rebels in the Philippines in 2001, and helped secure the release of Western hostages captured in the Philippines and in the Sahara desert (2003).