His coffee - and lobster dinner - with Saif Qaddafi

Doug Flahaut, a lawyer living in Echo Park, studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science eight years ago with the son of, and presumptive successor to, the strongman ruler of Libya. In a piece written for Zocalo Public Square, Flahaut remembers Saif Qaddafi as a different guy than the one seen televised images coming from Tripoli. Excerpt:

He rarely spoke of his family, and, apart from being unmistakably wealthy, behaved much like the rest of us. When he introduced himself, his full name was always “Saif Al-Islam.” Full stop. After I figured out that Saif’s father was Muammar Qaddafi, a number of things about Saif started to make more sense: the designer clothes, the Bentley and driver waiting in the narrow street outside after our seminars, the guards that accompanied him everywhere....

Although he was Muslim, Islam seemed to be a hat he could wear or remove as needed—and in London it wasn’t much needed. He dressed in the latest fashions from Paris and Milan, and, while I never saw him drunk, he seemed perfectly willing to consume alcohol in moderation.

Frequently, after class, a group of us would take our discussions across the street to the upstairs room of the George IV pub, where one of our older professors, a leader in game theory and a contemporary of John Rawls, could often be found holding court, double vodka in hand. Saif sometimes joined us and seemed to enjoy himself, but he was always reserved.

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While the rest of us were arguing about the ideal theoretical way to run a government, Saif was going to run an actual government. For us, LSE was a source for intellectual stimulus and gratification. For Saif, it was a trade school.

One day, near the end of our first year, I went to coffee with Saif. By then I’d grown used to the presence of one or two bodyguards everywhere he went. Saif placed an order at the counter and went off to find a table, leaving one of his guards to pay. He was beyond money, it seemed. What would it be like, I wondered, to have a driver and an assistant with you at all times to get you whatever you wanted? A middleman between you and the world? Probably not too bad.