Ties That Bind Kadafi and Neo-Fascists
SAN FRANCISCO — Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi recently began sending millions of dollars to the Austrian province governed by Joerg Haider, de facto fuehrer of the far-right Freedom Party. This controversial deal, which Haider described as "Christmas for Austria," was forged during a pair of mysterious trips to Libya.
Accompanied by the chairman of Austria's Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, Haider held secret business meetings in Tripoli with Kadafi in May and June. Shortly thereafter, the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank, an affiliate of the Libyan National Bank, transferred the first installment of $25 million to the Hypo Bank, based in Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia. Kadafi's cash gift to Haider's province was meant to ease the strain of sanctions imposed by the European Union after the controversial Freedom Party joined Austria's national governing coalition.
This was the second rabbit Haider pulled out of his hat as a result of forays to Libya. At the end of May, Haider announced he was tackling Austria's high gas prices by arranging for Libyan oil to be sold in Carinthia at a discount prices. News photos showed Haider, the Porsche-driving populist, beaming as he pumped gas for motorists.
Financial considerations were not the sole motivation for Haider to cut a deal with Kadafi. Indicative of the Arab adage "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," the two men regard the same groups as foes. In an apparent reference to EU ties with Israel, Kadafi said, "Europe needs the interests of its people at the top of the agenda, and not those of a Zionist state." Urging Europe to get over its obsession with World War II, Kadafi lavished praise on Haider, who himself often trivializes Nazi atrocities.
Though Haider has denied claims that Libyan money helped his party's meteoric rise to power, concerns were fueled by Kadafi's son, Saif al-Islam, who lives in an exclusive Vienna suburb with his two pet white Bengali tigers. A fervent Freedom Party supporter, Saif al-Islam pledged to assist Haider during the next Austrian elections. "I will start a campaign for him," he told an Austrian magazine.
According to Profil, an Austrian news weekly, Haider's contacts with the Libyan regime date back to 1988, when the Freedom Party scored its first major electoral breakthrough. Initially, the Libyan connection was cultivated by then Freedom Party manager Harald Goeschl. At the time, Goeschl was rumored to have been involved in supplying weapons to Kadafi.
