NO ONE WRITHES TO THE COLONEL:

Qadhafi Talks Up 'Direct Democracy' (Dan Morrison, 3/14/07, US News)

Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi rarely has encounters with the western media, but news organizations recently were invited to attend a panel discussion on democracy and economic reform hosted by the reclusive, longtime dictator. Special correspondent Dan Morrison reports from Libya:

SEHBA, Libya-It's rare that people contradict Libyan supremo Muammar Qadhafi. Rarer still in front of witnesses.

But there was British sociologist Anthony Giddens very politely dissenting from the Brother Leader's contention that the western democracies are in fact dictatorships and that Qadhafi's theory of "direct democracy'' is a model for the world.

"If the leader will forgive me,'' said Giddens, an adviser to Tony Blair, "I think it is wrong to say that you can have a democratic society without a strong element of representation.''

"Mm,'' replied the leader.

A paradox: two hours of talk about democracy with a figure who epitomizes one-man rule. The unusual "conversation'' among Qadhafi, Giddens, American political scientist Benjamin Barber, and the British interviewer David Frost was an effort to show the world a Libya in transition from socialism to free markets and from dictatorship to something-perhaps one day less than dictatorship. [...]

[R]eformers, led by one of Qadhafi's sons, Seif Al-Islam, hope to transform Libya into a "Scandinavia of the Middle East.''