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Following are excerpts from an address by Libyan leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 14, 2011:
Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: Wikileaks, which people call "Kleenex," makes fun of you, and publishes information written by ambassadors who are liars, in order to pit peoples against one another and cause confusion. We have some of them here.
We will place the ambassadors who wrote this on trial. We will take them to court, either as witnesses or as the accused. They should prove the truth of what they wrote to Washington about Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, or France. We will place them on trial.
First, we will treat them as witnesses. Prove to us that such corruption exits. If you wrote that such-and-such a company exists in such-and-such a place, you should prove that such a company exists. If it doesn't exist, it means you lied, and you become an accused.
Why shouldn't the US ambassador be placed on trial? They place heads of state on trial. They order to bring [Omar] Al-Bashir to court, the Liberian president to court, and the president of Yugoslavia to court. Yet a US ambassador cannot be placed on trial?! He will be placed on trial, if he lied.
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Even you, my Tunisian brothers, may have read nonsense by this Kleenex on the Internet. Any drunken idiot can write whatever he likes on the Internet, and people believe him. The Internet is like a garbage bin. Any dimwit, any dog, any liar, any drunk, any opium addict can say whatever he likes on the Internet, and you read it and believe him. Talking is free. Should we become victims of Facebook, of Kleenex, and of Youtube?
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You call this a revolution, but is there any respectable revolution in which people go the prisons and free the worst criminals and murderers? You let them roam the streets at night, with their knives, to terrorize Tunisian families. You call this a revolution?! Dozens of wretched people are killed in prison...
Tunisia, I'm sad to say, is entering a state of anarchy, the end of which is unknown. Tomorrow, the entire Tunisian people might enter Libya. That's why what happens in Tunisia is of great interest to me.
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The Tunisians are a cultured people, respected and esteemed by all. Is it like in Romania, in the days of Ceauşescu, or like in Kenya? It matters to me, for Tunisia is an Arab country. You have brought shame upon the Arab peoples with what you have done.
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Zine [Al-Abidine Ben Ali] is the best leader for Tunisia. That is truth. He brought Tunisia to where it is today. I don't care if you are for or against him, if you love him or hate him. I am telling you the truth. Zine hasn't given me money, glory, or anything in return. But I am telling you the truth.
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