But he knew it would be too politically costly to turn the Sanusis into martyrs, so he allowed them all to escape. The king himself remained in Istanbul; the other family members fled, mostly to Egypt or Saudi Arabia, never to return. Once they were out of the country, though, Qadhafi pursued them relentlessly. His assassination squads fanned out over most of Europe and Africa, under orders to kill all Libyans who refused to return to Libya-and the Sanusis were tops on their lists. The Crown Prince first met his family in Egypt and publicly denounced the desecration of the Sanusi tombs; when being public exiles in Egypt became too dangerous, the family scattered.
The historic buildings, mosque, tombs, and university at Jaghbub lay baking in the hot Saharan sun, virtually unused. The university was turned into a military headquarters; the fortress was turned into a winter palace for Qadhafi and a convenient but isolated place to hold propaganda events. To cover up the desecration of the holy place, the river that fed the oasis was dammed, flooding the plain and covering up all traces of the destroyed historic buildings and tombs. It appeared as if the legacy of the kings of Libya was at an end.
But another ambitious, treacherous Libyan army officer resurrected the memories of the as-Sanusi kings of Libya-but for all the wrong reasons. Jadallah Salem Zuwayy was an officer assigned to a Special Forces unit at
Jaghbub in the early 1990s. When Qadhafi Lake-the lake covering the Sanusi tombs-was low one extraordinarily hot summer, he was able to view the ruins of the tombs of the Sanusi kings that lay exposed in the mud from the low water level. Although he and his officers were forbidden to go near the tombs, he went anyway-but even after he was discovered, the fear of retribution from Qadhafi was so strong that no one dared bring him up on charges. That fear of the Sanusi dynasty is what inspired Zuwayy to begin his claim as a descendant of the Sanusi line.
It was easily researched: Sayyid al-Hasan as-Sanusi, the first king of united Libya, had six sons and three daughters. Actually, the records showed only five sons, but the Sanusi kings usually had three or more wives, and they adopted many children, so why couldn't there be a sixth-or seventh, for that matter? The second son, Muhammad, was appointed the heir apparent. The entire family fled the country after the desecration of the tombs at Jaghbub-all, went the new story, except Jadallah, the youngest son of King Idris. Instead of fleeing, Jadallah decided to join Qadhafi's army, not only to learn his weaknesses but also to learn from him how to be a leader in the modern world.
The real Idris the Second, Muhammad, hadn't been heard from since 1992, when he became King Idris the Second upon the death of his father in Istanbul. From his hiding place-no one knew for certain where it was-he had proclaimed a Libyan constitutional monarchy in exile, formed a Royal War Council, and was raising money and building an army. Rumors spread like wildfire: Some said he was a spy for the American Central Intelligence Agency, for the British MI6, or for the Israeli Mossad. Most knew he was the leader of the Sanusi Brotherhood, a secret counter-assassination group, hunting and killing first Qadhafi's, then Zuwayy's assassins worldwide on behalf of his family and all exiled Libyans. Others claimed he had been assassinated, or just deep in hiding, probably in South America. In any case, he or his followers hadn't been heard from in years. -
He was a coward, or so the story went-it was Jadallah who had the courage to dare to try to retake the government of Libya from Qadhafi. As an officer at Jaghbub, Jadallah secretly preserved "his" family's heritage and assembled his army, and from his ancestral home, launched the attack on Tripoli that eventually brought Qadhafi down. Although Muhammad as-Sanusi was in reality the second king of Libya, Jadallah Zuwayy proclaimed himself the true King Idris the Second and chieftain of the Sanusi Brotherhood.
It was a ridiculous story. The most superficial examination of official records showed Zuwayy's real birthplace and lineage-he was definitely no Sanusi. There was ample evidence that King Idris had only five sons, not six; Zuwayy's concocted evidence was disproved immediately. But Zuwayy stuck to his story, and eventually the people of Libya accepted it. He turned Jaghbub back into a holy city and announced the reincarnation of the United Kingdom of Libya, to the delight of the people of Libya and the amused relief of most of the rest of the world. He then went about having all the Arab history books changed to reflect his fictional lineage.
In fact, Jadallah Zuwayy, the self-appointed and totally fictional king of Libya, hated Jaghbub. Yes, it was beautiful and fertile. But it was well within artillery range of Egyptian forces, just fifteen miles away. Although he had built a modern stronghold there, with the most Modern air defense network surrounding it and a force of ten thousand troops and a couple hundred armor, artillery, and mechanized infantry pieces in place, it was still over a hundred miles from civilization and reinforcements, and could be easily overrun or infiltrated. But its weaknesses made it a good hideout. No military forces would ever touch Jaghbub, especially the Great Mosque, for fear of scorn by the rest of the Muslim world-it was considered as holy a shrine as Mecca or Medina. And it was far enough away from the Mediterranean coast to give him ample warning of an attack or invasion from the sea.
It was Zuwayy's alternate headquarters, his safest hiding place in all of Libya-and the entrance to his preferred es-
cape route, should his plans fail and his little self-conceived revolution dissolve. It was an easily concealed flight from there to Sudan, Yemen, then Saudi Arabia or Syria, all of whom might give him safe passage or asylum. Besides, occasionally he would do a prayer service or celebration at Jaghbub, televised throughout the Arab world, and the people of Libya would delight in seeing the historic mosque and Green Palace in use once again.
The mosque and the Green Palace, the home of the asSanusi kings, were located inside a sixty-acre ancient sundried brick walled fortress. The original three-meter-high walls were heightened an extra four meters, reinforced with steel, and topped with motion detector probes, with a catwalk on the inside and guardposts installed every ten meters around the perimeter. The original wooden gate was reinforced with Kevlar and steel, with an extra set of electrically operated steel antitank doors inside. Along with the mosque and the palace, there was a small security building, an eight-horse stable and barn, a covered riding arena with bleacher seats, and a short equestrian show-jumping course. North of the compound out as far as two kilometers, antitank and antipersonnel mines were laid across the open desert. Guards patrolled the oasis and the area to the south, and more guards patrolled by boat on Lake Jaghbub.
The military base was located to the west and south, spread out over several hundred acres, including an airfield large enough to accommodate light to medium transport planes. The entire area was defended by radar, numerous antiaircraft artillery batteries, roving patrols with manportable SA-7 antiaircraft missiles, and a wide variety of low- and medium-altitude-capable mobile surface-to-air missile systems, including several SA-6, SA-8, SA-9, and SA-13 units deployed in random patrols over two hundred square miles around Jaghbub. The Libyan army practiced artillery and mortar fire missions in the desert beyond the airfield.
There was at least one squadron of attack helicopters stationed at the air base, including ex-Soviet Mil Ml-24 heavy helicopter gunships and French-made SA342 Gazelle light helicopter gunships, and one full armored battalion with ex-Soviet main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers. The base was considered too close to the Egyptian border to base a large number of fixed-wing combat aircraft there, but a few ground attack and air defense aircraft played a "shell game," hiding in one of a dozen reinforced concrete shelters located on the base. There was even a road-mobile Scud missile battalion located there, with a dozen SS-1 Scud missiles deployed all over the region at presurveyed launch points, ready to strike at preprogrammed targets in Egypt, Chad, Kenya, or Ethiopia, or targets of opportunity passed along by reconnaissance forces.