Terrorism: It Ain't What It Used to Be

By Scott Macleod/Jidda

Perhaps you've heard that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, ex-Mr. Terror himself, is supporting President Bush's war on Osama bin Laden. In an e-mail interview with TIME, the Libyan leader's ambitious son, Seif al Islam (Sword of Islam), or just Seif to his friends, elaborates: "The kind of terrorism that Libya was accused of is different from today's terrorism." How's that? Seif, 29, an architect with a business degree who heads a charitable foundation, maintains that his father supported freedom fighters, like Nelson Mandela and Yasser Arafat, now given "red-carpet" treatment in the U.S.

Islamic fanatics, on the other hand, just want to kill people, including, it turns out, Gaddafi Sr. "They tried, many times, to assassinate the Leader," he writes. Seif is brandishing an olive branch even as the U.S. extends sanctions against his father's regime. He says that Libya longs to send students to American universities, import U.S. wheat and medicine, invest in the lucrative oil and gas sectors and work with Washington to combat poverty and disease in Africa. "It is time we turned a new leaf," he says. The main obstacle is Libya's refusal to admit involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 270. "Terrorism is terribly frightening," Seif acknowledges, with nary a trace of irony. If only his father had thought of that.

--By Scott Macleod/Jidda