(Reuters) — The Gaddafi government carried out a lobbying operation to try to stop NATO’s bombardment of Libya, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Friday, citing secret documents seen by the newspaper.
The newspaper said the documents in Tripoli showed Libya’s rulers believed NATO forces were likely to launch a full-scale invasion in “either late September or October.”
It said the documents also showed that Tripoli approached key international opinion formers in the United States, including U.S. President Barack Obama.
The paper also said the documents showed the Libyan prime minister wrote a letter to Obama in June, in which he addressed him as “Mr. President,” and politely complained about Washington’s “unprecedented decision” to confiscate Libya’s assets.
It said Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic congressman who voted against NATO military action in Libya, declined a Libyan approach to visit as part of a “peace mission.”
The plan was for Kucinich to meet “senior Libyan officials, including Gaddafi.”
“Because of the efforts I had made early on to bring an end to the war, I started to get calls from Libya, including from the prime minister,” the Guardian quoted Kucinich as saying.
