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Project Armani

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Two influential US consultancy firms, The Livingston Group (LTG) and Monitor Group, had prepared strategies to reintroduce the Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, on the international arena, according to documents published in 2009 by the Libyan opposition group, National Conference of the Libyan Opposition (NCLO). (LTG said it had dropped Gaddafis' regime as a client.)

The documents showed that Gaddafi's regime would have paid millions of dollars for the publicity campaigns and related services, including a book lauding Libya under Gaddafi's rule. The book would have been based on conversations between Gaddafi and "renowned expert visitors," such as Benjamin Barber, Francis Fukuyama, Anthony Giddens, Richard Perle, among others.

In one document, Mark Fuller, CEO of Monitor Group, said he would woo foreign dignitaries to Libya to boost the regime's image. Under the strategy outlined, Monitor Group would push for positive articles about Gaddafi's regime to be published in US and international media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, Financial Times, and others.

The goal of the publicity campaigns was to introduce Gaddafi as a "thinker and intellectual." Also, LTG would have groomed Gaddafi's fourth son, Mutassim, for leadership, teach him English, and help set up a National Security Council that he would head. One of LTG's invoices --for USD 617,000-- was called "Project Armani." Could it have been a reference to Mutassim's suits?

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2009/07/29/hugh-miles/the-cost-of-letters/

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