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Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is the strangest head of state I’ve ever met.

When I asked him about democracy he threatened to sue.

“If you or someone
else says that Libya is not a democracy then it would be considered an
insult,” he said. “We could go to court to redeem honour from that
insult.”

The conversation
was back in 2005 at his tent in Tripoli, a single-room structure made
of colourful textiles in the middle of a heavily guarded compound.

We sat on plastic
garden furniture that had been carefully hand-cleaned by a man in an
orderly’s uniform, while a small goat picked at patchy grass outside.

Gadhafi is famous
for his odd behaviour, female bodyguards and bizarre ideas such as his
plan to abolish Switzerland. We only saw very conventional male
bodyguards. But even with their protection, Gadhafi’s manner made it
hard to understand how he managed to stay in power for more than four
decades.

He didn’t seem up to it.

He appeared
lethargic and his eyes, even behind sunglasses, seemed unfocused. He
used an elaborate fly whisk to wave away insects that weren’t actually
there. His answers, through a translator, seemed rambling.

Author Kenneth
Timmerman, who has also met him, says Gadhafi has kept power through
cunning. “He’s a very very skilled player,” Timmerman said.

“He divides the
country. He conquers the small groups. He’s kept the tribes squabbling
amongst themselves and up until relatively recently he has distributed
some of the oil wealth to the people.”

Human rights groups
also say that Gadhafi’s regime has killed, jailed and tortured its
opponents. Libya today is in turmoil. Back then, it was in transition,
a rogue state trying to redeem itself.

Pressed by
international sanctions, it had abandoned support for terrorist
organisations, surrendered its weapons of mass destruction to the West
and was trying to open-up its economy.

Gadhafi told me he was angry that Libya never got the pay-off it expected: American esteem and investment.

In part, it was because Washington’s attention had turned to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it was also, no
doubt, because no American president or politician would be eager to
embrace the man Ronald Reagan once called a “mad dog.”

In any country or company’s plans for Libya, Moammar Gadhafi was the wildcard, the unpredictable element. He still is.

Jonathan Mann presents Political Mann on CNN International each
Friday at 18:30 (CAT), Saturday at 3pm and 9pm (CAT), and Sunday at
10am (CAT).