Moussa Koussa

Moussa Muhammad Koussa
Koussa in September 2010
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Libya
In office 4 March 2009 – 30 March 2011
President	Imbarek Shamekh Abu Al-Quasim al-Zwai
Prime Minister	Baghdadi Mahmudi
Leader	Muammar Gaddafi
Preceded by	Abdel Rahman Shalgham
Succeeded by	Abdelati Obeidi
Personal details
Born	1949? Tajura, Libya
Nationality	Libyan
Alma mater	Michigan State University
Religion	Islam

Moussa Muhammad Koussa (Arabic: موسى كوسا‎‎, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈmusaˌkosa]; born 1949?) is a Libyan political figure and diplomat, who held several high-profile positions in the Libyan government, lastly as Minister of Foreign Affairs from March 2009, into the Libyan Civil War, when he resigned his position on 30 March 2011.

Koussa previously headed the Libyan intelligence agency from 1994 to 2009, and was considered one of the country's most powerful figures and a member of Gaddafi's inner circle. When he arrived in the United Kingdom in March 2011, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office released an official statement saying that Koussa no longer wished to represent the Libyan government and intended to resign. No charges were pressed against him by the British government, and in the following months financial sanctions on him were lifted by the Obama administration. He now lives in a small house in a suburb of Doha, Qatar, after being asked to leave his suite in Doha's luxurious Four Seasons hotel.

“The Sultan… was condemned to endure a bizarre sort of apocalypse, a living nightmare so awful he couldn’t bear to rest his head on his pillow or close his eyes at any time of day or night for fear of dreaming a certain black dog (…) For years, the Sultan searches in vain for a cure for ceaseless visions of being mauled by a rabid black dog. One day, a “wise traveler” arrives with a warning and a solution (…). The 'wise man' might be a composite of Gaddafi’s eldest son, and intelligence head Musa Kusa (...)”

Koussa was born on 23 March 1949 in the Tripoli suburb of Tajura into a well-respected middle-class family with no significant tribal or other power base. He attended Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, earning a degree in sociology in 1978 with a 200-plus pages study of Colonel Qaddafi titled "The political leader and his social background: Muammar Qadafi, the Libyan leader". Koussa was offered the chance to continue to study for a doctorate but instead returned to Tripoli. As a student, Koussa took great care with his work, interviewing Gaddafi twice, his family, childhood teachers, friends, and military colleagues, allowing him to paint a vivid picture of the influences and motivations of Gaddafi's revolutionary visions in his thesis, which may be the most comprehensive, revealing document in English about Libya's enigmatic leader, Moammar Kadafi. According to his thesis adviser, Christopher K. Vanderpool, Moussa Koussa would have had a promising career in academia had he not abandoned plans to study for a doctorate to become one of Gaddafi’s closest confidants. His passion for academia and teaching was so deep-rooted that he taught at the University of Tripoli for decades, even while serving the Libyan government in different roles.