Gadhafi Family 'Felt That They Had to Quiet Everyone': How One American Woman Became a Gadhafi Insider
Jacqueline Frazier was hired by the Gadhafis to bring in foreign investments
Oct. 20, 2011— -- At first blush, Jacqueline Frazier, a 32-year-old blonde American, originally from Vermont, hardly strikes you as someone occupying a slot in the inner circle of the Gadhafi family.
But for the past seven months, she watched from an insider's perch as the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi slowly unraveled.
Her connection to the Gadhafi family began when a mutual friend introduced her to one of Gadhafi's sons, Saadi Gadhafi.
Saadi Gadhafi had long been considered a playboy, even among his high-living family. He had left Libya for Europe, where he had a brief and unspectacular career as a professional soccer player. But he had recently returned to Libya with the intention of helping create new business in his home country.
"I was hired to be a liaison between incoming American companies for a project he was working on," Frazier told "This Week" anchor Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview.
She described the first time she stepped off the plane in Tripoli as "surreal."
"Very few women were out and about on the streets and in my environment as I kind of navigated the streets of Tripoli," Frazier said.
However, Frazier said she felt welcomed by the Libyan people as soon as she arrived.
"People are very warm there. They love foreigners," she said. "Everywhere you go they're welcoming in Libya. They love anyone who is coming in. It shows, I think, a sign of prosperity that their country is coming up…maybe a blonde American woman represents the future to them."
As foreign investments rolled into the country, Frazier said she felt good about the future of Libya and that she was always treated well by the Gadhafis.
"As a Westerner, I didn't feel the oppression or the kind of culture of paranoia that you would as a typical Libyan," she said. "So I saw the best parts of Libya."
The Gadhafis have been known for their family dysfunction, something that Frazier revealed she saw firsthand early on into her relationship with them.
"I knew there was a lot of competition," she said. "You can't imagine when you add the kind of financial background that the Gadhafis have, that it wouldn't just be outrageous, which it is. There's a lot of sibling rivalry."
The Gadhafi sons would vie for their father's attention, Frazier said, and the chance to prove to him that they were good leaders and successful businessmen.
"There were times when he would favor one son, and that son would feel very confident," she said. "Then the father would change favor and favor another son, and that created issues within the family. It created fissures within their family."
Soon, Frazier's concerns were much bigger than Gadhafi family dynamics. Within months of her arrival in Libya, there were the stirrings of a revolution in the east of the country. Frazier said the Gadhafis seemed unconcerned.
"When Tunisia fell and when Egypt fell, we were actually in the east of the country and we talked about that," she said. "We were in the east of the country, but one of the things the American companies -- my job was to find out, and to help these investments. These people were having significant investments in Libya, and they wanted to know what the Libyan government was doing to protect those interests, ultimately, with two countries on both sides falling. So I asked the question many times, 'what is your plan? What is happening?' and I found nothing."
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