In response to recent criticism, Monitor has pointed out that when the firm was working in Libya, the political climate was markedly different from the current atmosphere of violent internal conflict.

Beginning in 2003, Gaddafi began pursuing better relations with the West, announcing that Libya would no longer seek nuclear weapons and that it would pay compensation to the families of victims of the 1988 plane bombings over Lockerbie, Scotland, which the Libyan government was accused of orchestrating.

In 2006, when Monitor began working with Gaddafi, “the policy of the United States and the U.K. and other countries was beginning to embrace bringing Libya back into the community of nations—you had a country that was in the dark for a long time that looked like it was coming into the light,” said Larry Kamer, a spokesperson specializing in crisis management recently brought on by Monitor.

“What has transpired since has made it very clear that Gaddafi was just not ready for reform,” he added.

Porter said in a written statement to The Crimson, responding to Lewis’ criticism, that he ended his work with the regime when the situation began to change.

“As it became clear over the following year that vested interests and conservatives had succeeded in halting the reform process, I stopped my work in Libya in the first quarter of 2007 and have not worked there since,” he wrote. Porter declined to comment for this article.

Today, top Libyan diplomats say the report’s conclusions portrayed a distorted vision of Libya.

The offices of Libya’s Mission to the United Nations declared independence from Gaddafi’s regime in February as the civil war escalated. “All this optimism, it was all based on empty promises,” Second Secretary of the Mission Dia A. A. Alhutmany said in an interview with The Crimson.

Alhutmany said that Gaddafi’s “real face” has now become apparent. As heated conflict rages between Gaddafi’s forces and the rebel ranks, the Western world is now largely united in its criticism of the regime.

‘AFOUL’ OF THE LAW

The episode crossed from dubious judgement to a question of legality when the U.S. Department of Justice, prompted by media scrutiny of Monitor’s activities in Libya, expressed concern that the firm may have been acting as an unregistered foreign agent—in effect, lobbying for Gaddafi.

Monitor then launched an internal investigation, which found that the firm had in fact “run afoul of certain laws,” according to Kamer.

The company said that its program of flying scholars to Libya constituted lobbying under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In early May, Monitor retroactively registered the program in Libya, as well as recent work for the Kingdom of Jordan.

The program brought one visitor to Libya each month to improve the image of Libya in the Western world. According to a 2006 memo, Monitor was paid $250,000 per month for one year, plus an expense budget of up to $2.5 million.

These visitors, the memo promised, would be prominent American thinkers who would be selected based on two criteria.