Col. Muammar Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, has been in the spotlight this week, clinging to power as an anti-government uprising sweeps the country he’s ruled for over 41 years.

Diplomatic cables released over the past year by WikiLeaks portray the Libyan leader as deeply eccentric and whimsical, but also as a passionate follower of global events who aspires to be a player on the world stage. And they detail how the often embarrassing behavior of Gaddafi’s sons–which has included throwing a lavish party at which Mariah Carey was paid $1 million to perform four songs–has had political implications.

Here are some highlights from the cables:

• Gaddafi, 68, is described as a “mercurial and eccentric figure who … enjoys flamenco dancing and horseracing, acts on whims and irritates friends and enemies alike.” He’s also said to fear flying over water and staying on the upper floor of buildings, to often fast on Mondays and Thursdays, and to have once proclaimed himself Libya’s “King of Culture.” Oh, and according to one memo, he travels almost everywhere in the company of a “voluptuous blonde” Ukrainian nurse.

• Gaddafi “avoids making eye contact,” according to one 2008 cable sent to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as she prepared to meet the Libyan leader. Rice also was warned that “there may be long, uncomfortable periods of silence,”

• But Rice was also told that Gaddafi is a “a voracious consumer of news,” as well as a “self-styled intellectual and philosopher,” who “has been eagerly anticipating for several years the opportunity to share with you his views on global affairs.” One such view: an idea to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict by creating a new state called “Isratine.”

• Gaddafi’s five sons also make appearances in the cables. One, Muatassim, who serves as his father’s national-security adviser, is said to have demanded $1.2 billion in 2008 from the chairman of Libya’s national oil corporation, in order to establish his own militia. Twice in the last few years, Muatassim has held lavish New Year’s parties on the Caribbean island of St. Barts, at which Mariah Carey, Usher, and Beyonce have been paid to perform (Carey was reportedly paid $1 million for four songs). The reports of Muatassim’s “carousing and extravagance angered some locals, who viewed his activities as impious and embarrassing to the nation,” one cable says. The Serbian ambassador is said to have described Muatassim as “not very bright.”

• Another son, Hannibal, was arrested in Geneva in 2009 after allegedly beating his servants, sparking a diplomatic spat between Switzerland and Libya. (Charges were dropped after the servants agreed to a settlement.) That same year, police went to Hannibal’s room at London’s Claridge’s hotel, after a scream was heard. Hannibal’s then-girlfriend (she is now his wife) was found to have suffered facial injuries, which she said she sustained in a fall. A 2010 cable written by Gene Cretz, then the U.S. ambassador to Libya, judged that between them, Muatassim and Hannibal had  “provided enough dirt for a Libyan soap opera.”

• And that’s not counting a third son, Sa’adi, who’s described as “notoriously ill-behaved,” with a “troubled past, including scuffles with police in Europe (especially Italy), abuse of drugs and alcohol, excessive partying, [and] travel abroad in contravention of his father’s wishes.” A former professional soccer player (he played a season for Perugia in Italy’s top division), Sa’adi owns a part of one of Libya’s biggest soccer teams, as well as a film production company.

• Perhaps the best-behaved of Gaddafi’s sons is Saif al-Islam, the presumed heir apparent, who is said not to get along with Muatassim, Hannibal, and Sa’adi. Ambassador Cretz’s 2010 cable said that Libyan men in their 20s describe Saif as the “hope” of Libya, and want him to run the country. “The widening contrast between the respectable, cultured image that Saif has taken on and the spoiled, boorish image his siblings project,” Cretz wrote, “has local audiences rallying behind Saif as the next heir to the Gaddafi throne.”

• Still, Saif is no altar boy (mosque boy?): Another cable reported that he, too, “persisted in his hard-partying, womanizing ways.” Nor does he seem to be a committed moderate. This week, he went on TV to declare that Libya faced a civil war and “rivers of blood” if people failed to support his father.

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