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Whatever the source of the leaks and the motives behind them, many felt that the publicity could be dangerously counterproductive. "There are always rumors of that sort of thing," said former President Jimmy Carter. "I always felt it was better not to broadcast these things." "It could just encourage Gaddafi," argued Democratic Senator John Glenn of Ohio. "You feed his ego and make him want to do something that shows he's macho." Others feared that the publicity would build up Gaddafi's importance and win him friends among Arab nations already unfriendly to the U.S. Said Roger Fisher, professor of law at Harvard University: "We built up Castro in the same way. Why do this for Gaddafi? Why make this guy equal to a superpower?"
White House aides have been disturbed by the publicity about the hit men, and for two weeks have urged top Administration officials to try to stem the leaks from their own departments. The aides were especially upset by allegations that the leaks were orchestrated in order to build support for sanctions against Libya. Said White House Chief of Staff Baker, pointedly speaking on the record: "I want to deny as emphatically as I can that this was done as a predicate for any action that might be taken."
In their references to the Libyan leader, U.S. officials seemed to strike a ritualistic note of scorn and horror: Muammar Gaddafi* is not only a menace and a promoter of terrorism but a lunatic as well. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat used to call him "that crazy boy," but the consensus of most Middle East analysts is that Gaddafi is as crazy as a fox. To be sure, he is an erratic and irascible revolutionary, convinced of his own genius and wholly committed to spreading his own political gospel, an eccentric mix of Islam and socialism that is summed up in a three-volume work called The Green Book. But it is clear that he also has a broad streak of sanity and shrewdness. "It would be a mistake to underestimate him," says a State Department analyst. "His accomplishments are not inconsiderable, and those accomplishments make him dangerous."
Gaddafi's most predictable trait is bis unpredictability. "It's almost impossible to evaluate the man in rational terms," says a British diplomat. "With the coming of dawn, he may take off on a completely new tack." He is a man of mercury, quick to anger. Once when his second in command, Abdul Salam Jalloud, made a mistake, Gaddafi had Jalloud's hair shaved off. He often carries a side arm; more than once, he has lost patience and pulled out his gun, aiming it at the person who offended him.
Gaddafi remains generally popular in Libya, but he has become increasingly isolated; he once wandered freely among the people but now usually stays out of sight (and rifle shot). He seldom sleeps in the same house two nights in a row, and his movements are random. When he does appear in public, he often poses and struts for the cameras in an impeccably tailored military uniform, true to his own statement of what his regime is all about: "The strong always rule."