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UNCLAS TRIPOLI 000874 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR S/ES-CR, S/ES-O, AND NEA/MAG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPDC, PREL, OVIP, LY SUBJECT: LIBYAN LEADER AL-QADHAFI'S CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT REF: STATE 118192 1. (U) Post received on November 9 via telefax a letter from Leader Muammar al-Qadhafi conveying his congratulations to the President-elect. We have not yet received the note in hard copy. 2. (SBU) Post's informal translation of the Arabic language letter follows: Begin text of letter: Dear Mr. President Obama, I have the pleasure to send a congratulation note for the first time to an American president, and on behalf of all Africa, and of Cen-Sad, the base of the African pyramid, and on behalf of the Arab Maghreb Union, and in the name of all Arab leaders as I am their dean. Since relations are resumed between our two countries, we have the right to congratulate you from the bottom of our hearts because you are the son of Africa. God gives reign to whom He wishes and takes it away from whom He wishes; he holds dear whom he wants and humiliates whom he wants as well. He retains all the good in His hands, and He is the all powerful; and He pledged to confer His favors on those deemed weak and to bequeath them the Earth. Blacks were deemed weak and were oppressed, and were taken to the American continent as slaves and indentured servants. The main point is that Blacks shall not have an inferiority complex and imitate the Yankees. They have to prove that they are partners to the whites and sharing the same continent; that the Whites themselves are not indigenous, but that they have come from overseas; that the black man is not less competent than the white man; and that the black color shall prevail in the world as predicted by the Green Book. I salute the American people who have chosen you in these historical elections for such a high position, so that you may lead the change that you have promised them and for which they have rallied around you. We hope that you lead the United States of America on the path of good and respect peoples' sovereignty and observe the policy of neutrality. Sincerely, Muammar al-Qadhafi End text. 3. (U) Post will forward the original via diplomatic pouch if/when we receive it. STEVENS