Yet the release of a frail old man is a curious trophy for despot who craves recognition as a universal leader. One of his first ventures was to imitate Chairman Mao by publishing the Green Book, a convoluted compendium of political philosophy which established a form of democracy without suffrage or parliament, in which people's committees administered the country. Like Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi also turned his hand to fiction, writing 15 novels – some with the involvement of Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy's speechwriter. However, the main similarity with the Iraqi dictator was the way in which Gaddafi constantly mixed vainglorious statesmanship with callous and brutal actions, using the wealth from his country's oil reserves to bankroll his schemes. That cash – estimated to have exceeded £1 trillion, with more untapped resources yet to be exploited – funded a rogue's directory of revolutionary movements from Palestine to the Philippines. Fishing trawlers carried Armalite rifles and Semtex explosives to the IRA. Libyan officials acted with murderous impunity at home and abroad: not least in the shooting of WPc Yvonne Fletcher by a member of staff from the Libyan embassy in 1984.