Foreign Correspondent

One former US president called him the Mad Dog of the Middle East. His fingerprints are all over a catalogue of despicable acts including terrorism. So why did the West welcome Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi back into the mainstream? As he digs in against a potent uprising and now facing a United Nations air patrol, this is the inside story of how powerful governments shrugged off his heinous acts and made Gaddafi richer and more powerful than ever before.