More Desperate Dictator Housewives - Tunisia's Leila Ben Ali

Tunisia's president Zine Ben Ali and his wife Leila. Guess who wears the pants?

If one thing can be said about the cables appearing via WikiLeaks and selected media, the officials at US Embassies are a bunch of gossipy queens who love reporting on the intriguing developments of the Dynasty-esque lifestyles of dictators and their families. And I don't blame them! Why follow the comparatively dull proceedings on Wisteria Lane when you have the likes of Azerbaijan's Mehriban Aliyeva and Uzbekistan's Gulnara Karimova providing more than enough (shocking) entertainment.

Central Asia, though, does not have a monopoly on such shenanigans. WikiLeaks have published cables from the embassy in Tunisia giving details on the corruption orchestrated by the 74 year old Zine Ben Ali and his family. Tunisia follows the set pattern when it comes to corrupt dictatorships - dictator runs country like a mafia fiefdom, is massively rich despite the general population being extremely poor, has family members and spoilt kids in control of the economy and in positions of power (and act above the law with immunity), lots of kickbacks and pay-offs, and then there's the obligatory glamorous but despised wife. This character would like to see herself as an Evita Peron though her public more see her as Lady MacBeth. In Tunisia's case, it's Leila Ben Ali (née Trabelsi). As the cable details, the 53 year old and her family are involved in many shady deals and practices, much to the ire of the Tunisian public. Along with the numerous allegations of Trabelsi corruption are "often barbs about their lack of education, low social status, and conspicuous consumption". The cable is fascinating gossip - have a read of what no longer can be read in Tunisia here, now that the government there blocked the sale (along with access to its website) of the Lebanese newspaper publishing these cables.

Some background on madame Leila. Apparently, as internet gossip goes (who needs priest wives anymore), she was previously a simply salon owner but she was also Zine Ben Ali's mistress (then prime minister). The ambitious minx made sure she became pregnant to her married lover, lied to him and told him she was having a boy (very cunning!). Unhappy with his first wife (who bore him a daughter) and eager for a son, Bel Ali divorced and brought Leila into his new career as president, installing himself after dethroning former president and founder of Tunisia, the dictator Bourguiba, in a 1987 medical coup in which the senior president was declared senile - which was true and constitutional permissible. Leila gave birth to a girl, but Ben Ali was president now and divorcing while head of state was not acceptable (though Bourguiba did, but he dropped a French woman in order to marry a Tunisian woman like any proud Arab nationalist). Leila made the most of her new status and soon enough her whole family was benefitting handsomely from privatization schemes in the 1990s. Securing “loans” from banks, the Trabelsis established their own hotel chain, airline and travel agency (The Karthago Group). It is also rumoured that when Ben Ali’s brother passed away, the Trabelsi’s inherited his drug trade.

Madame Leila looking very Sarah Palin

The details of the Ben Alis' and Tarbelsis' lavish lifestyle are given in this cable. As reported in the Guardian the picture painted of the Tunisian president's son-in-law, Mohamed Sakher El Materi, provides "a striking illustration of the great wealth and excess fuelling resentment of the presidential family." Much like Uzbekistan's Gulnara Karimova, he has achieved so much in his life. How many 28 year olds do you know own a shipping cruise line, concessions for Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche and Renault, a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm, and real estate companies? Jeez, he's done well. Details are also given of an elaborate dinner to woo McDonalds to the north African Mediterranean state with "ice cream and frozen yoghurt brought in by private plane from St Tropez", and of the family's pet tiger named Pasha, who lives in a cage and consumes four chickens a day. This "reminded the US envoy of Uday Hussein's lion cage in Baghdad". Hmmm... interesting that.

Nesrine and Mohamed Sakhner El Materi

But wait, the plot thickens. There's a new person in Tunisia Lane - Yasser Arafat's widow, Suha Arafat. Oh, she's a piece! Coming from a rich Palestinian Christian family (her father was an Oxford-educated banker), she married PLO leader Yasser Arafat, 44 years her senior, in 1990. However, they rarely spent much time together as Suha much prefered living in Paris. She did give birth to a daughter with the Palestinian leader - Zahwa in 1995. Despite most Palestinians living in abject poverty, Suha was notorious for her extravagant lifestyle and expensive shopping excursions, funded from the alleged US$100,000 a month stipend she was receiving from the Palestinian Authority coffers, which in turn was financed from generous aid packages provided by Western countries.

Yasser, Zahwa and Suha Arafat

With the French prosecutors starting to investigate the large sums of money being transferred to her account and the death of her husband in 2004, Suha and daughter quickly made their way to Tunis, where they were greeted with open arms by the Ben Alis and later given Tunisian citizenship in 2006. This is where the soap opera really takes off. As the US cable explains, Suha had a long association with Tunisia and even held a Tunisian diplomatic passport, but still embassy officials were puzzled as to why she would go for citizenship. The only reason they could see for this was "that Tunisian law forbids foreigners to own agricultural land", which the US ambassador Robert Godec cattily (but correctly) added that La Arafat "is not known to be an aspiring farmer". The most likely reason why is that La Arafat was setting up a company to build an international school in the country and Tunisian laws (when applied) only allow for citizens to have majority shares in such undertakings.

Lurking behind all this was the rumour that not only had Suha been in a relationship with her best friend Leila Ben Ali's brother, Belhassen, they had secretly married. Oooh! Check out the stud muffin....

However, as in all soap operas, things aren't what they seem to be. The Tunisian government quietly revoked Suha Arafat's Tunisian citizenship less than a year after awarding it. As this cable testifies, the possible reasons for this are numerous. There had been a major falling out between best friends Suha and Leila, partly to do with the repercussions of the new international school they founded (and Suha had invested 2.5 million euros in). In true greedy, power-mad style, La Ben Ali closed a rival, prestigious private school so as to force Tunisia's elite to send their little darlings to the new school started by her first ladies club. This resulted in a major backlash by the students' parents. Suha Arafat apparently told her best friend that she had crossed the line by doing this, to which a furious La Ben Ali retaliated by ordering her (now former) best friend's citizenship be taken away from her. Arafat at the time was on a visit to her brother in Malta who happens to be the Palestinian ambassador there.

In another twist to the story, the word has it that it wasn't Leila Ben Ali who ordered the rival school to close but Suha Arafat herself! And Leila was so, so, so mad about this that she took it out on that bitch Suha, who responded with a 'talk to the hand'. Then other 'theories' (i.e. gossip circulating around Tunis - you know, what the hairdresser had heard but promised to not tell anyone) that Suha Arafat had called Qaddafi and said 'gimme money', to which Qaddafi then called Ben Ali and told him off for not looking after Suha. Then there's the rumour that Suha ran off with loads of the Ben Ali's assets (which they had stolen anyway, but that's beside the point). Finally, this whole citizenship revoking saga could all be revenge for Suha having broken the heart of Leila's brother Belhassen. Wow, Krystle and Alexis on Dynasty have nothing on this!!!

With Suha stuck in Malta with her ambassador brother after being betrayed by her best friend Leila, what's a gal supposed to do? Of course, blab all the insider info of the Ben Alis to the US embassy. Don't tell anyone but Suha said that: the Tunisian president remained weakened by his battle with cancer; he simply does what his wife asks him to do; Leila Ben Ali and her family are stealing everything of value in the country; madame Ben Ali believes that she will succeed her husband as President of Tunisia and she dropped the American curriculum that had been planned for the international school because she fundamentally wants nothing to do with Americans, among other tidbits. The claws were out!

That's where the story is so far. Suha and her daughter remain in Malta, in a house apparently funded by Qaddafi, and has been very quiet. Perhaps she may make a surprise reappearance in a later episode of Desperate Dictator Housewives?

I don't know why the US State Department have been embarrassed by these cables when you have ambassadors like Godec making points in their cables like in this case that " Suha Arafat has an ax to grind with the Ben Ali clan, so her allegations must be taken with a big grain of salt." The US State Department is reporting it as it is. What is embarrassing is that the US government continues to support these countries, in contradiction to the principles it allegedly stands for and promotes. As these cables allude, much to the frustration of the ambassadors involved, the US government though sees the only alternative type of government ever cultivating in these types of client states are mini-Irans. So it's the lesser of two evils, so to speak. Fair enough. Please, could you just be honest that that is the case then. Otherwise don't go taking the moral high road of 'promoting democracy and freedom of expression' if these principles are not actively promoted in those client states that need them.