"Good heavens Jom, Libya has never, ever been under Ba'ath Party rule"
Should have been "influence" not rule of course.
Would apologise if you had not posted your correction in such a typically arrogant manner
Jim Carroll

"The Regional Branch was founded in the 1950s[103] by Amr Taher Deghayes.[104] Ba'athism was a major political force in Libya following the establishment of the United Arab Republic. Many intellectuals were attracted to Ba'athist ideology during the later years of the Kingdom of Libya. However, with help from Nasserist propaganda, several Ba'athists changed affiliation and became Nasserists instead.[105] The growth of these pan-Arab ideologies concerned the government, which led to the incarceration of several Nasserist and Ba'athist military officers in the early sixties.[106] The Ba'athist were accused of working to overthrow "the political, economic and social system" of the Kingdom; the sentences ranged from everything to eight months to two years.[107] By 1964, the Libyan Regional Branch had only managed to establish one-level below the Regional Command, the branch-level.[108] Syrian specialist John Devlin estimated that the Libyan Regional Branch had been 50 and 150 members in 1964.[108]