A declassified email sent on April 2, 2011 to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reveals the invasion of Libya was launched to prevent Muammar Gaddafi from establishing a pan-African currency based on Libya’s gold Dinar.

According to the document posted on the US State Department website advisors to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the second son of Muammar Gaddafi, told sources the Libyan government held 143 tons of gold and a similar amount in silver valued at more than $7 billion. The gold and silver was to be used to establish an alternative currency to the French franc for African Francophone countries.

A large numbers of Western Africa nations are former French colonies and many continue to hold French as the official language. Madagascar in East Africa is also a Francophone country.

“French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began,” the email states, “and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.”

In addition to preventing Libya from breaking away from French monetary domination, Sarkozy wanted to “gain a greater share of Libya oil production,” increase French influence in North Africa and dash Gaddafi’s “long term plans to supplant France as the dominant power in Francophone Africa.”

During the invasion of Libya analysts argued Gaddafi planned to stop selling oil in US dollars and demand instead it be traded in gold dinars. Prior to the invasion Gaddafi urged other African and Middle Eastern nations to follow suit.

“Any move such as that would certainly not be welcomed by the power elite today, who are responsible for controlling the world’s central banks,” financial analyst Anthony Wile told Africa Cradle. “So yes, that would certainly be something that would cause his immediate dismissal and the need for other reasons to be brought forward [for] removing him from power.”

“The central banking Ponzi scheme requires an ever-increasing base of demand and the immediate silencing of those who would threaten its existence. Perhaps that is what the hurry is in removing Gaddafi in particular and those who might have been sympathetic to his monetary idea,” Wile wrote in May, 2011.

Saddam Hussein in Iraq suffered a similar fate after he announced his country’s oil would be sold in euros, not dollars. “Sanctions and then a US invasion followed. Coincidence? Hussein’s idea would have strengthened the euro, but Gaddafi’s idea would have strengthened all of Africa in the opinion of hard-money economists. Gold is the ultimate honest money and the peg against which all other fiat currencies are ultimately devalued,” Wile notes.