Gaddafi 'preparing to flee' Libyan b... 
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/25/3148403.htm
Gaddafi 'preparing to flee' Libyan bloodshed
Updated 52 minutes ago
A political activist says Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is readying to flee the country, as violent civil unrest continues and rebels continue to take power of towns close to the capital Tripoli.
Eyewitnesses in Tripoli say the government is escalating its crackdown on anti-government protesters, and it is hard to know how much ground Mr Gaddafi has lost to local protesters.
Tripoli is still held by pro-Gaddafi forces. Tanks have been seen in the suburbs and the streets are quiet as any protest would almost certainly be crushed.
The picture elsewhere is more uncertain and fluid.
There are reports of gun battles taking place between forces loyal to Mr Gaddafi and his opponents in the town of Zawiyah, 50 kilometres west of Tripoli.
Mr Gaddafi no longer controls much of the east around Benghazi, where there are reports residents have jailed those they say are mercenaries and set up committees to run the city.
London-based Libyan political activist, Guma el-Gamaty, has told the ABC's Lateline that "quite reliable sources" believe Mr Gaddafi is readying to flee his country.
"Gaddifi's own private plane is loaded with gold bullion and lots of hard currency, mainly dollars, and is preparing to flee to Zimbabwe to stay there with his friend Robert Mugabe," he said.
"We think this could happen very shortly because the Security Council is threatening to impose a no-fly zone and we think that Gaddafi will try to escape before this no-fly zone is imposed, possibly by tomorrow.
"So this is the most serious story we've heard today. It's very indicative of the fact that Gaddafi is totally isolated, surrounded more or less and is probably in a state of mind where he's just concentrating and thinking about how to escape and run away and stay alive."
Mr el-Gamaty says Mr Gaddafi's 41-year rule is coming to a close.
"It's just a matter of time. This time could be hours, could be days. The whole of the eastern region is now totally free of Gaddafi's control," he said.
"In the western region, big towns and cities have also fallen. We have confirmation this morning that the third biggest city in Libya, which is Misurata, some 200 kilometres east of Tripoli is totally free of Gaddafi and they have managed to tackle the last security battalion in the city and taken it over.
"In fact, the local radio station in Misurata is now broadcasting free material against Gaddafi and celebrating with the population."
Mr el-Gamaty says Mr Gaddafi's regime has "thousands" of African mercenaries.
"They are Africans who speak French or English. They are totally alien to the Libyan society and they said they have been promised large amounts of dollars to fight for Gaddafi basically," he said.
"These thousands of Africans are within the Bab al-Azizia barrack. It's a huge complex and they unleash them out of the barracks into the streets of Tripoli to terrorise the population and to prevent them from coming out and demonstrating.
"These mercenaries have orders to shoot any people who they see on the streets. So, that is what's holding the huge population of Tripoli, which is about two million people, not to come out en masse. Basically they are held hostages inside their houses."
'Die like Hitler'
Earlier, one of Mr Gaddafi's former ministers predicted the Libyan leader will follow in Adolf Hitler's footsteps and commit suicide rather than give up power.
Mustapha Abdeljalil, justice minister until he quit over the bloody crackdown on protesters, says he expects Mr Gaddafi to make good on his pledge to die on Libyan soil rather than slink into exile.
"Gaddafi's time is up. He is going to go like Hitler. He is going to commit suicide," Mr Abdeljalil told Swedish media.
Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin in April 1945 as he witnessed the disintegration of his Nazi empire.
Mr Mr el-Gamaty says that is "a small possibility".
"We believe that probably Gaddafi doesn't really have the courage to kill himself. We think he still have this grandiose idea that he will go to Africa and rally all the Africans," he said.
"Remember he has the title of the "King of Kings" of Africa, so he thinks he can still go to Africa and rally all the Africans around him and come back to Libya and take it over again.
"But, who knows? That is also a possibility. But whether he flees, whether he kills himself, whether he gets arrested, I think he is doomed and I think his end is very imminent."
The official death toll from the violence stands at 300, but some reports figure the number at more than 1,000.Advertisement
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- Re: Gaddafi 'preparing to flee' Liby... mu-shen
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This is a reply to # 1,775,166Sure hope he´ll leave and put an end to the bloodshed and this farce. Can´t see "The King of Kings" bringing up the courage to kill himself.
Watching BBC on TV and according to them Gaddafi has said this is not a people´s revolt.... instead Al Kaida is behind it. Bin Laden is supposedly duping the youth of Libya. Sound familiar? The US may give him a ear and take him in, especially if he brings some oil with him! LOL!!!- Re: Gaddafi 'preparing to flee' Liby... spudlydoo
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MoreThis is a reply to # 1,775,181Watching his speech, I think he's off his trolley. It's interesting how these old dictators want to hold on to power, look at Zimbabwe, North Korea, Libya, Iraq, and many more. They will say and do anything to keep their position, including killing the people who put them in that position in the first place. The old saying "power corrupts, and absolute power, corrupts absolutely" , is very appropriate at this time.
These dictators, are just one group that will go the way of the dinosaurs, hopefully before they can do more damage to the people.
spud
- Gaddafi facing final stand in Tripol... spudlydoo
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This is a reply to # 1,775,466Advertisement
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/25/3148429.htm
Gaddafi facing final stand in Tripoli
By Middle East correspondent Anne Barker and wires
Updated 59 minutes ago
Key towns in Libya's west have reportedly been the scene of fierce clashes as anti-government protesters close in on dictator Moamar Gaddafi's stronghold in the capital, Tripoli.
Mr Gaddafi's forces now control an ever-shrinking share of the country, and it appears the critical fight will come down to Tripoli, where his forces and supporters are at their strongest.
In the past 24 hours, much of the capital was deserted as residents sought refuge at home.
But protesters, with the help of defected soldiers, are now vowing to march on the capital for a final battle they hope will end Mr Gaddafi's 42-year rule.
A rapid flow of reports on Twitter have told of Mr Gaddafi's forces and hired mercenaries opening fire on civilians at Zawiya, about 30 kilometres west of Tripoli.
Many spoke of heavy gunfire and even anti-aircraft missiles being used to attack protesters, including inside a mosque.
A witness on Al Jazeera television described it as a massacre.
"More than 100 people - there's about 200 to 300 people shooted - about 100 of them have died now. I think they are planning to attack us again this night," the man said.
There were accounts too of fighting at Misurata, another western town and the scene of ongoing clashes.
But then came reports that anti-government groups there had taken control.
One video on YouTube purports to show protesters or deserting soldiers parading with military weapons.
Defiant
The Libyan leader still sees no reason to step down.
Overnight, Libyan television aired what it said was another speech by Mr Gaddafi made by telephone, where he blamed the unrest on young Libyans who have been brainwashed by drugs or Al Qaeda.
"It is obvious that this is run by Al Qaeda, " he said. "You in Zawiyah turn to bin Laden. They give you drugs.
"Those armed youngsters, our children, are incited by people who are wanted by America and the Western world.
"People were getting all their daily needs ... why did you have to get involved with the bin Laden ideology?
"They have been brainwashing the kids in this area and tell them to misbehave... the ones who are under bin Laden's influence and authority, under the influence of drugs."
He told the Libyan people he has no control.
"I am not interested in anything. Since 1977 I hand over power to you. I have no say on orders or decisions or laws," he said.
"It is the people who rule itself. You have the prerogative to deal with your own affairs as you wish."
The speech was the embattled leader's second television appearance since protests broke out against his rule on February 15.
On Tuesday, in a defiant, sometimes rambling speech, Mr Gaddafi vowed to remain in Libya as head of its revolution, saying he would die as a martyr in the land of his ancestors and fight to the "last drop" of his blood.
He also ordered the army and police to crush the popular uprising against his iron-fisted, four-decade rule that has left hundreds dead.- Rebels learn to govern themselves in... mu-shen
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This is a reply to # 1,775,498By KAREEM FAHIM ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/world/africa/25benghazi.html
Published: February 24, 2011
BENGHAZI, Libya — The rebels here said they caught a spy in the court building, the nerve center of the uprising, recording insurgent plans on a cellphone camera. The response was swift. Prosecutors interrogated the man on Thursday, and the rebels said they planned to detain him, for now.
“We want to know if he’s alone,” said Fathi Terbil, the lawyer whose detention set off Libya’s rebellion and who is now one of its leaders.
In the city where the Libyan uprising began, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and average citizens who oppose the rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi are adjusting to unfamiliar roles: they are keepers both of an evolving rebellion, as well as law and order in Libya’s second largest city.
And they fret that their gains will be reversed, by people and groups sympathetic to Colonel Qaddafi, who still maintain a presence.
Since Sunday, when government forces withdrew and Benghazi became the first major city to fall under rebel control, residents and rebels here have been left to hammer out a new way of life and governance.
On Thursday, the fruits of that effort were beginning to take a rough shape. A judge, still wearing his robes, wandered through traffic, ordering drivers to put on their seat belts. At another intersection, three young men helped an elderly police officer direct a traffic jam.
Dozens of banks opened for business, and by late afternoon, stores shuttered for days had started to open as well.
In Benghazi’s new order, the court building overlooking the Mediterranean has become both a seat of rebel power and the town hall.
A battery of newly formed committees meet there to discuss security, negotiate with the army and sort out how to get people back to work. “We needed something temporary, to manage the day-to-day life,” said Imam Bugaighis, an orthodontist who has become a spokeswoman for the caretaker administration.
She said her sister, a lawyer, is also an organizer of the effort, whose leadership remains very loose. Lawyers and judges were at the vanguard of the uprising.
“They are in charge,” Dr. Bugaighis said. Then she added, “Nobody is in charge.”
After Libya’s revolt began here on Feb. 15, there was intense fighting for several days. The local hospital is still coping with the influx of those who survived. At the height of the uprising, about a hundred people a day were admitted with bullet wounds and other injuries, according to the chief surgeon, who gave his name only as Dr. Abdullah because the government’s agents were still lurking. “We’ve been under threats for 40 years,” he said.
Badly wounded men lay in the hospital’s intensive care unit, and doctors confided privately that they did not expect them to live. They included a 30-year-old man whose chest was filled with bullet fragments. “He’s deeply comatose,” Dr. Abdullah said.
Dr. Abdullah said that 140 people died during the unrest here, while local rebel leaders said the number could be as high as 300. The doctors said many patients arrived with bullet wounds to the chest and the head. Many of them are paralyzed.
In the morgue, nine green bags contained charred remains. Dr. Abdullah said that they had been recovered from the local military base, and that he was told they were soldiers who were executed and then burned by their commanders after they refused to fire on civilians. But he could not be sure.
“It was chaos,” he said.
The chaos had started with the detention of Mr. Terbil, a lawyer who represents families of those killed in a massacre of more than 1,000 inmates in Abu Slim prison in Tripoli in 1996. The families planned to be part of a protest on Feb. 17, and Mr. Terbil said that the authorities detained him on Feb. 15, hoping to head off the demonstrations.
During an interview in a second-floor office in the court building on Thursday, Mr. Terbil said his interrogation stretched out over two days, as his supporters protested outside the security building where he was detained. Using carrots and sticks, the authorities told him to find a way to end the demonstrations.
“I told them it’s already on Facebook and Twitter,” he said he told the officer interrogating him. “We can’t stop it. We can make it peaceful.”
The interrogator’s response, Mr. Terbil said, was: “We cannot allow protests like that to take place. Blood will be shed.”- Gaddafi arming supporters to 'crush ... spudlydoo
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This is a reply to # 1,775,743Advertisement
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It looks like things are moving forward in Libya, but Gaddafi wont go without trying to kill a lot of protesters in the meantime. Tripoli is his stronghold, and this is where the protesters must triumph.
spud
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/26/3149625.htm
Gaddafi arming supporters to 'crush enemy'
Updated 1 hour 34 minutes ago
Libyan anti-regime protesters show machineguns and ammunition
Moamar Gaddafi has vowed defiantly to triumph over his enemies, saying he will throw open the country's arsenals to his supporters in a rabble-rousing speech that presaged a bloody battle for the Libyan capital.
Addressing hundreds of cheering supporters from the old city ramparts looking over Tripoli's Green Square, Mr Gaddafi, wearing a winter jacket and a hunter's cap that covered his ears, said when necessary he would open Libya's arsenals of guns to the tribes.
"We can crush any enemy. We can crush it with the people's will. The people are armed and when necessary, we will open arsenals to arm all the Libyan people and all Libyan tribes," he said.
Blowing kisses to supporters and then shaking both fists in the air in a dramatic performance, he urged his supporters to fight for their country.
"Get ready to fight for Libya! Get ready to fight for dignity! Get ready to fight for petroleum! .... Respond to them, put them to shame ... we can triumph over the enemies," he said.
"We will fight them and we will beat them."
Mr Gaddafi's supporters, some waving the green flags he adopted for Libya, chanted in response to his incitement: "With our blood and our souls we redeem you, Gaddafi!"
Gaddafi loyalists earlier shot dead at least two protesters in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday (local time), Arab media reported, as the uprising against Mr Gaddafi closed in on his stronghold.
Almost the entire east of the oil-rich north African country has slipped from Mr Gaddafi's control since a popular uprising began with protests in the port city of Benghazi on February 15.
Hundreds of people have been killed in a brutal crackdown and tens of thousands of foreigners are scrambling to leave the country.
Becoming more animated and stretching out his hands to supporters from his vantage point above them, the 68-year-old Mr Gaddafi shouted to his supporters that the Libyan people "love Gaddafi".
"Life without dignity has no value, life without green flags has no value," he told them. "Sing, dance and prepare yourselves."
To the outside world, Mr Gaddafi said: "Look Europe, look America, to this Libyan people. Here is Moamar Gaddafi among the people, among the youth. This is the Libyan people, this is the fruit of the revolution. The youth are enthusiastic. They want the revolution, they want dignity and glory."
Despite receiving roars of approval from his backers, anti-Gaddafi factions in the rebel-held second city of Benghazi were not impressed by the often rambling appearance.
"When you cut the head off a rooster, it keeps running around. That's the stage Ghaddafi's at. He's finished," Mustafa Gheriani, a 54-year-old engineer said.
This was Gaddafi's third statement this week. He previously called on his followers to crush the insurrection and later said Al Qaeda was behind what he called "drug crazed mobs" of youth trying to unseat him.
But Mr Gaddafi's son said that his forces were holding back in fighting with rebels in western Libya and hoped that a negotiated ceasefire could be in place by today.
Speaking in English to foreign journalists flown to Tripoli under official escort, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said of fighting in two western cities: "In Misrata, in Zawiya, we have a problem.
"We are dealing with terrorists ... The army decided not to attack the terrorists, and to give a chance to negotiation. Hopefully we will do it peacefully and will do so by tomorrow."
'Psychologically unstable'
Libya's deputy UN ambassador said that thousands of people have been killed in the country's unrest and that Mr Gaddafi may kill himself rather than be caught by his opponents.
"There are already thousands of people who have been killed, we expect more," said the diplomat, Ibrahim Dabbashi, who has turned against the Gaddafi regime.
Mr Dabbashi told reporters Mr Gaddafi is "psychologically unstable" and that "Gaddafi has the choice between being killed or commit suicide".
"He might seek to send some of his family members abroad but I believe he prefers to die in Libya because of his narcissistic character - he wants to act like a hero," he said.
Mr Dabbashi said "the dictator regime in Tripoli is in its last moments".
The Libyan envoy said the international community had to "send a clear message" to Mr Gaddafi to halt the violence.
"Otherwise I think he will continue his killings and today you will have thousands of people killed in Tripoli. It is time to stop this," he said.
Foreigners evacuated
A US-chartered ferry carrying more than 300 evacuees and delayed by rough weather finally departed Tripoli on Friday (local time) as a US evacuation plane flew out amid the bloody revolt.
The US state department said the ferry is en route to Malta, on a trip expected to take eight hours.
"Aboard are more than 300 passengers, of whom more than half are US citizens," it said, adding that some 285 evacuees had initially boarded the ferry but the number rose past 300 when "additional passengers were added prior to departure".
Meanwhile, the United States announced it would be imposing unilateral and multilateral sanctions on Libya in a bid to halt and punish Mr Gaddafi's crackdown on protests.
Washington also said that it has closed its embassy in Tripoli for security reasons, and warned that US intelligence assets were monitoring events for evidence of atrocities committed by Mr Gaddafi's forces.
In Ankara French president Nicolas Sarkozy became the first world leader to openly demand the Libyan leader's ouster.
Mr Sarkozy said "Mr Gaddafi must go".
"The systematic violence against the Libyan people is unacceptable and will be the subject of investigations and sanctions," he said.
Outraged Western governments have been scrambling to craft a collective response to the bloody crackdown.
In a first step, the European Union agreed to slap an arms embargo, asset freezes and travel bans on Libya, an EU diplomat said. However, they will not be enforced for several days because the accord needs to be drafted legally.
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