Gaddafi slept with 4-5 women daily says his close aide

Former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was a sex addict who had a penchant for young women -- many of whom were his bodyguards, his close aide has revealed.

"There were four or sometimes five women each day. They had just become a habit to Gaddafi. They would go into his bedroom, he would have his way with them and then he would come out like he had just blown his nose.
"They all had sex with Gaddafi. The more canny of them became wealthy from his gifts of villas or large sums of cash," Faisal, Gaddafi's chef of seven years, told 'The Sunday Times' newspaper.
Faisal claimed that some of the women his former master bedded suffered so badly that "they went immediately from his bedroom to the hospital" to be treated for internal injuries.
In fact, Gaddafi, who once bedded at least four women just hours before meeting Britain's Prince Andrew for trade talks in Tripoli, was so addicted to anti-impotence pills that his Ukrainian nurse urged to him to reduce the number of drugs he swallowed every day, the 29-year-old chef said.
The former Libyan despot even picked up victims at his former alma mater, Tripoli University, where he gave lectures and then led the young women to a nearby room whose only furniture was a double bed, he said.

Faisal claimed that another aide was once sent to a sex district of Paris, to buy a machine that Gaddafi used to apparently lengthen his penis.
Gaddafi was particular about his looks and used make- ups and treatments with green tea to hide his wrinkles, said Faisal, who was captured along with his former master by the National Transitional Council forces Sirte last month.Gaddafi was killed after his capture.
PTI

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Autopsy: Libya's Gadhafi Killed by Shot to Head

TRIPOLI, Libya October 22, 2011 (AP)

An autopsy confirmed that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi died from a gunshot to the head, the country's chief pathologist said Sunday, just hours before Libya's new leaders were to declare liberation and a formal end to an eight-month civil war to topple the longtime ruler's regime.
The declaration starts the clock on a transition to democracy that is fraught with uncertainty and could take up to two years.
However, international concern about the circumstances of Gadhafi's death and indecision over what to do with his remains overshadowed what was to be a joyful day. Gadhafi's body has been on public display in a commercial freezer in a shopping center in the port city of Misrata, which suffered from a bloody siege by regime forces during the spring.
The 69-year-old was captured wounded, but alive Thursday in his hometown of Sirte as it became the last city to fall to revolutionary forces. Bloody images of Gadhafi being taunted and beaten by his captors have raised questions about whether he was killed in crossfire as suggested by government officials or deliberately executed.
An autopsy completed Sunday in Misrata showed that Gadhafi was killed by a shot to the head, said Libya's chief pathologist, Dr. Othman al-Zintani. He would not disclose further details or elaborate on Gadhafi's final moments, saying he would first deliver a full report to the attorney general.
Most Libyans weren't concerned about the circumstances of the hated leader's death, but rather were relieved the country's ruler of 42 years was gone, clearing the way for a new beginning.
"If he (Gadhafi) was taken to court, this would create more chaos, and would encourage his supporters," said Salah Zlitni, 31, who owns a pizza parlor in downtown Tripoli. "Now it's over."
Libya's interim leaders are to formally declare later Sunday that the country has been liberated. The ceremony is to take place in the eastern city of Benghazi, the revolution's birthplace.
The long-awaited declaration starts the clock on Libya's transition to democracy. The transitional leadership has said it would declare a new interim government within a month of liberation and elections for a constitutional assembly within eight months, to be followed by votes for a parliament and president within a year.
The uprising against the Gadhafi regime erupted in February, as part of anti-government revolts spreading across the Middle East. Neighboring Tunisia, which set off the so-called Arab Spring with mass protests nearly a year ago, has taken the biggest step on the path to democracy, voting for a new assembly Sunday in its first truly free elections. Egypt, which has struggled with continued unrest, is next with parliamentary elections slated for November.
Libya's struggle has been the bloodiest so far in the region. Mass protests quickly turned into a civil war that killed thousands and paralyzed the country for the past eight months. Even after revolutionary forces captured the capital Tripoli in late August, a fugitive Gadhafi and his supporters fought back fiercely from three regime strongholds.
Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte was the last to fall last week, but Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, apparently escaped with some of his supporters.
Libya's acting prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, who has said he plans to resign after liberation, said Libya's National Transitional Council must move quickly to disarm former Libyan rebels and make sure huge weapons caches are turned over in coming days. The interim government has not explained in detail how it would tackle the task.
Jibril told the British Broadcasting Corp. in comments to be broadcast Sunday that "at the personal level I wish (Gadhafi) was alive" so he could face questions from the Libyan people buckling under decades of his harsh rule.
Jibril said he would not oppose a full investigation under international supervision into Gadhafi's death.

Associated Press

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The Seven Weirdest Things About Moammar Gadhafi

The Seven Weirdest Things About Moammar Gadhafi (ABC News)

Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the dictator who ruled Libya for 42 years, was killed by rebels in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday. A dictator who oppressed his own people and sponsored terrorism abroad, Gadhafi's legacy will be stained by violence. But beyond his brutality, Gadhafi will be remembered for something else entirely… being a first-class weirdo.

In no particular order, ABCNews.com brings you the seven weirdest things about Moammar Gadhafi.

1. The "Bulletproof" Tent: When Gadhafi was at home in Tripoli, he lived in a well fortified compound with a complex system of escape tunnels. But when he travelled abroad, this "Bedouin" brought a bit of the desert with him, camping out in the world's capitals. The tent was so heavy it needed to be flown on a separate plane, wherever the dictator travelled. To complete the Arabian Nights theme, Gadhafi often would tether a camel or two outside.

2. All-Female Virgin Bodyguard Retinue: They apparently weren't around when Gadhafi needed them most on Thursday, but the eccentric dictator was historically protected by 40 well trained bodyguards – all of them women. The bodyguards, called "Amazons," were all reportedly virgins who took a vow of chastity upon joining the dictator's retinue. The women, trained at an all-female military academy, were handpicked by Gadhafi. They wore elaborate uniforms, as well as makeup and high-heeled combat boots.

3. His "Voluptuous" Ukrainian Nurse: For a decade, Galyna Kolotnytska, a Ukrainian nurse often described in the press as "voluptuous," was regularly seen at the dictator's side. Kolotnytska was described in a leaked diplomatic cable as one of Gadhafi's closest aides and was rumored to have a romantic relationship with him. Several other Ukrainian women served as nurses and they all referred to him as "Papa" or "Daddy."

4. Crush on Condoleezza Rice: In 2007, Gadhafi called former Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice his "darling black African woman" and on a 2008 visit she made to Tripoli, the dictator gave her $200,000 worth of gifts, including a ring and a lute. But it wasn't until rebels stormed his Tripoli compound that the depths of the dictator's infatuation were exposed. There among Gadhafi's belongings was a carefully composed photo album made up of dozens of images of no one but Rice.

5. Fear of Flying and Elevators: Part of the reason Gadhafi loved travelling with that tent of his was because he was worried about lodging in a hotel where he'd have to ride an elevator. According to leaked diplomatic cables, the Libyan didn't like heights much either, and would only climb to a height of 35 steps. He therefore wasn't much of a fan of flying, refusing to travel by air for more than eight hours at a time. When he would travel to New York of the U.N.'s annual general assembly, he would spend a night in Portugal on the way to the U.S.

6. Bunga Bunga: In 2010, one of Gadhafi's most eccentric pastimes was exposed by Italian prosecutors investigating Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A 17-year-old prostitute named Karima el-Mahroug, better known as Ruby Heartstealer, revealed that she had been invited to an orgy, called a "bunga bunga." "Silvio told me that he'd copied that formula from Muammar Gadhafi," she told prosecutors according to La Repubblica. "It's a ritual of [Gadhafi's] African harem."

7. An Eclectic Wardrobe: In those photos of world leaders standing shoulder to shoulder on the sidelines of this or that international forum, Gadhafi was always the easiest to pick out. His wardrobe was an eclectic mix of ornate military uniforms, Miami Vice style leisure suits, and Bedouin robes. Gadhafi, who pushed for a pan-African federation of nations, often decorated his outfits with images of the African continent. He'd sport safari shirts printed with an Africa pattern, or wear garish pins or necklaces of the continent.

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Gaddafi, in meat locker, still divides Libya

MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's body lay in an old meat store on Friday as arguments over a burial, and his killing after being captured, dogged efforts by Libya's new leaders to make a formal start on a new era of democracy.
With a bullet wound visible through the familiar curly hair, the corpse shown to Reuters in Misrata bore other marks of the violent end to a violent life, still being broadcast to the world on looping snatches of grainy, gory cellphone video.
The interim prime minister offered a tale of "crossfire" to explain the fallen strongman's death after he was dragged, very much alive, from a highway drain in his hometown of Sirte. But seeing him being beaten, while demanding legal rights, to the sound of gunfire, many assume he was simply summarily shot.
Gaddafi's wife, Aisha, who found refuge in neighboring Algeria while her husband and several sons kept their word to fight to the death, was reported to want an inquiry from the United Nations. Its human rights arm said one was merited.
Controversy over the final moments of a man who once held the world in thrall with a mixture of eccentricity and thuggery raised questions about the ability of Libya's National Transitional Council to control the men with guns, as well as discomfort for Western allies about respect for human rights among those who claimed to be fighting for just those ideals.
The body appeared to be the latest object of wrangling among the factions of fighters who overthrew him -- along with control of weapons, of ministries and of Libya's oil wealth.
Libyans, and the Western allies who backed the revolt that ended Gaddafi's 42-year rule two months ago, have indicated their impatience to begin what the United States declared was a democratic "new era." NATO was expected to agree on Friday to start winding down its seven-month air campaign over Libya.
But regional and other rivalries have been holding up the disposal of the corpse of Gaddafi, who was seized by fighters on Thursday, and a formal declaration of Libya's "liberation."

BURIAL DISPUTE
"They are not agreeing on the place of burial. Under Islam he should have been buried quickly but they have to reach an agreement whether he is to be buried in Misrata, Sirte, or somewhere else," a senior NTC official told Reuters.
Others said talks were under way with members of Gaddafi's tribe to dispose of him in secret, avoiding creating a shrine.
In Misrata, a local commander, Addul-Salam Eleiwa, showed off the body, torso bare, on a mattress inside a metal-lined cold-store by a market. He said: "He will get his rights, like any Muslim. His body will be washed and treated with dignity. I expect he will be buried in a Muslim cemetery within 24 hours."
But amid the rumor and counter-rumor swirling between Sirte, Gaddafi's last bastion, and Misrata, whose siege at his hands made it a symbol of resistance, nothing was certain.
Interim oil minister Ali Tarhouni said he urged colleagues to hold off burying Gaddafi for several days. Dozens of people, many with cellphone cameras, filed in to see that he was dead.
In a small triumph for those who were inspired by Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere to launch the rebellion in February in Benghazi, the eastern city was chosen as the venue for NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil to make announce the whole country liberated on Saturday, several NTC officials told Reuters.
That will set a clock ticking on a tentative timetable for drafting a constitution, under which full parliamentary elections would, Libyans hope, take place within a year or two.
There has been tension between the easterners and leaders from Misrata, Tripoli and other western cities, who take credit for overrunning the capital in August and complain they are under-represented in an interim government which has yet to move fully to Tripoli. Under the post-liberation plan, that is supposed to happen within weeks, though some in Benghazi, home to much of the oil industry, are keen to decentralize power.

RISKS OF DIVISION
As shown by the delay over burying Gaddafi, in defiance of Muslim custom which normally dictates interment before sundown, differences of opinion in a country that spent 42 years obeying the whims of one man take time to work out - time that worries some observers in light of the heavy weaponry that abounds.
The uncertain whereabouts of Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son and heir-apparent, believed by NTC officials to have escaped from besieged Sirte and be heading for a southern border, may also distract from the process of switching from war to peace.
And without the glue of hatred for Gaddafi and his clan, some fear a descent into the kind of strife that bedevils Iraq after Saddam Hussein, even if Libya lacks its sectarian divide. Optimists point to how, in two months of controlling Tripoli, the Libyan factions have argued but, so far, not fought.
"Can an inclusive, effective national government be formed? Yes, if factions can avoid fighting," Jon Marks, chairman of Britain's Cross Border Information consultancy said. "So it's all about the politics, and the $64,000 question is whether the new polity can retain the overall consensual feel you had during the revolution, or whether dangerous splits will occur."
Long-standing regional rivalries in a country only put together under Italian colonial rule in the 1930s are part of a complex of tribal, ethnic and other divisions which Gaddafi exploited at times to control the thinly populated country of six million and its substantial oil and gas resources.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received first news of Gaddafi's capture in a phone message. "Wow," she exclaimed, looking into a phone handed to her by an aide in Kabul.
Speaking in Islamabad on Friday, Clinton said Gaddafi's death marked the start of a "new era" for the Libyan people.
Nabil Elaraby, chief of the Arab League which in March had given NATO actions a regional seal of approval, called for unity: Libyans should "overcome the wounds of the past, look toward the future away from sentiments of hatred and revenge."
China - which had strained relations with the NTC after Beijing's frosty reaction to NATO-led airstrikes and attempts by Chinese firms to sell Gaddafi weapons, but which now has better ties - echoed calls for unity. It said there was a need for "an inclusive political process."

OIL INTERESTS
Russia, which was also cool to NATO's help for the rebels, may like China be concerned for its investments after a senior Libyan oil official said representatives of Moscow's Gazprom had been summoned to Tripoli to explain what he called breaches of commitments made in investment contract signed with Gaddafi.
Companies from France and Britain, which drove the initial Western support for the rebellion, hope that will stand them in good stead as Libya's new leaders start allocating new deals.
Among those disappointed by his death were advocates of the International Criminal Court, which had hoped to try him for crimes against humanity, and relatives of those who died in the Lockerbie airliner bombing, still looking for answers more than two decades after a presumed Libyan bomb downed the jumbo jet.
"Investigating whether or not his death was a war crime might be unpopular," Amnesty International's Claudio Cordone said. "However, the NTC must apply the same standards to all, affording justice even to those who categorically denied it to others. Bringing Gaddafi to trial would have finally given his numerous victims answers as to why they were targeted and an opportunity for justice and reparations."

GORY END
As his gory end invigorated new protests in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad has tried to crush protests against his family's similarly lengthy monopoly on power, the precise circumstances of his death remained unclear and the subject of relentless speculation in Libya and abroad.
Interviews conducted separately with those who say they were present offer a picture Gaddafi's final hours, and with the video footage, give clues about his last stand and demise.
"He called us rats, but look where we found him," said Ahmed al-Sahati, a 27-year-old fighter, standing next to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway near Sirte.
Elsewhere trucks and cars, probably from among a convoy of about 75 targeted by French NATO jets, lay burned out. Many of their occupants sat charred inside, others, dozens of them, strewn dead across nearby fields as the diehards who had held out in Sirte for weeks raced for a getaway in all directions.
Government fighter Saleem Bakeer recounted to Reuters a version of Gaddafi's capture that was corroborated by others, including one man who had what he said was Gaddafi's golden pistol: "At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Bakeer, being feted by comrades near the road and the drainage pipes. "Then we went in on foot."
After confronting pro-Gaddafi gunmen who said their "master" was wounded and inside, he went on: "We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car."
The doubts befitted a man who retained an aura of mystery in the desert as he tormented Western powers by sponsoring bomb-makers from the IRA to the PLO then later embraced Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi in return for investment in Libya's oil and gas fields.
Some NTC officials insisted the fighters had tried to get Gaddafi, 69, to hospital but he was hit in crossfire. But another, speaking to Reuters anonymously, said simply: "They beat him very harshly and then they killed him. This is a war."

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Moammar Gadhafi Dead: How Rebels Killed the Dictator

Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi gestures to supporters as he speaks in Tripoli, Libya inthis Mar. 2 2011 file photo. (Ben Curtis/AP Photo)
Celebrations continued across Libya the day after Moammar Gadhafi was killed by rebel forces in his hometown of Sirte, while details of the hours and minutes that led up to his death begin to surface.
Gadhafi's grisly final moments were captured on a grainy cell phone video that shows the former Libyan leader surrounded by a frenzied mob of rebels. Men are seen grabbing at him, propping him up, and pummeling him while he can be seen dazed, attempting speech and bleeding profusely.
The final hunt for Gadhafi began around 8 a.m. Thursday in Sirte, which is the former leader's hometown and was one of the final loyalist strongholds of his regime. The rebels who took control of Libya in February began what they hoped would be their final offensive to conquer the town.
As the rebels toppled Sirte, a U.S. drone, which was operated remotely from Las Vegas, alerted NATO of a fleeing 80-car convoy.
Soon French fighter jets responded with an airstrike, which took out two of the vehicles. It is still unclear if these French fighters hit Ghadafi's car, but when the rebels poured in they told the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse that the former leader was hiding in a drainage pipe.
"They say they discovered him [in the drainage pipe] just before 12 this afternoon. They pulled him out of the hole, and one fighter told me that Moammar Gadhafi said to him, 'What did I do to you?'" Gatehouse said.
This account of finding Ghadafi in the drainage pipe was confirmed by an English-speaking rebel fighter, who told ABC News, "We catch him there. We shot him."
In a video that surfaced Friday Gadhafi is heard repeatedly saying the phrase "Haram Aleiko," which is an Arabic expression that literally translated means "This is a sin for you." The phrase is generally used as a plea to convey the vulnerability of the victim.
The fatal shot that killed Ghadafi was reportedly fired by a young man donning a baseball cap with a Yankees logo. Afterwards he was photographed brandishing Gadhafi's vanquished golden gun.
Still unknown is the fate of Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who played a prominent role taunting rebels throughout the seven-month revolution. There had been reports he had been captured or killed, but there are also reports that he was fleeing south in the Sahara Desert to Niger. It has been confirmed that one of Gadhafi's other sons, Muatassim, was also killed in Thursday's attack. He was a prominent military commander
On Friday footage surfaced on Libyan television of Muatassim Gadhafi's body, which was being autopsied to determine his cause of death, according to Libyan TV.
Also dying alongside Gadhafi were some of his notorious female bodyguards -- who were often referred to as his Amazon Bodyguards.
Speaking with Al Arabya News, Ghadafi's former Internal Security chief Mansour Daw said that once national Transitional Council fighters destroyed all of their vehicles, Ghadafi and those with him began to flee Sirte on foot in different groups.
As news of the taking of Sirte and the death of Ghadafi spread across the globe, varying facts were reported by a number of sources; reports indicated that he had been taken alive and was wounded in both legs, while others said that he was killed.
U.S. officials used reliable sources on the ground from many different sources to confirm the facts. The same facial recognition technology used to identify Osama bin Laden was used to confirm that the death photos in fact were of Ghadafi , the self-styled "King of Kings."
Cameras captured the reaction of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- who on Tuesday was the first cabinet level official to visit the war-torn country since the uprising began . Clinton merely said "wow" as she received the news of the dictator's death via e-mail while on a trip to Afghanistan.
Clinton elaborated while in Islamabad on Friday after Ghadafi's death was confirmed.
"[The] death of Col. Ghadafi has brought to a close a very unfortunate chapter in Libya's history and it marks a new start for Libya's future ... I hope this is a continuation of what I saw on Tuesday -- eagerness of Libyans to start a new democracy... and the U.S. will support a new democratic path," Clinton said.
Clinton echoed President Obama's comments Thursday that the death of Gadhafi marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya.
"Today's events prove once more that the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end," Obama said.
ABC NEWS

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Breaking News/ Gaddafi's death -News around the world

REUTERS/Libyan Dictator Moammar Gadhafi Is Dead, Rebels Claim

Libyans celebrate at Martyrs square in Tripoli October 20, 2011 after hearing the news that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in Sirte.

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the most wanted man in the world, has been killed, the country's rebel government claimed today.

The flamboyant tyrant who terrorized his country and much of the world during his 42 years of despotic rule was cornered by insurgents in the town of Sirte, where Gadhafi had been born and a stronghold of his supporters. The National Transition Council said that its fighters found and shot Gadhafi in Sirte, which finally fell to the rebels today after weeks of tough fighting.

Word of Gadhafi's death triggered celebrations in the streets of Tripoli with insurgent fighters waving their weapons and dancing jubilantly.
The White House and NATO said they were unable to confirm reports of his death.
Gadhafi had been on the run for weeks after being chased out of the capital Tripoli by NATO bombers and rebel troops.
BBC/Libyan forces 'capture Gaddafi'
Commanders for Libya's transitional authorities say they have captured ousted leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
An image from a mobile phone apparently showing Col Muammar Gaddafi wounded
Unconfirmed reports say Col Gaddafi has been killed, and AFP obtained a mobile-phone image apparently showing his face covered in blood.

The reports came after transitional forces claimed control of Sirte, Col Gaddafi's birthplace.

The colonel was toppled in August after 42 years in power. The International Criminal Court is seeking his arrest.

Nato, which has been running a bombing campaign in Libya for months, said it carried out an air strike earlier on Thursday that hit two pro-Gaddafi vehicles near Sirte.

The head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, is expected to give a national TV address soon.
If the reports of Col Gaddafi's capture are true, then Mohammed al-Bibi is the man of the moment. Brandishing a golden pistol which he said belonged to Colonel Gaddafi he was hoisted up onto the shoulders of his comrades.

"Allah akbar" (God is great), they chanted as they unleashed volleys into the air. Mohammed, a fighter in his 20s, wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap, said he had found the colonel hiding in a hole in the ground. He told the BBC that the former Libyan leader said to him simply: "Don't shoot".
Rebel fighters say the colonel has been taken by ambulance to Misrata. If this is the case and the rest of Sirte has indeed fallen then it will mark a turning point for Libyan revolution - the point at which it will be hoped, the fighting ends and the political process begins.
"He's been taken away by ambulance."
A soldier who says he captured Muammar Gaddafi told the BBC the colonel had shouted: "Don't shoot!"
The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Tripoli says ships and cars have been sounding their horns in the capital and guns are being fired in celebration.
Earlier, NTC commanders in Sirte - about 360km (220 miles) east of Tripoli - said the city had been liberated.

AP/Conflicting Reports Say Libyan Dictator Muammar Qaddafi Is Dead

Libyan fighters celebrate in the streets of Sirte, Libya, in this image taken from TV. The Libyan fighters on Thursday overran the remaining positions of Muammar Qaddafi loyalists in his hometown of Sirte, ending the last major resistance by former regime supporters still holding out two months after the fall of the capital Tripoli.
Conflicting reports emerged on Thursday that Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi has been captured or killed.
"Qaddafi is dead. He is absolutely dead ... he was shot in both legs and in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata soon," media spokesman Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News.
Libyan TV channel Libya lil Ahrar, meanwhile, said the ousted dictator was in custody.
The Transitional National Council's UK spokesman, Mahmoud Nacua, warned that there was "not enough information" to confirm Qaddafi's capture, and a former TNC spokesman in Britain, Guma al Gamati told Sky News that "this is not confirmed."
Col. Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO's operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the alliance's aircraft Thursday morning struck two vehicles of pro-Qaddafi forces "which were part of a larger group maneuvering in the vicinity of Sirte."
NATO officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance to alliance rules, said the alliance also could not independently confirm whether Qaddafi was killed or captured however.

Washington Post/Rumors, photo claims Gaddafi wounded and captured, but all unconfirmed
The final stronghold of Moammar Gaddafi loyalists fell to the Libyan fighters Thursday. Two months after Libyan rebels captured the capital of Tripoli, fighters ferreted out the last remaining loyalists in Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte

Rumors swirled that not only had the town fallen, but the troops may have captured Gaddafi.
“He’s captured. We don’t know if he’s dead or not,” Ibrahim Mohammed Shirkasiya, a senior security official in Misurata, the biggest city west of Sirte, told The Post’s Mary Beth Sheridan by telephone. He said his information came from revolutionary commanders in Sirte.
Libyan TV station Al-Ahrar reported that Gaddafi had been killed in the fighting, but didn’t cite a source.Transitional National Council member Jamal abu-Shaalah quoted in al-Jazeera and Abdel Majid, a council official quoted by the Reuters news agency bot said he had been killed.
Twitter erupted with the news, with six of its top ten trending topics focusing on Libya. People began passing around an image that appears to have been taken by a cell phone and shows a bloodied Gaddafi.
AFP and Getty Images pushed out this photograph saying it was an image captured off a cellular phone camera showing the arrest of Libya's strongman Moammar Gaddafi
Gaddafi has proved elusive during the fighting and has not been seen since Tripoli fell. There have been a number of reports in the past that he was captured or near capture. Former U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley wrote on Twitter that Gaddafi’s death, if confirmed, would “help Libya avoid a lengthy and destructive insurgency.”
“In the central quarter where the final battle took place, the fighters looking like the same ragtag force that started the uprising eight months ago jumped up and down with joy and flashed V-for-victory signs. Some burned the green Gaddafi flag, then stepped on it with their boots.
“They chanted ‘Allah akbar,’ or ‘God is great’ in Arabic, while one fighter climbed a traffic light pole to unfurl the revolution’s flag, which he first kissed. Discarded military uniforms of Gaddafi’s fighters littered the streets. One revolutionary fighter waved a silver trophy in the air while another held up a box of firecrackers, then set them off.”

In Pictures

Gaddafi loyalists are taken prisoner by anti-Gaddafi fighters from the center of Sirte October 20, 2011 REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte. (Esam Al-Fetori /Reuters)

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrated the fall of Sirte October 20, 2011. Libyan interim government fighters captured Muammar Gaddafi's home town on Thursday, extinguishing the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the deposed leader and ending a two-month siege. REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori

nti-Gaddafi fighters celebrated the fall of Sirte October 20, 2011.REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte. (Esam Al-Fetori /Reuters)

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WN/Gaddafi: I will still defeat rebels

DEFIANT Colonel Gaddafi has claimed he is still in Libya and vowed "never to leave the land of his ancestors". 

The fallen dictator denied rumours he has fled over the border into Niger in his latest delusional rant broadcast on a Syrian TV station.

The tyrant — whose whereabouts are unknown — dismissed a military convoy of former loyalists, which included his security chief, that arrived in Niger this week as "not the first".

But he said it did not mean he was going to follow others out of the country.

And he claimed he can still win back the country and defeat the rebels and NATO.

He said: "The youths are now ready to escalate the resistance against the 'rats' (rebels) in Tripoli and to finish off the mercenaries.

"We will defeat NATO...and NATO is rejected by the Libyan people."

He said during the five-minute long call: "We are ready to start the fight in Tripoli and everywhere else, and rise against them."

Referring to his himself in the third person, he added: "All of these germs, rats and scumbags, they are not Libyans, ask anyone.

"They have cooperated with NATO ... Gaddafi won't leave the land of his ancestors."

Rebels are still battling regime loyalists in three Gadhafi strongholds - Bani Walid, Sabha and Sirte.

Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) has sent envoys to Niger to try to stop "Mad Dog" Gaddafi and his entourage from evading justice.

It is believed they could attempt to leave Libya through Niger on their way to other friendly African states.

Fathi Baja, NTC head of political affairs, said: "We're asking every country not to accept him. We want these people for justice."

Rebel leaders sent a column of extra fighters towards the tribal bastion of Bani Walid, 90 miles south east of Tripoli, overnight in preparations for a showdown with Gaddafi loyalists.

Gaddafi is himself suspected of hiding out in the city — he has not been traced since rebels stormed his Tripoli compound two weeks ago.

Those inside Bani Walid have been given an ultimatum to surrender by tomorrow or face a fierce battle.

NTC unit commander Jamal Gourji compared Gaddafi's situation with that of hanged Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after his regime fell.

He said: "We will move into Bani Walid slowly. There was a message in Bani Walid from Gaddafi this evening.

"He was rallying his troops and calling on people to fight. He is hiding in a hole in the ground, like Iraq."

Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam are wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said any country he tried to enter should give him up for trial.

It came as home videos found in Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in the capital showed a more 'tender side' of the tyrant.

The films show him in happier times playing with one of his granddaughters.

In one soppy moment, he asks her repeatedly: "Do you not love me?"

Libya's interim health minister has issued the first proper estimate for the number of casualties created by the six-month civil war, with at least 30,000 people killed and 50,000 injured.

Source: Scottish Sun

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What should justice for Gaddafi look like?

(Reuters) 3 September 2011, 6:31 AM

LA JOLLA - As rebels shore up control of Libya and hunt for the man who ruled the country for 42 years, the legal prospects for Muammar Gaddafi are as murky as the political vacuum he leaves behind.

US and other officials believe that Gaddafi remains in Libya and may be hiding in one of the desert or coastal patches still under control of his remaining loyal forces. But wherever Gaddafi is found, there is no shortage of jurisdictions that are laying claim to him.

In the days since rebel forces moved into Tripoli and found that Gaddafi had bolted, several senior members of the umbrella National Transitional Council (NTC) have insisted the next government can and will try him for crimes committed against the Libyan people.

At the same time, Gaddafi, one of his sons and his former military intelligence chief are wanted for alleged crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Hague-based institution was created a decade ago by the Rome Statute, a treaty now ratified by 117 countries, as a successor to war-crime tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

And several members of the US Congress say they want Gaddafi brought to the United States to face charges for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people, and a 1986 assault on a Berlin discotheque that killed two US servicemen.

New British, French and German claims on Gaddafi could also emerge from decades-old terrorism blamed on Libya, while neighbouring Chad or other past enemies could jump into the fray.

There is no one legal authority governing what happens to an ousted dictator with a history of repression at home and terrorism abroad. If Gaddafi is taken alive, it will probably be politics rather than international law that would determine where he faces prosecution, just as global politics at the U.N. Security Council generated the case against Gaddafi at the ICC.

The international pursuit “was not the decision of a bunch of lawyers in The Hague,” said Sean Murphy, a George Washington University law professor and former State Department lawyer. “This was a decision that was in large part unleashed by the political will of countries at the U.N.”

For now, those politics are favoring the judicial preferences of the transitional government.

Politics and justice

After the fall of Tripoli last week, Obama administration officials stressed that Libyans themselves should decide what happens to Gaddafi, as long as the solution meets “the highest standards of international justice.”

But this week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other US diplomats suggested Gaddafi’s future is a less-important priority than securing Libya’s chemical weapons, reducing the potential for Islamic extremism there and steering the new Libya toward democracy. In a background briefing ahead of Clinton’s meeting with NTC leaders in Paris this week, two senior State Department officials said “the Gaddafi situation” would not be discussed in detail, let alone be an issue that Washington is going to push. Clinton did not mention Gaddafi’s legal status at a post-meeting news conference.
Of course, the problem with leaving a Gaddafi trial to the Libyans is that they currently have no judicial system.
Under Gaddafi, Libya’s justice system was based on Islamic law, but special “revolutionary courts” and military courts dealt with all perceived political offenses and crimes against the state. The Benghazi-based TNC has repeatedly said it wants to draft a new constitution, without saying what that would look like.

The sometimes-contradictory statements on Gaddafi and other subjects coming from NTC — fraught with ethnic and regional divisions that hobbled its battlefield plans — have not fostered confidence in the rebels’ ability to govern or produce a working legal framework.

“No one has a sense of what they’ll do,” said David Kaye, the head of UCLA’s International Human Rights Law Program and a former legal adviser to the American Embassy in The Hague, who participated in the Yugoslav war-crimes trials.

Complicating a potential Libyan prosecution is that several NTC officials were once high-ranking members of Gaddafi’s regime, who may have blood on their own hands and might be reluctant to see the past hashed out in court, Kaye said.

Crimes against humanity

It is possible a fledgling Libyan successor to Gaddafi’s regime would want to curry international favor by sending him to the ICC, or that if Gaddafi is caught abroad another government would do so.

A prosecution in The Hague would put Gaddafi in a much more established legal setting.

The ICC in June issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son and onetime heir Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, and spymaster Col. Abdullah Al-Senussi for crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors charged that after the governments of Tunisia and Egypt collapsed during the “Arab Spring,” Gaddafi used state forces and resources to deter and quell “by any means, including by the use of lethal force, the demonstrations of civilians against the regime.”

The charges only cover crimes allegedly committed during the last two weeks of February, and an eventual ICC prosecution could include more charges and more members of Gaddafi’s family and government.

ICC rules allow member states to deal with war crimes on their own first, but Libya is not a member state. (Neither is the United States, though the Obama administration has promised to cooperate with the ICC.)

Like the trials for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, an ICC trial of Gaddafi would likely take years of pretrial investigations, depositions and actual testimony before reaching a verdict. The prosecutors would have to take the broad charges laid out in the arrest warrants and build a case through hundreds and possibly thousands of witness interviews and evidence gathered on the ground in Libya. With such cases at the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, that included block-by-block video recordings in many of the towns where atrocities took place.

The ICC would pay for counsel if an exiled Gaddafi could not afford his own lawyers, and he would have the right to challenge the admission of all the evidence and the testimony of the witnesses. Complicating matters further, the ICC has provisions allowing witnesses to testify anonymously if they fear retribution, and the defendant can dispute such allowances for each witness.

The biggest challenge, though, would be getting Gaddafi there.

If Gaddafi flees Libya, several other African countries would likely give him shelter.
Zimbabwe, which is not a party to the treaty creating the ICC, has made clear it still regards him as a friend. The leaders of South Africa, which is an ICC member state, nonetheless remain loyal to Gaddafi for the backing he gave them in opposing Apartheid. And while the South African government has not said he’d be welcome, it has called on the ICC to investigate whether NATO committed war crimes with its air support of the rebels.

In neighboring Egypt, the government successor to ousted President Hosni Mubarak had no qualms about flouting an ICC warrant. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the ICC nearly three years ago for his government’s atrocities in Darfur, was one of the first foreign leaders to visit post-Mubarak Egypt, knowing he faced no danger of arrest in doing so.

The ICC has no power to enforce its own arrest warrants, relying on the United Nations Security Council to employ the diplomatic muscle against states that fail to cooperate. And the Security Council has a poor record on that front.

It was the Security Council that first referred Gaddafi’s actions to the ICC, and the ICC indictment helped keep the international anti-Gaddafi coalition together during the months when Libya appeared to be at a stalemate. But while the council urged all non-ICC member states to cooperate, it did not threaten sanctions or other repercussions for failing to do so.

And if Gaddafi is out of the picture in Libya, it may be difficult to generate enough votes on the Security Council to force another government to give him up. Neither Russia nor China are fans of the ICC, and either could veto any effort to forcibly extradite Gaddafi.

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