Gaddafi's son betrayed by his own desert guide

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was betrayed to his captors by a Libyan nomad who says he was hired to help Muammar Gaddafi's son escape to neighboring Niger on the promise that he would be paid one million euros.
Saif al-Islam, wanted for prosecution by the International Criminal Court, was captured at the weekend in what one official in the country's new government said was "the final chapter in Libya's drama."

With a black scarf wrapped around his head, Yussef Saleh al-Hotmani said that he contacted revolutionary fighters in Libya's south to inform them when Saif's two-car convoy would be passing through the area on the night of November 18.

"I made Saif believe that I trusted him," he said on Tuesday in Zintan, where Saif al-Islam is being held at a secret location before the details of his prosecution are finalized.

On the night of Saif al-Islam's capture, Hotmani said he was traveling with the younger Gaddafi's personal guard in the first car of their convoy.

"I had agreed with the fighters (who captured Saif al-Islam) that the best place for the ambush would be in a part of desert that was surrounded by high ground," he said.

Ten fighters from Zintan, in the Western mountains, and five from Hotmani's own tribe, al-Hotman, were waiting.

"When we arrived at the dark, deep hollow the gunfire was very precise, it only took about half a minute to capture the first car," he said, adding that he had intentionally told Saif al-Islam's convoy to have the vehicles spaced 3 km (2 miles) apart to give the fighters time to regroup and for Hotmani to join them.

"When the second car arrived, we started to shoot very precisely, to damage the vehicle so he could not escape."

Saif al-Islam, dressed in a long robe and a brown head scarf wrapped around his face, jumped out of the car, tried to run, but was captured, says Hotmani. "We treated him as a prisoner of war."

MUTINY OR CONSPIRACY?
It is unclear if Hotmani had planned to ensnare Saif al-Islam from the moment he linked up with the fugitive's group in the Sahara desert, or if he defected when he had doubts about his payment and feared that he might be killed.

The Saharan nomad, who calls himself the "son of the desert," refused to give details on when or how he contacted the 15 fighters of the interim government who caught Saif al-Islam.

"I'm sure (Saif al-Islam and his guards) were planning to execute me when we reached the border. They had two handguns, two grenades, a knife and handcuffs. They were ready to execute me if they had any doubt," said Hotmani. He spoke with the new Libyan flag draped over his shoulder as a show of solidarity with the country's new rulers.

The fighters allied to the National Transitional Council (NTC) who caught Saif al-Islam refer to Hotmani as a "hero."

There was less than five thousand dollars found in the two-car convoy and Hotmani said he was not paid a penny of the one million euros promised to him.

"I didn't ask for an advance payment or anything," he said. "There was no money in the car. This proves that he wanted to execute me at the border."

SAIF AL-ISLAM WAS "IN DENIAL"
Proclaiming to know several languages and having run a small tourism agency, Hotmani said he was hired as a desert guide for the group that included Saif al-Islam.

"Saif didn't think I knew it was him. Nobody told me it was him," said Hotmani.

Why Saif al-Islam trusted the man who would eventually betray him is not clear but Hotmani said the younger Gaddafi, who had lost his father and three brothers in a revolutionary war that ended his family's rule, was in denial.

"Saif was dreaming of leaving Libya and then to eventually return," said Hotmani.

Those who were with Saif al-Islam in the hours after he was captured paint a picture of a solitary man, calm and controlled.

The commander of the fighters that conducted the ambush, Al-Ajami Ali al-Ateri, said that on the plane which transferred their prisoner to Zintan where he is being held, Saif al-Islam had asked if it had been the Hotmani that had tipped them off.

(Reuters) 

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Seif al-Islam Gadhafi arrested in Libya

Moammar Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, waves to troops in Libya on Aug. 23, 2011. He had not been seen since he went underground after the country's capital, Tripoli, fell to revolutionary forces in August. (Dario Lopez-Mills/Associated Press)

Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam — the only member of the ousted ruling family to remain at large — was captured as he travelled with aides in a convoy in Libya's southern desert, Libyan officials said Saturday.

A spokesman for the Libyan fighters who captured him said Seif al-Islam was detained about 50 kilometres west of the town of Obari with two aides as he was trying to flee to neighbouring Niger, but the country's acting justice minister later said the convoy's destination was not confirmed.

The International Criminal Court had charged Gadhafi, Seif al-Islam and Libya's former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi with crimes against humanity for the brutal crackdown on dissent as the uprising against the regime began in mid-February and escalated into a civil war.

Seif al-Islam's capture leaves only al-Senoussi at large.
Mohammed al-Alagi, the National Transitional Council's justice minister, told The Associated Press that Seif al-Islam was detained deep in Libya's desert Friday night by revolutionary forces from the mountain town of Zintan who had been tracking him for days.

Seif al-Islam was being held in Zintan but would be transported to Tripoli soon, according to al-Alagi.
A spokesman for the Zintan brigades, Bashir al-Tlayeb, who first announced the capture at a press conference in Tripoli, said the NTC, which took over governing the country after Gadhafi was ousted, would decide where Seif al-Islam would be tried.

He also said that there was still no information about al-Senoussi's whereabouts.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, at 39 the oldest of seven children of Moammar and Safiya Gadhafi, had long drawn western favour by touting himself as a liberalizing reformer in the autocratic regime but then staunchly backed his father in his brutal crackdown on rebels in the regime's final days.

He had gone underground after Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces and issued audio recordings to try to rally support for his father.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he will travel to Libya next week for talks with the country's transitional government on where Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam will be tried.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo says that while national governments have the right to try their own citizens for war crimes, he is concerned that Gadhafi will have a fair trial and that he be tried for the same charges he faces at the ICC.

"The good news is that Seif al-Islam is arrested, he is alive, and now he will face justice," Ocampo said in an interview Saturday in The Hague.
The ICC had earlier said that it was in indirect negotiations with a son of Moammar Gadhafi about his possible surrender for trial.

© The Associated Press, 2011
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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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Libyans face heavy resistance in Gadhafi hometown

SIRTE, Libya (AP) — With NATO warplanes circling overhead, revolutionary fighters battled block by block Saturday as snipers rained fire from rooftops in fierce street fighting in Moammar Gadhafi's hometown — the most important remaining bastion of support for the fugitive leader.

Libyan revolutionary fighters carry a wounded comrade while attacking pro-Gadhafi forces in Sirte, Libya, Friday, Oct. 7, 2011. Rebel forces have besieged Sirte since September 15 but have not managed to penetrate the heart of the city because of fierce resistance from loyalists inside the home town of Libya's ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

The battle for Sirte is crucial because Libya's new leaders have promised to declare liberation after it is captured even though fighting continues elsewhere and Gadhafi remains on the run. That will allow them to move forward with setting a timeline for elections and establishing normalcy in the oil-rich North African nation.
Revolutionary forces launched a major attack on Friday, pushing into the Mediterranean coastal city from the west, east and south after a three week siege from the outskirts in which they said they were giving civilians time to flee.
Gadhafi forces also remain entrenched in the central city of Bani Walid, but the transitional leaders say they will declare liberation without it because Sirte's fall will give them control over all seaports and harbors.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox pledged to keep up NATO airstrikes even after Sirte's fall, saying the international military action would continue as long as the remnants of the regime pose a risk to the people of Libya.
"We have a message for those who are still fighting for Gadhafi that the game is over, you have been rejected by the people of Libya," he told reporters Saturday in Tripoli.
Anti-Gadhafi forces met strong resistance as they pushed to within less than half a mile (kilometer) from loyalist fighters dug in around Sirte's Ouagadougou convention center and Green Square in fierce street fighting in the heart of the city.
Libya's de facto leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the governing National Transitional Council, said the battle has been "ferocious," with 15 revolutionary fighters killed and 180 wounded on Friday.

 A Libyan revolutionary fighter shoots with his machine gun while attacking pro-Gadhafi forces in Sirte, Libya, Friday, Oct. 7, 2011. Rebel forces have besieged Sirte since September 15 but have not managed to penetrate the heart of the city because of fierce resistance from loyalists inside the home town of Libya's ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

"Our fighters today are still dealing with the snipers positioned on the high buildings and we sustained heavy casualties," he said at a joint news conference in Tripoli with Fox and Italian Defense Secretary Ignazio La Russa.
Suleiman Ali, commander for revolutionary forces, said loyalist forces have been driven away from Ibn Sina Hospital where hundreds of civilians have sought refuge from the fighting.
A military spokesman in Tripoli, Abdel-Rahman Busin, said he expected the city to be declared free in the next 24 hours.
"They've pretty much taken the city and it's just a few pockets of resistance," he said, adding snipers were still posing a major threat. NATO warplanes flew overhead but no strikes were immediately reported.

Abdul-Jalil called on the international community to help Libyans treat the wounded, saying they could deduct the cost from Libyan assets that were frozen under Gadhafi's regime.
Sirte, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, is key to the physical unity of the nation of some 6 million people, since it lies roughly in the center of the coastal plain where most Libyans live, blocking the easiest routes between east and west.
The international community has rallied around Libya's efforts to move forward with forming a new government, with transitional leaders promising elections within eight months after liberation is declared.

Associated Press | AP

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Libyan forces battle for Sirte, civilians flee

Smoke is seen over the city of Sirte during clashes between anti-Gaddafi fighters and pro-Gaddafi forces, October 5, 2011. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan government forces launched their largest assault yet on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte on Friday, firing heavy artillery at the last major bastion of support for the deposed leader.
Taking the coastal town would be an important step for Libya's new rulers. It would bring them closer to finally gaining control of the whole country almost two months after their fighters seized the capital Tripoli.
Forces loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) are under pressure to make swift progress on the battlefield but heavy resistance by Gaddafi loyalists has prevented them from taking the city for weeks.
Columns of black smoke rose above Sirte's skyline as NTC forces fired tank shells and rounds of artillery toward the city center from their positions to the east of Sirte.
Thousands of civilians have fled Sirte as fighting has intensified, describing increasingly desperate conditions for those inside the city. Many were caught off guard by Friday's assault and fled in panic as explosions boomed around the city.
"There are strong strikes in all directions. Today we will finish it. God willing, today we will capture Sirte," said Colonel Ahmed El-Obeidi, an NTC commander.

Anti-Gaddafi fighters push forward during heavy fighting towards the centre of Sirte 

October 7, 2011. REUTERS/Anis Mili

NTC trucks with ammunition and artillery batteries were brought forward to the eastern front line, 1.2 km (0.8 miles) from the city center.
Along with the desert town of Bani Walid, Sirte is one of the last strongholds still controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.
Doctors at a field hospital east of Sirte said they heard a huge explosion inside the city after midnight. Colonel Obeidi said the explosion occurred after his forces hit a weapons storage facility belonging to Gaddafi supporters.
Gaddafi loyalists who pulled back to Sirte after losing control of other cities are putting up fierce resistance.
They have been mainly using sniper fire and rocket-propelled grenades to prevent NTC forces from entering the city center. The prolonged fighting has raised concerns about civilians in the coastal city of 75,000 people.
At a field hospital several kilometers west of Sirte dozens of ambulances brought in at least 50 fighters and civilians wounded in the fighting. Most were seriously wounded.
Medical workers tried to save an unresponsive woman. A child with a wounded leg sat on the floor. A helicopter landed near the hospital to carry some of the wounded to hospitals in Misrata, which lies west of Sirte.
NTC commander Mustafa Al-Ameen, standing on a hill on the eastern outskirts overlooking the city, said sniper fire remained the main challenge for government forces.
"The forces that went in managed to advance into Sirte but we couldn't go further because of sniper fire," he said.
At a checkpoint near the field hospital, NTC fighters checked dozens of cars carrying families fleeing Sirte.
"We didn't know there was going to be an assault," said Saeed Ramadan, whose vehicle had shrapnel holes and a broken window. "I couldn't sleep last night, there was very heavy shelling. I was afraid for my kids and had to get them out."
A Sirte resident who gave his name as Abdel Nasser said: "Last night there was heavy random firing and shelling. We had a hundred narrow escapes. Conditions are tragic. You can smell the rotting corpses at the hospital."
Medical workers who fled Sirte said patients at the Ibn Sina hospital were dying on the operating table because there was no oxygen and no fuel for the hospital's generators.
Hassan Briek, another fleeing resident, said fewer than half of Sirte's residents remained in the city and most had moved to three neighborhoods where there had been less fighting.
"There are lots of families in those districts of the city," Briek said. "No one knew there was going to be an assault today. No one is sleeping. Food isn't the problem. It's the shelling."
Artillery batteries positioned outside a hotel on the coast in the east of Sirte fired intermittent salvoes into the city.
Inside the hotel, a smiling government fighter carried away a statue of Gaddafi sitting on a camel that had been placed in the reception.
Gaddafi and several of his sons are still at large more than seven weeks after rebel fighters stormed the capital and ended his 42-year rule.
De facto Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said on Thursday that Gaddafi was hiding in southern Libya under the protection of tribes, crossing occasionally into Niger, and government forces expected to pinpoint his whereabouts soon.
An audio recording of Gaddafi obtained by Reuters on Thursday from Syria-based Arrai television was the first sign of life from him since September 20, when the same station last aired a speech by him.
"If the power of (international) fleets give legitimacy, then let the rulers in the Third World be ready," Gaddafi said in an apparent reference to NATO's support for NTC forces.
"To those who recognize this council, be ready for the creation of transitional councils imposed by the power of fleets to replace you one by one from now on."

NATO Rebels Fire Howitzers Towards Sirte

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Libya's United Nations Seat Approved

(Associated Press )UNITED NATIONS –  The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to give Libya's seat in the world body to the former rebels' National Transitional Council which led the rebellion that ousted Muammar Qaddafi.

The vote means that a senior council official will be able to join world leaders and speak for Libya at next week's ministerial session of the General Assembly and also participate in meetings.

The resolution was approved Friday by a vote of 114-17 with 15 abstentions, revealing divisions in Africa and Latin America over who should represent Libya.

The General Assembly's credentials committee had unanimously recommended that the former rebels be seated. It's chairman, Panama's U.N. Ambassador Pablo Antonio Thalassinos, said Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, who heads the National Transitional Council, had sent a letter seeking to take over Libya's seat.

The committee's recommendation faced opposition from a left-leaning Latin America trade group ALBA whose membership includes Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba among others.

Venezuela's U.N. Ambassador Jorge Valero, speaking on behalf of the group, accused NATO forces of carrying out "criminal air raids ... in order to install a puppet government" and said seating the council "would represent an abominable precedent that would violate the most elementary principles of international law."

Southern Africa's main regional bloc opposed giving the National Transitional Council credentials immediately, but it failed to win support to defer a vote.

Angola's U.N. Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins, speaking on behalf of the Southern African group know as SADC, appealed for the delay saying that while the National Transitional Council "is in control of Libya, it is not the government in Libya, interim or otherwise."

But Gaspar Martins' motion to defer a vote on the resolution to give credentials to the National Transitional Council was defeated. The vote was 22 in favor of a deferral, 107 against and 12 abstentions.

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Libya conflict: NTC forces attack Sirte and Bani Walid

Columns of anti-Gaddafi forces have renewed assaults on Sirte and Bani Walid, two of the last strongholds of the ousted Libyan leader.

Fighters say they have entered northern parts of Bani Walid but have since been met with fierce resistance.

Trucks and tanks are also approaching Sirte, hours after an advance was forced back by Gaddafi loyalists.

Meanwhile the UN General Assembly has given Libya's seat to the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC).

Earlier, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan met the country's new rulers in Tripoli, as he continues a regional tour asserting Ankara's regional influence.

His visit comes a day after British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy became the first Western leaders to visit since Col Muammar Gaddafi was ousted.

Mustafa Abdul Jalil, leader of the interim authority, is to meet US President Barack Obama during the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Tuesday, US officials said.

The BBC's Ian Pannell, in Tripoli, says the latest attacks suggest the battle for the remaining contested areas of Libya could be entering a decisive phase.

It's been impossible to confirm whether a new offensive is under way, but what is clear is that pro-Gaddafi forces still have the capacity to respond. But concern is growing for the tens of thousands of civilians still believed to be living in both cities, and who have been surviving for weeks with limited access to food, water and electricity, our correspondent adds.

Fighters loyal to the NTC claim to have gone into northern areas of Bani Walid.

Reuters reports that streets in the northern outskirts of the town were deserted and houses were riddled with bullet holes.

Earlier, an unnamed NTC commander told the BBC they had met some resistance but that his forces were now advancing "to the heart of Bani Walid".

"As we were about to advance, a clash took place with a surveillance crew made up of two or three enemy vehicles. They shot at us but thank God, we were able to stop them and defeat them."

Last week the anti-Gaddafi forces said they were hours from taking Bani Walid, which has been under siege for several weeks. But they were driven back after encountering fierce resistance from Gaddafi loyalists. The BBC's Peter Biles, outside Bani Walid, says soldiers at a checkpoint told him that the driver of Col Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has been captured.

Our correspondent says smoke can be seen and explosions heard from the town. A number of ambulances have been coming from Bani Walid carrying wounded.

One NTC fighter described the centre of Bali Walid as a "ghost town", adding that 500 families were seen leaving in the last two days.

The fighters are facing resistance in a handful of pro-Gaddafi bastions, including the southern outpost of Sabha and Sirte, Col Gaddafi's birthplace.

'Ghost town'

Scores of trucks mounted with machine guns and four tanks were seen on the road leading into Sirte on Friday, Reuters reported. Anti-Gaddafi sources said that Sirte airport had been taken from loyalists.

On Thursday evening, fighters breached defences south and west of the city, about 8km from the centre, but met heavy resistance, the NTC said.

An NTC spokesman told the BBC that fighters had been forced to retreat about 2km to treat casualties following their incursion into the outlying areas of the city, where they reportedly clashed with snipers in a high-rise tower and an elite unit of pro-Gaddafi troops.

The anti-Gaddafi fighters advancing on Sirte - made up of battalions from Misrata, 200km to the west - suffered at least four deaths and seven wounded, although a report quoting the Misrata Military Council said 11 were killed and 34 hurt.

The UN General Assembly has voted in favour of giving Libya's seat to the NTC, despite some opposition from Latin American governments.

The 193-member assembly voted 114 to 17, with 15 abstentions. Some African nations called for a decision to be postponed.

The move allows Libyan interim PM Jalil to attend a UN General Assembly meeting in New York next week.

US officials said President Obama would meet with Mr Jalil on the sidelines of the gathering on Tuesday to discuss the NTC's plans for the post-Gaddafi era.

The meeting would allow Mr Obama to "congratulate chairman Jalil on the success of the Libyan people of ending the Gaddafi regime", US deputy security adviser Ben Rhodes told AFP news agency.

Nato raids have continued over Libya, striking against pro-Gaddafi military targets. Britain's Ministry of Defence said aircraft had attacked sites in and around Sabha on Wednesday. The ministry said targets included a military vehicle depot and a group of buildings which Nato surveillance had confirmed were used by Gaddafi loyalists. And on Thursday the RAF destroyed a tank, four rocket launchers and four armed vehicles around Sirte, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the NTC is to send a delegation to neighbouring Niger in an effort to recover gold and cash believed to have been taken out of Libya by fleeing Gaddafi loyalists.

At least 36 members of the fugitive leader's inner circle, including relatives and generals, have fled to Algeria and Niger since Tripoli fell to NTC forces last month.

Mr Abdul Jalil said Libya would also ask for the handover of individuals wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC has indicted Col Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief for crimes against humanity. 

SOURCE: BBC

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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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