Contrary to rebel claims, Saif al-Islam, son and heir apparent of Moammar al-Qaddafi, has not been captured and is free and talking to reporters in Tripoli.
Video was shown on Fox News and CNN of Saif al-Islam at a hotel in Tripoli. Saif claimed that a “trap” had been set for the rebels in Tripoli.
Couple of points. If the rebels lied about capturing the heir-apparent to succeed his father, what else have they lied about regarding their successes.
Also, the “trap” situation makes some sense. Qaddafi’s supporting troops were getting hammered in the open outside the cities by NATO air strikes, and then they mysteriously disappeared allowing the rebels to enter Tripoli. This is a possibility advanced yesterday at DebkaFILE:
Where are the six government special divisions whose loyalty to the Libyan ruler and his sons was never in question? None of the 15,000 trained government troops were to be seen in the way of the rebel advance into the capital. The mystery might be accounted for by several scenarios: Either these units broke up and scattered or Qaddafi pulled them back into southern Libya to secure the main oil fields. Or, perhaps, government units are staying out of sight and biding their time in order to turn the tables on the triumphant rebels and trap them in a siege. The Libyan army has used this stratagem before.
Did Qaddafi’s forces disperse, or merely choose to fight in city terrain where air power is limited?
I don’t know the answer, but clearly what is going on in Libya is not what is seems.
Update: This is the best video I could find so far:
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Comments
They do not appear to have dispersed at will, they were driven back by offensive led by NATO special forces on the ground
http://www.acus.org/natosource/intell-and-special-forces-allies-helped-rebels-take-tripoli
interesting note in that piece is that US reluctance to share intel hampered the entire operation until just recently. “Days not weeks” might have actually been true had the US been more helpful.
Reverse Midas. Obama declares that the situation is as he desires – everything falls apart.
Amen. If this doesn’t turn into a major Charlie Foxtrot then you can paint me surprised.
Napoleon got into Moscow and then got defeat. Hitler got into Stalingrad and then got defeat. It would make sense that this tin horn with no military experience whatsoever would fall into thinking that taking a capital equals winning a war.
The hilarious thing is he jumped in and took credit for the CF.
To be fair, the rebels may not have lied about Saif, they may have just been mistaken, arresting the wrong person. Then again, incompetent rebels may not be much better than deceptive ones.
“est libre et vivant ‘” The French certainly own those words 1 BTW did you know that linguistically ‘opportunity’ has no equal in many languages?
Energeopolitics…if that is so then the rebels are only a proxy for NATO. They have no cred no authenticity. It would be akin to the USSR special forces leading the way into Saigon. (with aircover ). Some mandate!
Awing1- Every Libyan can recognise Saif.
I cannot believe anything NATO nor any western leader nor any media.
Strangely I have often found Ghaddafi to most logical of them all.
It has come to this.
Hiding out to lure in the rebels? Ah, yes…the old Trojan Camel ploy….
Forget Saif-Al-Islam, Wm. Pay some attention to this: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/08/islamic-spring-egyptians-protest-outside-israeli-embassy-with-swastika-sign-saying-the-gas-chambers-are-ready/.
Wm, you need a link or something for folks to send you story tips.
Hey Bill have you seen this
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2767610/posts
We can thank universality of baseball and Yogi Berra for “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Or until some fat lady sings. Do Muslims have fat ladies? Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the fellow who helped lead the Red Army at Stalingrad. The German Field Marshall had assured Hitler that Stalingrad was ‘virtually occupied’. Whoops. We can call Qaddafi lots of things, but stupid isn’t on the list. His son may have inherited some of that spirit. So, not yet is it over, and when it is, are we going to be sorry we didn’t do more to support the formation of a friendlier new government?
Even before this report came out, I was dismayed at how some conservative interventionists were beating their chests despite our ignorance about the Libyan rebels. You’d think they’d have learned the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan. Then again, you’d think the star of the Mission Accomplished photo-op would have learned the lessons of Vietnam.
Foreign interventions should be about our national interest. Enlightened national interest whenever possible, but national interest above all.
Maybe it’s time to cut our losses, and pursue a “humanitarian intervention” in Syria, Turkey, or, perhaps, Egypt. Apparently, there are quite a few crimes against humanity occurring in the least discussed locations (e.g., Tunisia, Sudan, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe) and others that are no longer newsworthy.
We could also restrict ourselves from initiating wars of aggression without precursors, and reconsider the reasons often given for military interventions, including limited domestic resource recovery and energy production, which has been enforced by domestic interests, both in the public and private sectors. If Europe and Asia (principally China) want the resources in Africa, then let them fight or negotiate with the established nations and people. Clearly they are of only a selective value to the United Nations and the so-called “humanitarian” businesses anyway.
Meanwhile, we have an violent, progressive conflict just south of the border, which in some instances we are financing and arming through taxpayer funds; and that we are inviting into our own nation through an open border policy.
5 decapitated bodies found in Acapulco
news.yahoo.com/5-decapitated-bodies-found-acapulco-163031733.html
It’s funny, but just a couple of years ago, Obama’s wife was encouraging Americans to visit and enjoy Mexico, at a time when the same violence was exceedingly overt, including in the resort cities.
Anyway, it looks like the next “humanitarian intervention” will occur in Mexico, or, if we wait, in America. We already have public lands, which are no longer available for Americans’ use, due to the presence of illegal aliens, including drug cartels and other criminal gangs.
Ahh, that all knowing obama fella’. How did he manage to sneak van jones into Libya?
Like most people, I don’t know anymore of what is going on in Libya than what is being reported in the media and, as we know, one can never be too sure these days concerning the veracity of the reporting. However, I did get a rather impish smile on my face yesterday when Qaddafi’s son appeared in the hotel showing that he had not been captured by the rebels and then boasting that he had snookered the rebels into coming into the city where troops loyal to the government were going to defeat the rebels. If this whole fiasco wasn’t so real I would be laughing my head off, but a lot of innocent people have been murdered and many more are going to be murdered before this unsavory chapter in who knows what is finished. And if The Great and Powerful ‘O’ wants to take credit for whatever, so be it. November 2012 can’t come fast enough for me and it ticks me off that I even think of wanting time to pass by faster than it already does, but this man in the WH must go.