President Margriet, Sorry, Margarief

The body of Libya’s bloodthirsty tyrant, Muamar Gaddafi, naked on the concrete floor of a meat locker in Sirte on 20 October 2011, was the shocking start of the Democratic Republic of Libya.

“The tyrant is dead. Long live the new President, “spoke Dr. Ahmed Tabuli, the Libyan ambassador to The Hague during his ceremonial reception on the occasion of the celebration of two years revolution. But who in the world knows the new president, a certain Dr. Margarief Muhammad, a professor of electrical engineering from Atlanta, Georgia U.S.?

His Excellency Tabuli’s face exuded fear about what once was and what still is to come. Once upon a time even this ambassador was handpicked and appointed to the post in The Hague by this bloody tyrant Gaddafi himself.

The new leaders of the Democratic Republic of Libya walked around in dark western business suits rather that Gaddafi’s flamboyant colorful flowing desert robes which became his trademark. Nowhere was even a glimpse of a Bedouin tent either.

In 1981, actor Anthony Quinn shaped the formidable image of Omar Mukhtar with his performance in “The Lion of the Desert” which became the role model for guerrilla leaders of Libya. The brave struggle against Mussolini’s murderous violence and Rodolfo Graziani ruthless troops transformed the terrible Omar Mukhtar into the spiritual father of Colonel Muamar Gaddafi.

Gaddafi became the hero and liberator of his Bedouin people and finally, in his delusional megalomania, the hero of all oppressed on earth. Revolutionary Irish in Belfast, Lockerbie bomb explosions and attacks on wicked nightclubs became the plight of Gaddafi’s holy war. He did not hesitate to engage the enemy, the great Satan, staring him straight in the face, even if it were the U.S.A…

Following a terrorist attack on a nightclub in Berlin on April 15, 1986, President Ronald Reagan ordered the bombing of “terrorist sites” in Jamahiriya, ” a Gaddafi residence.

About 60 people were killed, including an adopted daughter of Gaddafi. Muamar rose to the occasion as an immortal martyr who proudly stood his ground, and was portrayed among the ruins with the flesh torn body of his daughter in his arms.

But the stalwart super hero of the people, the great Solomon of peace, prosperity and wisdom, turned into a bloodthirsty tyrant, greedily scraping every penny he could steal from government coffers.

His sons ruled the enslaved even harsher, as an implacable Rehoboam, with a knout and a whip and funneled hundreds of billions to offshore accounts through ingenious corporate structures in Amsterdam, trust companies and banks on Curacao and in Austria.

Pecunia non olet always was and still remained the Vespasian device of the trading nation of The Netherlands. Oil invest and Green Stream BV at Strawinskylaan Amsterdam, facilitated the Gaddafi clan with the construction and exploitation of world’s longest subsea pipeline, while Haskoning BV built ports. Both companies did business for billions of dollars.

President Muhammad Margarief has to step into Gaddafi’s giant shoes or rather desert slippers. . Damen Ship yards got a little job for eight 48–foot coastguard boats to patrol the 2,000-mile long Mediterranean coastline. The crews, eight men per boat, will also be trained in the Netherlands . It can hardly be called a mega order.

The invoice for the sixty revolution casualties, who languished for months in Dutch hospitals, is still not completely paid. Less than two third has been received of the six million Euro’s outstanding, leaving money strapped hospitals with ugly and unwelcome losses.

Gaddafi’s nasty hang over will be on President Muhammad Margarief coat tails for a long time to come.

Margarief may want to try the flowing robes of a galebya instead…

Libyan protesters occupy parliament

Dozens of Libyan gunmen occupied the main chamber of the country’s parliament, forcing lawmakers to work in a smaller room upstairs and delaying ratification of the budget, Prime Minister Ali Zidane and Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Magariaf said.

The militiamen demanded that some of the ministers be removed because they have links to the late Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

Libya had agreed about the composition of a government earlier on Wednesday, and Prime Minister Ali Zidane gained the support of the National Congress for his choice of ministers.

Presidential guards were stationed in the Congress complex and had been ordered not to fight with the men, it reported.

Libyan Rebels capture Gaddafi compound in Tripoli

Rebel fighters captured Moammer Gaddafi's heavily fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound and headquarters in Tripoli on Tuesday after a day of fierce fighting, a correspondent witnessed.

The defenders had fled, and there was no immediate word on the whereabouts of Gaddafi or his family after the insurgents breached the defences as part of a massive assault that began in the morning.

"Rebels breached the surrounding cement walls and entered inside. They have taken Bab al-Azizya. Completely. It is finished," the correspondent said.

"It is an incredible sight," he said, adding that the bodies of a number of apparent Gaddafi fighters were lying inside, as well as wounded.

Only minutes earlier, rebel spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said from Benghazi: "Our forces are surrounding Bab al-Azizya. There is a fierce battle going on there. We are now controlling one of the gates, the western entrance."

The correspondent said rebels found an armoury in one of the buildings and were seizing quantities of ammunition, pistols and assault rifles.

There was no immediate comment from the rebel leadership in the eastern city of Bengazi, but an official in the western city of Misrata said that "at the same house used by Gaddafi before to describe the Libyan people as rats, today the independence flag flying on its roof."

On Tuesday morning, Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam, who was reportedly under arrest, made a surprise appearance in Tripoli and announced that his father and family were still in the capital.

However, he declined to say where.
"Gaddafi and the entire family are in Tripoli," Seif told reporters at the Rixos Hotel where many foreign journalists are housed.

Seif also said the regime's forces had deliberately not tried to prevent the rebels from entering the capital.

"Allowing the rebels to enter Tripoli was a trick," he said, without elaborating.
NATO, meanwhile, said Gaddafi was "not a target" for the military alliance.
"NATO does not target individuals," said Operation Unified Protector spokesman, Colonel Roland Lavoie.

"Gaddafi does not constitute a target," he told reporters in Brussels via video-conference from the mission's Naples headquarters.
In the hours that led up to the storming of the compound in central Tripoli, the sound of the fighting was the most intense heard in the city since rebels arrived three days ago.

The correspondent said that rebel forces coming from the western city of Misrata had reinforced the offensive during the afternoon.
The rebel official in Misrata said one of their commanders had been killed in the assault on the compound.

The sky was filled with the sound of heavy and light machine guns as well as mortars, with the overhead roar of NATO jets that had been carrying intensive over flights though it was unclear if there were any air strikes.

Even two kilometres (about a mile) from the fighting, the almost constant whistle of falling bullets could be hear from the rooftops, as the city's mosques chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).

Gaddafi son Saif Al Islam at Tripoli hotel after arrest report

Saif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who rebels and the International Criminal Court said had been arrested, arrived late on Monday at the Tripoli hotel where foreign reporters are staying.

Saif appeared at the Rixos Hotel late at night and spoke to foreign journalists there. Television footage showed him pumping his fists in the air, smiling, waving and shaking hands with supporters, as well as holding

his arms aloft with each hand making the V for victory sign. 

Saif told journalists that Tripoli, which has been largely overrun in the past 24 hours by rebel forces seeking to topple his father, was in fact in government hands and that Muammar Gaddafi was safe. Earlier, armed pro-Gaddafi security mean guarding the hotel took a small group of journalists to Gaddafi's Bab al Aziziyah compound, where they had a meeting with Saif. 

They returned to the hotel accompanied by Saif, who then spoke to journalists in the lobby before taking some of them back to he compound a short distance away for a  brief visit.

Saif said: "I am here to disperse the rumors ...

"This is a war of technology and electronics to cause chaos and terror in Libya. They also brought in armed gangs by sea and by road."

He was referring to a text message sent to mobile phone subscribers in Tripoli on Monday congratulating them on the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Saif also said that Tripoli was under government control and that he did not care about an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague seeking him and his father for crimes gainst humanity. 

When asked if his father was safe and well in Tripoli, Saif told a journalist: "Of course."

Fighting erupts in Tripoli

<< Supporters of Libyan leader Gaddafi

Fighting erupted in Tripoli late Saturday as rebels closed in on the capital by claiming a third key city in 24 hours and predicted Muammar al-Gaddafi's 42-year-old rule was on its last legs.

Blasts and gunfire rocked Tripoli after the break of the dawn-to-dusk fast of Ramadan and witnesses reported fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Soug Jomaa, Arada and Tajura.

As jubilant rebels in newly-conquered towns were champing at the bit for a final push on Tripoli, a government spokesman said the fighting in the capital had not lasted long and the situation been brought under control.

"The situation is under control," Moussa Ibrahim said on television, adding that pro-regime volunteers had repelled insurgents attacks in several neighbourhoods.

Ibrahim dismissed mounting speculation that the regime was on the brink as a "media attack" but more gunfire was heard after he spoke on television.

In his eastern stronghold of Benghazi, Libyan rebel chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil claimed Saturday that victory was within reach, six months after the insurgency was launched.

"We have contacts with people from the inner circle of Gaddafi," said the chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC). "All evidence (shows) that the end is very near, with God's grace."

Abdel Jalil was speaking to reporters as a flurry of rumours suggested that Gaddafi was preparing to flee Libya.

"I expect a catastrophic end for him and his inner circle, and I expect that he will a create a situation within Tripoli. I hope my expectation is wrong," Abdel Jalil said, before the latest fighting in the capital.

"That would be a good thing that will end the bloodshed and help us avoid material costs. But I do not expect that he will do that," Abdel Jalil added.

Rebels were jubilant after claiming to have captured the strategic eastern oil hub of Brega, a day after saying they had seized Zawiyah and Zliten, two other key towns.
However, rebel Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said retreating Gaddafi forces were shelling Brega's industrial zone on Saturday and that his men had pulled back to its eastern edge to avoid unnecessary casualties and property damage.

In Sabratah, around 50 kilometres west of Tripoli, rebels were celebrating their camp's latest advances and waiting for a chance to take part in an offensive on the capital.
"I'm dying to go to Tripoli," Mohamed, an 18-year-old fighter from Manchester, said as fighters fired shots in the air and residents stayed to their TV sets, monitoring what they believe are Gaddafi's final hours.

"We have to stay here and await orders. I would like to go right now to Tripoli by boat but I can't because I don't have contact with NATO," said Akram Mohamed Ramadan, another fighter.

While the rebels' pincer movement on the capital intensified, another sign of the regime's fragility came when rebels said former premier Abdessalam Jalloud, who fell out of favour with the Libyan strongman in the mid-1990s but remains a popular figure, had defected and joined their ranks.

Yet both they and the regime downplayed the significance of his departure, after he reportedly flew to Italy from neighbouring Tunisia with his family.

The official JANA news agency simply said "Jalloud had remained away from politics out of his own free will, and spent most of his time abroad for (medical) care for heart disease."

He was among the officers who grabbed power with Gaddafi in 1969 and was long considered the regime's second-in-command before being gradually sidelined in the 1990s.

In Zawiyah, families were fleeing the battle-scarred city in cars and pickups loaded with personal possessions, a day after the rebels claimed it had fallen as they advanced on Tripoli from the west.

Queues of cars hundreds of metres long snaked out of petrol stations after rebels decided to distribute fuel from the nearby refinery for free.

The refinery is the only source of fuel to Tripoli, and could leave it without critical supplies.

At the start of the main road heading south, rebels set up a checkpoint with a list of names of informants whom they accused of having helped Gaddafi's fighters in their now-lost battle for the city.

Insurgents also said they seized Zliten from Gaddafi's forces, hours after saying they were in the town's centre, 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Tripoli.

Rebels have been seeking to sever Tripoli's supply lines from Tunisia to the west and to Gaddafi's home town of Sirte in the east, hoping to cut off the capital, prompt defections and spark an uprising inside Tripoli.

Meanwhile, a Tunisian defence official said Tunisian troops clashed with a group of armed Libyans overnight in the country's southwest.

An army patrol came under fire from men travelling in several 4X4 vehicles with Libyan registration plates in the Douz region, the official said.

No one was caught and the attackers were still being hunted Saturday by ground and air forces, the official said, adding there were no casualties on the Tunisian side.

With the rebels vowing to take Tripoli before the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan ends in late August, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has urged the population of the capital to rise up against Gaddafi.

"We hope the people of Tripoli... understand the regime has harmed its own people and will therefore join a process of political change to cut off room for manoeuvre for Gaddafi's regime," Frattini said.

Meanwhile, the International Organisation for Migration said it was drawing up plans to evacuate thousands of migrants stranded in Tripoli because exit points have been cut off after a spate of rebel successes.

"There are already thousands of Egyptians who are ready for evacuation now, and what we are hearing is that every day there are more and more requests," IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya said.

Libyan Rebels Push to Take Town of Tawarga as Conflict Enters Sixth Month

Libyan rebels in the besieged city of Misrata launched an offensive to try and break through the eastern frontline and take the government-held town of Tawarga.

The attack began in the early morning and three rebel fighters were killed and 44 wounded by 3 p.m. local time, according to officials at Misrata’s Mujamma Aliadat hospital. There were no immediate reports on government casualties.

“We are in the town, we made a big attack this morning,” wounded rebel fighter Loie Mohammed, 19, said from his hospital bed, referring to Tawarga. “Our guys went in a circle to get around the town and attack from behind it.”

The conflict between the rebels and forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is in its sixth month, with little recent progress on either side. Qaddafi retains control of the capital, Tripoli, while the rebels are holding on to Benghazi in the east and Misrata in the west. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has supported the rebel fighters with an air campaign that began in March.

Misrata’s eastern front has been comparatively quiet for the past two months with most rebel offensives focused on pushing west toward the town of Zlitan. Government forces hit the center of Misrata with missiles on Aug. 9 for the first time since May, injuring one man.

Heavy shelling could be heard from the direction of Tawarga throughout the day and a stream of ambulances arrived in the city from the front line 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the east.

Mohammed said he was wounded by shrapnel as he was manning a mortar. He had bandages over a wound on his side and lay covered in a green sheet with drip feeds in both arms.

“When they tell me it’s OK, I am going back,” he said, referring to the front line.

Libyan Attempt To Bring Back Oil Cos Fails To Ignite Interest

A new attempt by Libya's government to bring back foreign oil companies to the war-torn country has failed to ignite interest, people familiar with the contacts said in recent days.

The government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi is battling a rebellion by the rebel Transitional National Council which, surfing on recent international recognition, has also got in touch with international oil giants.

According to industry officials, which include Libyan oil sources, Eni SpA (E), Total SA (TOT), Repsol SA (REP.MC) and OMV AG (OMV.VI) as well as U.S. companies were recently contacted by Tripoli to return to Libya.

Last month, the country's National Oil Corp., or NOC, "sent a circular to U.S. and European companies asking them to resume operations" and also sent one of its executives to Europe for this purpose.

A manager at a foreign company with interests in Libya said Omran Abukraa, the recently-appointed head of the National Oil Corp., "is trying to convince them to come back and do business in Libya, but he got nothing."

Both sides also appear to disagree on the significance of the approach.

Abukraa said they were part of "continuous contacts with our [foreign companies] partners.

"They were very positive with us because of their keenness to maintain their interests in Libya," he said.

But without commenting on whether it had received any letters from Abukraa, OMV said it "isn't in talks with the Libyan government nor with the transitional government." Total and Eni declined to comment and a Repsol spokesman couldn't immediately comment.

OMV said that "production has been stopped; we are waiting to see how the situation develops."

Foreign oil companies pulled out of Libya late February when civil war erupted there, triggering the shut down of most of its oil production. They are also unable to conduct financial transactions with NOC due to sanctions.

Abukraa said that: "Because of the so-called force majeure state, these companies aren't returning back. But according to the contracts signed with these companies such force majeure should be discussed with the NOC."

However, he said: "Any of our foreign partners who would like to return back to work in Libya is welcome. Libyan oil fields are fine and the security situation in Libya is well."

Libya rebels pledge Ramadan cash handout

Libya’s civilian rebel council has pledged to distribute a small cash donation to families to help ease the rising costs of food during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Abdul Hafiz al-Ghoga, deputy leader of the National Transitional Council, told a satellite channel that the handout was made possible by the unfreezing of assets in Turkey, a supporter of the rebel council.

France also said it was handing over $259m of Libyan assets to the National Transitional Council for “humanitarian purchases”. The announcement came after a meeting on Monday between Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, and Mansour Sayf al-Nasr, the NTC’s new ambassador in Paris. Mr Nasr said the funds, frozen in French banks, “belong to the Libyan people” and would be used “for the purchase of medicines and food products”, as required by European law.

The rebel donation to families only amounts to 200-300 dinars ($300-$450 at market rates) per family, a fact that he said reflected the tough circumstances of a region at war. Many said the money would not go far as costs rise during this family-oriented festival.

With many state salaries unpaid and private sector workers taking pay cuts, families have been forced into a more modest Ramadan, when, despite the daytime fast, consumption normally rises as people eat much more after sunset.

The rebel-held east on Monday broke its first fast of Ramadan since the uprising against the regime of Colonel Muammer Gaddafi, but last week’s assassination of General Abdel Fattah Younes, its military commander, and ensuing fears of factionalism have cast a shadow over this important Islamic festival.

Banks are expected to distribute the promised payments but few were optimistic, saying funds had yet to return to the system. “There is no money in the vault – but let’s see if the Turkish money comes though, that could be a solution,” said Haifa al-Saefi, a bank teller in central Benghazi.

Residents have been lining up outside lenders amid rumours that bank liquidity will rise, allowing them to recover some of their savings. Nizar Mafraks, owner of Nizar Supermarket, said prices of domestic produce, such as meat, had only risen slightly. But some imported items, including staples such as powdered milk, have seen prices rise by two-thirds.

The war has cut off lines to a large tuna factory in Al Khums, forcing shops to import more expensive cans from Europe and Thailand, he said. Many Libyans mistrust foreign food, with one shopper saying the poor-quality tuna imports were “only good enough for the cat”. When asked the price of meat, quipped one shop assistant: “I don’t know, I only eat chicken now.”

Mr Mafraks was charged with “economic crimes” in 1996 by Col Gaddafi’s government, and only managed to avoid a jail sentence by paying a fine. “At least we don’t have that situation any more, the only thing now is to get rid of [Gaddafi] for good,” he said.

Rebel Chief Says Gaddafi, Family Can Stay in Libya

Libyan opposition leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Sunday that Col. Moammar Gadhafi and his family could remain in Libya as part of a political solution to the five-month-old conflict, provided they give up power and rebel leaders can determine where in Libya and under what conditions they remain.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal during an unannounced visit to Libya's rebel- controlled western mountains, Mr. Jalil confirmed reports from other rebel officials in recent days that Qatar has stepped up the flow of military aid to rebels in recent days.

Mr. Jalil's offer to let Col. Gadhafi and his family remain in Libya appears to be a significant reversal for the Libyan opposition leader, who is chairman of the rebels' Transitional National Council, based in Benghazi. "Gadhafi can stay in Libya but it will have conditions," Mr. Jalil said. "We will decide where he stays and who watches him.

The same conditions will apply to his family." Mr. Jalil spoke over a lunch of lamb, garbonzo beans and Pepsi, served in cans adorned with pink paper umbrellas, at a private home in the western mountain city of Zintan, where rebel military leaders have established their regional headquarters.

In agreeing that Mr. Gadhafi and his family could remain in Libya, Mr. Jalil appeared to be softening his position, and backing up comments made by U.S., Italian and French officials in recent days to the same effect. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday that Col. Gadhafi could remain in Libya as long as he gives up power completely.

The U.S. and Italy have said recently that Col. Gadhafi must be removed from power, but have said his fate after that is up to the Libyan people, leaving open the possibility that he remain in Libya. Mr. Jalil's willingness to accept anything short of exile and criminal prosecution for Mr. Gadhafi is likely to prove unpopular among the rebel rank and file.

Mr. Jalil made similar comments to Reuters earlier this month, but had to issue a quick denial after protests erupted in the streets of Benghazi. But Mr. Jalil appears to have carefully calibrated his comments on Sunday by setting conditions for Col. Gadhafi's remaining in Libya that could be broadly interpreted.

Mr. Jalil didn't elaborate on where or under what conditions rebels would demand Col. Gadhafi live if he remained, but presumably it could mean anything from comfortable house arrest among his tribesmen, to a dark cell in solitary confinement. The diplomatic wording would seem to allow Mr. Jalil to appear willing to compromise to appease Western leaders eager to see an end to the conflict, while not alienating his rebel base who want to see Col. Gadhafi held accountable for his actions.

The softening of Mr. Jalil's position toward Col. Gadhafi and his family comes as rebels say they are stepping up military preparations for a resumed push on Col. Gadhafi's forces along multiple fronts. A critical piece of those preparations has been an uptick in military aide from the Persian Gulf state of Qatar in recent days, according to Mr. Jalil and other rebel officials in Benghazi.

Mr. Jalil said Qatar had sent military trainers to the western mountains to train rebel fighters and had built and equipped a rebel operational command center with the latest equipment. Indeed, Qatari military personnel were accompanying Mr. Jalil during his visit to the western mountains. One Qatari military trainer said his team of trainers arrived in the western mountains 20 days ago to train rebels to use certain light weapons and teach them small- unit tactics.

Sunday's visit was Mr. Jalil's first visit to the region since he was tapped as the rebel leader shortly after the uprising began on Feb. 17. Mr. Jalil and his entourage flew into the western mountains after a short visit in Tunisia, where many Libyan civilians have sought refuge from the fighting and where many rebel fighters have gone for treatment.

His plane landed at the rebels' makeshift airstrip on a straight stretch of desert highway outside of Zintan. Qatar has been one of the rebels' staunchest allies since the early days of the uprising and has long provided them with a steady flow of humanitarian and military aid. Qatar has been sending rebels anti- tank weapons, small arms, ammunitions, and bullet proof vests, among other such items for months, according to rebel officials who help manage and distribute the shipments in Benghazi.

But just in the past four days Qatar has stepped up both the quantity and type of military aid it is shipping to the rebels, these officials said. The recent shipments have for the first time included new four-wheel-drive vehicles and armored mine clearers to help the rebels clear massive mine fields laid by Col. Gadhafi's forces outside the oil town of Brega, according to the officials.

Mr. Jalil said rebels would continue their offensive on all fronts during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins early next month. He said rebels in the western mountains were the closest to Tripoli and rebels' best chance of piercing Col. Gadhafi's defenses and reaching the capital. "The war will end in one of three ways," Mr. Jalil said. "Gadhafi will surrender, he will flee Libya, or he will be killed or captured by one of his bodyguards or by rebel forces."

Germany to lend €100m to Libyan rebels

International Medical Corps medics treat injured rebel fighters at a field hospital near Misrata's frontline. The rebel city is struggling to pay for essentials.

Germany has announced that it will lend €100m to the Libyan opposition to ease a growing humanitarian crisis in rebel-controlled parts of the country.

The £88m loan to the national transitional council (NTC) was secured against frozen Libyan government funds. The money comes as the rebels struggle to pay for essentials, a fact that was exacerbated on Sunday when government missiles struck the oil tanks that fuel the besieged city of Misrata's power generators.

"We have decided to provide the NTC with urgently needed funding for civil and humanitarian measures," said the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, in a statement. "People are suffering more and more from this, particularly in eastern Libya."

Five months into the war, cash is running low and the rebels have tried and failed to get access to billions of dollars held in Libyan government accounts.

The situation is most acute in Misrata, Libya's third largest city, whose only route to the outside world is by sea. The normally affluent city was well stocked with supplies when war broke out, with petrol tanks and grain silos full. But supplies are running low, along with the cash to pay for them.

Prices for goods ranging from clothes to fruit have skyrocketed in recent weeks. "You cannot pay for everything you need in Misrata now, you cannot pay for juice, the children must have fruit and we cannot pay for it," said Bashir Al Zawawi, a lecturer in business administration at Misrata University.

On Sunday, one of the four giant tanks holding the city's oil supplies was hit by three grad rockets fired from government lines, leaving a huge pall of smoke over the city.

The most acute shortages are felt in Misrata's battered hospitals. "We have a shortage of everything," Dr Khalid Abufalgha, head of the city's health council, told the Guardian. "We are receiving humanitarian aid but it is never enough."

The rebels say Qatar, one of their key backers, has offered an "air bridge" to fly in food and medical supplies fly out wounded, but only when it is safe to land at the airport. Engineers have cleared the runway of debris and cannibalised wrecked machinery to provide fuel and power for landing planes, but the government frontlines are too near to make landings safe.

"We need this airport," said the airport's director, Abdul Hamid Garwash. "From our side we're ready, but permission is needed from Nato."

Earlier this month the NTC spokesman, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, complained that promises of payments from western donors in May remained unfulfilled. Western officials counter that payments are being held up because the NTC is unable to present a fully transparent accountancy system to allow funds to be checked, and to guarantee that money earmarked for aid is not used for weapons.

Nato remains outwardly confident that however bad things are for the rebels, they were worse for government forces, saying that weeks of bombing had inflicted significant damage on Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli, where bombs reportedly hit early on Sunday morning.

"Gaddafi has for decades hidden from the Libyan people behind these walls," said Major General Nick Pope, spokesman for Britain's chief of the defence staff.

The Gaddafi government insists it remains open to a negotiated solution to the war, with spokesman Moussa Ibrahim saying Libyan officials had a "productive dialogue" with US officials last week.

Informal peace proposals will be canvassed this week by special UN envoy to Libya, Abdul Elah al-Khatib, a Jordanian senator. But the sticking point in any negotiations is likely to be the insistence of the US, UK, France and Russia that Gaddafi steps down as a precondition to talks, which Ibrahim said would be rejected.

Rebels Want Qaddafi to Face ICC

On July 22, the deputy head of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), Ali Essawi said that he wanted to see Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi stand trial at the International Criminal Court in Hague.

Deputy head of Libyan NTC Ali Essawi said, "We would like to have Gaddafi taken to the ICC, we would like justice to play its role and we would like to see the crimes paid also. There is no contradictory between the two. No-one can forgive him, even if he left the country. His crimes have touched all over the world, not only the Libyans, even other people and other countries and his terrorist actions, and we cannot forgive him on behalf of the others also."

Ali Essawi added, "Negotiations will be only on the departure of Gaddafi. We will not negotiate on his staying in Libya or ruling the Libyans, this is in principle. His statement belongs to him, as far as we know that Gaddafi will not step down. He is insisting on the killing of the Libyans, he is insisting on the revenge from the Libyans and he will not leave the country or the power"

Last month, the Hague-based ICC issued warrants for the arrest of Gaddafi, his son Saif Al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Senussi on charges that they ordered the killing of protestors.
Meanwhile, on July 21, Gaddafi addressed thousands of supporters in an audio message saying that he would never negotiate with the rebels. NTC officials rejected his statement.

Gaddafi Increases Chances He Could Stay

The U.S., the U.K., Italy and France now say they’re willing to accept an outcome in Libya that would allow Muammar Gaddafi avoid exile or a trial on war crimes charges.

After conducting four months of daily bombings, NATO-led allies are willing to let Gaddafi stay in Libya on the condition that he gives up power.

“If the Libya people believe an internal solution is acceptable, then Italy agrees,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said yesterday in Guangzhou, China, according to ANSA news agency. A spokesman confirmed his comments.

“One of the scenarios effectively envisaged is that he stays in Libya on one condition, which I repeat: that he very clearly steps aside from Libyan political life,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said July 20 in a television interview with French news channel LCI.

As the military campaign enters its fifth month, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies want to wrap up a mission that Juppe promised at its March 19 outset “will be counted in days and in weeks, not in months.” Politically, they have pressing concerns at home: For Europeans, it’s saving the euro and for Americans, it’s defending an AAA credit rating by cutting federal spending.

“It shows some desperation, because the entire military operation didn’t deliver what the U.K., France and also the U.S. had hoped for,” Jan Techau, director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels, the European center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a telephone interview. “You get pragmatic and you change the targets.”

‘Regime Change 2.0’

Qaddafi, who seized power of the oil-rich North African nation in a military coup in 1969, still controls the capital, Tripoli, and has threatened to “blow up” the city if the rebels succeed in seizing it.

Techau calls the new strategy “Regime Change 2.0,” permitting exile within Libya. That is a softer take on the original plan, which had been to either let Qaddafi escape to a safe haven or have him stand trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

For the first time, allies and rebels may be prepared to grant Qaddafi’s wish to live out his retirement on his home soil, on the condition he lay down his arms and give up power.

That “is a possibility that can be worked to try and make him leave” power, Mahmoud Jibril, who heads the Transitional National Council, the rebel governing group, told reporters in Madrid yesterday.

 

Leaving Power

“If Qaddafi does not leave power, there is no room for an exchange of ideas,” he said. “We do not intend to negotiate on whether Qaddafi leaves power but on how he leaves power.”

As the fighting continues, Qaddafi’s troops have set explosive charges at petroleum installation in the oil port of Brega as well as at unspecified oilfields, Jibril said, according to the Associated Press.

The June 27 indictment of Qaddafi on charges of crimes against humanity limited his exile options to a handful of countries that did not ratify the Rome treaty that set up the court in 2002.

Still, Qaddafi saw a door open the day after the U.S. and 31 other nations gave the Transitional National Council official recognition as the governing authority in Libya.

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman and National Security Council staff member Derek Chollet held a secret meeting July 16 with representatives of Qaddafi’s inner circle.

U.S.-Libyan Meeting

The face-to-face talks were a sign of U.S. willingness to negotiate with the regime, according to a spokesman for Qaddafi’s government, Moussa Ibrahim. U.S. State Department officials insist that the meeting was not a negotiation and was intended only to deliver the message in person that Qaddafi must step down.

Either way, U.S. officials don’t exclude the possibility of Qaddafi staying in Libya as long as he steps aside.

“He needs to be removed from power or remove himself from power,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters July 20. “It is up to the Libyan people to decide what his future is beyond that, I mean, so it’s not for us to say.”

Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, said that the longer the military campaign drags on, the harder it becomes to keep the coalition together. Time has played in Qaddafi’s favor, as it “seems to have strengthened his negotiating position,” Danin said in a telephone interview.

 

‘Palpable Option’

By flitting between conciliatory overtures and threats, Qaddafi has kept his opponents guessing what his next move will be or whether the end to the conflict will come only with his capture or death.

“Qaddafi’s message is, ‘Like hell am I leaving Tripoli; give me something I can work with or come get me,’” said Alessandro Politi, a former adviser to the Italian Defense Ministry. “The allies realize they can’t keep demanding he cede power if they don’t give him a palpable option of where to go.”

The “best” outcome would be for Qaddafi to leave Libya and stand trial in The Hague, Gavin Cook, a spokesman for the U.K. Foreign Office, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “But what happens to Qaddafi is ultimately up to the Libyan people, and they should determine his future.”

Letting Qaddafi stay does pose risks and could destabilize a country that was stitched together in 1929, when Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were united as one colonial province under the Italians. Qaddafi has held the country together in his four decades in power.

“Is he going to be safe five, 10 years down the line is what he will be asking himself,” Politi said. “Will the authorities catch up with him or someone try and kill him?”

Libyan officials sought guarantees Gaddafi would not be pursued for war crimes

Libyan representatives sought guarantees Col Muammar Gaddafi would not be pursued for war crimes if he stepped down during talks with US officials.

Diplomats involved in contacts with Libyan officials said that Tripoli sought talks with Washington as part of a series of informal negotiations on Col Gaddafi's future. But while French mediators last week insisted that Col Gaddafi must leave Libya, a move that would make him vulnerable to arrest and war crimes charges, American diplomats only insisted that the dictator give up power.

European diplomats said on Tuesday that America, which is not a member of the World Court, could formally put its weight behind a deal to scrap UN sanctions that authorised war crime charges. "There is open question here of an American role but the Americans have also been very clear that they delivered a message and not launch negotiations," a European diplomat said.

Libyan emissaries have held a series of meetings with Turkish, French and South African officials in previous weeks. Unnamed regime officials met senior American diplomats in Tunis on Saturday. "There have been a number of indications that talks behind the scenes are going on and the feeling is that these centre on Gaddafi continuing to live in Libya or being allowed a dignified exile, probably somewhere in Africa," said Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador who has met Gaddafi loyalists in recent weeks.

A US official was unequivocal in saying that the only message given to Col Gaddafi in the meeting was that he should stand down. "This was not a negotiation. It was the delivery of a message," the official said. The French defence minister yesterday said pressure on Col Gaddafi to seek a negotiated exit had risen but warned the Libyan leader could still hold out.

"The countdown has begun," said Gerard Longuet, the defence minister who last week called for immediate talks with Col Gaddafi. "I am cautious because Gaddafi is not rational and he could opt for a bunker strategy, taking the whole civilian population of Tripoli hostage." "As panic takes over in the ranks around Gaddafi, we are seeing more and more emissaries of all types who are touring world capitals," he said.

"When one of those comes within our range our message is always the same: Gaddafi must go." Libyan rebels launched a full- scale attack on the oil town of Brega on Thursday, taking significant casualties as they fought through the streets on Saturday and Sunday. They are also having to deal with extensive minefields and traps full of chemicals, they have said. The Transitional National Council on Monday claimed that only a small pocket of 150-200 loyalist fighters were holding out.

The French foreign ministry backed the rebels' statement. "The Libyan resistance forces are in the process of controlling the totality of the city," the spokesman, Bernard Valero, said. "It represents progress on the ground by the action of Libyan rebel forces. It would seem to confirm the retreat and isolation of Gaddafi and his forces." The rebels have made no significant gains on the eastern front since March, and the loss of Brega would be a major blow for Col Gaddafi.

Antiaircraft Missiles On the Loose in Libya

Five months after the armed uprising erupted in Libya, a new round of portable antiaircraft missiles - weapons that governments fear could be obtained by terrorists and then fired at civilian jetliners - have been slipping from storage bunkers captured by rebels.

In February, in the early stages of the uprising, large numbers of the missiles slipped from the hands of Col. Muammar el- Qaddafi's government as the rebels established control over eastern Libya and the ammunition depots there. The leakage resumed recently with rebel gains here in the western mountains, which opened up new ammunition stores.

The new leakage of the missiles, which are of the same type that officials in other African nations have said have already been trafficked over Libya's borders, underscores the organizational weakness of the forces opposed to Colonel Qaddafi; it also raises concerns that if more Qaddafi depots fall to the rebels, then further stocks of the weapons could become accessible to black markets.

Signs of the diversion are readily visible here, at an ammunition depot captured late last month from the Qaddafi forces after repeated NATO bombings. On a recent day, 43 emptied wooden crates - long, thin and painted in dark green - had been left behind on the sand inside the entrance. The boxes had not been there during a visit to the same spot a few days before, and the weapons were gone.

The stenciled markings showed each crate had contained a pair of lightweight missiles called SA-7s - early Soviet versions of the same class of weapon as the better known American-made Stingers, which were used by Afghan fighters against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was not clear who had taken them. The rebel guards variously blamed Qaddafi forces and misinformed opposition fighters.

New Leaks of Antiaircraft Missiles From Rebel-Held Bunkers in Libya During more than four decades in power, Colonel Qaddafi's often bellicose government is thought to have acquired as many as 20,000 of these missiles, known as Manpads, for Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems, in arms deals with the former Eastern bloc.

Many are assumed to remain in the Qaddafi military's custody, American officials say, and others have been fired in the conflict, meaning that the number loose is most likely much smaller than the original stock. There has been no publicly available evidence that Libya's rebels are directly involved in missile trafficking. Rebel leaders say that if their fighters have taken any missiles, they meant to use them in battle, and that they say they suspect soldiers in the Qaddafi military of selling and smuggling these kinds of arms.

But American officials and Western security analysts say there are grave worries that once the weapons inherited by rebels have been made accessible and reach unsupervised hands, opportunistic smugglers can match them to potential buyers. In a telephone interview, Andrew J. Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political- military affairs, described the unsecured missiles in Libya as "one of the things that keep me up at night."

Two other American officials, speaking anonymously so as not to upset diplomatic relations with the rebels, said that after the initial leakage of the SA-7s the American government repeatedly asked the National Transitional Council, the de facto rebel authority, to collect and secure the missiles and to prevent more missiles from getting loose. When the depot here at Ga'a fell, however, those requests appeared to have had little effect.

"The rebels came from all over the western mountains, and they just took what they wanted," said Riyad, a supervisor of the ruined arsenal's small contingent of rebel guards.

Gaddafi has plan to blow up capital Tripoli

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has a "suicidal plan" to blow up the capital Tripoli if it is taken by rebels, the Kremlin's special envoy to Libya told a Russian newspaper on Thursday.

"The Libyan premier told me, if the rebels seize the city, we will cover it with missiles and blow it up," Kremlin envoy Mikhail Margelov said in an interview with the Izvestia daily.
Margelov met Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi last month. "I imagine that the Gaddafi regime does have such a suicidal plan," he added, saying that Gaddafi still had plentiful supplies of missiles and ammunition.

But Margelov, who has had rare access to senior Libyan officials, questioned reports that Gaddafi could be running out of arms in the drawn-out conflict. Gaddafi had still not used a single surface- to-surface missile, he argued. "Tripoli theoretically could lack ammunition for tanks, cartridges for rifles. But the colonel has got plenty of missiles and explosives."

Margelov met the Libyan prime minister on June 16 in Tripoli after holding talks in Benghazi earlier the same month. He has not met Gaddafi himself. Russia abstained from a vote on a March UN Security Council resolution that opened the way for foreign involvement and has since criticised the campaign -- particularly arms drops by France.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Wednesday for talks on Libya, where Lavrov sought to play down differences between the countries. However, the Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Moscow would not take part in talks on Libya later this week in Turkey, which has also seen itself as a mediator in the conflict.

Libyan rebels desperately short of funds

Even as rebel commanders predict victory is near, the rebel leadership is short of cash to fight the rebellion and run civilian affairs.
The lucrative oil industry has been shut down by the fighting.

In early April, Mazin Ramadan left his American wife and two children in Seattle and flew to this Libyan rebel stronghold to help the opposition sort out its shaky finances.

Three months later, things are looking as bleak as ever. "We're broke," said Ramadan, a Libyan American who founded a software tech company in Seattle and advises the rebel Transitional National Council on finances and oil. Even as rebel commanders predict that victory over Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is near, the rebel leadership is desperately short of cash to fight the rebellion and run civilian affairs.

The lucrative Libyan oil industry, which normally earns billions of dollars in hard currency, has been shut down by the fighting. Salaries for the rebel government's workers haven't been paid in two months. There is precious little cash to buy the imported fuel needed for the war effort and for the economy in eastern Libya, which the rebels control.

The council is beseeching Arab and Western nations to offer cash or credit. "We're getting decimated on the financial front lines," Ramadan said this week. As he spoke, the lights flickered and died in the conference room at a villa dating to the Italian colonial era that serves as a council office in downtown Benghazi. Fuel shortages have forced daily six-hour brownouts.

The council has been buying fuel in Europe on credit. But last week, a European financial company that had provided $500 million in loans told the council that it could no longer shoulder the risk and shut down the credit line. About $100 million donated by Qatar has nearly been spent, Ramadan said, and $200 million promised by Turkey has yet to arrive.

Several tankers loaded with fuel from Europe have left the Benghazi port without unloading after the council couldn't pay cash, he said. The vast petrochemical complexes at Port Brega and Ras Lanuf, seized from the rebels by government forces this spring, have been shut down. Also closed is the natural gas pipeline that normally fuels electricity production in Benghazi and other eastern cities. That means that rebel leaders in the country that is the world's 17th-largest producer of oil must import all their fuel.

Several nations have promised to provide cash, Ramadan said, but only Qatar has delivered. "We hear a lot of promises, but it's a lot easier to promise than to deliver," he said. "We don't count on it unless it's sitting in our account." Ramadan said he is pursuing new credit lines. His two cellphones rang constantly as he spoke. The council has sought loan guarantees backed by billions of dollars in frozen Libyan government assets overseas. But weeks of negotiations have failed to pry loose guarantees,

Ramadan said. In a July 7 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, four U.S. senators led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Clinton to help unlock the assets for Libyan humanitarian aid. The letter reminded Clinton of her recent promise to help put the rebel council "on firmer financial footing." Rebel finances "are in a perilous state," the letter said. The United States has authorized $25 million in nonlethal military assistance to the rebels and $53 million in humanitarian aid.

But Ramadan said loan guarantees backed by frozen Libyan assets would have a much bigger effect on the effort to topple Kadafi, a declared U.S. policy goal. The main crisis in the east is financial, not humanitarian. Thanks to unusually heavy winter rains, eastern Libya is flush with grains, fruits and vegetables.