NBC: Libya’s Gadhafi Is Getting Ready to Leave Country
NBC News reports that Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi is getting ready to leave the country:
Moammar Gadhafi is making preparations for a departure from Libya with his family for possible exile in Tunisia, U.S. officials have told NBC News, citing intelligence reports.
One official suggested it was possible that Gadhafi would leave within days, NBC News reported.
The information obtained by NBC News follows a series of optimistic statements this week from U.S. officials that Gadhafi would soon give up the five-month-old fight and and leave Libya.
In an on-camera forum at the National Defense University this week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, “I think the sense is that Gadhafi’s days are numbered.”
The officials could provide no further details as to conditions or precise timing for Gadhafi’s departure, NBC said, and the news report emphasized that there was no guarantee that Gadhafi would follow through on any plans to flee.
This report comes as rebels captured a town south of Tripoli:
Meanwhile, there have been blasts in Tripoli — near his compound.
The New York Times offers this slide show on the battle of Libya.
The Telegraph’s Con Coughlin says it’s time to prepare for what comes next:
Maintaining some degree of stability in Libya as it undergoes its painful transition from authoritarian rule to a more representative system of government is certainly one of the more pressing issues facing Nato planners. In Britain, where Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, has been given responsibility for post-conflict planning in Libya, the Government’s priority is to prevent the country descending into a tribal bloodbath, with rival factions settling decades-old scores once the Mad Dog of the Middle East has been put out of his misery.
This remains a distinct possibility when you consider the bitter rivalries that have already surfaced between the various rebel factions. There now seems little doubt that a radical Islamist militia was responsible for the murder, two weeks ago, of General Abdel Fattah Younes, the rebels’ military commander, who had previously served as Gaddafi’s interior minister. Younes and two of his aides were shot, and their bodies mutilated, by Islamist militants whose deep hatred of the West resulted in them refusing to fight when Nato warplanes began bombing Gaddafi’s forces, on the grounds that they would not fight on the same side as “infidels”.
Concerns about Islamist attempts to infiltrate the rebel leadership have been circulating since the conflict began in March; Western intelligence officials based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi have reported with alarm the growth of extremist influence within the rebels’ ranks in recent months. It’s a development that has seen the rebels adopt a more hard-line approach to international efforts to mediate a peaceful resolution to the conflict. During talks in Tunis earlier this week to explore the possibility of a peace settlement, one of the rebels threw his shoe at Tunisian officials in protest at the notion of doing a deal with Gaddafi.
AND:
On the plus side, Nato officials point out that there has been a sharp surge in rebel activity since the demise of Gen Younes, who had been accused of leaking the rebels’ war plans to his former employer. Whatever the truth about the murky circumstances of his death, the incident has nevertheless highlighted the serious divisions that exist within the rebel movement, between those who are relaxed about working with the West and others who bitterly oppose such co-operation.
These tensions certainly do not bode well for the time when, as now looks increasingly likely, Gaddafi’s detestable rule is brought to an end. As one of our senior officials told me this week, “It’s not going to look very pretty when Gaddafi finally goes. There are a lot of scores to be settled. Our job is to try to maintain some semblance of law and order to help the country get back on its feet.”
So it may soon be time to say: Good riddance.
8 Responses to “NBC: Libya’s Gadhafi Is Getting Ready to Leave Country”
How much did it cost to get Gaddafi? To get Saddam?
How many civilians have been killed by US collateral damage? In Libya? In Iraq?
How much time did it take, and how many people have been tortured on Libyan soil by US operatives?
I am not saying Obama’s decision was legally correct or that there is no cause for concern over it. Libya isn’t going to become Tel Aviv all of a sudden.
But wars are not good or bad, they lie on a spectrum. And once again Obama might not be Bush’s exact opposite but he lies on a part of the spectrum trillions of miles away from Bush.
Obama is simply a much better person and president. A superior human being that deserved a better predecessor.
[Our job is to try to maintain some semblance of law and order to help the country get back on its feet]
Lots of luck with that pipe dream.
A) Gadhafi leaving does not strike me as all that believable in that I am sure that he realizes that the instant he leaves Libya, the extraditions, show trials followed by execution or life in prison are all but inevitable.
B) Once he is gone, the raping of Libya can begin…
I’m sure Libya can clean up its own mess without our help.
One other issue to consider is whether or not his leaving is a good thing in the long run.
Certainly if his leaving leads to some sort of open society in Libya then it would be good for both the people of Libya and the people of the world.
But frequently that does not happen and we simply see one repressive regime replaced with another one.
And without intending to be callous, if you have to pick between protecting your family from harm and some other family, you will (and should) pick yours.
In that vein, Gadhafi has at least been farily quiet in the international terror scene for a while.
Obviously we’d all like a world in which everyone can be free but sadly that just isn’t how it works.
I cant say getting rid of one dictator just to get another is a reason to not support the removal of a dictator but I can say that historically sooner or later you do end up with a better form of gov and leaders. Whether that will happen this time or not is up for debate but I refuse to ponder whether keeping the old one is preferable because that debate is largely coming not from Libyans but outsiders who view the situation through the lens of their nations interests which should be of no concern to Libyans much as the founding fathers here did not ponder winning the revolutionary wars impact on the global community. It is what they desired and demanded and it is their right to do so.
Picking and choosing outside interests favored strong man is what created both the Muslim Brotherhood and the chaos that has been the ME over the last one hundred years. European powers broke it up and chose their favored despots which is the very root of the problem, outside influence that is. I will say though that I do support influence to offset past influence, like UN bombing/intervention to offset arms UN nations sold the despots that allowed said despots to hold power. Maybe next time we will think twice prior to selling arms to despots…lol ok that was a funny thing to at least ponder of course we wont consider it.
“I’m sure Libya can clean up its own mess without our help.”
Once we offset the arms we sold them and funded, we as in the western world, that helped him keep power I agree. We put our thumb heavily on the scale in his favor though. Without some help they stood no chance, we sold him some really great weaponry that he happily turned on the populace.
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