Libya too?!

Gaddafi’s wife, daughter and two sons flee to Algeria. Still no sign of Himself.

Khamis Gaddafi confirmed dead, yet again, but apparently for real this time.

BBC’s not reporting this at all.

Rebels give holdouts in Sirte until Saturday to surrender.

Why are they holding out anyway?! What’s the point?! They must know things can’t be put back to where they were seven months ago.

I believe many of them are holding out hoping to get guarantees that they will not suffer vigilante justice for their activities supporting the regime. If they were police who arrested dissidents, or soldiers who were order to fight the rebels, they are worried about being punished for that.

This has already happened to one of the highest generals of Gadaffi, after hedefected and was in charge of part of the rebel army – he was assassinated/executed by relatives of people who had been killed by government forces back when he was commanding them.

And of course BBC reported it shortly after I posted the above.

The journalists who were finally released from that hotel in Tripoli after persuading their guards to lay down their weapons reported some of them (the guards) were despondent and weeping. There are some pretty high feelings, and in this case it really didn’t seem to be merely fear for their safety. They’ve been riding that gravy train for 42 years.

Shouldn’t be a sticking-point. So far the NTC has been very much against any kind of revenge violence.

That didn’t help General Abdel Fattah Younes much – he was part of the NTC, and he’s still dead.

I don’t think these people are worried about the NTC as much as local people taking vengeance. Holding out for a while may be a smart tactic. Wait until the NTC is firmly in power, and has effective control of government, down to the local level – that may make it a much safer time to surrender.

this is very innocent. You put too much faith in words and idealistic declarations. the reality of the war like this is that the individual bands have loyalty to their captains, the seigneurs de guerre, and such people rarely have the idealistic comportement of intelectuals.

That’s as may be, but, as I was just hearing on All Things Considered this morning, the NTC is very concerned to avoid any Iraq-style post-war chaos. So they’re keeping the Gaddafi-era administrations and police and civil servants in place wherever possible; in Tripoli, traffic cops are already back at work. IOW, this regime has little interest in a thorough de-Gaddafization of the government – no purges may be expected.

Little comfort as that may be for those at the top of the old regime. They will be arrested if caught alive.

Moammar’s third son Saadi Gaddafi is ready to turn himself in. (Bottom of page.)

I read somewhere recently that today’s Arab revolutionaries use Iraq as a reference-point for things to be avoided, as in, “We want to take Tripoli without Baghdadizing it,” i.e., without chaos and looting.

Alhamoudlillah allah malek alhamid. But NTC is not in control of the warbands.

They are being very wise and doing it seems a good job. But that does not make their pretty words effective in front lines.

Little comfort as that may be for those at the top of the old regime. They will be arrested if caught alive.
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And they may be killed by front line warbands who are less interested in pretty words by intellectuals than in getting revenge for their sufferings. Even in places where there is real command, this is a great danger. In the situation of Lybia, it is not just a stupidity of Qadafi loyalists to fear executions on spot.

you have great faith in declarations.

But it is very funny that The Guide is now only offering to negotiation a transition govenrment, as if it was like in March… He is funny, the Guide. He should have been a performer on TV.

Now Saif says they’re ready to fight to the death. Saadi still wants to surrender.

Yes, well. What’s Arabic for Schadenfreude? :smiley:

You dont have to answer, Ramira, but are you Libyan (thought you were Maghrebi)?

What does this mean, please?

Regards,
Shodan

And that doesn’t even count the thousands of hospital patients and nursing home residents ready to take up arms on behalf of the Gaddafi regime.

20,000, huh? They said they had 60,000 for the defense of Tripoli. That’s some nasty casualty levels, that is.

It is not about terrorism. It only is the equivalent of By grace of God.

No I am not Libyan, but I have spent enough time in it and around it to have opinions about Qadafi.