Libya: Gaddafi says he will fight to the end – live coverage

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Gaddafi's image, as shown on Arabic news channels on 1 September when he gave an audio statement vowing to fight on in Libya. Photograph: Reuters TV

8.31pm: The Associated Press is following the story of five brothers who vanished at a checkpoint reportedly manned by Gaddafi loyalists on hte road to Tripoli airport on 21 August.

A "small army" of friends and relatives have been checking hospitals and morgues across Tripoli but have so far turned up nothing on the wheareabouts of Mohammed Abu Naama, 31, a mechanical engineer, and his brothers, Ali, 29, also a mechanical engineer; Abu Bakr, 26, an aviation engineer; Ahmed, 23, another mechanical engineer; and Faisal, 21, a geography student.

"It's hard ... five children," said their father Abdel Salam Abu Naama, who has been showing reporters passport photos of his sons.

Their mother, Wasfiya, believes the brothers were lured into a trap by pro-Gaddafi forces after one brother was detained and called the others for help, saying he was in an accident. "I have great hope in God that they will return my boys. God willing, they are just in jail and will come back to me," she told AP.

But hope may be fading after their brother-in-law, a soldier in the Libyan army, said he had seen three of the brothers at Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound on 23 August, when rebels stormed. He said he saw Mohammed, Faisal and Abu Bakr shot near the gate of the compound.

7.35pm: One of the US embassy cables from the Tripoli embassy in 2009 shines a light on the sometimes intense rivalry between two of Gaddafi's sons – Saif al-Islam and Mutassim – and their relationship with Gaddafi himself.

Under the title "Gaddafi orchestrating the boys/high wire act?", Gene Cretz, the American ambassador to Tripoli, writes:

[Gaddafi's] recent appointment of his son Saif al-Islam as "general co-ordinator" and attendant indications of a succession plan have stirred up old rumors of rivalry between seeming frontrunners for the throne, Saif al-Islam and his brother, national security advisor, Mutassim al-Qadhafi. Saif al-Islam's return from a 12-month self-imposed absence from Libyan politics and his recent new appointment clearly indicate that his star is on the rise in the constellation of Libyan succession contenders.
[Gaddafi] pere was reportedly disappointed in Mutassim's management of September 1 Revolution Day anniversary events and his late September travel to UNGA. Nevertheless, Mutassim's continued engagement on the US file and continuing efforts to co-ordinate a meeting ... demonstrate that he may see this portfolio as his ticket to continue playing in the succession game.
Contacts assert that Saif al-Islam may be the "face of reform" due to his high-profile, public status, and the current favorite to succeed his father, but that Mutassim should not be counted out of the succession game, particularly given his backing by conservatives in the regime, such as PM-equivalent Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, and his rumored ability as national security advisor to access significant military and security elements, including brother Khamis's elite 32nd Brigade force.

Cretz says in a second missive that the return of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi with Saif al-Islam also boosted the latter's standing and "marked the peak of a remarkably resurgent six weeks" for Saif, who had begun to "re-engage international media".

Saif's re-entry onto the public scene signaled the end of his August 2008 self-announced retreat from politics, and comes after some significant setbacks for him over the past year at the hands of regime conservatives.

But by late April came "the sudden nationalization of Saif's quasi-independent media company, which included the take over of his al-Libia satellite channel mid-broadcast by the state-run Jamahiriya News Agency on reported grounds that Saif was overreaching in expanding media freedom."

Saif's slide was juxtaposed with younger brother Mutassim's rise, with the latter completing a state visit to Russia in October 2008, meeting the Secretary of State in Washington in March 2009, accompanying Qadhafi on the historic visit to Italy in June ... and accompanying his father to New York for the UN General Assembly. Mutassim was very visible at his father's side throughout these high level visits.
Mutassim, who is reportedly close to the conservative PM and, in the past, has orchestrated reactions against Saif's interests through the PM's office ... Regime insiders also tell us that Mutassim remains the only one who can actually challenge his father.

As Saif's star rises again, local observers are turning their eyes toward Mutassim for a reaction.

Cretz says "contacts suggest that although Mutassim is not as skilled in public relations as his older brother Saif, he wields significant power from behind the scenes ...Contacts also report that younger brother Khamis ... is closer to Mutassim.

In a final comment at the end of the cable, Cretz outlines potential outcomes for the brothers.

Whichever of the Qadhafi children wins the \"prize,\" there is a high level of anxiety among our Libyan contacts, given the potential for chaos in the absence of the traditionally "guiding hand" of the Leader and given the absence of viable state institutions to insure stability.
They see a best possible outcome as a division of the spoils, with Saif handling the domestic side of the house and Mutassim handling the security and possible foreign relations part

Read the full cable here.

6.25pm: The story of five Bulgarian nurses who were sentenced to death in Libya after being convicted of infecting over 400 children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi has surfaced again.

The Bulgarian government is seeking to recover £35m it donated to Libya in 2007 in a deal to secure the release of the nurses, who were arrested alongside a Palestinian doctor in 1999. They were sentenced to death five years later to an international outcry.

Boiko Borisov, the Bulgarian prime minister, has now described the £35m deal as "racketeering". According to a BBC report, he told the Bulgarian Focus state news agency:

I have raised the issue to review the agreement with Libya for the return of the medics, which to my view was racketeering. We saw the deal as a success at the time, because the nurses came home alive... but the price for Bulgaria was enormous.

At the time of their arrest, foreign scientists concluded that the epidemic had probably caused by poor hygiene standards. A further report in 2006 concluded HIV was rampant in the hospital before the six health workers began working at the hospital. The six had always denied the charges. They spent eight years in a Libyan jail before their sentences were commuted to life in prison in 2007.

The £35m fund, paid from a fund set up by the EU, the United States, Bulgaria and Libya, and included a historic Soviet-era debt that was owed by Libya, was part of an agreed compensation package of £500,000 for each victim.

The payment paved the way for their release in 2007 and the nurses were pardoned on their return to Bulgaria and marked a thawing of diplomatic relations between Libya and the west.

6.05pm: Jo Adetunji here. Major General Nick Pope has been tweeting about continuing operations by the British military on Thursday. He said a precision strike had been carried out in the area around Bani Walid, south-east of Tripoli where many believe Gaddafi to be hiding out. He said it was to demonstrate that positions of forces loyal to Gaddafi were "known and capable of being targeted".

Pope said HMS Liverpool had been assisting the rebels in Sirte, the so-called "capital of resistance" who are preparing to attack in the event that talks with tribal elders collapse (see 1.19pm update for more on this).

Here are some of those tweets:

Thu am: A precision strike in the area surrounding Bani Walid destroyed a military command and control installation #Libya

Thu pm: Tornado GR4s conducted a strike on six buildings in use by former regime forces near Bani Walid. All six targets were destroyed.

Thu night: Overnight, HMS Liverpool again fired star shells over pro-Qadhafi military positions at Sirte. #Libya

This was to demonstrate to those forces which persist in prolonging the conflict that their positions are known & capable of being targeted.

#News

Friday, September 2, 2011

cable shines light on rivalry b/w #Gaddafi sons Saif and Mutassim

Libya: Gaddafi says he will fight to the end – live coverage