Mar 9th 2011 – 6:39AM
As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for international support for a no-fly zone over Libya, a defiant Col. Moammar Gadhafi said early today that his regime would "take up arms and fight" in response.
Gadhafi took to the state airwaves early this morning and also dropped by the Tripoli hotel where the international media is housed. He enraged journalists by refusing to speak to any of them except a Turkish TV reporter. He told him in an interview broadcast today that Libyans would fight back against a no-fly zone.
After keeping the world guessing Tuesday about whether he tried to strike an exit deal for himself with opposition leaders, Gadhafi stuck to what experts say is his strategic playbook: confuse, confound and ultimately distract people from the bigger picture.
Libyan political experts warned this week that Gadhafi is sowing seeds of division among the loosely organized opposition leaders.
"This is what he does. He lies, he divides, he conquers," Mohamed Eljahmi a Libyan-American activist with ties to the rebels, told AOL News.
Those predictions were borne out late Tuesday. Young rebels stormed the National Libyan Council headquarters, angry that council spokesman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil had said it would agree to a deal that would allow Gadhafi to leave the country in 72 hours, The Miami Herald reported
Gadhafi, who denies that his forces are crushing the rebels with their far superior air power and artillery, began his mini midnight media blitz with his now customary attack on Western powers, saying they only want Libya's oil. He also again blamed the uprising on drugged youths influenced by al-Qaida.
Gadhafi's prerecorded address came as even more of his tanks and warplanes battered the western city of Zawiya in what appears to be a successful attempt to take it back from the ragtag and now outgunned rebels.
"For them, everybody's their enemy," Gadhafi said in a speech aired on Libyan state television early this morning, referring to the West. "They know nothing other than killing."
The speech was taped Tuesday when Gadhafi addressed a sometimes stupefied-looking youth group of tribal supporters, urging them to defend Libya from the West, CNN reported.
"They want to take your petrol," he said. "This is what America, this is what the French, those colonialists, want."
Gadhafi's speech came as Clinton told Sky News that the U.S. will not go it alone in imposing a no-fly zone and needs the support of the international community.
"I think it's very important that this not be a U.S.-led effort, because this comes from the people of Libya themselves. This doesn't come from the outside, this doesn't come from some Western power or some Gulf country saying, 'This is what you should do,'" she said.
Although Al-Jazeera began reporting at about 3 p.m. local time that Gadhafi would deliver a speech imminently, he did not surface until just before midnight -- at the Tripoli hotel where more than 100 foreign journalists are staying.
The international media had been promised a news conference, and many had timed their broadcasts around it, the Toronto Star reported.
But when Gadhafi finally showed up, he walked the gantlet of the more than 100 reporters, whipping them into a frenzy and then refusing to speak to any of them except the Turkish reporter, according to various journalists' accounts today. One account said he may have spoken to a French journalist as well.
David Kirkpatrick, a reporter for The New York Times, said it was increasingly difficult to sort fact from fiction in Libya.
"We're in a kind of a fog of war situation here in Tripoli," Kirkpatrick told NPR's Newscast. "The rumors have been flying that Gadhafi was shot by one of his sons, that there's some sort of palace intrigue, that there are negotiations going on, that people within his administration are talking about him leaving the country, all kinds of things; none of which are credible."
To add to the confusion, Al Jazeera reported that three of Gadhafi's five private planes took off from Tripoli this morning and changed their flight plans three times before apparently heading to Cairo. The Arab League is meeting in Cairo this week, leading some to speculate that military officials said to be aboard the planes want to meet with Egyptian military officials in the run-up to the meeting.
Gadhafi took to the state airwaves early this morning and also dropped by the Tripoli hotel where the international media is housed. He enraged journalists by refusing to speak to any of them except a Turkish TV reporter. He told him in an interview broadcast today that Libyans would fight back against a no-fly zone.
APTN / AP
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi addressed supporters in Tripoli, Libya, on Wednesday.
Libyan political experts warned this week that Gadhafi is sowing seeds of division among the loosely organized opposition leaders.
"This is what he does. He lies, he divides, he conquers," Mohamed Eljahmi a Libyan-American activist with ties to the rebels, told AOL News.
Those predictions were borne out late Tuesday. Young rebels stormed the National Libyan Council headquarters, angry that council spokesman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil had said it would agree to a deal that would allow Gadhafi to leave the country in 72 hours, The Miami Herald reported
Gadhafi, who denies that his forces are crushing the rebels with their far superior air power and artillery, began his mini midnight media blitz with his now customary attack on Western powers, saying they only want Libya's oil. He also again blamed the uprising on drugged youths influenced by al-Qaida.
Gadhafi's prerecorded address came as even more of his tanks and warplanes battered the western city of Zawiya in what appears to be a successful attempt to take it back from the ragtag and now outgunned rebels.
"For them, everybody's their enemy," Gadhafi said in a speech aired on Libyan state television early this morning, referring to the West. "They know nothing other than killing."
The speech was taped Tuesday when Gadhafi addressed a sometimes stupefied-looking youth group of tribal supporters, urging them to defend Libya from the West, CNN reported.
"They want to take your petrol," he said. "This is what America, this is what the French, those colonialists, want."
Gadhafi's speech came as Clinton told Sky News that the U.S. will not go it alone in imposing a no-fly zone and needs the support of the international community.
"I think it's very important that this not be a U.S.-led effort, because this comes from the people of Libya themselves. This doesn't come from the outside, this doesn't come from some Western power or some Gulf country saying, 'This is what you should do,'" she said.
Although Al-Jazeera began reporting at about 3 p.m. local time that Gadhafi would deliver a speech imminently, he did not surface until just before midnight -- at the Tripoli hotel where more than 100 foreign journalists are staying.
The international media had been promised a news conference, and many had timed their broadcasts around it, the Toronto Star reported.
But when Gadhafi finally showed up, he walked the gantlet of the more than 100 reporters, whipping them into a frenzy and then refusing to speak to any of them except the Turkish reporter, according to various journalists' accounts today. One account said he may have spoken to a French journalist as well.
"One reporter said, We waited all day to watch Qaddafi walk thru a lobby, who's crazy? Him or us?" tweeted NBC's chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel.
David Kirkpatrick, a reporter for The New York Times, said it was increasingly difficult to sort fact from fiction in Libya.
"We're in a kind of a fog of war situation here in Tripoli," Kirkpatrick told NPR's Newscast. "The rumors have been flying that Gadhafi was shot by one of his sons, that there's some sort of palace intrigue, that there are negotiations going on, that people within his administration are talking about him leaving the country, all kinds of things; none of which are credible."
To add to the confusion, Al Jazeera reported that three of Gadhafi's five private planes took off from Tripoli this morning and changed their flight plans three times before apparently heading to Cairo. The Arab League is meeting in Cairo this week, leading some to speculate that military officials said to be aboard the planes want to meet with Egyptian military officials in the run-up to the meeting.
Copyright: (C) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.cbc.ca/aboutcbc/discover/termsofuse.html
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