Insider describes Gaddafi son's escape from town

Reuters ^ | October 26th 2011 | Maria Golovnina and Taha Zargoun

[Cardhu]

(Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam called his father frequently on the telephone and increasingly feared being hit by a mortar bomb as he tried to escape from the town of Bani Walid last week, an officer who had been with him told Reuters.

"He was nervous. He had a Thuraya (satellite phone) and he called his father many times," said al-Senussi Sharif al-Senussi, a lieutenant in Gaddafi's army who was part of Saif's security team in Bani Walid until the city fell on October 17.

"He repeated to us: don't tell anyone where I am. Don't let them spot me. He was afraid of mortars. He seemed confused."

Senussi spoke to Reuters at a makeshift jail inside Bani Walid's airport where he has been kept by forces loyal to Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) since his capture alongside other pro-Gaddafi troops last week.

Al-Senussi's identity was confirmed by Omar al Mukhtar, commander of anti-Gaddafi forces in northern Bani Walid whose brigade is in charge of the jail and the airport.

Saif al-Islam, a London-educated, fluent English speaker who was long seen as a Western-friendly face of Libya, is the only one of Gaddafi's sons still unaccounted for.

Mukhtar and Senussi, both of whom Reuters interviewed separately in Bani Walid on Tuesday, said Saif al-Islam slipped out of the city around the day it fell to anti-Gaddafi forces.

"When his convoy left Bani Walid it was hit by an air strike but he escaped alive," said Senussi, who is not related to Gaddafi's powerful former security chief, Abdullah al-Senussi.

NTC soldiers allowed Reuters to speak to him privately at the jail and did not listen to the conversation.

An NTC official told Reuters on Monday that Gaddafi's fugitive son was near Libya's borders with Niger and Algeria...

[Cardhu]

"Mukhtar, the commander, said: "I and my unit were chasing him on Oct 19. Then NATO struck his convoy. He was in an armored vehicle and survived and someone helped him to escape. We searched that area but we lost him there."

[ecomcon]

pNTC soldiers allowed Reuters to speak to him privately at the jail and did not listen to the conversation.

LOL. Reuters going all 007.

[treetopsandroofs]

I wonder how Thuraya stock is doing today.

They could run an ad with the photo of the son that got away touting how THEIR phone made it all possible.

Many years ago shortly after our kinetic military action in Panama, I came across a full page ad in some travel magazine with Noriaga’s face that said “Only one man can fly to the United States for less than $80.”

[silverleaf]

No wonder Saif is confused, wondering why all his upper class Brit friends from London School of Economics and the european chattering classes and govt ministries - who were happy to share his parties with $1000 bottles of champagne and expensive hookers- are now trying to kill him

[DemforBush]

Interestingly (or not), Saif al-Islam was a key figure in securing the release of Abdelhakim Belhadj, head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and later one of the rebel commanders who helped overthrow Qadaffi.

I would imagine that there has been the occasional second thought...

[ken5050]

If he was on a sat phone, the NSA was monitoring every call, and had his location pinpointed to within a few feet..

[bert]

That is an interesting comment. It makes one wonder why he is not dead.

It is reasonable to assume that for some reason, he is being spared, perhaps by the friends in question both in and out of Libya.

[Ernie Kaputnik]

“I would imagine that there has been the occasional second thought...”

I imagine that his father was having second thoughts, too after endorsing Obama, only to have Obama endorse the rebels when the fighting started. (He was probably thinking: “Shiite! I should have endorsed John McCain instead.”)

[silverleaf]

I suspect he is being “spared” because a great deal of gold is being paid to the desert tribal chiefs who are sheltering him out there in “tatooine-land”

I also suspect there are high-level British and other political figures who want to make sure Saif never survives to talk and reveal embarrassing connections.

[Lady Lucky]

It i$ rea$onable to a$$ume that for $ome rea$on, he i$ being $pared

Can't imagine why!

[spetznaz]

A seminal mistake. Confusing temporary alignment of interests for friendship - a mistake that has claimed many lives and led to the loss of sovereignty at times. Confusing temporary alignment of interests for genuine/crystallized friendship is the folly of kings since the dawn of ages. Whether it is costing Qaddafi his life and presidency, or the British finding the French assisting the American revolutionaries, the Afghan Mujahadeen transforming from anti-Soviet to anti-US, the Soviets getting shocked by the Nazis at the start of WW2, or McCain getting ‘mugged’ by Obama opting to do his own thing with campaign fundraising ...you name it ....confusing temporary alignment of interests with genuine/crystallized friendship has always been tricky at best and lethal at the other extreme.

[ecomcon]

LOL funny