LIBYA – NEWS/PICTURES – V

CIA sends teams to Libya; US considers rebel aid

http://news.yahoo.com/video/politics-15749652/24728855

Gadhafi: Leaders of airstrikes should go, not me – Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110401/ap_on_bi_ge/af_libya

TRIPOLI, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi struck a defiant stance Thursday after two high-profile defections from his regime, saying he’s not the one who should go — it’s the Western leaders who have decimated his military with airstrikes who should resign immediately.

Gadhafi’s message was undercut by its delivery — a scroll across the bottom of state TV as he remained out of sight. The White House said the strongman’s inner circle was clearly crumbling with the loss of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who flew from Tunisia to England on Wednesday………

“An injured wolf is much more dangerous than a healthy wolf. But we hope the defections continue and I think he’ll find himself with no one around him,” Gheriani said.

Most high-level Libyan officials are trying to defect but are under tight security and having difficulty leaving the country, said Ibrahim Dabbashi, the deputy ambassador in Libya’s U.N. mission, which now backs the opposition.

Koussa is privy to all the inner workings of the regime, so his departure could open the door for some hard intelligence, though Britain refused to offer him immunity from prosecution.

“Koussa is one of the pillars of Gadhafi’s regime since the 1970s,” said Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan Arab League representative who was among the first wave of Libyan diplomats to defect this month. “His defection means that he knew that the end of Gadhafi is coming and he wanted to jump from the sinking boat.”……..

Koussa is not the first high-ranking member of the regime to quit — the justice and interior ministers resigned early in the conflict and joined the rebellion based in the east. Koussa, however, is a close confidant of Gadhafi’s.

Koussa was Libya’s chief of intelligence for more than a decade. The opposition blames him for the assassinations of dissidents in western capitals and for orchestrating the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland and the bombing of another jet over Niger a year later. The links have never been confirmed.

In later years, however, Koussa played an important role in persuading Western nations to lift sanctions on Libya and remove its name from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. He led settlements of Lockerbie, offered all information about Libya’s nuclear program and gave London and Washington information about Islamic militants after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa, pictured – Yahoo! News Photos

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