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Skepticism Remains about Reports of Deaths in Gaddafi Family

Posted: May 1, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Libya, MENA, U.S. Military, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , |14 Comments

Media sources are still reporting the supposed deaths of Saif al-Arab and three of Muammar Gaddafi’s grandchildren in quotation marks. As yet, there has been no independent confirmation that these deaths actually took place. Al Jazeera reports that “skepticism surrounds” the reports from Libya.

Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton, reporting from Benghazi, said there were “an awful lot” of suggestions in Libya that the news of the deaths could be fabricated.

“One of the main spokesmen for the Transitional National Council, Abdul Hafez Goga, is saying he thinks it could all be fabrication, that it may well be Gaddafi is trying to garner some sympathy,” she said.

“Back in 1986, Gaddafi once claimed that Ronald Reagan, then US president, had launched a strike on his compound in Tripoli and killed his daughter. Many journalists since then dug around and found out that the actual child that had died had nothing to do with Gaddafi, that he sort of adopted her posthumously.”

Supposedly Muammar Gaddafi and his wife were in his youngest son’s compound when it was bombed. Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibriham took “journalists to the remnants of a house in Tripoli, which Libyan officials said had been hit by at least three missiles. It appeared unlikely anyone inside could have survived.”

Then how did Gaddafi and his wife survive? And how do we know that the house belonged to Gaddafi’s son? None of this has been confirmed. Why?

From Bloomberg:

The U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization declined to confirm that Muammar Qaddafi’s youngest son, Saif al-Arab, and three grandchildren were killed in an allied air strike on a house in Tripoli, an assertion made by a Libyan official earlier today.

“We do not” have confirmation of his death “and I’m not sure exactly what the situation was,” Senator John McCain of Arizona, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said today on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. The U.S. State Department referred inquiries to NATO.

“No confirmation from NATO,” Chris Riley, a NATO spokesman in Brussels, said in an e-mail.

Nato also denies deliberately trying to kill anyone in the Gaddafi family. From the Guardian

“All Nato’s targets are military in nature and have been clearly linked to the Gaddafi regime’s systematic attacks on the Libyan population and populated areas. We do not target individuals,” said Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, the Canadian officer commanding the military operations in Libya from Naples.

And this was just posted on Twitter:

The claim that Muammar Qaddafi’s three grandchildren were killed in an airstrike conducted by NATO late Saturday is not true, an Al Arabiya source has revealed. A source close to the Qaddafi family has confirmed the death of Colonel Qaddafi’s youngest son, Saif al-Arab, in the airstrike but has denied the story that Mr. Qaddafi’s three grandsons were killed.

But the article notes:

Colonel Qaddafi has been known to sire a great many children, and no reliable count exists. News sources have said that his personal life is very colorful. Female foreign correspondents that have interviewed Mr. Qaddafi over the years have reported that he would frequently offer them demonstrations of his sexual prowess.

Mr. Qaddafi’s announcements concerning the alleged deaths of family members at the hands of foreign powers sometimes do not hold up to subsequent scrutiny….

Libyans generally do not trust this sort of information anymore, a source close to the Qaddafi family said to Al Arabiya.

Revising history about his family members is something that has happened before as far as Colonel Qaddafi is concerned.

So what is the real truth and why is it taking so long for it to be revealed?

14 Comments on “Skepticism Remains about Reports of Deaths in Gaddafi Family”

  1. bostonboomer says:
    May 1, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    Michelle Bachman claims NATO killed 30,000 civilians in Libya

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/01/bachmann-claims-nato-killed-30000-civilians-in-libya/

  2. bostonboomer says:
    May 1, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    Rebels in Benghazi don’t believe reports of Son’s, Grandchildren’s deaths.

    The Libyan rebel capital Benghazi was rocked by sustained gunfire and explosions overnight as fighters celebrated reports that Seif al-Arab, a son of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, died.

    But by early Sunday doubts about the truth of the report crept in, quelling the joyful mood, as it was suspected that news of Seif al-Arab’s death in a NATO air strike was propaganda from the Tripoli regime.

    “I don’t believe it because it was told by the Libyan TV,” said Waleed Mohammed, 34, a policeman.

    He added that if the news were true it would “not make the war finish early because Gaddafi is a crazy man,” and “even if all his family were dead, he won’t give up. Not until he dies.”

    • bostonboomer says:
      May 1, 2011 at 3:11 pm

      “Gaddafi has said Seif is dead… so where is the body? Show us the body,” said Alaa al-Obeidi, a producer for the Qatar-based channel Libya al-Ahrar.

      “Personally, I don’t think he is dead. He will get new IDs and passports to leave the country and go live in Africa, probably Uganda, which has good ties with Gaddafi,” he added.

      “Gaddafi is trying to milk NATO air strikes on military facilities to say they are trying to assassinate him,” said Jalal al-Gallal, who serves on the media committee of the Benghazi-based TNC.

      “But the truth is, the news cannot verified. There is no evidence, it is all hearsay,” Gallal said, adding “if it is true, I hope Gaddafi will see the light and leave Libya to put an end to this bloodshed.”

  3. Dario says:
    May 1, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    I think that if those who died were not members of the Gaddafi family, NATO has made an even bigger mistake.

    • bostonboomer says:
      May 1, 2011 at 7:07 pm

      How do you know anyone died?

      • Dario says:
        May 1, 2011 at 8:56 pm

        The dead were taken to the morgue in Tripoli after the bombing and three of the bodies were children. People died. That’s all I know. The bodies were too damaged to be identifiable.

  4. Dario says:
    May 1, 2011 at 9:03 pm

    Here is a link of many available that speak of the dead being taken to the morgue after the NATO attack. People who die from bombing are visibly disfigured.

    CBS

    Eleven dead had reached the hospital morgue by midnight, including two brothers, ages 11 and 16. Two more had arrived by 1:30 a.m., and four more at another hospital.

  5. Dario says:
    May 1, 2011 at 9:15 pm

    Canadian Press Online

    Dr. Gerard Le Clouerec, a French orthopedic surgeon who runs a private clinic in Tripoli, inspected the bodies of an adult and two infants at Tripoli’s Green Hospital on Sunday.
    He told reporters that the adult’s face was intact and that “in relation to a photo we have seen most probably was the son of Gadhafi.” He said the adult had a thin moustache and a full beard.
    The two children had been badly disfigured, the doctor said.

    • bostonboomer says:
      May 1, 2011 at 9:57 pm

      If one of Gaddafi’s hundreds of sons has died, that is too bad. I wonder if you are as concerned about the vastly greater numbers of civilians who have been killed by Gaddafi’s forces? What about the thousands of people whom Gaddafi has had raped, tortured, and killed in his prisons?

      But no, NATO has made the mistake…

  6. TheRock says:
    May 1, 2011 at 10:00 pm

    CNN is reporting that Bin Laden is dead. Any truth to that?

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