will write a full note on this tomorrow…
As usual, something odd about these stories… Al sunessi (the intel chief) captured a day after, reports of him being “surrounded” and Reuters reporters already being on the plane to escort him back…
of course the worthless media articles calling him a coward for surrendering quickly spread… not considering the particulars of the situation… you can’t also fight back, and also pretend to be a camel herder trying to get passed checkpoints to make it to the border… etc (not to mentio reports show he right hand was heavily damaged from a NATO air strike, and that he was quickly surrounded by 15 armed men while he as unarmed)… but the make up wearing news pundits are quick to call everyone except our enemies cowards. I wonder how they would fare in the desert with an AK.
Anyway… Zintan fighters seem hoborable, they are also fighting the mob of Misrata and others in recent days, and are berbers (who care cool).. they treated him well, and all the previous talk of him negotiating a surrender so maybe just maybe this is some sort of plot by Saif. He needs to get to communications, computers, internet, phones etc to access his money (not to mention medical attention) and he may have been in a bad situation in the desert. The zintan fighters don’t seem to be in a hurry to hand over to anyone, so it could have been deal from the start or it could maybe turn into a deal as he gets to talk to the leaders there…
I hope its not the last we hear of him, hope he isnt executed after a cirus trial… the rebel council which so much pressured other countries to abide by their ICC obligations were only too quick to deny that they will, as they wish to try him and senussin in libya. Saif did a lot for a young man, who grew up with all the comforts of money, was loyal to his father in the face of an entire world bearing down on him and one of the honorable fighters who caputred him said this in contrast to the makeup pundits … that how brave and calm he was during and after the capture impressed him.
There is also reports of his fingers being amputed, so who knows, maybe it was a deal, maybe not, maybe it turns into one. Saif had an impressive run, as his second letter stated, he could not betray his father, he did what a patriot had to do.
Come to think of it…Senussi is being held by Sabha militia (which were usually pro Qadaffi) and Zintan is refusing to hand Saif over to any authority, even the rebel council in tripoli… I think a few hundred million dollars, might buy saif his freedom after getting the medical attention he needs, and senussi might not be captured at all… which is typical of the ntc’s consistent lies which the media always reports as fact, as if they had never lied, and then the internet does the job of replicating the lie an infinite amount of time.