Tripoli In Crisis After Defections

The New York Times reports:

TRIPOLI, Libya — Anxiety seized the Qaddafi government on Thursday over the second defection in two days of a senior official close to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, stirring talk of others to follow and a crackdown to stop them.

And, on Friday British news reports on the BBC and in The Guardian newspaper said Mohammed Ismail, a senior aide to one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, had traveled to London for talks with British officials in recent days. But there was no immediate confirmation of those reports. A Foreign Office spokesman, who spoke in return for anonymity under departmental procedures, said: “We are not going to provide a running commentary on our contact with Libyan officials.”

As rebels challenging pro-Qaddafi forces struggled to regroup around the oil port of Brega, and the roar of allied warplanes was heard again over the capital, residents reacted in shock at the defection of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, a close ally of Colonel Qaddafi’s since the early days of the revolution, who once earned the nickname “envoy of death” for his role in the assassinations of earlier Libyan defectors.

And then came the defection to Egypt of another senior official, Ali Abdussalam el-Treki, a former foreign minister and a former United Nations ambassador who had worked closely with Colonel Qaddafi for decades.

Soon rumors swirled of a cascade of high-level defections. The pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera reported without confirmation that the intelligence chief and the speaker of Parliament had fled to Tunisia. Other rumors, like the exit of the oil minister, were quickly shot down. But taking no chances, Libyan officials posted guards to prevent any other officials from leaving the country, two former officials said.

The defections and ensuing speculation underscored the increasing tension in the capital as allied air strikes crippled the military machine that Colonel Qaddafi deployed almost exclusively as a bulwark against his own population. Even though the rebels were retreating in the east, allied airstrikes showed no sign of relenting, fuel shortages were worsening, and Qaddafi loyalists were talking increasingly openly about the possibility of the leader’s own exit.

Western leaders hailed Mr. Koussa’s departure, in particular, as a turning point. “Moussa Koussa’s decision shows which way the wind is blowing in Tripoli,” said Tommy Vietor, a national security spokesman at the White House.

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