Tripoli (Libya), Aug.4 (ANI): Cornered Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi's son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, has revealed that he is reversing course to forge a behind-the-scenes alliance with radical Islamist elements among Libyan rebels to drive out their more liberal-minded confederates.
"The liberals will escape or be killed. We will do it together," Seif Qaddafi vowed in an hour-long interview that stretched past midnight.
The New York Times further quoted him, as saying: "Libya will look like Saudi Arabia, like Iran. So what?"
The leading Islamist whom Mr. Qaddafi identified as his main counterpart in the talks, Ali Sallabi, acknowledged their conversations but dismissed any suggestion of an alliance.
He said the Libyan Islamists supported the rebel leaders' calls for a pluralistic democracy without the Qaddafis.
But the interview nonetheless offered a rare glimpse into the defiant, some say delusional, mentality of the Qaddafi family at a time when they have all but completely retreated from public view under the threat of a NATO bombing campaign, now five months old, and a six-month rebellion.
On one level, Qaddafi's avowed embrace of the Islamists represents a sharp personal reversal for a man who had long styled himself as a cosmopolitan, Anglophile advocate of Western-style liberal democracy.
He continues to refer to the Islamists as "terrorists" and "bloody men," and says, "We don't trust them, but we have to deal with them."
But it may also be simply a twist on an old theme, a new version of the Qaddafi argument that by assisting the rebels the Western intervention could usher in a radical Islamist takeover.
In a further taunt to the West, he suggested that the Qaddafis would even help the Islamists stamp out the liberals.
Rebel leaders and Western governments have long acknowledged the presence of Islamists among the rebel fighters, including at least one who was previously imprisoned at Guant namo Bay, Cuba, and another believed to have been in Afghanistan when Al Qaeda ran training camps under Taliban rule.
But Western governments have so far accepted the Libyan Islamists' pledges of support for a pluralistic democracy after the ouster of Colonel Qaddafi, concluding that their agenda is purely domestic and poses no broader threat. (ANI)
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