The leading rebel group delays transferring from Benghazi to Tripoli because Qaddafi loyalists are still fighting there. He is regrouping his forces for the next act of the Qaddafi drama.

The US and NATO claim that Muammar Qaddafi's chemical weapons stockpile is secure but this is not borne out by the facts. He almost certainly replenished his old stocks with purchases on the black market. The quantities stocked by Bashar Assad are far greater and he would have less inhibitions about ...

Although he spent four decades preparing for an enemy to oust him, Qaddafi missed a key trick: Wholesale CIA bribes for his Tripoli commanders to abandon the defenses of the city and his Bab al-Aziziya stronghold as the Western-led rebels advanced. By this trick, US troops also captured Baghdad.

Muammar Qaddafi, family and elite are reported by debkafile's military sources to have abandoned their Bab al Aziziya fortress early Tuesday, Aug. 23, using Saif al-Islam's surreal appearance before foreign reporters earlier in the day to cover their escape. They are believed to have exited the compound through one of the underground tunnels of the compound's military complex. But regional intelligence experts are frankly baffled by the enigma of the overnight disappearance without a trace of Qaddafi's army divisions. 

In an extraordinary turnabout in the Tripoli standoff between West-backed Libyan rebels and Muammar Qaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam turned up with cheering crowds at the Rixos hotel early Tuesday, Aug. 23, and told foreign reporters he was never captured as widely reported. "We are winning,"he said.
His detention was not only reported by the rebels but "confirmed" embarrassingly by the International Criminal Court's prosecutors. "The rebels fell into a trap," said Saif.

NATO is reverting to its "shock and awe" plan to finally bomb Muammar Qaddafi out of power, although nothing is known about Washington's position or participation. The rebels are already rejoicing and boasting about fictitious victories.

Twelve hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned Assad he faced a "sad fate" if he failed to introduce reforms, Moscow's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin accused the Western alliance of planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the Assad regime "with the long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran."
In an Izvestia interview Friday, Aug. 5, Rogozin added: "This statement means that the planning [of the military campaign] is well underway."

An al Qaeda branch known as the Al-jamaa Al-islamiya Al-Mokatila is widely believed to be closely associated with rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil and suspected of murdering the rebel commander Maj. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Younis on his behalf. This confirms Muammar Qaddafi's long-held allegations that al Qaeda is part of ...

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe persuaded the Cameron government climb down from its high Libyan horse and accept that diplomacy is the only sensible option for ending the war. The UK is in no position to dictate terms to Muammar Qaddafi. NATO objects to being left holding the baby.

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, a vegetable grower, described as a "Conservative nationalist" and admirer of Churchill, Kant and Plato, is in Norwegian policy custody, accused of bombing government buildings in central Oslo and killing seven people, Friday, July 22, then 90 minutes later, killing 85 teens aged 13-16. He shot some with an automatic weapon; others jumped into the water and their bodies were later recovered. 

The theory is gaining ground on both sides of the Atlantic that the phone hacking scandal besetting Rupert Murdoch's London media is really aimed at infecting his mass media in the US and toning down their anti-Obama slant in the coming presidential election. British premier David Cameron takes serious ...

Mikhail Margelov is the first Russian diplomat ever named to perform a shared mission for the Russian, US and German governments. An Arabist with fluent English, he will be acting on their behalf in the Libyan and Syrian crises after helping to ease tensions in Sudan.

In its coming issue out Friday, DEBKA-Net-Weekly analyzes expectations from the negotiations already afoot (amid violence and setbacks) between Muammar Qaddafi, on one side, and the US, Russia, NATO and the rebels, on the other. Still in control of Libya's army, biggest tribes, cities and oil, Qaddafi will loom large over Libya's future - even after he steps down.
The stalling of the Arab Revolt's spread obliges the US, Britain and France to reassess their Middle East positions.

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As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday, July 15, informed the Libya Contact Group in Istanbul that the US recognized the rebel National Transitional Council (TNC) "until a fully representational interim government can be established," Muammar Qaddafi declared "We aim for victory – not compromise!" and launched his troops on a new operation against rebels in the west. His object was to improve his bargaining position in peace negotiations debkafile reports are underway with the US through Moscow.

Obama's acceptance of the Russian-Libyan formula opens the way for ending the Libyan war by Muammar Qaddafi's departure from power – not the country – making way for transition administration and elections. His sons and loyalists will run for office. The format for Syria expels Bashar Assad and all ...

The Libyan war virtually ended Thursday morning, July 14, when US President Barack Obama called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to hand Moscow the lead in peace negotiations for Muammar Qaddafi to step down and make way for a transitional administration. He thereby accepted the Russian-Libyan peace formula over NATO's heads. Instead of standing in the dock in The Hague, Qaddafi and his sons will sit at talks for Libya's next regime.

Hamas complains about the Israeli and Egyptian blockades. However, four days ago, the Gaza Strip's Palestinian rulers began building fortifications to block its western boundary with Egyptian Sinai, debkafile reports. They are concerned by the spillover of post-revolutionary chaos from Egypt and Sinai and the new influx of fighters and smugglers from Libya and al Qaeda-linked Sinai Bedouin, both of which have gone into the smuggling tunnel business on their own account and are causing mayhem.

Wednesday, July 6, the Palestinian Authority notified the Obama administration that early next week it would file a request with the UN Security Council for admission to the UN as a full member recognized as an independent state within the 1967 borders. But debkafile reports the US got in first, having agreed with European powers and Russia to have the request put on ice by the Security Council consenting to discuss it behind closed doors - without setting a date.

Libyan Ruler Muammar Qaddafi's threat to "throw ourselves on Europe like swarms of locusts or bees" to attack "your homes, your offices, your families" may be meant to scare NATO off its coming all-out offensive to kill or oust him – or may be for real. If forced to quit, debkafile reports he could seek asylum with friendly African Sahel tribes like the al Qaeda-linked Tuareg, which also provide him with mercenaries. From there, he could orchestrate a campaign of terror.

Only two Arab autocrats have succumbed to six popular uprisings: four have survived. NATO's score in Libya is zero to one as Europe's war sustainability is hit by the falling euro Two countries are in the grip of civil war and two undergoing partition. Yet Barack Obama is grimly ...