Trapping Gaddafi

"French intelligence played a direct role in the death of Gaddafi, including his killing.
"They gave directions that he was to be apprehended, but they didn't care if he was bloodied or beaten up as long as he was delivered alive."
Rami El Obeidi, former senior Tripoli intelligence official
"In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime - which is what happened."

<sub>A National Transitional Council (NTC) fighter holds a picture of the Libyan fallen leader Muammar Al Gaddafi

Thanks to French spies in Sirte a trap was set for Muammar Gaddafi.  His satellite telephone number was requested of the Syrians and they saw fit to divulge that number to the French.  As fellow MidEast tyrants, Gaddafi and Syria's Bashard al-Assad had much in common, comrades-in-arms, but not to the last.  And just as President al-Assad saw fit to betray Colonel Gaddafi, so do the rebels in Syria now profit by the support of the former Libyan rebels.

A simple enough exchange; in order to divert world attention from his own problems in Syria, al-Assad offered Paris the telephone number they sought and the French eased pressure on Damascus.  That's the story as Rami El Obeidi tells it.  And since former French President Nicolas Sarkozi enjoyed a lead role with NATO defending the Libyan tribal rebels, it suited his purpose to pressure al-Assad for the greater glory of France.

M. El Obeidi should know of what he speaks, after all, having been the head of foreign intelligence representing the movement that succeeded in overthrowing Gaddafi.  According to the former transitional ruling alliance it just simply happened that an RAF reconnaissance plane flew over a large convoy of vehicles fleeing Sirte, months after Gaddafi left Tripoli, a wanted fugitive.

Those warplanes bombed the convoy ostensibly unaware that Gaddafi was travelling with it.  And as matters unfolded, figures sprinting from the bombed-out vehicles, desperately sheltering themselves under a drainpipe were discovered by militia fighters who just happened to be on the scene.  Taking matters from there, they intercepted the former dictator and a good time was had by all but the target as befits the actions of tribal enemies.

Mr. Obeidi claims, from his vantage point of having been involved in the situation, that France had laid out a plan for an operation, directing Libyan militiamen to the spot where they meant an ambush to succeed.  Gaddafi's convoy was intercepted, bombed, and the man dislodged into the eagerly waiting arms of his enemies.  Who, extracting maximum revenge, treated the man to an exchange of bloody formalities geared to invite death as a haven from further torture.

This imaginative scenario deconstructing an event that brought a convulsive end to a dictator's rule, has not been confirmed, nor has it been denied by a spokesman at the French foreign ministry.</sub>