Reply #45: Gaddafi's sons show psychological warfare is not all on the western side

[pinboy3niner]

Source: The Guardian

Gaddafi's sons show psychological warfare is not all on the western side


Whitehall says the brothers may be ready to abandon their father - but their 'war of nerves' suggests otherwise


Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 April 2011 21.30 BST


As the Libya conflict enters its third month, Whitehall is full of whispered talk of secret defections and cloak-and-dagger deals with more "reasonable" elements within the much-weakened Tripoli regime. The embattled sons of Muammar Gaddafi are looking for a way out, and may even be prepared to dump their father to save their own skins – or so the grapevine has it.

...


The revamped approach apparently scored a big success this week with the defection of Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi's foreign minister. But two can play at this game. Gaddafi's most prominent sons, Saif al-Islam and Mutassim, the national security adviser, were also waging their own "war of nerves", the sources said. They appeared to be calculating that the Nato-led coalition will run out of time, split apart, and forfeit crucial Arab and domestic support.

Far from genuinely looking for a solution, the brothers' strategy comprises unofficial "back door" offers of time-consuming talks, floating vague ideas of an "honourable" exit for their father, and impracticable suggestions that they could help form a unity government, the sources suggested.

...


"It may also be an attempt to divide the coalition and knock out the Arab countries. The Arabs are hardly involved already. What the regime is saying to the Arab world is that there could be a reasonable deal on the table and the west won't take it. They want to turn the conflict into the west versus the Arabs."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/01/libya-muammar-gaddafi-defections-sons