Reply #52: I was just reading an article about that

[Catherina]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/world/africa/11clapper.html?_r=1&hp

U.S. Intelligence Chief Says Qaddafi Has Edge in Conflict
By MARK MAZZETTI and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: March 10, 2011

WASHINGTON — One week after President Obama demanded that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi cede power in Libya, the president’s top intelligence official predicted on Thursday, “over the longer term, that the regime will prevail” in Libya’s civil war, an assessment that cast significant doubt on efforts so far by the NATO allies to drive him from power.

...

In his testimony, Mr. Clapper said that the rebel groups were “in for a tough row, because a very important consideration here for the regime is that, by design, Qaddafi intentionally designed the military so that those select units loyal to him are the most luxuriously equipped and the best-trained.” Dismissing the idea that the Libyan leader would step down the way the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia did, he added: “We believe that Qaddafi is in this for the long haul. He appears to be hunkering down for the duration.”

In Brussels, top representatives to NATO on Thursday were debating whether to impose a no-flight zone in the country, an idea that might lose support if European governments think that American spy agencies believe Colonel Qaddafi is likely to defeat the rebels.
...


Some of his public comments in recent months have raised eyebrows in the White House. Last month, his office issued a clarification after Mr. Clapper told the House Intelligence Committee that the Muslim Brotherhood, a force in the tensions coursing through Egypt, was “largely secular.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/world/africa/11clapper.html?_r=1&hp