Wednesday May 11th 2011 Gaddafi comes to one of the most safe places for him now-a-days the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli where most of the international journalists accredited by the Libyan Government are staying, though they are having dinner elsewhere in the hotel and know nothing about this meeting of Gaddafi and a whole parade of Libyan tribal leaders that come to him one by one and shake his hand, all the while being photographed as loyal chiefs. On a screen in the room a program of Libyan state television is projected in the background so the date and time of the meeting is documented. The video of this broadcast by Libyan State Television can be seen at YouTube under the title: “Gaddafi Live on Libya State TV May 11 – NATO Assassination Attempt Fails Again !” The video is not subtitled and not translated. It leaves the non Arabic speaking with only the body language of those acting out this scene.
It looks to me very much like a farewell meeting with someone who is going to die soon, knowing his day are counted.
I look in some old archives with different spellings of his name: Khadaffi, Qadhafi and see a young man right after having taken power in 1969: with sparkling open eyes and a smile, looking ahead. Gaddafi has been born – it says – in a Berber tent in 1942, where will he die and how, nobody can look into his eyes anymore to find the answer…
The Guardian of Friday May 13th. uses a subheading about the Gaddafi unexpected meeting: “Gaddafi sneaks into hotel.” I reacted with the following short lines:
In spite of a most common felt disgust for Gaddafi which I share, I do not like the suggestive language of your reporting “sneaks.” The Rixus Hotel is one of the safest places for Gaddafi in his country as long as a part of the foreign accredited press resides there. As he has been constantly been targeted, in spite of whatever blunt denials by NATO spokesmen, it makes good sense that he uses the relative safety of this place. We do not need to paint a black sheep black.
the limping messenger 