Inciting Libyan Government Officials to Defect Is Not the Solution

April 1, 2011

There is some misguided optimism among some Western leaders (especially Britain's David Cameron) that when high-ranking Libyan government officials desert the Gaddafi government, it will be weakened from within and not take long to collapse.

The expectation is that if the government collapses at the departure of these functionaries, Gaddafi will not have the capacity to govern Libya. 

In that sense, then, there will be no foundation for him to stand on and he will be easily plucked and dealt with. This mindset is fuelling frantic efforts to reach out to those allies of Gaddafi to impress on them the need to desert him as the International Coalition continues to destroy Libya's infrastructure and create needless panic among the citizens.

Regime change doesn't just happen that way, in any case. As spokesmen for the Libyan government have already made it clear, anybody who defects may have his own personal reasons for doing so. But such a departure will not create any vacuum in the government.

Appropriate replacements will fill the gap and keep the Gaddafi government in place and running. Anybody in government isn't indispensable, anyway.

Reports that Britain has held talks with 10 high-ranking Libyan government officials to impress on them the need to defect as a political strategy to weaken the Gaddafi government indicate that the lies put forward by the leaders of the UK, France, and the US, are gradually being revealed as a subtle strategy to deceive the international community that the actions of the International Coalition are not geared at removing Gaddafi from office.

They are bent on doing anything they can to remove Gaddafi from office.

If that's the case, then, we know that the military option is just the brazen version of the calculated effort at something ominous for Libya. The West wants to install in office a government of puppets that they are now collaborating with in Benghazi.

The so-called leaders of the rebellion are nothing but tools being sharpened for use if the ongoing manouevres succeed in toppling the Gaddafi government. 

After all, doesn't the West need allies in the Mediterranean region of Africa to obey NATO's command? For far too long, the Gaddafi challenge has tormented the West. His close ties with Russia reinforce the revulsion that the West has for him.

Using this rebellion against him as a stepping-stone, therefore, the West wants to grab every means (mostly the foul ones) to achieve their premeditated objective.

Knowing very well that they can't get rid of Gaddafi without corrupting those close to him, the West has launched a vicious propaganda targeting members of his government, hoping that they will snatch at the bait to denounce someone with whom they had worked and made or implemented decisions all these years. It was the outcome of some of those decisions that set off the rebellion.

So, why should Britain, particularly, be interested in isolating those government functionaries from their leader as if they deserve any preferential treatment? 

Already, one of them has fallen prey to that morbid deception. Britain may be rushing into celebrating the defection of Moussa Koussa, Libya's former Foreign Minister, only to realize that he is more of a liability than an asset to the Coalition in its bid to undermine the Gaddafi government.

From what has unfolded so far, it is clear that Moussa Koussa's decision to defect may hurt him more than any benefits he might have anticipated to prompt his action. He is weighed down by the dubious baggage that he is carrying.

Already, he is an object of interest to the security services of Britain, Scotland, and the United States for his connection with the terrorist acts that downed two planes (over Niger, killing 170 people; and Lockerbie, killing 270 people on board the PanAm airplane in 1988).

From what has come to light so far, Moussa Koussa hasn't been granted any immunity by Britain over such issues, meaning that he will either face prosecution as an accomplice in those deadly acts or be subjected to other forms of grilling.

In either case, Moussa Koussa seems to have jumped from the frying pan right into the center of the fire.

That's not the end of the road for him yet. The Libyan rebels are not willing to accept him as a comrade. They have already condemned him as culpable in any atrocities for which they are embittered against Gaddafi. To them, Moussa Koussa is no credible ally and must be made to face the full rigours of the law.

As the situation is now, he can't return to Libya and hope to be received with open arms by the pro-Gaddafi elements. They see him now as a traitor and will deal with him accordingly. Moussa Koussa is holed up in a tunnel and sees no light ahead to lead him to safety. 

Britain may want to tap every bit of intelligence from him for its own purposes but I doubt whether Moussa Koussa will be the tool that they need to demolish Gaddafi. It appears that the man is already suffering from serious health problems and has been written off by the Gaddafi government.

He may have more of his own personal worries to nag him henceforth than anything he might be presumed to be carrying over to assist the West in its desire to undo the Gaddafi government. Moussa Koussa has more questions to answer than the abracadabra that the West might perceive him to be.

All other Libyan government functionaries that are speculated to be contemplating defecting may have their own personal reasons for wanting to do anything of the sort. Some of them may be behaving like normal mortal human beings who (like Shakespeare's Duke Angelo in Measure for Measure) know that “death is a fearful thing.”

They may want to sneak out to live their lives, unlike those of Gaddafi's ilk who want to dig in and fight to death. 

To them, there is more dignity in defending the cause for which they have sacrificed everything and put their lives at risk all these years than obeying the voice of foreigners to desert one's homeland. Such people are not easily moved by the betrayal by their allies to do things in desperation.

They are calculating and determined to prove their resilience. In doing so, they cause much phenomenal havoc.

Notwithstanding such defections, therefore, the cracks in the Gaddafi government aren't so deep as to raise high hopes in anybody of the regime's imminent demise. The main issues that will bring Gaddafi down don't seem to reside in such defections.

That's the lesson the West has to learn and look for better opportunities to help Libya get back to its feet. 

At worst, they may choose to physically assassinate Gaddafi if that is what will put them into the deep and sound sleep that the Gaddafi phantom has denied them all these years.