Ama kweli kwenye siasa hakuna uaminifu!
Koussa among defectors 'helping Nato bomb secret Gaddafi sites'
Martin Chulov in Tripoli, and Richard Norton-Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 May 2011 20.18 BST
Gaddafi ex-loyalist is black box of regime, say Libyan officials as UK military calls for more air strikes despite deadly hostel hit
Libyan mourners carry coffins during the funeral for nine of 11 clerics allegedly killed in a Nato air strike on Friday. Photograph: Darko Bandic/AP
A network of Libyan defectors, including the former regime stalwart Moussa Koussa, are helping Nato to destroy Muammar Gaddafi's military sites, including bunker complexes from which much of the war has been run, according to senior officials in Libya.
Nato planners have stepped up their operations over the capital, Tripoli, and the western mountains in recent days, despite a strike on the eastern city of Brega early on Friday that killed up to 11 people, many of them Islamic clerics.
But British defence chiefs are applying pressure on other Nato countries to escalate the bombing campaign against Gaddafi amid deepening concerns that military action will end in stalemate.
Nearly two months since the start of air strikes, they fear divisions within Nato and at the UN will lead to fewer sorties just at a time when, they claim, the regime is starting to feel the pinch and even its core support showing signs of cracking.
Despite almost nightly air strikes, and increasing numbers of daylight attacks on the outskirts of Tripoli, the capital remains under regime control. The city is free of checkpoints and any opposition elements are maintaining a low profile. Discontent – for now – seems directed at France, Britain and Italy, whom residents blame for a critical fuel shortage.
But there is growing anger towards former regime loyalists, first among them Koussa, who defected to Britain in early April after more than 30 years as Gaddafi's most trusted henchman.
The former foreign minister and intelligence chief is understood to have passed on "invaluable" details of the dictator's police state, including the precise location of the regime's most sensitive sites.
"He was the 'black box' of the regime," said an unnamed official who worked with Koussa.
"I was with him the day before he left and nobody knew that he was going to do that. Why did he do it? I'd say he must have been emotionally weak. Things must have got to him."
After spending a month in Britain, Koussa is now in Qatar, from where he is believed to be helping Nato map targets.
The Guardian