The Guardian
US says Gaddafi is 'delusional' and unfit to lead
Libyan leader 'disconnected from reality', says US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice
By Ben Quinn and Haroon Siddique
Muammar Gaddafi was labelled "delusional" by the US ambassador to the UN, after he laughed off suggestions that he should go into exile and insisted that he had the support of the Libyan people.
The dictator's defiance came as the prospects of western military power being used against him moved closer. The US deployed naval and air force units around the country and Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, ordered contingency plans for a no-fly zone.
The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, also criticised Gaddafi as "unfit to lead" and "disconnected from reality" after the Libyan leader, speaking to news organisations including the BBC, mocked his opponents. "All my people love me. They would die to protect me," he said. Gaddafi laughed when asked if he would step down.
"As if anyone would leave their homeland," he replied, accusing western leaders of betrayal and of having "no morals".
Gaddafi's remarks were met with derision in Washington. Rice said his assertion that his regime is not using force against its own people was "delusional" and that his behaviour, which has included laughing on camera in interviews, "underscores how unfit he is to lead and how disconnected he is from reality". The defiance shown by Gaddafi in the interview appeared to be mirrored by actions on the ground with reports of the Libyan military launching counterattacks against cities held by the rebels. Libyan air force jets bombed an ammunition depot in the rebel-held city of Ajdabiya, 160km south of Benghazi, while a resident told the Associated Press there was fighting in Az Zawiyah, 30 miles west of Tripoli. Al-Arabiya TV reported a build-up of forces loyal to Gaddafi near the Tunisian border on Tuesday.
As the west stepped up its response to the crisis in Libya, Cameron suggested the UK might even consider arming the Libyan opposition forces if Tripoli used more violence to crush demonstrations. Officials said that the support of US and British armed forces might also be required to protect corridors to channel humanitarian relief into Libya through Tunisia and Egypt, if further conflict brought about a mass displacement of the population and a collapse in the food supply. During the interview, Gaddafi challenged Cameron, who has accused him of having money abroad, to produce "one shred" of evidence that the Libyan leader had any money in the UK.
The Libyan leader also insisted he had no official position from which he could resign: "It's honorary. It has nothing to do with exercising power or authority."
"In Britain who has the power, is it Queen Elizabeth or is it David Cameron?" he asked.
Throughout the interview, conducted at a Tripoli restaurant overlooking a port on the Mediterranean coast, Gaddafi appeared to be in denial about the strength of the uprising against his 41-year rule that has ended his control over eastern Libya and is closing in on Tripoli itself.
Sometimes breaking into English from Arabic, he repeated claims that al-Qaida was behind the uprising, and said that young people involved in it had been given drugs, which were now beginning to wear off.
"I'm surprised that we have an alliance with the west to fight al-Qaida, and now that we are fighting terrorists they have abandoned us," Gaddafi told his interviewers from ABC News, the BBC and the Sunday Times. "Perhaps they want to occupy Libya."
Gaddafi described Barack Obama as a "good man" but said he appeared misinformed about the situation in Libya.
"The statements I have heard from [Obama] must have come from someone else," Gaddafi said. "America is not the international police of the world."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/01/us-says-gaddafi-delusional-unfit-to-lead
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