Seif Gadhafi: Attack on Libya Just Like WMDs, Iraq

Moammar Gadhafi's second son was supposed to bring reform to Libya. But now Seif al-Islam Gadhafi is defiant, insisting Gadhafi's forces have not killed any civilians, and vowing to put down the rebel uprising. In his view, the opposition is made up entirely of terrorists led by al-Qaeda, and he compares the so-called rumors of civilian deaths to the reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: “It’s exactly like the WMD,” he tells the Washington Post. “WMD, WMD, WMD, go and attack Iraq. Civilians, civilians, civilians, go and attack Libya. It’s the same thing.”

In fact, he invites the US and Human Rights Watch to come into Libya and "find out exactly what happened," he says. "We are not afraid of the International Criminal Court. We are confident and sure that we didn’t commit any crime against our people." He adds that the US should be helping Libya remove al-Qaeda from Benghazi, and after that his father can be moved into a "symbolic" role so that Libya can talk of democracy. As for Obama, "Nobody in the Middle East, and especially in Libya, thought that one day President Obama will attack Libya or an Arabic country. It was a big shock, a big shock for everybody, even for my father." Meanwhile, after mounting a new offensive on Ajdabiya yesterday, Gadhafi's forces are today shelling Misrata, the sole rebel stronghold in the west. (More Libya stories.)