A chip off the old block: Gaddafi's son 'caught on video urging loyalists to sacrifice themselves until the last bullet'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:54 AM on 1st March 2011

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Colonel Gaddafi's son has been caught on video brandishing a semi-automatic rifle in the air and urging paramilitaries to sacrifice themselves until 'the last bullet'.
The chilling footage, shot in Tripoli at the weekend, makes a mockery of London School of Economics-educated Saif Al-Islam's claims he can reform Libya following 42 years of rule by his tyrant father.
Rather than looking like a moderate reformer, the 38-year-old looks like a 'rabble-rousing gangster', according to a pro-democracy protester who leaked the video after recording it on his mobile phone.

Defiant: Video footage apparently shows Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam brandishing a rifle and calling on supporters to fight 'to the last bullet'

Over the weekend, Saif gave a TV interview in which he said: 'Everything is calm. Everything is peaceful.
'The point is there's a big gap between reality and the media reports.'

 

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The second son of the dictator appeared relaxed as he spoke about reforms for ensuring a peaceful future.
But the unauthorised video paints a very different picture. It shows Saif standing on the roof of a 4x4, dressed in a black bomber jacket and holding the rifle in his left hand.

'Moderate': Saif has claimed Tripoli was peaceful in TV interviews and the scale of the violence was exaggerated

Addressing armed supporters near Green Square, in the centre of Tripoli, he shouts: 'Brothers, God willing keep the spirits high.
'Rumours are emanating from enemy forces saying that the police fled. Today we'll show them that the police are with Libya.
'We have the means, the equipment, the weapons, we're fine. It's your homeland. Don't lose it.
'Those against you are nothing - they're b******s.'
Towards the end of his address, Saif swings his gun in the air and urges them to 'fight until the last minute, until the last bullet'.
A source who helped to get the video out of Libya said Saif's men were like gangsters.
They said: 'Saif pretends to be an intellectual and a moderate, but he is a rabble-rousing thug just like his father.'
Saif has been considered Gaddafi's heir apparent since declaring in 2002 that Libya's future was: 'First thing democracy, second thing democracy, third thing democracy.'
He completed a doctorate at the LSE in 2008. He met former Labour trade minister Peter Mandelson at a Corfu villa the week before it was announced that the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi would be released from a Scottish prison.

Defiant: A rebel stands in the vandalised former bedroom used by Colonel Gaddafi at Benghazi airport

Clashes: Soldiers from the elite Khamis Brigade - led by Gaddafi's youngest son Khamis, check vehicles near Zawiya

Prince Andrew has also invited Saif as a guest to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle and the two men have also met in Tripoli.
He also regularly boasts that Tony Blair is a 'good friend' and they have met when Mr Blair was Prime Minister.
Last Friday, Saif told journalists in Tripoli: 'If you hear fireworks, don't mistake it for shooting.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361549/Libya-protests-Gaddafis-son-Saif-al-Islam-video-urging-loyalists-sacrifice-themselves.html#ixzz1FRAiHIY9