Information War Rages Over Libya

While media reports show celebrations on Green Square in Tripoli over the apparent imminent downfall of Gadhafi, it is still not clear who in fact is in control of the Libyan capital. Amidst the confusion, a full-blown media and information war has erupted.

While Al-Jazeera reported only ”sporadic fighting” in Tripoli on Monday with snipers and artillery fire, with some ”pockets of resistance,” other media and independent reporters are painting a different picture.

According to unconfirmed reports by freelancer Lizzie Phelan in Tripoli, reporting for the state funded Russian news channel Russia Today (RT) on Sunday, Gadhafi may still be exercising some extent of control. One theory making the rounds—the source for which is unclear—is that letting the rebels into Tripoli may have been a conscious, last-stand military strategy by Gadhafi. RT also reported that the rebels confirmed that Gadhafi loyalists still hold 15-20 percent of the city.

The apparently pro-Gadhafi Facebook page called ”Libya liberal youth to publish the facts for Libya tomorrow” claimed on Monday that media reports about Green Square (renamed ”Martyr Square” by the rebels) is still under the control of the Libyan army.

The page also claimed that Gadhafi’s son, Saif al-Islam was in the port coordinating defenses. This seemed highly unlikely at first, since the ICC confirmed rebel reports that he had been apprehended on Sunday. However, on Monday evening, CNN reporter Matthew Chance confirmed that he had actually met and talked to Saif al-Islam outside the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli.

More outlandish and unconfirmed reports by an anonymous source were published by Russian news site Argumenti. This indicated that a fake Green Square has been built in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and that the celebration scenes were in fact shot there.

That Qatar was named as the place where the fake square was built is hardly surprising. Qatar-based Al-Jazeera has all along been accused by Gadhafi supporters inside and outside of Libya of biased reporting and being an active part of Western media psyops campaigns.

STRATFOR pointed out in an analysis on Sunday: Most of the reports circulating in Western mainstream media right now are based on information provided by the rebels. The STRATFOR analysis called Libya’s future ”uncertain” and the rebel force ”highly fractious.”

Gadhafi’s whereabouts is also still very much unclear. Earlier Al-Arabiya reports that Gadhafi had been taken to a cardiac hospital seem to be unfounded.

The Pentagon believes he is still in the country, but a quote from Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan published by The State Column, sums up the intelligence situation regarding Gadhafi’s status: “On what basis can we say that? Just again, it’s a belief. We do not have any information that he has left the country.”