AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: In televised speech, Libyan leader blames youths inspired by regional events for uprising and vows to die a 'martyr'.
Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has vowed to fight on and die a "martyr", calling on his supporters to take back the streets from protesters demanding his ouster, shouting and pounding his fist in a furious speech on state TV.
Gaddafi, clad in brown robes and a turban, spoke on Tuesday evening from a podium set up in the entrance of a bombed-out building that appeared to be his Tripoli residence hit by US air raids in the 1980s and left unrepaired as a monument of defiance.
"I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents ... I will die as a martyr at the end," he said.
"Muammar Gaddafi is the leader of the revolution, I am not a president to step down ... This is my country. Muammar is not a president to leave his post."
"I have not yet ordered the use of force, not yet ordered one bullet to be fired ... when I do, everything will burn."
He called on supporters to take to the streets to attack protesters. "You men and women who love Gaddafi ...get out of your homes and fill the streets," he said. "Leave your homes and attack them in their lairs ... Starting tomorrow [Wednesday] the cordons will be lifted, go out and fight them."
Gaddafi said "peaceful protests is one thing, but armed rebellion is another".
He urged all young men to immediately "form local committees for popular security", telling them to wear a green armband to identify themselves. "The Libyan people and the popular revolution will control Libya."
The speech, which appeared to have been taped earlier, was aired on a screen to hundreds of supporters massed in Tripoli's central Green Square.
At times the camera panned out to show a towering gold-coloured monument in front of the building, showing a fist crushing a fighter jet with an American flag on it - a view that also gave the strange image of Gaddafi speaking alone from behind a podium in the building's dilapidated lobby, with no audience in front of him. >>> Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies | Wednesday, February 23, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Libya: Col Gaddafi damns the 'rats' as he clings to power – A wild and desperate-looking Col Muammar Gaddafi staged a dramatic defence of his collapsing 41-year rule last night, appearing on state television to damn the “rats” conspiring against him and to insist he would die a martyr on Libyan soil. >>> Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Tuesday, February 22, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: In Pictures: Anti-Gaddafi protests around the world >>>
THE GUARDIAN: • Muammar Gaddafi tells loyalists to take to streets of Libya • Witnesses speak of mercenaries in death squads • International condemnation of bloodshed grows
Muammar Gaddafi set the stage for a violent, final showdown to crush Libya's popular uprising by urging loyalists to take to the streets to fight "greasy rats" in the pay of enemies ranging from the US to al-Qaida.
In an angry, ranting and often incoherent speech, the beleaguered Libyan leader ignored evidence of repression and bloodshed, including new reports of death squads, to insist that he would die in his homeland rather than flee abroad.
"I am not going to leave this land," Gaddafi vowed in a live broadcast on state TV. "I will die as a martyr at the end … I shall remain, defiant. Muammar is leader of the revolution until the end of time." >>> Ian Black, Middle East editor | Tuesday, February 22, 2011
