Take the reports that Seif al-Islam, a favored son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and one-time heir-apparent to his desert regime, had been captured by rebel fighters as they stormed through the city.
But here he was, confident and smiling in his camouflage pants and army-green T-shirt, turning up out of the night early Tuesday at the Rixos.
He flashed a big smile and a V-for-victory sign.
"You've missed a great story. So come on with us, we're going to hit the hottest spots in Tripoli," Seif told me.
A group of journalists piled into a second car, and we followed him and his gunmen through the dark as he drove through town. He stopped occasionally to lean from the car and wave to supporters chanting government slogans.
He looked confident and defiant. Along with his father, he is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity, but he had a message he wanted to send to the world: Gadhafi was still in power, still fighting, still had support.
We spun off to the entrance to Gadhafi's nearby headquarters, Bab al-Aziziya, where about 200 men, volunteers defending the regime, were waiting for weapons. They were chanting and screaming as they waited for the guns.
Then the gunmen took us back to the hotel.
Back to the $400-a-night prison, with a spa but no power or air conditioning, with candlelight but no romance. With the sound of machine gunfire outside and bullets whistling past the windows, smoke hovering over the Libyan capital.
We might have been in the middle of much of Tripoli's fighting, but we saw little of it close up. Other than that short interlude, we have been here for days, surrounded by the combat. sumber: The jakarta post
