Libya: What Does the Egyptian Street Say About the "The Tyrant's Family"

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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Headlining about Gaddafi "The End of a Tyrant," the Egyptian media dissects the roles and fortunes (or misfortunes) of his eight sons and two daughters.

• Son #1:  The oldest "Muhammad" was born to the Qaddafis by his first wife.  He became a businessman, in fact one of the most important as he owned the biggest communications network in Libya; owned 40% of the soft drinks industry with a Coca Cola exclusive concession; headed the Libyan Olympic Committee, and presided over the Libyan Commission for postal and telecommunications services.
• Son #2:  "Saif Al-Islam" who prior to the February 17 Revolution, which did away with Gaddafi's 42 year of dictatorship, was being groomed to succeed  his maniacal father.  He was largely the face of Libya to the West.  An engineer by training with supposedly a Ph.D from the London School of Economics; spoke good English (a good entree to the Western mind), he had called for reform through his "Gaddafi World Charitable Organization."  Since 2000, Saif, in spite of the fact that he occupied no formal position in the governmental structure, played a huge role in both internal and external Libyan affairs.  He is credited with "settling the Lockerbie tragedy"; warned of civil war in Libya after the uprising, and has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.
• Son #3: "Al-Saidi" 36 years old; famous (or infamous) for his incendiary temper; a drug user; had several brushes with the law in Europe, especially in Italy.  Al-Saidi, who has fled with his brother, Son #4 (Hanibal) with their mother and several children to Algeria, is said to have an engineering degree.  He is a soccer player and had his own special forces.
• Son #4: "Hanibal", husband of a Lebanese fashion model, Elaine Skaf, with whom he fathered two sons.  Nicknamed "the Trouble Maker," Hanibal was arrested with his wife in Geneva for beating up their maid.  That criminal complaint against them resulted in their arrest by the Swiss police, thus precipitating a diplomatic confrontation between Gaddafi's Libya and Switzerland whose national airline (Swissair) was temporarily denied landing rights in Libyan airports.  With Gaddafi threatening to withdraw all Libyan deposits in Swiss banks, the Swiss suspended their legal action against Hanibal and Elaine.  Yet in 2009, while the couple were at the Claridge Hotel in London, the London police was called to investigate the screams coming out from Hanibal's suite.  Elaine was found to be badly disfigured but she refused to press charges against "the Trouble Maker."
• Son #5: "Al-Motassin" was his father's National Security Advisor.  In that capacity, and in competition with his younger brother, Son #6 Khamis, he demanded $1.2 Billion to establish a military security unit of his own.  The Serbian Ambassador to Tripoli had once characterized him as "possessing no acute intelligence," which may explain why his siblings maneuvered in his absence abroad to gut out his extensive commercial and personal holdings between the years 2001-2005.
• Son #6: "Khamis" established and led the fearsome "Division No. 32" whose personnel were thoroughly trained in modern warfare in the Russian Federation.  Khamis' role, in that regard, was akin to that of the Presidential Guard in Syria or the Islamic Republican Guard in Iran, namely, the protection of the Gaddafi regime.  Khamis spearheaded the brutal suppression of the Revolution which began on March 17, in Benghazi and ended up with NATO's help, vanquishing the Gaddafi army, his mercenaries, his snipers and his informers.
• Son #7: "Saif Al-Arab" The least known among his brothers; was killed, together with 3 Gaddafi grandsons on April 30 in a NATO raid on his house which was suspected of harboring, at that time, Gaddafi himself.
• Daughter Aisha: Child #8, A daughter of 34 years of age, and the one who mediates the family disputes.  A lawyer by training, she was involved with defending Saddam Hussein after the collapse of that Iraqi brutal regime in 2003.  Her father, whose entire honor guard was made up of young Libyan women, gave every girl in that corps the name of "Aisha" followed by a number.  Examples: Aisha #1, Aisha #2 and so on.  A Libyan University gave her an honorary doctorate as a consolation prize for not being able to complete her graduate study in international law in Paris.  News have been confirmed of her flight, together with her children and other members of her family to Algeria after the rebels' conquest of Tripoli in late August.
• Hana: Child #9, an adopted daughter who was reported to have been killed in a US aerial bombardment of Tripoli in 1986. Those bombarded premises were declared by Gaddafi a historic site form which he called for the routing of the rebels when the revolution began in Benghazi in March.
• Milad: Child #10, a boy who was born to a brother of Gaddafi, then later adopted by uncle Muammar.

From that list, only #1 Gaddafi and his son, Saif Al-Islam are named on the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

Though news were broadcast worldwide on September 6 regarding a long convoy of cars moving south from Libya to Niger, under Niger army protection, no credible information has yet come out as to whether Gaddafi himself was in that country.