Arrest warrant for Gadhafi deserves to be taken seriously

In issuing the arrest warrant for Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, the International Criminal Court in The Hague urged nations to nab him if they get the chance. That’s easier said than done, considering that Gadhafi has been in hiding since the NATO-led aerial assault of military targets began in late March.

There also are African countries that have benefitted from Gadhafi’s largess and, therefore, can be counted on to provide him with a safe haven should he need it.

But the arrest warrant against Gadhafi, his son, Seif Islam Gadhafi, and brother-in-law, Abdullah Sanoussi, for crimes against humanity should be viewed as an invitation to take whatever measures are necessary to bring them to justice.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the 43-page warrant cites numerous incidents from the first two weeks of the rebel uprising in which loyalist forces allegedly mowed down protesters with gunfire, threw some dissidents in jail and tortured others by administering electric shocks to their genitals or hanging victims upside down and whipping them.

In an attack Feb. 21, the warrant said, government snipers opened fire outside mosques in Tripoli, killing at least 100 people. In the eastern city of Benghazi, which eventually fell to the rebels, Gadhafi’s forces beat protesters with clubs and swords and sprayed them with acid.

Gadhafi wielded “absolute, ultimate and unquestioned control over the Libyan state apparatus of power,” the court said, identifying Seif Islam and Sanoussi as two of his closest confidants.

The warrant also accuses the three men of trying to cover up the security forces’ actions by threatening journalists and even ordering dead bodies removed from hospitals.

Although the United States has not signed on to the international court because of concerns that American troops serving overseas could be targets of politically motivated prosecutions, the Obama administration said the decision to issue the arrest warrant was the right one.

The administration believes that the popular uprisings by Libyans against the government, the U.N.-approved military action to protect the civilian population and now the move by the international court all point to one reality: Gadhafi is on borrowed time.

Government’s defenses

Even though the rebels have not been able to penetrate government’s defenses in the capital, Tripoli, they have succeeded to holding on to areas of the country they have taken from Gadhafi’s forces. With the support of NATO, which has not made a commitment to send in ground forces, the rebels continue to make inroads in their quest to overthrow the dictator.

But given that Gadhafi seems to have nine lives, how could the international community get to him? Think Osama bin Laden. American Special Forces went deep into Pakistan, without the Pakistanis knowing anything about the operation, and killed bin Laden in the house he had occupied for six years.

Getting information about Gadhafi should not be a major problem given the rebels who are scattered throughout the country. And as the American Special Forces showed, a clandestine operation is possible with the proper planning. There are many countries, excluding the U.S., that can undertake such a campaign.

Getting Gadhafi would be a major victory for freedom-loving people around the world, and for Libyans who have lived in fear for so long.