COLORADO: Gadhafi’s youngest son toured Air Force Academy.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s youngest son visited the Air Force Academy north of Colorado Springs last month during a U.S. tour but couldn’t have learned anything to benefit the Libyan military, an academy official said Wednesday.
Khamis Gadhafi, 27, got a standard VIP tour of the school Feb. 7 — eight days before the Libyan uprising began, academy spokesman Lt. Col. John Bryan said. After Gadhafi returned home, he led forces loyal to his father in a brutal assault on a rebel-held city.
The tour of the academy included a look at academic, athletic and residential buildings, and briefings from Brig. Gen. Dana Born, dean of faculty, and Col. Tamra Rank, vice superintendent.
The stop in Colorado was part of a wider U.S. tour by Gadhafi that was organized by Aecom, a global infrastructure company with business interests in Libya.
NICARAGUA: Libya asks former leftist priest to sub as U.N. rep.
Libya has asked a former Roman Catholic priest who was Nicaragua’s first foreign minister after the Sandinista revolution to represent Moammar Gadhafi’s regime at the United Nations, the Nicaraguan government said Wednesday.
A Spanish version of a letter from Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon posted on the government’s website asks that Miguel D’Escoto Brockman, who also was U.N. General Assembly president from 2008-09, represent the Kha dafy regime’s interests before the world body.
But news late Wednesday that Koussa had resigned his post left the status of the request by Gadhafi’s regime in doubt. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice’s declaration that D’Escoto lacked the U.S. visa needed for diplomatic representation further muddied the waters.
UGANDA: Refuge offered if Gadhafi exiled.
Uganda said Wed nesday it would accept Libya’s leader in exile, the first country to publicly volunteer to give him a home. The Ugandan president’s spokesman justified the offer of refuge to Moammar Gadhafi, saying Ugandans were given asylum in neighboring countries during the rule of Idi Amin, who killed tens of thousands of his countrymen in the 1970s. “So, we have soft spots for asylum-seekers. Gadhafi would be allowed to live here if he chooses to do so,” spokesman Tamale Mirundi said.
EGYPT: U.S. too slow to freeze Mubarak assets, Cairo says.
More than a month after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the United States has yet to respond to a request by Cairo to freeze his assets, Egyptian officials say.
In a country where a politically emancipated public is eager to hold the former authoritarian government to account, Washington’s delay is deepening already-negative feelings toward the United States. Egyptian activists point to the quickness with which U.S. officials moved to freeze the assets of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
U.S. officials say they are still reviewing the request by Egypt’s prosecutor general, but they add privately that the matter is more complicated than a simple freezing of funds. Experts say finding Mubarak’s assets may be difficult and time-consuming because they may be hidden in shell companies.
Denver Post wire services
