US predator drone fire led to Qaddafi’s brutal murder

Amid strong international call for an investigation to ascertain the circumstances that led to the brutal killing of former Libyan leader Colonel Qaddafi news reports are now surfacing that a US predator drone attack on the Libyan leader’s convoy triggered toward the capture and the brutal assassination.

News reports have claimed that the rebels initially found Qaddafi while he was traveling in a convoy. Nevertheless, after hours of refusing to comment on the Qaddafi’s death, U.S. officials started suggesting they might have played a very direct role. "US officials told NBC News a US Predator drone fired a hellfire missile at convoy carrying Khadafy, who was then captured by rebels," NBC News' Ann Curry reported on Twitter.

The Twitter message sent by NBC’s star reporter Ms. Curry read: US officials tell NBC News a US Predator drone fired a hellfire missile at convoy carrying Khadafy, who was then captured by rebels.

A NATO spokesperson acknowledged they had fired on a convoy. At first, members of the new Libyan government had said that Qaddafi had been seized after a firefight, but they changed their story after the emergence of vides capturing and brutalizing him. "They captured him alive and while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him," a senior member of Libya's transitional government told Reuters. The rebel fighters who captured Qaddafi found him hiding in a large concrete drainage pipe beneath a highway in the town of Sirte, photos of which are here.

The CBS reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared a laugh with a television news reporter moments after hearing deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi had been killed.

"We came, we saw, he died," she joked when told of news reports of Qaddafi's death by an aide in between formal interviews.

Clinton was in Tripoli earlier this week for talks with leaders of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC).

The reporter asked if Qaddafi's death had anything to do with her surprise visit to show support for the Libyan people.

"No," she replied, before rolling her eyes and saying "I'm sure it did" with a chuckle.
Meanwhile, when pressure from international rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to open an international investigation to find out the circumstances that led to Colonel Qaddafi’s death, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Sunday morning widely watched and popular Meet The Press program when the program moderator asked about Qaddafi’s brutal killing:

I would strongly support both a U.N. investigation that has been called for and the investigation that the transitional national council has said they will conduct. You know, I think it's important that this new government, this effort to have a democratic Libya start with the rule of law, start with accountability, stand for unity and reconciliation, make it absolutely clear that everyone who stood with the old regime, as long as they don't have blood on their hands, should be safe and included in a new Libya. So I view the investigation on its own merits as important, but also as part of a process that will give Libya the best possible chance to navigate toward a stable, secure, democratic future.

Whether the United States and its NATO allies could escape an international investigation to account for Colonel Qaddafi’s brutal assassination is the question now being posed by many media networks here in the United States.

-Asian Tribune-