CBS/AP/ October 22, 2011, 8:16 AM

Libya's post-Qaddafi transition beginning

CBS

TRIPOLI, Libya -- The first steps toward the formation of Libya's post-Muammar Qaddafi government have started to emerge, with interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril saying he's stepping down effective Saturday, with indications elections could be held by summer, and with a formal declaration of liberation slated for Sunday.

Jibril's announcement isn't "a complete surprise," CBS News correspondent Liz Palmer observed on "The Early Show on Saturday Morning."

Palmer said, "It is something he's said he'd do once the country was fully liberated."

A military spokesman said Libya's transitional government will declare liberation on Sunday, after months of bloodshed that culminated in Thursday's death of longtime leader Qaddafi.

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Officials from the governing Transitional National Council had said the announcement would be made Saturday in the eastern city of Benghazi, the revolution's birthplace.

But spokesman Abdel-Rahman Busin said preparations are underway for a Sunday ceremony. He didn't give an explanation for the delay.

The declaration will enable Libya's new rulers to move forward with efforts to transform the oil-rich nation into a democracy.

Libyan authorities are facing questions about how Qaddafi was killed after images emerged showing he was found alive and taunted and beaten by his captors.

"As far as we know," Palmer said, "Qaddafi still hasn't been buried. The government doesn't want any grave to become kind of a shrine or a rallying point for a violent insurgency, so that's a very tricky political decision."

Qaddafi's body was on public display in a morgue freezer in the city of Misrata.

Qaddafi body stashed in shopping center freezer

Reuters quotes Jibril as saying he expects elections wil take place within eight months, with Libyans choosing a national council that would draft a new constitution and form an interim government.

© 2011 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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samXXkiley says:
coucou,
history will record for everyone
for these dictators who repressed their peoples,
but also to those accomplices who have supported these dictators,
a page is turned forever,
the Libyans must move forward
"au revoir"
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usunus says:
Post-Gaddafi transition has already begun with a whopping lie by the boss of the NTC that Gaddafi had been killied in crossfire.Now,the gangsters of the various tribes will be at each other's throat for the billions of frozen moolah being released by the Western powers.
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greenj76 says:
Arabs going to the streets of their nations to bring down their national leaders has been effective in a number of Arab states. Demonstrators in the streets of Cairo brought down the 32 year reign of Hosni Mubarak. The opposition to the radical leader of Libya, Col. Khaddafi, ended in the death in the streets of Libya to this treacherous dictator. There is an orchestrated effort to also bring down the Syrian leader President Bashar Assad. This revolution that has been moving across the Middle East in the Arab countries is resulting in a new leadership in many Arab states. Only time will tell if the radical Islamist element will come to fill these power vacuums that have been created because of the Arab Spring.

However, Bible prophecy does give us insight into the future for at least 3 of these Arab nations: Syria, Egypt, and Libya. The ancient Jewish prophet Daniel wrote many years ago that these 3 nations would be the first 3 to make a move to destroy the Jewish state of Israel (Daniel 11:40-43). The king of the north and the king of the south in verse 40 are identified as Syria and Egypt early on in chapter 11 (Daniel 11:5-20). Libya is mentioned in Daniel 11:43.

The results of the Arab Spring in Syria, Egypt, and Libya are indeed setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
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jackpenn replies:
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I definitely agree with you on the prophecies of God's Holy Word, and this is not the only prophecy being fulfilled in this day and age, and we believe we are now living in the end of times, with the return of our Lord Jesus Christ coming real soon. The world's dramatic weather is also prophecized in the Bible, and there are many signs depicting the Truth in His Holy Word. I am ready........are you?
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tsigili says:
Now we see whether this was really worth spending a billion dollars on.
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oldman67 says:
The US has gained control of another small country. Way to go. US taxpayers dollars at work. Without that, the UN wouldn't exist.On to take control of Africa and her natural resources one country at a time. AFRICOM, the American way!
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jackpenn says:
I still say either the majority of the people are good, or they are evil. If they are basically good, and want a free society of people who will support what is right, they will put a "George Washington" to lead their country, as we did after our Revolutionary War. If the people of Lybia are evil by nature, they will in time end up with another "dictator" just like Quadaffi. I still believe the more educated a country is, the more prone to become a civilized democracy they will become, and the more ignorant, and uneducated the population of a country is, the more prone to having to be lead by some sort of tyrant they will become. Muslim populated countries will always put their religion first to run their government, and this is why America has a seperation from religion and government, so one particular religion will not rule totally over all of the people, who all have different beliefs. Government rule must be equal for all of it's citizens, regardless of religion, color, creed, gender, or anything else that might make a person or particular group different in some way. Can this ever happen in a country like Lybia? I really don't give democracy much of a chance in any Middle Eastern countries, outside of Isreal, who are very much Americanized, and prosperous because of it.
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sepa2 replies:
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NATO is the decider, not the people
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Nikos_Retsos says:
The resignation of Mahmoud Jibril is a good sign, and probably a mandatory step for avoiding another civil war among rebel forces in Libya. As I explained fully in my blog in the British Daily Telegraph on September 14, 2011 (http://my.telegraph.co.uk/retsos_nikos/), Mahmoud Jibril and Khalifa Haftar -both Libyans living in the U.S.- arrived in Benghazi shortly after the Libyan uprising at about the same time an advance CIA team did. And even though they were dark horses and outsiders, they mysteriously advanced to top positions at the TNC. Khalifa Haftar, who claimed to be a former Libyan colonel, declared himself to be "the Supreme Commander" of the rebel forces - even though the TNC had appointed Gadhafi's Interior Minister Fatah Yunis as Supreme Commander. Still Haftar boasted he was the Supreme Commander, and claimed Fatah Yunis was just a "Chief of Staff" bureaucrat. After Fatah Yunis mysterious assassination, Khalifa Haftar became the No. 1 suspect, and he vanished. The suspicion remains that he was a shoe-in CIA man to take control of the Libyan rebel forces, and his his boasting and bravado was emanated from the U.S. support. It is believed that the CIA withdrew him after the bungled Yunis assassination.

Khalifa Haftar was out, but Mahmoud Jibril remained. After Yunis assassination, the TNC chairman Abdul Jalil suddenly fired all members of the TNC, and reorganized it with Mahmoud Jibril as the "de facto (unofficial) prime minister!" That suspicious meteoric rise of U.S. citizens getting top posts in the TMNC angered many Libyans. Among them, Adbul Hakim Belhaj, the Libyan rebel forces who captured Tripoli. Belhaj had in the past been arrested by the CIA, and claimed he was tortured as jihhadist, and then turned to Gadhafi's Intelligence that tortured him again, before he was eventually vindicated. Belhaj has made it clear that he doesn't want CIA stooges to steal the Libyan revolution, and he had objected to the appointments of both Khalifa haftar and Mahmoud Jibril. Belhaj, the Misrata Rebel forces high command, and other
top level commanders hold real power now in Libya, and they have made it clear that they won't roll over and allow the TNC to make
critical decisions based on outside pressure by foreign powers.

Now that Gadhafi is dead, the TNC understands that the commanders of the revel forces who won the war will not accept foreign appointees as top leaders. And that is why Mahmoud Jibril has to resign, or risk another civil war among the rebels who wanted him out! He may run in upcoming elections and win a post. But he will always be suspected as a foreign agent and watched. Nikos Retsos, retired professor
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morriswise says:
Parliamentary contenders must be watched, only those with pro-Western views should be funded. Political bad boys should not be given a chance to have a seat in the new assembly of democratic Libya.
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