Cracks forming in Qaddafi's control of Tripoli

Tripoli Market.

/ CBS

TRIPOLI - If you listen to the government minders who are a near constant presence for reporters covering the capital of Libya, you would think that Tripoli is a stronghold of millions of supporters of Muammar Qaddafi. Correspondents' access is tightly controlled (at the risk of being thrown out of the country), and most of the Libyans we meet profess their unadulterated love for the man they call the Brother Leader.

But if you can get out into the streets and markets, the attitude changes. Life in Tripoli goes on as usual for many people here, but the cracks are starting to show. There are long lines for the cheap, subsidized gas. NATO bombings of nearby military sites are a near-nightly occurrence. And anti-Qaddafi protests, once unheard of here, are starting to sprout up.

Many of the protests witnessed by the media, though, are choreographed by the government. The chanting is mostly in Arabic, but the signs are mostly in English, for the benefit of the reporters bussed in to cover these staged rallies.

Complete coverage: Anger in the Arab world

On a recent trip to Green Square, though, a Libyan who gave his name only as "Morgan" said he didn't really care about the fight between NATO and Qaddafi. "That's a problem between Mr. Muammar Qaddafi and NATO," he said in halting English as he shopped at this market in the center of the city.

Morgan, a former engineer for an American oil company in Libya.

/ CBS

A former engineer for an American oil company in Libya, Morgan said he hadn't been able to work since the bombing started. His concerns did not lie with the leader of his country for the past 41 years, but with more immediate concerns of his family.

"We are human beings, we like to work, we like to make children educated, go to school, go to university," he said. "I like to be free, like everybody else."

In today's Tripoli, those relatively mild words carry a hint of subversion that has already exploded in the rebel held territories of eastern Libya. And as more people in the streets of Tripoli start asking for more freedom, the iron control Qaddafi has had over this city is beginning to slip.

[SaidMou]

All of this started few yeas ago . It was designed by CIA and some of ther officers were sent to Middle East to heat up the people. For a fact is known that Michael Hurley ,Cofer Black , Zoran Veljovich and others operated on high level with cooperation of some Muslim countries.
It s sad that USA is doing things like that like we (Muslims) are not humans . sad sad sad............................

[lucifersshadow]

Not so sure the reporter who posted the photo of "Morgan" has any common sense whatsoever.

[mask2697]

I have to agree here, if I here in the news that this guy disappears I am starting a cyber petition (someone needs to help me with this) to get this editor fired for being responsible for his arrest/death

[sepa2]

Who wouldn't when attacked by the most brutish force. We are going back to Genghis Khan era

[mask2697]

as you have proved, people see what they want to see, we see a dictator being challanged, you see terrorists attacking a normal government... and some see People, others See Muslim terrorists, I prefer to look at people in the way they should be treated. The only brutes here is Quadaffi and his men