Qaddafi's apparently undead daughter

TRIPOLI, Libya - Since the rebel takeover of Tripoli, evidence has been mounting that Muammar Qaddafi may have lied about the death of his adopted baby daughter Hana in a 1986 U.S. air strike.

The strike hit Qaddafi's home in his Tripoli compound, Bab al-Aziziya, in retaliation for the Libyan-sponsored bombing of a Berlin nightclub earlier that year that killed two U.S. servicemen. At the time, Qaddafi showed American journalists a picture of a dead baby and said it was his adopted daughter Hana — the first public mention that she even existed.

Diplomats almost immediately questioned the claim. But Qaddafi kept the story alive through the years.

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Then, when investigations into the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, pointed to a Libyan hand in the attack, some theorized that Qaddafi had ordered it to avenge Hana's death in the U.S. air strike.

But when Libyan rebels took over Tripoli and Bab al-Aziziya last week, they found a room in Qaddafi's home with Hana's birth certificate and pictures of a young woman with the name "Hana" written on the back, possible indications that she lived well beyond infancy. A Tripoli hospital official surfaced, saying Hana worked for him as a surgeon up until the rebels came to town.

And on Tuesday, Swiss officials confirmed that Hana's name had briefly appeared earlier this year on a Swiss government document listing the names of senior Libyan figures targeted for sanctions.

Many Libyans believe Hana was never killed and talked about her existence openly.

Adel Shaltut, a Libyan diplomat at the U.N. in Geneva, said it was common knowledge that Hana Qaddafi wasn't killed in the air strike.

"All Libyans knew from the very beginning that it's a lie," he told The Associated Press, saying that Hana was married and had children.

However, some in Libya believed that after Hana's death, Qaddafi adopted another daughter and gave her the same name in a memorial tribute.

Adding to the mystery, two AP photographs from the 1990s show an adolescent girl identified in captions as Qaddafi's daughter Hana. In one of them from 1999, she is standing next to South African President Nelson Mandela, with his arm around her, during a family visit to Cape Town. Qaddafi's only biological daughter, Aisha, stands on Mandela's other side and Qaddafi's wife Safiya is next to the girl identified as Hana.

In this June 6, 1999 file photo, South African President Nelson Mandela stands between the daughters of Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi, Aisha, 22, at left, and Hana, 13, in South Africa.

(Credit: AP)

In another AP photo from 1996, Qaddafi is seen wiping the face of a girl identified in the caption as his daughter Hana Qaddafi.

Despite these sightings of Hana, in 2006 Qaddafi organized an event called the "Hana Festival for Freedom and Peace" to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death. Performers reportedly included Lionel Richie and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras.

Last week, after rebels stormed the Bab al-Aziziya compound where Qaddafi and family members lived, journalists saw a room in his home filled with stuffed animals, photos of a young woman with the name "Hana" written on the back in Arabic and a birth certificate of "Hana Qaddafi."

Rebels touring the room told reporters that everyone in Libya knew that the daughter who the world thought was dead was, in fact, alive.

Hana's current whereabouts are unknown. Her mother, sister Aisha and two brothers fled to Algeria on Monday, with their spouses and children. She was not identified among those who had left the country. Her father and brother Seif al-Islam, once the heir apparent to rule Libya, are believed to still be in Libya.

Gassem Baruni, head of the Tripoli Medical Center, said Hana worked for him as a surgeon before she disappeared Friday.

"She was very tense and nervous as soon as the revolution started," Baruni told the AP. "She told me not to treat the rebels, but I told her: 'If we don't treat everyone, it would be a crime."'

The doctor said he used her influence to stock up the hospital with supplies and medicine, keeping the fact he was coordinating with rebels secret from her.

"I pretended that we needed the stuff to treat the Qaddafi troops," Baruni said.

The British Council confirmed that someone named Hana Qaddafi studied English at the British Council in Tripoli in 2007, and again in 2009.

"We can confirm that a student by the name of Hana Qaddafi did study English with us in Libya. However, we don't have access to any documents as we don't have access to our Tripoli office, which we had to leave earlier this year," a spokesman told the AP. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with council policy.

"Our country director in Libya did query this, given reports of Hana Qaddafi's death," he said.

"The widely held belief in Libya at the time was that this was a different daughter, adopted by Col. Qaddafi after Hana's death, and given the same name as a tribute. This is, in fact, a common practice in Libya as a memorial to a dead child."

A Swiss government document earlier this year listed the names of senior Libyan figures who were to be targeted for sanctions briefly included Hana Qaddafi's name, but it was quickly removed, Swiss officials said Tuesday. They were responding to questions by the AP.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Adrian Sollberger, said the list was revised to conform with sanctions imposed by the United Nations. He declined to say why someone with the name Hana Qaddafi had featured on the original sanctions list, and whether Switzerland had evidence the Libyan leader's daughter was alive.

Libyans said Qaddafi wanted to drum up sympathy for himself and hatred toward the west by claiming Hana was killed in 1986 and Qaddafi's son Seif al-Arab was killed in May during a NATO air strike.

Mohammed Ammar, a Tripoli resident who said his cousin graduated with Hana from medical school last year, was among those who believe the death of Hana was a myth.

"It is not surprising he would lie about his own child's death," he said. "He is capable of killing a whole population, why not his own child?"

[eiddam]

If this were True the CIA would have known years ago.

[Forty-Four]

I hate to be sound like an ass, but...

She looks well fed

[sallychicago]

Often when a parent loses a child so young, they will go and adopt another child. I had a cousin do that after her song strangled on a swing. She went and adopted another boy.
It seems that what Quaddafi did was adopt another little girl to take her place.

[srjmsbnd]

August 30, 2011 3:47 PM Teen, 15, robs 73-year-old man of 7 cents, gets 2-6 years in prison, felony record

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20099378-504083.html

Now, the above is a terrorist, albeit a petty terrorist America and Bin Laden or Great terrorists, but all great terrorists must begin some where.

Since you and your people, your country support "freedom and freedom fighters" can I take them prisoner, water board them in torture, receive foreign support and military aid, use weapons for the eradication of such terrorists?

Why? Why Not? after all that is what the world does internationally daily as the United Nations in the frauds of "International Law" supports those imperialist frauds.

[srjmsbnd]

Except for statements related to alleged human rights violations charges I say yes yes yes

"You pathetic Americans think it's important that he lied about a daughter? *** ...but then you Americans did exactly the same thing, didn't you?"

But look look look at the history of the non empire based Middle East it is Lawrence of Arabia because British imperialist chauvinists did not care enough as now western imperialism does care except where it suits their interests. I forget CBS was started by a member of the OSS CIA, but you in comment are wrong "pathetic Americans" whose government does much the same as any government does not think, does not care, does not feel what minimally the government puts into their heads. No, not exact
enough precisely what the American government and its private corporate partners beats into Americans heads.

Not many people cared when it was reported that Qaddafi lost his family relatives except a few bleeding hearts because the west has been hardened by years of wars and dying.

The napham that dropped on Vietnam civilians as well as the 99 World trade Center deaths and destruction has burned the American populations souls psyches well being so that those who senseless refer to these matters are lost, as critics without creditability.

Where is the societal moral authority in the world today?

America, the EU, NATO, UN, WTO, IMF, Britain, Islam, China, cyberspace, corporate board rooms, Africa, Latin America, Conservatives, Liberals Alternative political parties, Greens, Anarchists, Noam Chomsky, all living on last year's propaganda falsehoods deceit, misstatements and governmental misdirection?

Hillary Clinton did it? NO George W. Obama did it? and the world proclaimed him as if he was god even as he fell short. lied, deceived, stole, and cheated.

Yes look at me Arabia, I am American, Americans bad, bad, bad. Bad America, bad, bad, Arabia good good, good. and fools believe as business continues. As the Bin Laden's greatest assistance was he bombed the World Trade Center so now they cry they are victims.

But am I who can say I am nothing and something and never lies.

Here I am bomb my house.
Take my life, as you lie,
Burn my world,
for this is not my house,
this is not my life, what you say is not the truth,
as it is not my world,
neither is it yours, nor Islam's
as the world existed before Islam,
but today Islam would destroy the world,
it will find no peace nor paradise.

Just as CBS does not have the ability to print the Arabic version of this, it is for intelligence purposes is screening software.

So who is pathetic America, Americans, Arab critics sympathizing with Libyan rebels, Algeria against rebels or a world wide intelligence system of tyrants and wannabe tyrants, incompetents and mean spirited misanthropes or various nationalities.

Which America pathetically responds to in one line brainlessness or which it buries in hiding in plain sight.

[mrbucket2]

So, what's your point?
Without all the rambling on.

[johnbh99]

I have no idea what you are talking about.

[adrobins]

"Qaddafi's apparently undead daughter"

Meaning, she's a zombie? A vampire?

[Forty-Four]

That's what undead means doesn't it? lol

[longtree-2009]

other than libyian rebels, doubt anyone, majority at least, really cares one way or the other.

[karek40]

It appears most if not all political figures feel it is their evolutionary privilege to lie about everything regardless if the truth would fit better.

[finkfurst4]

You pathetic Americans think it's important that he lied about a daughter? How about him lying about imprisoning, torturing and killing thousands of innocent people in his country? ......but then you Americans did exactly the same thing, didn't you?

[Harden_Tar]

Typical. Hiding again behind skirts and babies. What a POS.

[eiddam]

Bush lied and a million died...many were our own.