Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said in a televised speech aired early Wednesday that the members of the National Transitional Council, set up by the rebels in east of the country, are "traitors". He stressed that the acts of violence taking place in the country were initiated by al-Qaida within the framework of a Western "conspiracy" to seize the country's oil.
Gaddafi said in a speech to the youth of the Alzentan tribe: "These traitors are willing to betray... These are known to have foreign connections, i.e. traitors."
Gaddafi slammed the former Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil, who defected from the regime and now heads the Transitional Council. He said that "some people from the revolutionary forces came to me and said, this is a traitor, this is an agent client, this is a servant of Sanusiya (the former regime). The General Public Congress recommended to fire him.. I think that the GPC was to fire him in the next meeting."
He added that Abdul Jalil "is the only one who contacted the British ambassador said and told them…Come and take the former military bases, you are our masters and we are your slaves."
