Opposition Continues Consolidating Gains In Libya as Khadafi Holds On

Mumar Khadafi continues his defiant refusal to concede that he's lost control over Libya and that his country no longer wants him in power. His diplomatic corps has defected or repudiated Khadafi as a madman. The army sides with the protesters.

The only ones seemingly backing the regime are mercenaries and a core of loyalists who are more than willing to kill anyone that crosses their path. Khadafi is arming these civilian loyalists in the hopes of prolonging his regime, but the only thing that will result is prolonged chaos and turmoil.

Khadafi and his sons are living in a dream world where they think that the protests are the work of: (1) al Qaeda; (2) drugs; (3) US and the West; and not that Khadafi and his decades of brutality and failed socio-economic policies are the cause.

His sons claim that the reports of the protests are overblown and a joke, even as multiple sources indicate that the death toll is likely in the thousands.

Speaking at a news conference at the Rixos al Nasr Hotel in Tripoli, Saif al-Islam tried to play down the extent of fighting with rebels who have seized much of the country.

"Soon you will discover that what you have heard in Libya was just a big joke. A very big joke. Here in Libya we were laughing about those reports about hundreds and thousands of casualties, bombing Tripoli and Benghazi and Zawiya or whatever, about mercenaries," he said.

He went on to claim blame al-Qaida chief for the chaos in Libya.

Khadafi has refused to allow media outlets access to Tripoli, but where Khadafi's forces are no longer in control foreign journalists have confirmed that Khadafi has indeed pretty much been pushed back from the countryside and major cities to the point that only Tripoli remains in his grasp, if that.

The US has imposed sanctions all while closing its embassy and continuing efforts to help evacuate US citizens from the turmoil.