Ben Wedeman, CNN: A wake-up call in Libya's Ras Lanuf

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A wake-up call in Libya's Ras Lanuf
By Ben Wedeman, CNN
March 7, 2011 7:49 p.m. EST

Editor's note: CNN's Ben Wedeman filed this first-person account of the scene in rebel-controlled Ras Lanuf, Libya, as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces prepared to launch an aerial strike against the town Monday.


Ras Lanuf, Libya (CNN) -- "Down! Down!" the man at my hotel room door said. It was 4:30 a.m. Monday in Ras Lanuf, and I had hoped to get a decent night's sleep for the first time in weeks. Yet again, my hopes were dashed.

...

As we waited in the lobby, I had visions of the Libyan army pulling up outside the hotel, rounding us all up and taking us back to Tripoli, hands bound and blindfolded, to be put on trial. Libyan state television had announced that all journalists who had entered the country from Egypt without visas would be considered outlaws and, worse, collaborators with al Qaeda. As the first Western television journalist to enter Libya from Egypt during the current crisis, I had reliable information I was high on Tripoli's wanted list.

...

When it became light, instead of going east -- away from the supposedly advancing Libyan army -- we and a crew from the BBC went west, toward Bin Jawad, to see if there was any truth to the claims Gadhafi's men were on the move.

...

The few we met assured us the government forces were still on the outskirts of Bin Jawad and weren't moving forward. It was disconcerting, however, that as we continued to drive, there was almost no one to speak with. The usual gatherings of boisterous, friendly rebel fighters gathered around cars, pickup trucks and Chinese- and Soviet-made anti-aircraft guns were nowhere to be seen. The road was almost empty.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/07/ras.lanuf.libya.wedeman/?hpt=T2