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A ranting Moammar Khadafy yesterday bizarrely claimed that a “small, sick” group of conspirators had orchestrated the Libyan revolt by feeding youngsters “hallucination pills” that turned them into pro-democracy “drug addicts.”
Khadafy roared at his countrymen and pounded his fists on a podium during a 75-minute TV tirade in which he vowed to “cleanse Libya house by house” if protesters don’t surrender by today.
Khadafy’s spew came amid several fast-breaking developments in the crisis:
* Libyan Minister of the Interior Abdel Fattah Younes al Abidi quit his post yesterday and urged the army to throw its support behind the protesters and their “legitimate demands.”
* At least 600 Americans are believed still be in Libya, and the State Department plans to evacuate them to Malta via ferry today.
* Oil prices soared to their highest levels in two years because of fears that output will be crippled in Africa’s largest energy producer. Two oil companies, Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol YPF, suspended production in Libya.
* The Dow Jones industrial average fell 178 points, wiping out its gains of the past two weeks.
* Army units that defected from Khadafy claimed control over almost the entire eastern half of Libya’s coast — where most of the oil is.
* Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on all oil companies to suspend Libyan operations and urged the Obama administration to re-impose sanctions.
* The Libyan military launched a counter-offensive, deploying large numbers of soldiers in Sabratha, west of the capital, Tripoli, after protesters destroyed security-services offices.
Warships were also reported to be firing on Benghazi, a protest stronghold.
* The Arab League registered its disgust with Khadafy by suspending Libya’s participation in all league talks.
* German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Khadafy’s speech “very, very appalling,” saying it “amounted to him declaring war on his own people.”
The 68-year-old Libyan strongman — known for long-winded harangues — outdid himself yesterday.
He alternated between chilling threats of massacre, patriotic calls to save Libya from America, “rats and mercenaries,” and megalomaniacal declarations in which he repeatedly spoke of himself as a historical figure.
“Moammar Khadafy is history, resistance, liberty, glory, revolution,” he said. “Moammar is not a president to leave his post. Moammar is leader of the revolution until the end of time.”
Although he appeared to be hiding behind barricades in Tripoli, he vowed to lead his supporters in a march across the country “to purify Libya.”
” I am supported by millions and God!” he said. “From Sahara to Sahara, millions will march with me!”
Despite reports that more than 400 people had been killed so far, Khadafy claimed that he hadn’t ordered “one bullet” fired.
But he warned that “everything will burn” if the protests don’t end today.
He said police cordons would be lifted today so his supporters can form armed vigilante groups to “fight for the defense of the revolution and the defense of Khadafy.”
“You men and women who love Khadafy . . . get out of your homes and fill the streets,” he said. “Leave your homes and attack them in their lairs.”
He ominously compared the Libyan uprising to three showdowns that had bloody outcomes — the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the failed 1991 Russian coup and the 1993 Waco, Texas, siege.
He delivered the speech from a compound bombed by US warplanes in 1986 and left unrepaired as a symbol of Libyan defiance.
His speech was peppered with hints that attempts to bring down his 42-year regime were being planned in Washington.
“Do you want to be the slaves of the Americans?”
he asked, his voice trembling.
“Libya wants glory, Libya wants to be at the pinnacle, at the pinnacle of the world,” he shouted.
“I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents . . . I will die as a martyr at the end,” Khadafy said, vowing to fight “to my last drop of blood.”
It was not clear how many Libyans paid any attention.
CNN said an opposition leader reported young people were physically dragged into the streets to watch him on state television, which then presented them as crowds of supporters. In Benghazi, celebratory residents shrugged off Khadafy’s words as they distributed confiscated government weapons and prepared to defend themselves.
“These are his dying words. He is a criminal and is ready to do anything. But we are ready for him,” Frag al-Warfali, a banker, said.
“Besides, most of his officers have deserted him anyway. He only has the mercenaries left.”
Khadafy’s pleas also fell on the deaf ears of former allies, who defected. They included Libya’s ambassador to the United States, who jumped ship during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” and Khadafy’s interior and public-security ministers.
Despite it all, Khadafy was contacted by foreign leaders. Nicaragua’s leftist president, Daniel Ortega, called him to offer support. Also, Khadafy told Italy’s leader Silvio Berlusconi in a 20-minute call that “everything is going “fine” in Libya.
At least two airlines, British Airways and Emirates, the Middle East’s largest, said they were canceling flights to Tripoli, forcing would-be evacuees to fight for their way out of Libya.
“The airport was mobbed. You wouldn’t believe the number of people,” said Kathleen Burnett, of Baltimore, as she stepped off an Austrian Airlines flight from Tripoli to Vienna yesterday. “It was total chaos.”
In addition, Turkish ferries, British and Italian warships, a Dutch air-force transport plane and Greek merchant ships were mobilized to evacuate the tens of thousands of foreigners seeking to leave.