LONDON — Gaddafi loyalists have been recorded discussing Sunday morning's car bomb attacks in Tripoli both before and after the explosions took place, suggesting clear prior knowledge of the events. The men, who remained anonymous, were using the public chat-room service Paltalk, a site previously popular with opponents of the Gaddafi regime during last year's revolution. The conversation was overheard by a Libyan living in London who frequently joins the chat-room to hear what Gaddafi loyalists are saying on various issues. Of significant concern to the authorities will be the revelation that the loyalists' confirmation of the blasts was received directly through the Interior Ministry's communications system, which appeared to have been hacked by one of the men Saturday night. “It was extremely disturbing,” Mohammed Eljarh told the Libya Herald. “I was listening to them talking about the attacks before they actually happened. “One of them was saying, ‘Now we are going to target Tripoli'.” It is not known whether the men involved were communicating from inside or outside of Libya at the time of the blasts. “Initially I thought it was just their usual waffle, as they frequently like to talk about how they're going to do this or that, but when I heard reports that the attacks had actually happened, I thought my goodness, this is for real,” Eljarh said. Eljarh says that it was at this point that he first suspected the men were listening in to the Interior Ministry's communications network. “There was a live podcast of events on the ground, and you could hear radio communications from what appeared to be security officials reporting the blasts and then ordering their personnel to go to various locations”. Listening devices can be purchased in Libya without much difficulty, and many Libyans are familiar with how to use them, making it possible to overhear phone calls and other wireless communications. It would be assumed, however, that official communications would be more securely protected. After the attacks took place, the men in the Paltalk room are overheard celebrating the blasts. “We have done it, we have done it,” one person on the ground heard to report back to the room. Shortly afterward, an administrator is heard to say “all explosions are remotely controlled and executed. They can't arrest us; these rats can't arrest us.” In reference to the targeting of civilians, another is heard to say “to hell”. One individual who did identify himself in the room was Hamza Altohami, a prominent pro-Gaddafi journalist under the former regime. “He was celebrating the explosions with the others, but it did not sound like he was involved in planning the attacks,” Eljarh said. After the blast outside the Interior Ministry and the two on Omar Mukhtar Street, another man is heard discussing a possible fourth explosion, although the place and timing are never confirmed. It is understood that police did subsequently intercept a fourth bomb on Al-Sreem Street, near to the Immigration Ministry. “From what I could hear, I do not think they were targeting the ministries,” Eljarh added. “Their targets seemed just to be streets, including civilians”.
