Rebels Had Double Agent in Gadhafi's Security Force

How did Libyan rebels take Tripoli with such apparent ease? It was thanks in part to men like Mahmoud Ben Jumaa, a senior member of Moammar Gadhafi’s personal security force and secret rebel agent, the Wall Street Journal reports. Since February, Ben Jumaa had been tipping resistance leaders in his neighborhood off to every arrest warrant he signed. “I directed one of the great oppressive organs of Gadhafi’s government,” he says. “And all the while, I was doing everything I could to make sure this revolution succeeded.”

Nor was Ben Jumaa alone; police commanders in his Fashloom neighborhood were part of the resistance as well, which is expected to make it easier to get police back on the streets. And when Ben Jumaa’s own name showed up on an arrest list a few weeks ago, it was another friend in the security forces who tipped him off, allowing him and his family to flee their home just hours before Gadhafi’s troops arrived. (More Libya stories.)