Qadaffi escapes into the Sahara...?

Reuters: Large Libyan convoy arrives in Niger: sources

Our guess: the 'desert mystic' has disappeared among Taureg nomads deep in the Saharan Maghreb.

Andy Morgan: GADDAFI AND THE TOUAREG: Love, hate and petro-dollars

In his speech of August 27th, while he vows to remain and fight to the death in Libya, he also suggests that the battle against the West will be waged in Sub-Saharan Africa after Libya has fallen...

LibyaSOS: VICTORY IS OURS! The Brother Leader Muammar Al Gaddafi

Thousands of you are waiting at various stations, I see you in Tanzania, in Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, and many other parts of Africa. How will you cross the deserts to Libya. Instead group yourselves where you are. The fight if it is not won in Libya will be coming to you. Prepare for it. Prepare traps for the invaders. You must defend your corners.

+

In other developments, there have been a couple of curious rumours of assassination attempts over the past weekend. The timing is suggestive, for if Qadaffi had hung on to power for just a few more days, these incidents would have coincided with the 42nd anniversary of his revolution.

First, the Emir of Qatar was said to have survived with injuries an attack by a suicide bomber. As the staunchly pro-Qadaffi blog Libya S.O.S. reports...

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT OF EMIR OF QATAR

According to Dawn newspaper of Egypt, the incident occurred in the wake of the interview, which Prince had with the Russian ambassador in the camp, on the outskirts of Doha. While procession was moving it strongly collided with a car apparently driven by the suicide bomber after the sound of bullets were heard at the site. A close associate of the Office Sheikh Khalifa Al Thani, former emir of Qatar,said that the incident resulted in injury of Emir of Qatar in the thigh and does not know the extent of that injury, eight military escorts and a close associate of the Emir of Qatar Hamad Al-Thani died on the spot. It is not yet known who stands behind this incident and what are the motives. And the death of General George Howard accompanying the prince is not yet confirmed by the media.
------
Update 06. September 2011. "These rumors are untrue and have no real justification," a source close to the family of the Emir said today.
It looks like Emir finally experienced on his own skin how it feels to be milled in the media machine.

Qatar is the home of Al Jazeera, which is accused by Qadaffi loyalists of stoking the Libyan civil war...

The Al-Jazeera HALL OF SHAME

The other incident recieved little reporting domestically, but what was said was that the regular POTUS treck to Camp David took a "highly unusual" detour on Friday...

ABC: Unexpected Detour: Marine One Forced to Land

As the original headline stated (preserved in the URL), this was blamed on bad weather. But thankfully, the resourceful journalists at ABC went above and beyond the call of duty to look up the weather conditions:

Light winds blew from the southeast at 10mph with mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the middle 70′s.

Later, a more plausible explanation was offered, and of course one has to go to local, not national, reports to find it...

Baltimore Sun: Civilian aircraft intercepted near Camp David

Aircraft was out of radio communication in Frederick Co.

A civilian aircraft flew in restricted airspace Friday near Camp David in Frederick County, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said in a statement.

An F-15E fighter jet intercepted the Piper plane at about 4:45 p.m., NORAD said.

NORAD said that the plane was out of radio communication and that it was escorted to an airport near Martinsburg, W.Va.

Update

Frederick News Post: NORAD: Weekend patrols were routine

Military jets heard over Frederick County during the weekend were on routine air patrols, according to North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Stacey Knott, NORAD public affairs spokeswoman, said she was not aware of any reason for jets to scramble Friday night, Saturday or Sunday.

She knew of only one airspace violation after President Barack Obama arrived at Camp David on Friday.

A Piper civilian general aviation aircraft violated a temporary flight restriction over the presidential retreat at about 4:45 p.m. Friday, she said. An F-15 intercepted the aircraft, which was out of communication, and escorted to an airport in Martinsburg, W.Va., Knott said.

Obama was at Camp David until Sunday morning.