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Rebel Insider Concedes Weaknesses in Libya

BENGHAZI, Libya — After the uprising, the rebels stumbled as they tried to organize. They did a poor job of defining themselves when Libyans and the outside world tried to figure out what they stood for. And now, as they try to defeat Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s armed forces and militias, they will have to rely on allied airstrikes and young men with guns because the army that rebel military leaders bragged about consists of only about 1,000 trained men.

Those frank admissions came from Ali Tarhouni, who was appointed to the cabinet of the rebels’ shadow government on Wednesday as finance minister. Mr. Tarhouni, who teaches economics at the University of Washington, returned to Libya one month ago after more than 35 years in exile to advise the opposition on economic matters. The rebels are proclaiming his American credentials — he has a doctorate from Michigan State University — as they seek foreign recognition of their cause.

“He understands the Western mentality,” said Iman Bugaighis, a spokeswoman for the fledgling opposition government.

But more important, Mr. Tarhouni, 60, who briefed journalists on Wednesday night, appeared to be one of the few rebel officials willing to speak plainly about the movement’s shortcomings and challenges, after weeks of rosy predictions and distortions by some of his colleagues, especially regarding the abilities of the rebel fighters.

“The process was, and is, very chaotic,” Mr. Tarhouni said.

His appointment came as the rebels were held back for another day outside Ajdabiya in the east, a city controlled, and besieged, by government forces for more than a week. With artillery fire and missile strikes, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces have kept the rebels far from the northern entrance to the city, as fears mount about the fate of the civilians inside.

Mr. Tarhouni said he was hopeful that the rebels would be able to retake Ajdabiya soon, and face less resistance from government troops as they progressed toward Surt, a Qaddafi stronghold. “If Ajdabiya is liberated, I think the dynamics will change,” he said.

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Michael Slackman talks with political analysts about the rare show of support from many Arab leaders for the Western-led military intervention in Libya.

In the early 1970s, as a student activist, Mr. Tarhouni was kicked out of college in Libya several times as he and his fellow students called for democracy and greater freedoms.  He left the country in 1973, was stripped of his citizenship and sentenced to death in absentia a few years later, he said. He was put on a government hit list in 1981, he said.

In exile, Mr. Tarhouni remained a prominent opponent of Colonel Qaddafi.  A month ago, he said: “I abruptly, in total shame, left my students and came back in the middle of the quarter.  Everyone understood why.” 

The rebel movement he returned to struggled with cohesion and made confusing announcements about its leaders and its function. “There was a total vacuum,” Mr. Tarhouni said.  “I think it was reflected in the makeup of the council. We will clean it up, I promise you.”

This week, the rebel leadership announced its latest evolution, a government in waiting led by Mahmoud Jibril, a planning expert who defected from Colonel Qaddafi’s government.  Mr. Tarhouni, the finance minister, said cash was not a problem right now for the rebels because they had money from the central banks in Benghazi and other rebel-held cities. They have also been promised access to 1.4 billion dinars, or almost $1.1 billion, in currency that Britain printed for the Qaddafi government but had not yet delivered, he said.

It is not clear what relationship the new opposition government will have with an already announced national council, led by the country’s former justice minister, Mustapha Abdul Jalil.  For now, Mr. Tarhouni joins a growing list of politicians whom many Libyans are getting to know for the first time, in a country with a decimated political class and no formal opposition movement.

At the same time, all of the clamor to form a new government seems premature while the rebels struggle to defeat Colonel Qaddafi’s military and wrest cities from his control.  

Mr. Tarhouni acknowledged the dilemma, saying that without heavy artillery and planes, the rebels were left to rely on the young people who had first faced the colonel’s army with stones.  

“Now they’re carrying arms,” he said.  “Rightfully so.”  

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 16 of the New York edition with the headline: Rebel Insider Concedes Weaknesses In Libya. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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