"Liberal" Saif Qaddafi now embracing Islamists

I've mentioned a couple of times how the New York Times fawned over Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, Mouammar's son, in the past. One of their more memorable quotes was "Mr. Qaddafi is, experts say, clearly an emerging force for liberalization."

Clearly!

The NYT today is trying to make up for its very poor judgment - and choice of "experts."

After six months battling a rebellion that his family portrayed as an Islamist conspiracy, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s son and one-time heir apparent said Wednesday that he was reversing course to forge a behind-the-scenes alliance with radical Islamist elements among the Libyan rebels to drive out their more liberal-minded confederates.

“The liberals will escape or be killed,” the son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, vowed in an hourlong interview that stretched past midnight. “We will do it together,” he added, wearing a newly grown beard and fingering Islamic prayer beads as he reclined on a love seat in a spare office tucked in a nearly deserted downtown hotel. “Libya will look like Saudi Arabia, like Iran. So what?”

Do you think that the paper will learn from its mistakes when it credulously quotes other Arab leaders who are mouthing words of liberalism, democracy and reform?

There are reports that this bloodthirsty former liberal just lost his brother in an airstrike.