Gaddafi heading to 2012 Olympics in London? Not so fast.

GlobalPost

Muammar Gaddafi's oldest son probably won't be throwing any high-profile ragers at the Olympic Games in London next summer.

Organizers for the 2012 London Olympic Games have reportedly retracted an offer to sell hundreds of coveted tickets to next year's international sporting event to Mohammed Gaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader.

A British newspaper first broke the news on Tuesday that Mohammed, as head of Libya's Olympic delegation, requested and was permitted to purchase as many as 1,000 tickets to the London Games.

Mohammed would have been eligible to give the tickets away or sell them at a mark-up of 20 percent, according to the Telegraph.

Some Olympic organizers in London feared that Gaddafi himself might actually try to 'crash' the Games, creating a potentially awkward diplomatic scenario. And by Wednesday, the 'public outcry' was loud enough that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) apparently started having second thoughts.

From the Telegraph on Wednesday:

"Mark Adams, the IOC’s director of communications, said that Libya would not be given any printed tickets 'until the current situation becomes clearer'. 'To be absolutely clear, no tickets have been printed or paid for,' he said."

Gaddafi and sons could still be banned from the Games - even if the IOC eventually provides the Libyan sporting committee with tickets.

England's government recently implied that it would reserve the last word on who can and cannot enter the country to attend the 2012 Olympics.

"The fact is that Gaddafi, his family and key members of that regime are subject to a travel ban and won't be allowed to travel here to the Olympics in any event," said a spokesman for David Cameron, the British prime minister, as reported by the Guardian.

Meanwhile, pro-Gaddafi forces have reportedly increased the shelling in Libya's Nafusa Mountains west of Tripoli.  

The conflict between government troops and Libyan rebels, who have been demanding the ouster of Gaddafi after nearly four decades of autocratic rule, will enter its fifth month later this weekend.  

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