[excerpt]..."When the conversation goes beyond visas, or interviews or press conferences or the latest government statement, you can sometimes catch a glimpse of self-questioning.
It largely takes the form of bewilderment. They are genuinely bewildered by what they perceive as our lack of understanding, our refusal to believe their every word, our reluctance to be told where we should go and what we should see.
To them, we are an irritating, volatile, partisan mob - paid-up members of a campaign to unseat their leader and provoke a destructive civil war in their country.
To say we don’t see eye-to-eye would be an understatement.
But I do pity some of these men - not because I’ve been duped, or have developed Stockholm syndrome, but because I am sure there are some who are genuinely wrestling with the question of what their personal future holds.
Some are without doubt deeply unpleasant, violent individuals. And there is a widespread sense of distrust, frustration and anger felt by all the journalists here towards our leather-jacket-clad minders, who keep us cooped up in our 5* house arrest, preventing us from doing our job.
But it’s also clear there are differences and variations in the attitudes of the minders. The polarised narrative of 'pro-Gaddafi vs. rebel' is a useful mode of story-telling, but we would all be fools to forget there are shades of grey and nuance on all sides of this conflict."...
