After claims emerged yesterday that former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, who The New York Times describes as "Qaddafi's brutal enforcer," had been captured, the United States now says there's no proof he's in custody. The AFP is reporting that Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said, "At that stage they were not able to confirm that Senussi was in anybody's custody ... So that's the last I've heard on that point." That's a sentiment echoed by Abdurrahim El Keib, Libya's interim prime minister, in the Telegraph, "Before I can confirm it to you, I would like to confirm to myself that he was indeed captured. I will not confirm it to you until I am 100 percent sure." And it certainly echoes Hillary Clinton's non-chalant dismissal of Qaddafi's unconfirmed capture. "We've had a bunch of those before, we've had him captured a bunch of times." 

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at aabadsantos at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Alexander Abad-Santos