Top aide: Gadhafi's 'suicidal' flight to birthplace

(CNN) -- Mansour Daou is known as the "Black Box" of Moammar Gadhafi's regime -- like an aircraft's data recorder, he knows some of Libya's darkest secrets.

And as one of Gadhafi's top security officials, who remained at his side until the final hours, Daou has a unique insight into the astonishing downfall of Africa's longest-serving leader.

Now in an interview with CNN he describes how the dictator, who was once of the world's most feared leaders, was forced to scavenge for food and hide in abandoned houses in the coastal city of Sirte.

"He was very worried and erratic -- this could be because he was afraid," Daou said.

According to Daou, Gadhafi became desperate to travel to his birthplace, the village of Jaref, 20 kilometers west of Sirte, a journey that Daou feared was "suicide."

Full Story