The rats appear ready to desert a sinking ship. Muammar Gaddafi's inner circle is cracking under the dual pressure of coalition air strikes and the prospect of being tried for war crimes if they can't hang on to power.

Reuters:

Messages seeking some kind of peaceful end to U.N.-backed military action or a safe exit for members of Gaddafi's entourage have been sent via intermediaries in Austria, Britain and France, said Roger Tamraz, a Middle Eastern businessman with long experience conducting deals with the Libyan regime.

Tamraz said Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Muammar's eldest son, and Abdullah Senoussi, the Libyan leader's brother-in-law, were the most prominent Gaddafi entourage members involved in seeking ways to end the fighting.

A U.S. national security official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said that U.S. government agencies were aware that Saif al-Islam and Senoussi had been involved in making peace overtures.

The U.S. official, and a European government official who is also following Libyan events closely, said that U.S. and European governments were treating the purported outreach with caution, but not dismissing it out of hand.

Would Gaddafi follow his son into exile? Not as long as there is absolutely no threat of coalition ground forces being used to oust him. Stalemate is pretty much what we have now and this redounds to the benefit of the dictator. Stalemate means the western powers will soon begin to get antsy and the UN may very well demand negotiations - negotiations that can only end with him remaining in power.

This may be a ploy to see how western powers would react if things really go south in Libya so don't expect any significant defections from Gaddafi's inner circle anytime soon.