Three Questions on Obama's Great Libyan Adventure (excerpt)
...It turns out the new military chieftain of rebel forces in Tripoli, which fell this week to the rebels, is a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). The LIFG has long been an Islamist nemesis of Qaddafi, often with support from the Islamist regime in neighboring Sudan, and there’s lot of documentation that LIFG is an ally of Al Qaeda. So there’s room to argue that the US/NATO air war paved the way for allies of Al Qaeda to take over Libya. Of course, the rebels in Libya are complex and diverse, involving everyone from former Qaddafi military allies to tribal leaders to pro-Western liberals, but Islamists are a powerful component.
As the Post reports today:
“Documents unearthed from the archives of Libya’s security service show the former government deeply worried about an Islamist threat to the regime, concerns that reverberated this week as veteran jihadists claimed credit for leading last week’s rebel takeover of Tripoli….
“The documents were uncovered days after the regime fell to rebel fighters led in part by a self-proclaimed former Islamist, Abdelkarim Belhadj. He has declared himself the leader of the ‘Tripoli Brigade’ that spearheaded the defeat of Gaddafi loyalists in the capital. Belhadj is the former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Islamist organization that fought alongside Afghan insurgents against Russian occupation in the 1980s….
“U.S. officials on Tuesday did not dispute Belhadj’s Islamist roots but played down the connections.
“ ’Some members of LIFG in the past had connections with al-Qaeda in Sudan, Afghanistan or Pakistan, and others dropped their relationship with al-Qaeda entirely,’ said a senior U.S. official who closely tracks Islamic terrorist organizations. ‘It seems from their statements and support for establishing a democracy in Libya that this faction of LIFG does not support al-Qaeda. We’ll definitely be watching to see whether this is for real, or just for show.’ ”
Keep your fingers crossed.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/...eat-libyan-adventure
...It turns out the new military chieftain of rebel forces in Tripoli, which fell this week to the rebels, is a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). The LIFG has long been an Islamist nemesis of Qaddafi, often with support from the Islamist regime in neighboring Sudan, and there’s lot of documentation that LIFG is an ally of Al Qaeda. So there’s room to argue that the US/NATO air war paved the way for allies of Al Qaeda to take over Libya. Of course, the rebels in Libya are complex and diverse, involving everyone from former Qaddafi military allies to tribal leaders to pro-Western liberals, but Islamists are a powerful component.
As the Post reports today:
“Documents unearthed from the archives of Libya’s security service show the former government deeply worried about an Islamist threat to the regime, concerns that reverberated this week as veteran jihadists claimed credit for leading last week’s rebel takeover of Tripoli….
“The documents were uncovered days after the regime fell to rebel fighters led in part by a self-proclaimed former Islamist, Abdelkarim Belhadj. He has declared himself the leader of the ‘Tripoli Brigade’ that spearheaded the defeat of Gaddafi loyalists in the capital. Belhadj is the former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Islamist organization that fought alongside Afghan insurgents against Russian occupation in the 1980s….
“U.S. officials on Tuesday did not dispute Belhadj’s Islamist roots but played down the connections.
“ ’Some members of LIFG in the past had connections with al-Qaeda in Sudan, Afghanistan or Pakistan, and others dropped their relationship with al-Qaeda entirely,’ said a senior U.S. official who closely tracks Islamic terrorist organizations. ‘It seems from their statements and support for establishing a democracy in Libya that this faction of LIFG does not support al-Qaeda. We’ll definitely be watching to see whether this is for real, or just for show.’ ”
Keep your fingers crossed.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/...eat-libyan-adventure
