DoorBert (OP)   User ID: 857877  United States10/15/2012 04:24 PM  Send Private Msg Add to Buddy List Add to Ignore List Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation |
Re: BENGHAZI-GATE: Obama's Plan with Muslim Brotherhood to Kidnap Amb Stevens and then Rescue Him for October Surprise?
The
fellow who wrote this take suggests that in Chicago it was well known
that both Amb. Stevesn, his lover and Obama were flaming Queens, and in
one take he even suggested that a dead Ambassador was a preferred
outcome, he can talk-no more:
[link to hillbuzz.org] |
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Re: BENGHAZI-GATE: Obama's Plan with Muslim Brotherhood to Kidnap Amb Stevens and then Rescue Him for October Surprise?
SOunds totally legit to me
TARDS UNITE!
|
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Re: BENGHAZI-GATE: Obama's Plan with Muslim Brotherhood to Kidnap Amb Stevens and then Rescue Him for October Surprise?
There’s
speculation here in Chicago that Obama couldn’t wait until 2016 for
health reasons. Most people on the ground here think Obama has “The
Slims”, and that his health will have deteriorated to the point that by
2016 he’d be a gaunt, walking skeleton with all the telltale signs of
depending on daily anti-viral cocktails. Others — like me personally —
believe Obama has Parkinsons and this, too, would have been far too
obvious by 2016 for him to win a national election. He’s already
disoriented, bewildered in public, and unable to function on even a
basic level without a TelePrompTer. He’s either got “The Slims” or
Parkinsons or a serious narcotics addiction…so the man who is the
current president of the United States is either sick or a junkie and
Democrats needed him in office as quickly as possible (so, Hillary be
damned).
[link to hillbuzz.org] |
| Xannixon Offer Upgrade User ID: 1676485 United States10/15/2012 04:27 PM Send Private Msg Add to Buddy List Add to Ignore List Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation |
Re: BENGHAZI-GATE: Obama's Plan with Muslim Brotherhood to Kidnap Amb Stevens and then Rescue Him for October Surprise?
There’s
speculation here in Chicago that Obama couldn’t wait until 2016 for
health reasons. Most people on the ground here think Obama has “The
Slims”, and that his health will have deteriorated to the point that by
2016 he’d be a gaunt, walking skeleton with all the telltale signs of
depending on daily anti-viral cocktails. Others — like me personally —
believe Obama has Parkinsons and this, too, would have been far too
obvious by 2016 for him to win a national election. He’s already
disoriented, bewildered in public, and unable to function on even a
basic level without a TelePrompTer. He’s either got “The Slims” or
Parkinsons or a serious narcotics addiction…so the man who is the
current president of the United States is either sick or a junkie and
Democrats needed him in office as quickly as possible (so, Hillary be
damned).
Quoting: DoorBert [link to hillbuzz.org] I was reading some articles about how he is showing signs of drug withdrawl |
Clare
Lopez is a senior fellow at RadicalIslam.org and a strategic policy and
intelligence expert with a focus on the Middle East, national defense
and counterterrorism. Lopez began her career as an operations officer
with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
DHS writes to Banks:May inspect safe deposit boxes & seize contents w/ no warrants
THE
UNITED STATES PROGRAM
Send me your comments please
Gadhafi
is now dead. After more than four decades of brutalizing the Libyan
people, he died a brutal death. His convoy was hit by NATO bombs as it
fled the city of Sirte. Western-backed revolutionaries finished the job,
wildly shouting “Allahu Akbar” — usually translated as “God is great” —
as they ripped his hair out, smashed his face in, and finally, put the
fatal bullet through his skull. American officials celebrated the
ghoulish announcement.
“We came. We saw. He died,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
upon hearing the news, borrowing a slightly modified version of the
famous phrase attributed to Roman emperor Julius Caesar. Western leaders
and lawmakers rushed to release public statements hailing the “success”
and “liberation” of Libya to the press.
Tyrant as “Important Ally”
But Gadhafi wasn’t always the enemy. In fact, despite decades of
supporting terror and murdering dissidents, his regime was considered an
“important ally” in the U.S. terror war as recently as late 2009. And
according to an American diplomatic cable from Tripoli released by
WikiLeaks, the bond was only getting stronger.
A high-level U.S. delegation that included several senior Senators,
such as John McCain and Joe Lieberman, visited the despot himself,
singing his praises, boasting about training his military officers in
America, and begging for a closer bilateral relationship between the two
governments. Senator McCain even promised to seek out more American
“security” equipment for the regime.
In 2006, then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed the
“Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” as “a model” for other
governments to emulate. While announcing that the regime was being
welcomed back to the international community, Rice also praised
Gadhafi’s “excellent cooperation in response to common global threats
faced by the civilized world.”
Western leaders of all stripes flocked to Tripoli to praise the Libyan
tyrant. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair forged a particularly
close bond with the despot. Time magazine wrote an article
explaining to confused Americans “Why Gaddafi’s Now a Good Guy.” And
President George W. Bush even called him up for a friendly chat.
Even a decade ago — before Gadhafi really agreed to give up his Weapons
of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs — Western intelligence agencies,
including the CIA, had a cozy relationship with the regime. According to
a report in the New York Times based on documents found in
Libya during the civil war, the U.S. government sent numerous suspects
to the regime for “interrogation” despite its well-known use of
brutality and torture.
Back then, the Libyan government was helping the West to pursue Islamic
extremists, many of whom were also waging “Jihad” against Gadhafi. But
by 2011, those same Muslim radicals — some intimately linked to
al-Qaeda, others who had been imprisoned in Guantanamo or tortured by
the U.S. government — were being armed and trained by the West.
Gadhafi Becomes the Enemy
“Revolution” was in the air. Citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, and other
Middle Eastern and North African nations were apparently rising up
spontaneously against their oppressive masters. Then, on February 17, it
spread to Benghazi, one of Libya’s most important cities.
Exactly what happened remains in dispute. According to the official
narrative at the time, Gadhafi hired mercenaries to brutally massacre
innocent civilian protesters asking for “democracy.” His air force,
meanwhile, indiscriminately dropped bombs on Libyan civilians. Among the
most astounding claims, made by U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice,
Gadhafi gave his forces “Viagra” to go on a “rape-spree.” Genocide was
sure to follow, Obama insisted.
Nearly all of those allegations were later shown to be false. The
Russian military said it was monitoring Libyan air space and no such
aerial bombings took place. Human-rights investigators found that the
“mercenaries” were actually just regular Libyan soldiers. Claims that
civilians were deliberately targeted were also proven false, with the New York Times
writing that the rebels felt “no loyalty to the truth in shaping their
propaganda.” Even U.S. military and intelligence officials later
conceded that the preposterous “Viagra” claims were unfounded.
Gadhafi, on the other hand, had a much different account. He claimed
drug-fueled al-Qaeda terrorists and foreign powers were terrorizing the
civilian population, attacking police and military installations, and
generally wreaking havoc across Eastern Libya. Appearing on TV, he vowed
that there would be “no mercy” in crushing the insurgency. But though
barely reported in the Western media, Gadhafi also offered an escape
route for insurgents via Egypt and amnesty to rebels who put down their
weapons.
The evidence favors Gadhafi’s version of events. Of course, Gadhafi’s
past rec-ord of human rights abuses does make his claims suspect, to say
the least. But how about the veracity of the rebels? As The New American reported
early on, numerous current and former al-Qaeda leaders — as well as
other affiliated extremists who boasted of having battled U.S. soldiers
in Iraq and Afghanistan — were largely leading the rebellion. And they
had been armed and trained by foreign powers including the U.S.
government well before the “international community” officially
intervened.
“Evidence is now in that President Barack Obama grossly exaggerated the
humanitarian threat to justify military action in Libya,” noted
University of Texas public affairs professor Alan Kuperman, an expert on
humanitarian intervention, in a piece for the Boston Globe.
Consider: “Misurata’s population is roughly 400,000. In nearly two
months of war, only 257 people — including combatants — have died there.
Of the 949 wounded, only 22 — less than 3 percent — are women,”
Kuperman explained. “If Khadafy [sic] were indiscriminately targeting
civilians, women would comprise about half the casualties.”
War on Gadhafi
But it didn’t matter that Gadhafi’s story was (oddly enough) probably
closer to the truth than the Western narrative — the war propaganda had
already taken on a life of its own. The United Nations Security Council
hastily convened on March 17. And with five abstentions, it approved
Resolution 1973, which purported to authorize a “no-fly zone” and “all
necessary measures” to “protect civilians.” That was Obama’s cue.
“Actions have consequences, and the writ of the international community
must be enforced,” Obama declared two days later during a visit to
Brazil. “Today I authorized the armed forces of the United States to
begin a limited military action in Libya in support of an international
effort to protect Libyan civilians. That action has now begun.”
Without consulting Congress — let alone obtaining a declaration of war,
which Obama himself admitted was required while on the campaign trail —
the President committed U.S. forces to a UN mission that was supposed
to last days or weeks, not months. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle
exploded. But Hillary Clinton assured them that the administration would
ignore Congress anyway.
Days came and went as NATO began to drop bombs — sometimes on civilians
and key civil infrastructure. The weeks quickly turned into months.
Obama and other Western leaders demanded that Gadhafi step down so that
he could be prosecuted for war crimes at the “International Criminal
Court.” But by mid-October — tens of thousands of Western air sorties
later — Gadhafi’s forces were still fighting in Western Libya.
Al-Qaeda & Co. Become Allies
As Gadhafi became public enemy number one, other veteran foes of the
U.S. government suddenly went from dangerous terrorists to democratic
“freedom fighters.” Most prominent among the terror groups that became
Western allies was the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
According to a 2007 study entitled “Al Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in
Iraq” by the U.S. military, the organization had an “increasingly
cooperative relationship with al-Qa’ida, which culminated in the LIFG
officially joining al-Qa’ida on November 3, 2007.” Before that, former
CIA boss George Tenet warned the U.S. Senate in 2004 that
al-Qaeda-linked groups like the LIFG represented “one of the most
immediate threats” to American security.
The LIFG was still named on the U.S. State Department’s most recent
list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, released on
September 15, 2011. Ironically, this would make the Obama administration
complicit in unlawfully providing material support to terrorist groups —
a very serious crime for regular citizens. And even though ignorance is
no excuse, the U.S. government admitted early on it knew what was
happening. NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Admiral James
Stavridis, for example, told a Senate committee in the first month of
the conflict that there were “flickers” of al-Qaeda within the Libyan
rebellion.
But in the battle to bring down the Gadhafi regime, it did not matter.
Western powers were literally arming, training, organizing, and offering
air support to the very same jihadists who just a few years earlier
were killing American troops. There are countless examples, but three
will suffice to prove the point:
Abdelhakim Belhaj: Before leading his powerful
militia against Gadhafi and being appointed the chief of Tripoli’s rebel
Military Council, Belhaj was the co-founder and leader of the notorious
LIFG. Eventually the terror “Emir,” as he has been called, was arrested
and tortured as an American prisoner in the terror war. In 2004,
according to reports, he was transferred by the CIA to the Gadhafi
regime — then a nominal U.S. terror-war ally.
Belhaj was freed in 2010 by Gadhafi under an amnesty agreement for
“former” terrorists. And more recently, the terror leader and his men
were trained by U.S. special forces to take on Gadhafi. His leadership
is now well established, and he continues to rule in Tripoli. More than
likely, analysts say, he will end up being a key figure in the new
regime.
A few reporters did highlight the seriousness of having a well-known
terrorist in charge of the Libyan capital. Journalist Pepe Escobar, one
of the first to report the news of Belhaj’s rise to power in Tripoli,
explained in the Asia Times: “Every intelligence agency in the
US, Europe and the Arab world knows where he’s coming from. He’s already
made sure in Libya that himself and his militia will only settle for
Sharia law.”
Escobar also noted that the repercussions would be widespread. “The
story of how an al-Qaeda asset turned out to be the top Libyan military
commander in still war-torn Tripoli is bound to shatter — once again —
that wilderness of mirrors that is the ‘war on terror,’” he noted. It
would also compromise “the carefully constructed propaganda of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO’s) ‘humanitarian’ intervention in
Libya.”
Abu Sufian Ibrahim bin Qumu: The former Guantanamo Bay inmate
was considered by U.S. officials to be a “probable” member of al-Qaeda,
according to government documents released by WikiLeaks. American
investigators said bin Qumu represented a “medium-to-high risk.” Now,
however, he is among the Libyan rebellion’s leadership.
The former-American-prisoner-turned-American-ally was captured in
Pakistan after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He was then sent to
Guantanamo Bay, where U.S. analysts determined in 2005 that he was a
“former member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), [a] probable
member of al Qaeda and a member of the North African Extremist
Network.”
In addition to admittedly working for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, bin Qumu
“has a long-term association with Islamic extremist jihad and members
of al-Qaeda and other extremist groups,” the document explained. While
in Pakistan’s tribal region, bin Qumu “communicated with likely
extremist element[s] in Afghanistan via radio … , indicating a position
of leadership.”
Citing intelligence obtained from the Libyan regime when it was still a
U.S. terror-war ally, the secret report said bin Qumu was considered a
“dangerous man with no qualms about committing terrorist acts.” He was
known as one of the “extremist commanders of the Afghan Arabs,” the
document stated, referring to jihadists in Afghanistan who were funded,
armed, and trained by the U.S. government before apparently turning
against it.
But even though American officials believed bin Qumu represented a
“medium-to-high risk” and that “he is likely to pose a threat to the
U.S., its interests and allies,” he was sent to Libya in 2007 following
six years in Guantanamo. The next year, he was set free by Gadhafi under
an “amnesty” program.
In 2011, bin Qumu — with U.S. and international military support —
reportedly led an anti-Gadhafi rebel militia known as the “Darnah
Brigade” from the Libyan city of the same name. “The former enemy and
prisoner of the United States is now an ally of sorts, a remarkable
turnabout resulting from shifting American policies rather than any
obvious change in Mr. Qumu,” the New York Times noted in a piece about the jihadist.
Prior to being sent to Guantanamo, bin Qumu already had a long,
documented history of problems with the law, too. According to the
leaked U.S. report, he was sentenced to 10 years in a Libyan prison for
“murder, physical assault, armed assault and distributing narcotics”
after serving in Gadhafi’s military. He escaped from prison in 1993 and
fled through Egypt to Afghanistan. There, he trained in at least two
al-Qaeda terror camps, according to news reports.
The U.K. Telegraph reported that bin Qumu eventually moved to
Sudan, where he went to work for a company owned by former al-Qaeda boss
Osama bin Laden. Finally he returned to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region
to help in the battle against U.S. forces before being captured by
Pakistani police and shipped to Guantanamo.
Abdul Hakim al-Hasidi: The man identified by an article in the Telegraph
and other reports as “the Libyan rebel leader” wasn’t always a friend
of the West. In fact, he actually battled U.S. and coalition forces
during the invasion of Afghanistan a decade ago. Al-Hasidi was captured
in 2002, handed over to U.S. authorities, and eventually released in
Libya in 2008. He promptly resumed his anti-American activities,
admittedly recruiting dozens of jihadists to battle U.S. troops in Iraq
with the LIFG.
In 2011, with U.S. and international air support, al-Hasidi was
reportedly leading the anti-Gadhafi revolution. And in an interview with
an Italian newspaper earlier this year, he admitted that the Islamic
warriors he originally recruited to kill Western forces were fighting
alongside Westerners in the war on Gadhafi.
The Telegraph, in an article entitled “Libyan rebel commander
admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links,” quoted al-Hasidi as saying
that his Iraq-war warriors “are patriots and good Muslims, not
terrorists.” He also praised al-Qaeda, saying they are “good Muslims …
fighting against the invader.”
In a more recent interview with the Wall Street Journal,
however, his tone was more moderate. “Our view is starting to change of
the U.S.,” he said. “If we hated the Americans 100 percent, today it is
less than 50 percent.”
Al-Qaeda Wins Big
Backed by NATO warplanes and armed with fancy Western weapons, Libyan
militias boldly marched across the nation. Along the way they freed
thousands of Islamic extremists Gadhafi had in prison, many of whom were
affiliated with al-Qaeda. They also raided Gadhafi’s weapons stockpiles
— including tens of thousands of missiles capable of bringing down
airplanes — and began shipping them out of the country. By late October
the al-Qaeda flag was flying over the Benghazi courthouse, a key
revolutionary headquarters.
Al-Qaeda leaders outside of Libya cheered them on the whole way.
When regimes in the region refused to support the Libyan rebels with
sufficient vigor, al-Qaeda attacked those governments, as well. After an
attack on an important Algerian military academy that left 18 dead, for
example, a statement released by al-Qaeda said the strike was due to
the regime in Algeria “continuing to support the Libyan dictator Gadhafi
to fight against our brothers.”
This pattern of siding with, arming, and training forces that hold
great antipathy toward the United States is continual. As with Gadhafi,
before becoming enemies of the U.S. government, many of the Libyan
Islamists — especially those affiliated with the LIFG and al-Qaeda —
were American allies. In fact, the U.S. government — by its own
admission — actually armed, trained, and funded bin Laden and his Muslim
warriors in Afghanistan just a few decades ago to battle the Soviet
occupation. Many of those fighters eventually went back to Libya, where
Gadhafi and the U.S. government became their next targets.
Of course, none of this apparent madness went unnoticed. But the
establishment press did its best to downplay the significance of ex-U.S.
foes in the Libyan rebellion, describing rebel leaders as “reformed”
Islamic militants, “former” jihadists, etc. Today, after killing
Gadhafi, they are taking charge.
New Regime: Old Regime
Of course, not all of the new Libyan rulers are veteran
jihadists who have battled U.S. troops. More than a few prominent
leaders are members of the only slightly more “moderate” Libyan Muslim
Brotherhood. Leading the Tripoli Governing Council, for instance, is the
Brotherhood’s Abel al-Rajazk Abu Hajar. Among the new regime’s most
important political and spiritual leaders is senior Brotherhood boss Ali
Sallabi.
Many of the new rulers are also old rulers — former Gadhafi officials,
in fact. The Interim Transitional Council (NTC)chairman and de facto
head of state Mustafa Abdul Jalil, for example, was a top functionary in
the previous regime. By 2007, he had become the “Justice” Minister, a
position he held until this year. When the revolution broke out, Gadhafi
sent Jalil to Benghazi to negotiate the release of hostages seized by
rebels. He defected and became the official “leader” of the rebellion,
though many Islamist fighters still refuse to recognize his purported
authority.
The other public face of the new NTC regime, so-called Interim Prime
Minister Mahmoud Jibril, was also a former Gadhafi regime functionary.
In 2007, Jibril was appointed to lead Libya’s National Economic
Development Board. And like Jalil, he defected to the rebels early on.
But even with senior Gadhafi regime figures close to the top, Sharia
will be the law of the land in “liberated” Libya — assuming the current
regime manages to maintain control. “We take the Islamic religion as the
core of our new government,” noted NTC Chairman Jalil during a
celebration of Gadhafi’s killing. “The constitution will be based on our
Islamic religion.” Any laws that conflict with Islam, such as Gadhafi’s
ban on polygamy, are “null and void legally,” Jalil explained.
The new Libyan constitution, if an official draft released in late
August is any indication of what may emerge, will also create a hybrid
between big-government socialism and Islamic law. Article 8, for
instance, makes the government responsible for providing “an appropriate
standard of living” for all citizens. Article 1 notes that “Islam is
the religion of the state and the principal source of legislation is
Islamic jurisprudence.”
The first round of elections, according to NTC officials, should come
within the next eight months. That vote would aim to create a committee
to finalize a constitution and an official interim government. After the
new constitution is approved, real elections would take place sometime
in 2013 to elect a President and parliament. At least that is supposed
to be the plan.
But following Egypt’s “revolution” to unseat despot Hosni Mubarak, the
military junta that took over has repeatedly postponed elections. And
instead of organizing a process for voting, the new regime has taken to
mowing down Christian protesters in Cairo who were upset over repeated
attacks on their churches. In Tunisia, Libya’s neighbor to the west,
elections were held after despot Ben Ali fled the country. Those
resulted in a landslide win for Islamism.
Uncivil War
Almost from the beginning of the civil war, the rebels have been
accused of monstrous war crimes and wide-scale barbarity — some of it
too horrendous even to mention. In the early weeks and months, gruesome
videos surfaced online showing beheadings, lynchings, and other crimes
perpetrated by rebel forces, proving that at least some of the
allegations are true.
Soon the rebels’ rage focused on people with dark skin in what some
analysts called genocide and “ethnic cleansing,” sparking condemnation
worldwide from human-rights groups and officials. Reports and
photographic evidence indicate that atrocities up to and including mass
executions took place. And many black victims were found with their
hands bound behind their backs and bullets through their skulls.
Horrific internment camps, systematic rape, rampant torture, lynching,
and looting of businesses owned by blacks were all reported as well.
Countless sub-Saharan Africans were forced to flee their homes in Libya
to avoid the same fate. Black migrant workers probably suffered the
most.
The campaign of racist terror began shortly after the Benghazi uprising
in February, when rumors that Gadhafi hired black mercenaries began
circulating. As insurgent forces solidified their grip over most of
Libya, their race-based persecution quickly intensified. Entire cities
and towns formerly occupied by blacks were ultimately ethnically
cleansed and destroyed.
“The Brigade for Purging Slaves, Black Skin” — apparently a rebel
slogan — was found months ago scrawled all along the road to Tawarga. By
mid-September, the coastal city of about 10,000 mostly black residents
had essentially been wiped off the map. Rebel forces rounded up the
remaining inhabitants and reportedly shipped them to camps, although
reporters searching for the former residents were not able to locate
them. Homes, businesses, and schools were then looted before being
burned to the ground.
Finally, graffiti reading “slaves,” “negroes,” and “abeed” — a
derogatory term for blacks — was painted all over the ruins by NATO’s
revolutionaries. The former city then became a “closed military area,”
according to rebels guarding a checkpoint interviewed by the McClatchy
news service. “Tawarga no longer exists,” a rebel commander told the Wall Street Journal. Another rebel fighter boasted: “We are setting it on fire to prevent anyone from living here again.”
In late August, the U.K.’s Independent reported that a
makeshift hospital had become a ghastly crime scene. Dozens of men,
almost all of them black, were murdered and left to rot — some of them
still hooked up to medical equipment. “The killings were pitiless,” the
paper observed. “Many of [the victims] had their hands tied behind their
back, either with plastic handcuffs or ropes. One had a scarf stuffed
into his mouth.”
Amnesty International’s Nicolas Beger condemned the wanton savagery in
an interview with the Associated Press, saying sub-Saharan Africans “are
at real risk of being taken from their work or their homes or the
street to be tortured or killed.” A report released by the organization
noted that Gadhafi’s regime had perpetrated widespread abuses. But rebel
forces “have also committed human rights abuses, in some cases
amounting to war crimes.”
Libya’s Future: More War?
Even as the NTC declared Libya “liberated” following the violent death
of Gadhafi, analysts were warning that civil war might continue to rage
on as loyalists, militia groups, and armed factions struggled to seize
power. And it is already happening.
Western leaders demanded that all of the revolutionary groups unify
behind the NTC. But widely divergent interests — including remaining
pro-Gadhafi forces and victims of NATO bombings and rebel brutality —
would seem to make that a difficult proposition, according to Libyans
and outside analysts.
There are many critical and possibly irreconcilable fault lines
dividing Libyan society — Islamists, liberals, tribal chiefs, ethnic
groups, Gadhafi loyalists, desert nomads, regional factions, and more.
Some of the competing groups and interests were able to unite around
deposing the Libyan government. But now that it is officially ousted,
the already-tense situation is becoming even more complex.
Various self-appointed councils, committees, militias, and brigades
continue bickering, with some even producing arrest warrants for leaders
of others. And many of the groups and chiefs have so far refused to
recognize the NTC as the new legitimate regime. “With so many armed
groups operating in Tripoli and elsewhere in Libya, a peaceful
resolution to the question of who should take power is unlikely,” noted
an analysis by Stratfor, a global intelligence firm. “The shape of the
new Libya is highly uncertain, but what is clear is that the NTC is not
going to simply take control where Gadhafi left off.”
More violence is likely. And tensions are so high that some experts
have suggested that a second “civil war” is a distinct possibility as
the power struggle between different armed coalitions continues to gain
strength. “The unique common goal for all the NTC factions was to defeat
Gadhafi and clear the ground for building a new Libyan authority. So in
a way Gadhafi continued to keep the country united even during the
conflict,” noted Gabriele Iacovino, a North Africa analyst at the
Italy-based International Studies Centre. “Now Gadhafi is dead and who
knows what will happen next.”
Divisions between the pro- and anti-Gadhafi camps remain strong, too.
As rebel forces overtook Gadhafi strongholds, countless suspected
supporters of the regime were arrested, tortured, and even executed
without trial. But others escaped to fight another day. A week after
Gadhafi was killed, Reuters reported that furious tribesmen were already
waging an insurgency against the new regime.
Even with overwhelming assistance from the most powerful military
alliance in the world, it took nearly eight months to officially bring
down Gadhafi — indicating a strong level of resistance against the new
regime or its foreign backers that will not be easy to quell. And
Gadhafi reportedly distributed huge stockpiles of wealth and arms among
loyalists nationwide before his demise in preparation for what his
regime vowed would be a long-lasting and bloody insurgency.
Western leaders — praising the mission as a success and model to be
followed in the future — have promised to continue showering the new
Libyan regime with taxpayer money for as long as necessary. The NTC
asked NATO to stay to fight off the growing insurgency. But the UN voted
on October 27 to end international military operations, and NATO said
it planned to withdraw by the end of the month.
By November, Libyan weapons were popping up all over the region — often
in the hands of anti-Israel militants near Gaza. Much of Libya was in
ruins. Bloated bodies were decomposing on the streets as fighting and
gun battles continued to rage.
Critics and pessimists were warning that the real disasters were still
to come, complaining that Libya was just the latest in an endless parade
of tragic U.S. foreign policy fiascos that would blow up in America’s
face. Western leaders, meanwhile, were tripping over themselves to
celebrate the success.
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Related article:
Brief History of Gadhafi and His Regime