Libya faces growing Islamist threat

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Diplomats are warning of growing Islamist violence against western targets in Libya as blowback from the war in Mali, following last week's attack on the French embassy in Tripoli.

The bomb blast that wrecked much of the embassy is seen as a reprisal by Libyan militants for the decision by Paris the day before to extend its military mission against fellow jihadists in Mali.

The Guardian has learned that jihadist groups ejected from their Timbuktu stronghold have moved north, crossing the Sahara through Algeria and Niger to Libya, fuelling a growing Islamist insurgency.

...

Diplomats say jihadists cross the Sahara to join cadres in Libya's eastern coastal cities of Benghazi and Derna. Police stations in both cities have been hit by bombings in the past few days, part of an insurgency that threatens to undermine the country's fragile new democracy. Chad's president, Idriss Déby, claimed at the weekend that Benghazi was now home to training camps for Chadian rebel fighters.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/28/libya-mali-islamist-violence-tripoli

[Purveyor]

1. Sure glad we got 'rid of'...Gaddafi! /sarcasm eom

[Sand Wind]

7. Have you any clue about the perspective of the libyan people ?

They are happy about our intervension.

[Purveyor]

11. Give them another year and ask them. While your at it, poll the Iraqis and see what the numbers

are for wishing Saddam was back.

[Sand Wind]

12. Irak, as a majority, will never regret Saddam, because he was a sunit dictator.

Also, my own experience with the people of the different jasmin revolution show me that If they are regretfully of the stability that the dictator provide to them, they have some class conscience that tell them that this Is a tough time they have to pass.

[LanternWaste]

19. Much as the sentiment was prior to, and during the Whiskey Rebellion.

Much as the sentiment was just prior to, and during the Whiskey Rebellion.

[harmonicon]

14. A select number of the live ones maybe.

Not the ones we killed. Not the ones who died fighting for what they thought was just. Not the ones who were captured, had their hands tied behind their backs, and executed for being black. I don't think those people are so happy about the intervention.

[pampango]

16. "It turns out that Qaddafi wasn’t actually popular, and now that he is gone no one ..."

One of the many wrong predictions made last year by opponents of the revolution was that after it was over, there would be an Iraq-style pro-Qaddafi resistance. It turns out that Qaddafi wasn’t actually popular, and now that he is gone no one is interested in making trouble in his name.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/07/top-ten-surprises-on-libyas-election-day.html

I am always surprised when Americans think that a dictator would actually be popular or that so many people would be willing to risk their lives to get rid of one. (They always seem popular since protesters and other "complainers" are not tolerated.) Few of us would want to live with one man holding onto power for 40 years using the army and secret police. I don't recall "consent of the governed" being a big part of the Gaddafi governing style, unless we assume that he just knew that people loved him.

[kelliekat44]

17. Yeah, like mid-way into Reagan's second term I couldn't find anyone who voted for him.

Both Iraq and Libya had dictators but so did Iran and Argentina and the Philapines and a lot of other countries but we liked those dictators. Iraq and Libya were stable dictatorships with secular inclinations, not religious, with plenty of education and freedoms for women and children. now look at both countries. Extremists on all sides are unchecked by a central government, hordes of refugees seek help and living in nearby countries causing untold disruption and social problems. Why can't we see this? The people we usually support are the most oppressive...will we ever learn. If either Saddam or Qadaffi were so hated, why didn't the people rise up against them? It wouldn't have been any bloodier than it is now. Of course when you ask people living in these countries now many will say they did not support their dictator out of fear of losing some benefit now.

[pampango]

20. "If either Saddam or Qadaffi were so hated, why didn't the people rise up against them?"

Why don't people just rise up against a dictator whose secret police arrest anyone who speaks out against him and controls an army that is tasked with protecting the dictator? You might be surprised how afraid average people can of arrest, torture and 'disappearance' at the hands of a ruler's secret police.

When people do rise up against a dictator, many foreigners ask "Why are they rebelling now? Why not earlier? Surely this is a foreign plot against a benevolent dictator." Dictators know that they retain power by having a ruthless secret police force and a loyal army that knows it role is to protect him not to fight wars.

[harmonicon]

18. People don't have to love one government to prefer it over another.

I don't like the current US government, and I absolutely hated Bush, but never did I wish foreign militaries would bomb the US in support of right-wing religious extremists to oust him from power.

I wouldn't like it if my leg were caught it a bear trap, but I wouldn't consider it liberation if someone freed me from the trap so they could shoot me in the head.

[jakeXT]

2. I'm surprised HDI is up

http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/LBY.html

In Libya, 16.5 percent of parliamentary seats are held by women, and
55.6 percent of adult women have reached a secondary
or higher level of education compared to 44 percent of their male counterparts.
http://hdrstats.undp.org/images/explanations/LBY.pdf

This could change...

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Unintended consequences of intervention.

Something to ponder as the war mongers howl for intervention in Syria.

[Sand Wind]

8. Unintended consequences for us, but not for them

And they are proud of their revolution.
More than the US congress.

[pampango]

13. Thanks for your posts, Sand Wind. And welcome to DU. n/t

[Comrade Grumpy]

23. Unintended consequences for Libyans, as well.

They managed to overthrow the dictator, but not to put together an effective national government. There's a jihadi insurgency in the east, last month there were armed militias laying siege to government offices in Tripoli. And now their country is the crossroads for the Saharan jihadis.

Maybe things will settle down and Libyans will prosper in peace. But maybe not.

As for us, I think it's a waste of our time to chase ghosts through the desert.

[Pterodactyl]

22. Absolutely. Obama should have gotten congressional approval.

[Sunlei]

4. when they kicked those wandering groups out of Mali they left behind a bunch of papers.

and garbage, and mess from the buildings they lived in. A French military person was holding up some of those papers, visa papers, air travel tickets and supply lists from Saudi Arabia.

Someone backs these groups with funding, cut off their money.

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. Tell it to our buddies, the Saudis, and their junior partners, the Gulf emirates.

You know, the nice folks funding the Syrian revolution.

[Sunlei]

6. There will always be people to fund nasty things in this World we all have to live on.

I'm pretty happy the French went in asap and kicked them out of Mali.

But with money backing, and gun merchants, airline travel tickets, happy to sell to anyone with cash these paid terrorists won't go away anytime soon.

[Sand Wind]

9. They have to take their allies where they can found them.

And they are proud of their revolution, more than your congress.

[pampango]

10. Few Libyans want anyone like Gaddafi back. They will have to deal with terrorists without a dictator

Once the crazed dictator of Libya, Muammar Qaddafi, agreed to turn over some rotting nuclear blueprints and some chemical weapons, in 2004, the Bush administration was perfectly willing to do business with him and rehabilitate him. It even sent political prisoners to him to have them tortured. As recently as last week, Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert (Now there is a certifiable Tea Party nutjob if there ever was one) complained bitterly that Obama had allowed our good friend Qaddafi to be overthrown. Backing Qaddafi is hardly democratic or a promotion of the rule of law.

So, Mr. Romney does not understand ‘how we got here.’ By supporting oil despots to the hilt, backing corrupt and/or mercurial military dictators, waging a war of aggression on and occupying Iraq, and de facto supporting Israeli coloniization of Palestinian territory, the US made itself a monster from the point of view of ordinary Arabs and Iranians.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/top-ten-things-mitt-romney-gets-wrong-about-us-middle-east-policy.html

(During the national election of 2012) the remnants of Qaddafi supporters made no trouble, and many went to vote enthusiastically. One of the many wrong predictions made last year by opponents of the revolution was that after it was over, there would be an Iraq-style pro-Qaddafi resistance. It turns out that Qaddafi wasn’t actually popular, and now that he is gone no one is interested in making trouble in his name.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/07/top-ten-surprises-on-libyas-election-day.html

Gaddafi was popular in his own mind. As long as he had the army and secret police on his side that is really all that mattered. If left to his own devices he would still be around today practicing his own kind of 'terror' - secret police arresting people in the middle of the night, torturing them and often killing them to send a message to others who may not agree with the dictator's style of government.

Libyans don't yet seem to realize how lucky they were to have a patriot like Mummar who sacrificed greatly in order to protect them from terrorists. No one seems to want the likes of Mummar back again.

[harmonicon]

15. All made possible by the US tax-payer, don't you forget!!

USA! USA! US... oh, fuck it. It's stopped being even kind of funny and is now just disgusting again.

[Alamuti Lotus]

21. Libyan ministry remains under siege by former rebels

The "NATO Revolution(R)" is obviously doing great..

Dozens of gunmen kept Libya's foreign ministry under siege for a second day Monday, as violence spread when police officers firing their guns in the air stormed the interior ministry demanding higher wages.

An AFP correspondent and witnesses said that around 30 vehicles, some mounted with anti-aircraft guns, and unidentified armed men have encircled the foreign ministry in Tripoli since Sunday, demanding it sack officials from the previous government headed by Muammar Gaddafi.

Banners demanding the adoption of a law that would enforce the expulsion of Gaddafi-era officials were Monday plastered on the gate of the ministry building.

"The ministry is closed," Ayman Mohammed Aboudeina, one of the gunmen, told AFP, adding that "talks will be initiated in the coming hours with the concerned ministries."

He said the siege would be lifted when the protesters' demands are met through a vote in the General National Congress – the highest political authority in Libya – on a bill calling for the expulsion of former government employees.

Separately, a group of angry police officers entered the compound of the interior ministry on the airport road, firing their guns into air and demanding promotions and salary hikes, witnesses said.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/libyan-ministry-remains-under-siege-former-rebels