Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited “around 25” men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are “today are on the front lines in Adjabiya”. Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters “are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,” but added that the “members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader”.

His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad’s president, said al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel zone and acquired arms, “including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries”. Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against “the foreign invasion” in Afghanistan, before being “captured in 2002 in Peshwar, in Pakistan”. He was later handed over to the US, and then held in Libya before being released in 2008.

US and British government sources said Mr al-Hasidi was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which killed dozens of Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around Derna and Benghazi in 1995 and 1996. Even though the LIFG is not part of the al-Qaeda organisation, the United States military’s West Point academy has said the two share an “increasingly co-operative relationship”. In 2007, documents captured by allied forces from the town of Sinjar, showed LIFG emmbers made up the second-largest cohort of foreign fighters in Iraq, after Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month, al-Qaeda issued a call for supporters to back the Libyan rebellion, which it said would lead to the imposition of “the stage of Islam” in the country.

Great idea, lets go ahead and arm the crazies, as long as it’s all about democracy.




  1. Rick says:

    Our mistake is having relations with Ghadaffi and other despotic regimes in the Arab League in the first place.
    We should treat them like North Korea….no relations, no trade, no nothing.
    That frees us from any responsibility in that area. We should quit worrying about oil interests, we got plenty at home but the ultra wealthy run our country, and thus run our foreign policy too.

  2. bobbo, I just unplugged my shades says:

    “Great idea, lets go ahead and arm the crazies, as long as it’s all about democracy.” /// I sense some sarcasm, but the statement is correct. Tyranny gets passed only from one tyrant to another. Democracy no matter how poorly formed has a “chance” at reform per the will of the people.

    Very hard to base American Exceptionalism on our love of freedom and then allow democratic movements of any stripe to be slaughtered by any tyrant in control.

  3. McCullough says:

    Hey, I’m all for it, as long as they “pinky swear” never to use the arms against US.

    /sarcasm.

  4. bobbo, I just unplugged my shades says:

    Sadly, there are no guarantees in the realm of human affairs and we are left only to our own choices based on their various moralities.

    I’ll say again: I don’t actually care what happens in Libya. Its just another example of our own lack of freedom because of our voluntary addiction to oil.

    Its like Alfie is in charge of our energy policy and making the best decisions he is capable of.

    /likewise

  5. chris says:

    #1

    Ghadaffi was the total outsider for about 20 years, and remained in power. N.Korea has a very centralized and durable power structure. Compare them other countries in terms of length in office. Not too shabby.

    These aren’t wallflowers who you can emotionally punish by withholding affection. They are nations with serious resources.

    They have no buy-in to the international system, so they are going to act out. Your example of N.Korea is once again instructive. They field one of the elite state-sponsored crime networks. Really nasty people. Big in weapons and meth.

    The better way is to only exclude countries from individual markets where they don’t conform for a real reason. Address bad behavior directly and specifically.

    Use slave labor? Ban trade in consumer goods. Sell weapons to maniacs? Restrict dual-use goods. Shutting off the chemical industry to an LDC means it will never progress.

    We don’t have to be soft, but shouldn’t be dumb. If you opt for no talk, it means NO control.

    Western social engineering with Arabs is not, historically, a successful enterprise. We should offer them a deal with real conditions. Punish if they don’t fulfill the conditions, but give benefits if they do.

  6. sargasso_c says:

    Remember that this all started with a depressed vegetable salesman in Egypt.

  7. Floyd says:

    Alfie/Taxed: there are side effects when drilling for oil, such as pollution from drilling mud and similar materials.

    Politics is not really the issue, it’s how do you get the oil out of the ground without making the oilfield unusable for other purposes like building homes, farming or ranching.

  8. The_Tick says:

    Poor Alfie, stuck in a world where everyone is stupid but him.

  9. Gulliver says:

    Is their anyone out there still a ‘true believer’ in 9-11, the WTC Towers falling down because airplanes hit them, that an airplane hit the Pentagon, that al Quida is real & bin Laden is still alive, that Saddam had ‘yellow cake, Iraq is headed for demoracy, that Karzi is the ‘good guy’, that ‘foreign policy’ isn’t about drugs & oil, that “W” was elected twice, JFK was killed by Oswald, Nixon was not a ‘Crook’, Hinkley shot RR because of love for Jody Foster, Ken Lay is dead, gasoline prices depend on cost/barrel of oil, …, Rush Limbaugh speaks for the average guy, Wolf has the World at his fingertips in the Situation Room, … everything will turn-out OK & we will live ‘happy ever after’ ???

  10. tcc3 says:

    #7 TeaDud: “We have more oil than the middle east”

    Not even Close:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_Oil_Reserves_by_Region.PNG

    I applaud your dedication to being wrong, though.

  11. tcc3 says:

    #15 TeaDud, from your own link:

    “For years, the industry and the government considered oil shale — a rock that produces petroleum when heated — too expensive to be a feasible source of oil.”

    “The report also says oil-shale mining, above-ground processing and disposing of spent shale cause significant adverse environmental impacts. Shell Oil is working on a process that would heat the oil shale in place, which could have less effect on the environment.”

    Expensive and environmentally hazardous. And why would Shell be working on it if the rights were all locked down by “evil” progressives?

    Go back and read the definition of “proven reserves.” Oil we cant get to doesn’t count till we can.

  12. bobbo, I just unplugged my shades says:

    #11–Gullible==HEY!!!! Nixon WAS a crook!

  13. MikeN says:

    The difference between Bush and Obama is that Obama followed the Constitution.

  14. MikeN says:

    Shouldn’t Iran be the country that gets bombed first?

  15. soundwash says:

    QUICK!

    -everyone look surprised..

    -s

  16. Publius says:

    Reagan proved the Muj are our men

    Reagan and Muj True Love Forever!

  17. Publius says:

    Why We Fight

    Starring John McCain

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682

    Full movie

  18. chuck says:

    So how soon before we start supplying the Libyan “rebels” with arms, and then later, they start using the same weapons against the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan?

  19. nobody says:

    >Oil is God’s gift to mankind
    Trouble is that it seems to be a middle eastern God who gave it his people.

  20. MikeN says:

    Obama vs Bush, Obama is Awesome, Bush is an Idiot.
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=yAyCdfOXvec

  21. chris says:

    #25 A lot of what they are already using in Afghanistan was given by us. Afghans were mostly using WWI or WWII vintage guns when the soviets attacked. We gave them lots of secondhand eastern bloc AKs so the guns couldn’t be traced back to us.

    In the intervening period, Taliban shitheads, there was much less poppy transacted. Fewer guns coming in for barter.

    AKs are just about indestructible. The ones we sent are still being used, just not all of them.

    #17 Almost.

  22. chris says:

    Should we look at the political violence in the Middle East as the Summer of Love, or as a reverse Crusade?

  23. MikeN says:

    When is Joe Biden going to lead the charge for impeachment like he promised to Chris Matthews?

  24. Dallas says:

    I predict Libya, Egypt and the rest will have democratic systems and that Iran is next. Ironic that the two nations that Dick and Bush invaded turn out to be the only ones remaining with totalitarian government.

  25. MikeN says:

    Dallas, Iran already has a Democratic system. There was a presidential election. Perhaps you missed it?


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