WikiLeaks: Gaddafi Regime Fed Names of Jihadists to CIA and Britain

[Hissyspit]

Source: The Australian

Gaddafi regime fed names of jihadists to the CIA and to Britain
Alexi Mostrous From: The Times March 22, 2011 8:45AM
COLONEL Muammar Gaddafi's regime secretly provided information to Britain and the US on Islamic extremists in the east of Libya, according to leaked diplomatic cables and intelligence sources.

The names of hundreds of suspects were passed to the CIA and British intelligence.

“There was a strong, shared concern between Gaddafi and the US and UK Governments about radical Sunni jihadist terrorists, including the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG),” Paul Pillar, a CIA veteran who negotiated with Libya over its nuclear program, told The Times.

Diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks paint eastern Libya as a fertile ground for radical extremism. One source told US officials in 2008 that for young men from Derna, a city east of Benghazi, “resistance against coalition forces in Iraq was an important act of 'jihad' and a last act of defiance against the Gaddafi regime”.

Read more: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/gaddafi-regime-fed-names-of-jihadists-to-uk-cia/story-fn7ycml4-1226025836662

---

[Arctic Dave]

1. So MG is an ally in the WOT?

Throws a bit of a wrench in the narrative.

[Iterate]

5. He has been since 2003

He's been a hero of the neocons, and they were having fits when he started gunning down protesters and shelling cities. Not that they were bothered by that, mind you, but it was public and embarrassing. He had been plenty brutal enough for years and that didn't bother them. A couple weeks later, a few days ago actually, when it was obvious that Gaddafi couldn't last, they were stern about the need for intervention, admonishing Obama with that arrogant attitude we all hate.

They've had some pretty lucrative contracts for his image rehabilitation, for setting up sovereign trust funds, "academic" papers at think tanks, security support and training (including the brigade that shelled Misurata and shot up some unarmed protesters just today. The whole city is being held/surrounded without food, water, electricity, medicine), plus arms deals, you name it.

Man, you've got a lot of catching up to do.

I posted this today, about the sources of the revolution/rebellion/uprising. Have a look.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x705484

[TheLastMohican]

2. This is more important

than people think.
Who are these lybian rebels? Where are they from? Are they lybians or other nationals? Who supplied them with so much weaponry and who trained them?
And why do they have such a great "cover" in NATO forces, that other rebels never enjoy?

These questions will never be answered by the corporate media.

[Adsos Letter]

4. They got their weapons from defections and capture of Libyan military arsenals

and now Egypt has apparently begun supplying them light weaponry. As for training, their tactics, lack of discipline, and setbacks would suggest a serious lack of real training.

As for the dominant ideology in that group, I think that remains to be seen. Hopefully, they won't hate us.

[JDPriestly]

11. These unanswered questions are the reason that I (for as little as it is worth)

am reserving my opinion about the airstrikes, etc.

Who knows what is going on? I haven't heard any information about just what the rebels stand for.

[daleo]

15. All good questions.

I remember when the Afghanistan Taliban were called "the moral equivalent of the founding fathers" (by President Reagan, a president held in great esteem by Obama). How do we know we aren't being led down the same garden path.

[Iterate]

3. And in the very next sentence...

we learn that "Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of the CIA's Libya branch, said that Colonel Gaddafi had “sucked in” the West..."

Essentially, Gaddafi used allegations to target his own political opponents as well as occasionally giving them good information, just enough to salt the mine. The perfect neocon hero, manipulative and treacherous.

[WhiteTara]

6. Norriega re-do?

He was our bastard too.

[JackRiddler]

28. You'd have to go back to Ho Chi Minh to find an "enemy" who wasn't "our bastard"

Well, the Sandinistas and the Ayatollahs, I guess.

But since then?

Saddam

Noriega

Bin Ladin

Hekmatyar

Gaddafi

This is not by accident, although not by master plan.

This is a logical consequence of trying to dominate the world, with a system that needs enemies.

[sabrina 1]

7. He probably fooled them many times, giving them

names who were enemies of his regime. That's what is happening in Afghanistan. People with a gripe against someone, will give NATO names and they often use that information to bomb villages. Which is why so many civilians are being killed.

[Catherina]

9. True, that's typical but our embassy staff, spies, talked to residents

They noted that the mosques in the East preached Jihad extensively and that "un-Islamic" social and cultural organisations such as sports leagues, theatres and youth clubs had been shut down. That's a real concern.

...

The cable states: "By contrast with mosques in Tripoli and elsewhere in the country, where references to jihad are extremely rare, in Benghazi and Derna they are fairly frequent subjects."

...

Another confidential cable to Washington from the US embassy in Tripoli in June 2008 described Derna as a "wellspring" of insurgent fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq.

The cable quoted a resident as saying that while "not everyone likes the bearded ones" (a reference to conservative imams), "it's jihad - it's our duty, and you're talking about people who don't have much else to be proud of".

The cable continues: "Referring to actor Bruce Willis' character in the action picture "Die Hard", who stubbornly refused to die quietly, he said many young men in Derna viewed resistance against Qadhafi's regime and against coalition forces in Iraq as an important last act of defiance."

http://www.khilafah.com/index.php/news-watch/africa/11428-libya-wikileaks-cables-warn-of-extremist-beliefs

I think they have every right to fight our injustice in Iraq and the rest of the Muslim world but this doesn't give me a very good feeling.

I'm still combing through them, there are so many.

[sabrina 1]

10. Thank you, I have read that Eastern Libya is a

'hotbed' of fundamentalists. And, like Saddam Hussein, I am sure Qadaffi was a target for them as they view secular leaders as traitors to Islam. Which is why the notion that Saddam would have ever harbored Al Queda was so ridiculous. He was terrified of them.

[Catherina]

12. I've only read two cables so far.

I wish I could print them off and take them to bed. I'll try to get more disciplined and go through 2 or 3 a day. I never thought of the angle you just brought up about being a traitor to Islam. That adds a whole other dimension to this.

[sabrina 1]

14. Well, Osama Bin Laden referred to Saddam Hussein as a

traitor to Islam because of his modernization of Iraq. He wanted the U.S. to invade Iraq, saved him the bother of taking out Saddam himself I guess, He hoped to see an Islamic state take its place. He has gotten part of his wish. Women have lost many of the rights and freedoms they had under Saddam and Christians, eg, protected and very safe under Saddam have mostly fled Iraq now out of fear.

We really did a great job there.

[The Magistrate]

18. Not So Much Of Fundamentalists, Ma'am, As Of the Sennusi Sect

This has been a mainstay of resistance to Western incursion since the start of the twentieth century, members of the order taking the lead against the Italians in 1911, and launching attacks against England in Egypt between 1915 and 1917, then resuming resistance against Italy in the extremely vicious fighting during the 1920s in which Italy reasserted its colonial claim on the place. The old royal house was connected to the sect.

[jwirr]

8. This story targets the rat. Those people he turned in are going to

be after him for revenge. I suspect that may be the reason for the leak.

[Fool Count]

13. Was he stupid or what doing that? He just gave the CIA

a mailing list of who to rely on for any regime changing operation in Libya. Thank you, Colonel, our people will be in touch with you shortly.

[Solly Mack]

16. K&R

[DeSwiss]

17. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.....

...except when he isn't.

- K&R

[RedCloud]

19. Oops! Mission abort. Repeat. Mission abort.

[ikri]

20. 21st Century Communists

So we're just meant to believe Gaddafi that the names he gave to the UK & US were jihadists?

Reminds me of when any tinpot dictator could claim their opponents were socialists or communists and the cash from the US would come rolling in, no matter whether it was true or not. I'd guess that Gaddafi figured out that the UK & US would happily take care of his political problems for him if he just claimed they were linked to groups the US doesn't like.

[kpete]

21. Gaddafi regime fed names of jihadists to the CIA and to Britain

Source: The Australian

Gaddafi regime fed names of jihadists to the CIA and to Britain

* Alexi Mostrous
* From: The Times
* March 22, 2011 8:45AM

COLONEL Muammar Gaddafi's regime secretly provided information to Britain and the US on Islamic extremists in the east of Libya, according to leaked diplomatic cables and intelligence sources.

The names of hundreds of suspects were passed to the CIA and British intelligence.

“There was a strong, shared concern between Gaddafi and the US and UK Governments about radical Sunni jihadist terrorists, including the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG),” Paul Pillar, a CIA veteran who negotiated with Libya over its nuclear program, told The Times.

Diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks paint eastern Libya as a fertile ground for radical extremism. One source told US officials in 2008 that for young men from Derna, a city east of Benghazi, “resistance against coalition forces in Iraq was an important act of 'jihad' and a last act of defiance against the Gaddafi regime”.

Read more: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/gaddafi-regime-fed-names-of-jihadists-to-uk-cia/story-fn7ycml4-1226025836662

[aquart]

22. We ain't got no loyalty. Ask Saddam.

Oh wait.

[FiveGoodMen]

25. Or Noriega.

The 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States removed him from power; he was captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the United States. Noriega was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992. Noriega's U.S. prison sentence ended in September 2007
...
Born in Panama City, Noriega was a career soldier, receiving much of his education at the Military School of Chorrillos in Lima, Peru. He also received intelligence and counterintelligence training at the School of the Americas at the U.S. Army base Fort Gulick in 1967, as well as a course in psychological operations (psyops) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
...
Although the relationship did not become contractual until 1967, Noriega worked with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the late 1950s until the 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega

[DirkGently]

26. And Noriega. Our opposition to despots is mighty random & mercurial.

[WingDinger]

23. Oh dear God, another CIA assett that got uppity.

[Crowman1979]

24. How much do you wanna bet that the so-called jihadists were just people Gaddafi picked at random?

[Catherina]

27. So the US diplomatic staff was lying about talking to eyewitnesses there?

In other words US intelligence is worthless? Is that what you're saying?