Al-Qaida among Libya rebels, NATO chief fears

[David__77]

Source: Calgary Times

Libyan rebel forces may have been infiltrated by al-Qaida, a senior American military commander warned on Wednesday.

Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, said that American intelligence had picked up "flickers" of terrorist activity among rebel groups. Senior British government figures described the admission as "very alarming".

...

"We are examining very closely the content, composition, the personalities, who are the leaders of these opposition forces," Admiral Stavridis said in testimony to the U.S. Senate. While the opposition's leadership appeared to be "responsible men and women" fighting the Gaddafi regime, he said: "We have seen flickers in the intelligence of potential al-Qaida, Hizbollah. We've seen different things.



Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Qaida+among+Libya+rebels+NATO+chief+fears/4520766/story.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. Only to have been expected.

:hi:

[L. Coyote]

15. HUGE DO'H!!!

[dipsydoodle]

19. Comes with the territory.

.

[Autumn]

2. Interesting. n/t

[Downwinder]

3. Blowing smoke.

Al-Qaida is organized. The same can't be said for the Libya opposition.

[Kolesar]

5. yeah, what are they, a virus? eom

[ixion]

9. what would be the purpose of this NATO Gen. 'blowing smoke'

it really serves no strategic purpose.

[stockholmer]

4. infiltrated? hell, they recruited them (see the links below)

lots of info
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=747915&mesg_id=747915

and

Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html

[goodnews]

8. now that's interesting--"recruit" vs "infiltrate". nt

[xchrom]

6. I think my eyes just rolled out the back of my head. Nt

[goodnews]

7. If true, and if Al Qaeda is a CIA asset....

This means that Obama is lying about having no boots on the ground. I guess

[Frustratedlady]

10. Didn't I just hear Hillary was working out a plan to arm the rebels?

I hope this doesn't backfire.

Wasn't there a post yesterday about bin Laden getting active again (or his ghost)?

[trud]

13. Hillary, never met a war she didn't like.

And to think I voted for Obama because I knew that about her.

"World Powers meet today to discuss Libya's future"

Excuse me? How about butting out and let the Libyans decide their future? Lots of smiles there, Hill, you chickenhawk.



As a woman, I so look forward to al Qaeda running Libya, one of the few countries in the area where women now have the right to vote, to hold office, to have jobs outside the home, and have an Equal Rights Amendment. No concern of HiIl's, however.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Autumn]

26. The Power of Nightmares

I have those DVDs.:thumbsup:

[Frustratedlady]

27. Wow! I can't believe the resources some of you have. Thanks.

I fear this conflict may come back to bite us. Will ridding Ghadaffi of power open Libya to takeover by OBL?

On the other hand, if he is still alive, it may draw him out in the open...or not.

[stockholmer]

28. if OBL is still alive(which I highly doubt)he long ago gave up 'operational control'

I look at al-Qeada as a sort of portable insta-riot/war, a synthetic terror designed to guarantee endless conflicts to sate the appetite war machine, and scare the West nations populace into acceptance of the surveillance society.

Don't get me wrong, many in it are genuine Islamic terrorists, but they are simply the tips of the spear, and when a spear is aimed and thrown in certain direct, the tip follows that path.

Study the subterfuge of the British in the middle east for the last 200 years, and you will see the patterns of present day emerge from the shadows.

[Frustratedlady]

30. Interesting concept.

[AllTooEasy]

11. I'm sure the entire spectrum of groups is amoungst the rebels, Qaddafi pissed off everybody

[stockholmer]

20. Qaddafi pissed off Tony Blair so much he hugged him, and BP so much they invested $50 bill in Libya

birds of a feather and all that............................





History should come down hard on Tony Blair for embracing Gaddafi
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/25/tony-blair-colonel-gaddafi-alexander-chancellor


Blair meets Gaddafi as BP lands energy deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/05/29/britain-africa-idUSL2965086120070529

BP, Gaddafi, and Britain’s oil comeuppance
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=178431

Britain’s penchant for putting oil profits ahead of human life has a shameful precedent: Last year, the Scottish government released convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi allegedly in exchange for lucrative oil contracts in Lybia

[AllTooEasy]

12. "Flickers"? WTF?! Like we had "flickers" of Irag WMD evidence?

[Lasher]

17. Lemme see now, what was that ridiculous phrase the desperate neocons came up with?

I remember: weapons of mass destruction program related activities

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat..." - Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003

[TMcCaleb]

16. wow

We really stepped in it.

[maxsolomon]

18. there SHOULD be Arab Jihadis helping the rebels

they're arab, they have military training, they want to effect change. all the arab taliban should pack up and fly to libya. pakistani taliban, too.

if they're not there, do they APPROVE of Qaddafi?

half :sarcasm:

[Baclava]

21. Well, at least they know how to shoot a RPG. What the heck, welcome aboard!

Welcome to the Coalition - no, no, you don't get any shoulder fired Stingers.

[bulloney]

22. Al Quaida is today what communists were in the '50s and '60s.

They're some omnipresent boogeyman that can be found anywhere we want them to be when we want an excuse to engage in some military action.

[pampango]

29. Are you now or have you ever been a member of Al Queda?

;)

[Uncle Joe]

23. If that's the case then backing Gaddafi would've been a major mistake on our part, for Al Qaida

would've been empowered with the Libyan People as defending them against a tyrant while we stood by.

Thanks for the thread, David.

[femrap]

24. So this is supposed to set up

The Greater Crusades????

Ignorant people will fall for this...

[MasonJar]

25. My fear is that the extremists will emerge in all these countries like they

did in Russia. The Russian Revolution brought much worse tyranny than the tsar could have ever envisioned. It also overpowered half of Europe (Eastern Europe) and ruined the lives of an entire generation.

[dipsydoodle]

31. Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

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".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html

[kenny blankenship]

32. Interesting you chose to derive a meaning OPPOSITE what Stavridis intended by his words.

Stavridis did not use the word "flickers" to convey a maximum but rather a MINIMUM of Al Qaeda influence.:
the actual interview
"However, he added there is no evidence of a significant presence of al Qaeda or other terrorist groups." Stavridis is also the commander of U.S. European Command."

"The intelligence that I'm receiving at this point makes me feel that the leadership that I'm seeing are responsible men and women who are struggling against Col. Gadhafi," Stavridis added.
--
A senior counterterrorism official, unnamed because he is not authorized to speak on the record, backed up Stavridis' assessment, downplaying the concern about al Qaeda among the Libyan opposition.

There is probably "a sprinkling of extremists to perhaps include al Qaeda" in Libya among the rebels, "but no one should think the opposition is being led by al Qaeda or one of its affiliates," the official said. Al Qaeda has had a presence in North Africa for years. It "wouldn't be surprising if small numbers -- a handful"-- of extremists or al Qaeda are in Libya.

"It's hard to tell who all the leaders are in the opposition," the official said, but "the rebels do not appear to be adopting an al Qaeda bent or ideology in Libya."
-=-=-=-=-=-

When asked about it, Stavridis said only "flickers" from which you wish to infer a five alarm fire. That's about par for the course from your lot.

Link to the full interview, for people who are interested in things like the speaker's intent and context.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/29/libya.opposition.analysis/index.html?hpt=T1

[dipsydoodle]

33. the rebels do not appear to be adopting....

Give it time.

No I'm not paranoid. I think most of what we read about Al Q is a load of old shit anyway. Don't change the fact they do have a reputation for being somewhat radical.

[kenny blankenship]

34. The Bush propaganda machine threw the Al Qaeda label around like beads at Mardi Gras

It was convenient for them to pretend that all Islamic militant groups anywhere had the same goals as Al Qaeda and that they were all subsets of Al Qaeda. The truth was that Al Qaeda was a tiny subset of armed Islamic groups which have no umbrella organization formal or informal. As I showed last night, there were Egyptian protesters in Tahrir Square whose criticism of Mubarak went to the somewhat radical extreme of painting Star of David over Mubaraks' face in posters. No one at DU said this antisemitism or Islamic radicalism tainted the Egyptians' protest movement. Critics of Obama said he should do more to embrace their cause. But a month later, the US takes a side with revolutionaries in Libya and OMG! THEIR ALKYDUH!!!1 Truly, the Bush Administration's contempt for distinctions and truth has met its mirror opposite and match.

Give it time. OK -we can agree on this much perhaps: if the west abandons the people fighting against Gaddafy's reign of murder, they will, to paraphrase the DNC, have nowhere else to go but to Islamic extremism.

[dipsydoodle]

35. The side issue

is that IF they are there the weapons given to the Libyan insurgents could land up being exported elsewhere maybe even back to Afghanistan. Now that would really be full circle.