Muslim Brotherhood set to lead new Libyan government

Funny how every country that Obama and Hillary Clinton touch end up being run by the Muslim Brotherhood.

UK Telegraph – While the elections for a 200-member National Congress is unlikely to grant a majority to any one faction, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies are confident they can join their counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt at the helm of leadership.

Negotiations between the Muslim Brotherhood and a secular-based political movement led by former interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril have focused on forming a post-election government as soon as the result is known.

An adviser to Mr Jibril said the former prime minister was likely to take the post of figurehead president with Mustafa Abu Shagour, currently interim deputy prime minister of the Muslim Brotherhood, taking the prime minister’s slot as head of government.

The Muslim Brotherhood would dominate the ministries.

In the run-up to the elections, Libya’s interim government has struggled to maintain law and order.

A threatened electoral boycott by federalists in Benghazi, the second city, has rattled Libya’s rebels turned leaders. Leading figures fear that large numbers in the city that triggered the rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi may shun the polls, undermining the legitimacy of the election.

Recent attacks on foreign diplomats in Benghazi by Jihadists, a series of ugly micro-conflicts between militias in the Nafousa mountains leaving 105 dead and 300 wounded in the last fortnight and fierce clashes between Arabs, Tebu tribesmen and Tuaregs in the south have put the country on edge.

“We need to ensure stronger and more capable leadership soon after the elections,” said a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction Party. “That is what Libyans want – more security and stability and progress being made to improve their day-to-day lives. They don’t want deadlock.”

Any coalition government would grant a prominent place to the al-Watan party of Abdulhakim Belhaj, sources said. Mr Belhaj acknowledged that the talks were under way. He said: “I negotiate with anyone who cares about Libya and wants to unite it.”

Libyan Islamists smash, destroy British, Allied WWII cemetery over Afghanistan koran incident

Gratitude Muslim style. Didn’t we just rid the Libyans of their hated dictator so that they could enjoy sharia ‘democracy’?

To show their thanks, they take out their phony indignation on the graves of dead heroes. Such a pathetic, twisted lot of losers.

And how many mosques and korans did they themselves destroy in their idiotic civil war? The hypocrites. But, it’s all to be expected. The sad fact remains, however: that it is the West and our contemptible, spineless leaders who are the real losers. It is we who keep supporting all these brainless barbarians, bending over backwards to appease their 7th century mentalities.

Desecrated: The headstones commemorating the deaths of allied servicemen, who fought in the Western Desert campaigns between 1942 to 1943, lay smashed on the ground.

UK Daily Mail – A furious mob has desecrated dozens of Commonwealth War Graves in a Libyan cemetery amid continuing fury in the Middle East over the burning of the Koran by U.S. soldiers.

Headstones commemorating British and Allied servicemen, killed during World War II campaigns in the Western Desert, lay smashed and strewn across Benghazi Military Cemetery.

Protesters rampaged through site on Friday, despite efforts by America to calm tensions sparked when it emerged U.S. soldiers had burned Muslim holy books in a pile of rubbish at a military base in Afghanistan.  (more >>>)

Sacrifice: Some 1,214 graves are marked in Benghazi War Cemetery

Libya’s new rulers offer weapons to Syrian rebels

Syrian rebels held secret talks with Libya’s new authorities on Friday, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

As with every other Arab country in the Middle East, the choice is always between a corrupt and brutal dictator, the equally evil Muslim Brotherhood, or one of a slew of other Islamonazi organizations.

UK Telegraph – At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians requested “assistance” from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms, and potentially volunteers.

“There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,” said a Libyan source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see.”

The Telegraph has also learned that preliminary discussions about arms supplies took place when members of the Syrian National Council [SNC] – the country’s main opposition movement – visited Libya earlier this month.

“The Libyans are offering money, training and weapons to the Syrian National Council,” added Wisam Taris, a human rights campaigner with links to the SNC.

The disclosure came as rebels raided an air force base outside the city of Homs and killed six pilots, according to a statement by the country’s military. (more >>>)

Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam captured by rebel forces

It looks like he escaped his father’s grisly fate. So far he has three bandaged fingers.

Washington Times – (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam — the only wanted member of the ousted ruling family to remain at large — was captured as he traveled with aides in a convoy in Libya’s southern desert, Libyan officials said Saturday. Thunderous celebratory gunfire shook the Libyan capital as the news spread.

A spokesman for the Libyan fighters who captured him said Seif al-Islam, who has been charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, was detained about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of the town of Obari with two aides as he was trying to flee to neighboring Niger. But the country’s acting justice minister later said the convoy’s destination was not confirmed.

His capture just over a month after his father was killed leaves only former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi wanted by the ICC, which indicted the three men for in June for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture to suppress the uprising against the Gadhafi regime that broke out in mid-February.

“This is the day of victory, this is the day of liberation, finally the son of the tyrant has been captured,” said Mohammed Ali, an engineer, as he celebrated on Tripoli’s Martyrs’ Square. “Now we are free, now we are free, God is Great.”

Libyan TV posted a photo purportedly of Seif al-Islam in custody. He is sitting by a bed and holding up three bandaged fingers as a guard looks on. International rights groups urged the Libyans to respect his human rights.

“Seif must face justice. Whether it’s in Libya or in The Hague, he should face justice. We have to coordinate together with the Libyan authorities,” ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said in a telephone interview.

53 Gaddafi loyalists found executed in Sirte hotel

This is what Arab democracy looks like. There are probably a lot more such cases that we don’t, and never will, hear about.

Sirte, 24 Oct. (AKI) -At least 53 supporters of Muammar Gaddafi whose bodies were found in a hotel in Sirte are believed to have been executed by anti-Gaddafi fighters, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

The bodies were found in the abandoned Mahari Hotel in a neighbourhood of Sirte under control by transitional government fighters prior to the city’s fall on 20 October, the New York-based organisation said in a statement posted on its website.

“We found 53 decomposing bodies, apparently Gaddafi supporters, at an abandoned hotel in Sirte, and some had their hands bound behind their backs when they were shot,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, who investigated the killings. “This requires the immediate attention of the Libyan authorities to investigate what happened and hold accountable those responsible.”

The around the hotel had been in rebel hands since the beginning of October, the statement said.

“The bodies were clustered together, apparently where they had been killed, on the grass in the sea-view garden of the hotel,” Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch called on Libyan authorities to investigate the deaths.

Libya’s transitional president announces that country will be ruled by sharia law

“This is what democracy looks like,” and what Hillary Clinton calls “smart diplomacy”. Let’s check back in a year from now and see just how “smart” the Obama Administration foreign policy has been. Egypt’s Christians haven’t found it very appetizing. What’s next…?

“Jalil thanked the Arab League, the United Nations, and the European Union for supporting the uprising which ended with Gaddafi’s death on Thursday.”

Someone is conspicuously absent in this bit of gratitude.

Hmm…

telegraphtv Oct 23, 2011 – Libya’s provisional leaders are gathering in the eastern city of Benghazi to make a formal declaration of the country’s liberation.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil with Imam-in-Chief Obama

Reuters– Libya’s National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil kneeled in prayer after taking the stand in a celebration of liberation on Sunday after 42 years of one-man rule by Muammar Gaddafi and promised to uphold Islamic law.

“We as a Muslim nation have taken Islamic sharia as the source of legislation, therefore any law that contradicts the principles of Islam is legally nullified,” he said.

Jalil thanked the Arab League, the United Nations, and the European Union for supporting the uprising which ended with Gaddafi’s death on Thursday.

“All the martyrs, the civilians and the army had waited for this moment. But now they are in the best of places … eternal heaven,” he said, shaking hands with supporters.

“The revolution began as a peaceful one. But it was faced with violence,” he told tens of thousands of Libyans gathered in the eastern city of Benghazi, where fighting against Gaddafi erupted in February.

Video shows that Gaddafi was captured alive (updated)

Dead man walking.

(Update: This first clip seems to be in high def. It is disturbingly clear – and brutal. At bottom of post, video of the displayed bodies of Gaddafi and his son. Warning, graphic.)

UPDATE:

Good grief. This new video shows Gaddafi getting a stick shoved up his arse by Hillary Clinton’s beloved ‘rebel forces’. He has his pants on, but they are stained. It’s hard to tell if it is blood, or that he lost control of his bowels, or both. In any case, combine the different videos and its a horrific scene. Clearly, he was captured alive, had the crap beat out of him, and was then executed. This is what Arab democracy looks like.

Here is Hillary Clinton gloating over Gaddafi’s brutal end. If George Bush had behaved the same way after Saddam Hussein’s capture and eventual hanging, the media would never have let him live it down. But, Hillary Clinton is a Democrat, and Democrats and say and do whatever the hell they want. They know that the state-run media always has their back.

SIRTE (BNO NEWS) — A video released by the Global Post appears to capture an unidentified man sodomizing ousted Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi with an object before he was eventually killed.

The video was released on Friday but a closer review of the footage on Saturday appears to show a person bending over and inserting a thin piece of wood inside Gaddafi’s bottom. The video was released by the website Global Post, which obtained the footage from rebel fighters.

Gaddafi’s son was captured alive, too. He met a similar fate.

UK Daily Mail – Sitting against a wall and smoking a cigarette while swigging from a bottle of water, his white vest covered in blood, this is Gaddafi’s loyal son Mutassim after he was captured by rebels. Mutassim, a senior army officer and security adviser, was later pictured still alive and lying on a sofa. Later he was to be pictured lying dead on a stretcher with a wound to the throat not visible earlier.

A different view of Gaddafi’s last moments.

More details.

Ynet – Arab satellite TV stations have broadcast a video clearly showing that former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured alive by revolutionary forces.

The video shows a wounded Gaddafi with a blood-soaked shirt and bloodied face leaning up against the hood of a truck and restrained by fighters. They then push him toward another car and Gaddafi appeared enfeebled and struggling against those who were manhandling him.

Despite the poor audio quality of the video, Gaddafi is clearly heard pleading “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” as he was captured by rebels, while he was trying to flee from a drain where he was hiding in Sirte, the last major bastion of resistance two months after the regime fell in August.

A National Transitional Council fighter told the BBC that he had witnessed Gaddafi’s capture after revolutionary forces gained control Sirte.

Qabra Brigade fighter Adel Samir said the fallen leader was shot with a 9mm pistol.

According to Libyan television report, Gaddafi had suffered bullet wounds to the head and abdomen.

Gaddafi’s captors show off the dictator’s golden gun. (I wonder how many people will end up dying trying to pocket that souvenir!)

ReutersVideo on Oct 21, 2011 Oct. 21 – WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. The corpse of Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Mo’tassim, is laid out in a private house in Misrata while opponents of the old regime take photos.

ReutersVideo on Oct 21, 2011 Oct. 21 – WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Gaddafi’s body lies in a market place cold storage unit on the outskirts of Misrata, as Libyan authorities debate his burial.

Libya’s Gaddafi is no more

UPDATE: Click here for video showing that Gaddafi was captured alive.

Well, it looks like it is the end of the road for the flamboyant madman of Tripoli. Soon to be replaced with another psychopath, for that is the only kind of leader the Arab world knows how to produce.

Qadhafi was reportedly captured in his hometown of Sirte amid news that the Transitional National Council (TNC) finally took control of the city after weeks of fighting. Reuters reports:

National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters earlier that Gaddafi was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked.

“He was also hit in his head,” the official said. “There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.”

And now for the obligatory mugging for the infidel camera by crazed Muslims. They want to thrill us with their incessant chanting and firing into the air with their American-supplied weapons.

Headlines via Drudge:

GADDAFI KILLED IN HOMETOWN...
BRANDISHED GOLDEN GUN...
SHOUTED 'DON'T SHOOT!'
'HIDING IN A HOLE'...
NATO PLANES BOMBED?
AFP PIC EMERGES...
GRAPHIC VIDEO...
BURIAL AT SEA?
REUTERS LIVE...
AL JAZEERA...

Jerusalem Post – Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi died of wounds suffered on Thursday as fighters battling to complete an eight-month-old uprising against his rule overran his hometown Sirte, Libya’s interim rulers said.

His killing, which came swiftly after his capture near Sirte, is the most dramatic single development in the Arab Spring revolts that have unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia and threatened the grip on power of the leaders of Syria and Yemen.

“He (Gaddafi) was also hit in his head,” National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters. “There was a lot of firing against his group and he died.”

Mlegta told Reuters earlier that Gaddafi, who was in his late 60s, was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked. He said he had been taken away by an ambulance.

There was no independent confirmation of his remarks.

An anti-Gaddafi fighter said Gaddafi had been found hiding in a hole in the ground and had said “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot” to the men who grabbed him.

His capture followed within minutes of the fall of Sirte, a development that extinguished the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the deposed leader.

The capture of Sirte and the death of Gaddafi means Libya’s ruling NTC should now begin the task of forging a new democratic system which it had said it would get under way after the city, built as a showpiece for Gaddafi’s rule, had fallen.

Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, was toppled by rebel forces on Aug. 23 after 42 years of one-man rule over the oil-producing North African state.

NTC fighters hoisted the red, black and green national flag above a large utilities building in the center of a newly-captured Sirte neighborhood and celebratory gunfire broke out among their ecstatic and relieved comrades.

Hundreds of NTC troops had surrounded the Mediterranean coastal town for weeks in a chaotic struggle that killed and wounded scores of the besieging forces and an unknown number of defenders.

NTC fighters said there were a large number of corpses inside the last redoubts of the Gaddafi troops. It was not immediately possible to verify that information

Hundreds of Muslims protest Jew trying to reopen old synagogue in ‘free Libya’

More billions down the Islamic toilet. Will America ever learn? Americans, yes; American officials, never.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s “time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military action” in Libya which was to “last days not weeks,” and is still going on, was supposedly intended to bring democracy to Libya. But, as with everywhere else it is just the same old story. Jews lived in Libya, and throughout the Middle East for hundreds of years before anyone had ever heard of Mohammed. Including Saudi Arabia.

(JPost) — A few hundred angry protesters gathered in central Tripoli on the eve of Yom Kippur on Friday, calling for the deportation of a Libyan Jew who has been trying to reopen a synagogue sealed since ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi expelled the country’s Jewish community in 1967.

The protesters carried signs reading, “There is no place for the Jews in Libya,” and “We don’t have a place for Zionism.”

The crowds tried to storm Italian Libyan Jewish psychoanalyst David Gerbi’s Corinthia Hotel in central Tripoli. There was also a demonstration in Benghazi in the east of the country.

According to Gerbi, the crowd wanted to forcibly remove him from the hotel.

“They were impeded by hotel and Libyan security and government officials,” he said.

Gerbi said that National Security Adviser Abdel Karim Bazama, rebel leader Mustafa Saghezli, Interior Minister Ahmed Dharat and Justice Minister Muhammad Allaghi were among the government officials present at the hotel. (more >>>)

There is a good video about David Gerbi’s adventure here.

(click to watch)

Deadly Russian-made shoulder-launched missiles disappearing all across Libya

“In every city we arrive, the first thing to disappear are the surface-to-air missiles.”

History, if there will be any civilization left to record it, will refer to Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton as Dr. and Mrs. Frankenstein for all the monsters they were instrumental in creating.

( Click foto to watch )

CNN (h/t Weasel Zippers) — A potent stash of Russian-made surface-to-air missiles is missing from a huge Tripoli weapons warehouse amid reports of weapons looting across war-torn Libya.

They are Grinch SA-24 shoulder-launched missiles, also known as Igla-S missiles, the equivalent of U.S.-made Stinger missiles.

A CNN team and Human Rights Watch found dozens of empty crates marked with packing lists and inventory numbers that identified the items as Igla-S surface-to-air missiles.

The list for one box, for example, written in English and Russian, said it had contained two missiles, with inventory number “Missile 9M342,” and a power source, inventory number “Article 9B238.”

Grinch SA-24s are designed to target front-line aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and drones. They can shoot down a plane flying as high as 11,000 feet and can travel 19,000 feet straight out.

Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch emergencies director, told CNN he has seen the same pattern in armories looted elsewhere in Libya, noting that “in every city we arrive, the first thing to disappear are the surface-to-air missiles.”

He said such missiles can fetch many thousands of dollars on the black market.

“We are talking about some 20,000 surface-to-air missiles in all of Libya, and I’ve seen cars packed with them.” he said. “They could turn all of North Africa into a no-fly zone.”

Jihadi rebels reveal plans to take over Libya

Who but the geniuses at the U.S. State Department and their apparatchiks in the mainstream media didn’t see this coming?

______________________________

Washington Times – Jihadists among the Libyan rebels revealed plans last week on the Internet to subvert the post-Moammar Gadhafi government and create an Islamist state, according to U.S. intelligenceagencies.

U.S. officials said spy agencies are stepping up surveillance of Islamist-oriented elements among Libyan rebels. A government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed “strategizing” on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated.

“Several forum participants have suggested that, following a transitional stage, the battle should turn against secularist rebels and members of the [rebels’] Transitional National Council,” the unclassified report stated.

Some U.S. officials sought to play down the remarks by noting that such Internet postings are not always accurate measures of jihadist plans.

The report said the jihadists’ strength and influence on the ground “are uncertain at this time.”

However, the report said the jihadist plotting coincided with the high-profile emergence of Abu Abdallah al-Sadiq, a former leader of the al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and now a leading rebel. He is currently known as Abdel Hakim al-Khulidi Belhaj and led rebels in overrunning Col. Gadhafi’s Tripoli compound.

A U.S. official familiar with intelligence reports on the region said there are concerns that some LIFG members remain committed to al Qaeda and others may be temporarily renouncing their ties to the terrorist group for “show.”

“Some members of LIFG in the past had connections with al Qaeda in Sudan, Afghanistan or Pakistan, and others dropped their relationship with al Qaeda entirely,” the official said.

“It seems – from their statements and support for establishing a democracy in Libya – that this faction of LIFG does not support al Qaeda. We’ll definitely be watching to see whether this is for real or just for show.”

A defense official familiar with jihadist strategy said Islamists likely will emerge in power from the turmoil expected after the demise of the Gadhafi regime and the West will be partly to blame.

“We’re helping pave the way for them” through NATO airstrikes and other support, he said.

About 1,000 jihadists are operating covertly in Libya, Noman Benotman, a former Libyan al Qaeda member, told The Washington Times in March.

According to a translation of the forum exchanges, Libyan Islamists view the fall of Tripoli to rebels as the initial phase of a battle to take over the country.

Jihadists were urged to prepare for the next stage in the battle: taking on secular rebels and the interim National Transitional Council, sometimes called the Transitional National Council, the secular political organization that is mainly pro-democratic.

The jihadists want to set up an Islamist state ruled by Shariah law.

Libyan anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets showing up in Gaza

More intentional unintentional consequences of Spring Cleaner-in-Chief Obama’s excellent Libyan adventure.

Israeli officials have detected an inflow of SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), said one official, describing an overland supply route that opened up between eastern Libya – after it fell to the rebels – and the Gaza Strip via Egypt. “We’ve been seeing more SA-7s and RPGs coming across,” said the official.

There are fears that far worse than rockets will fall into terrorist hands.

If that’s not disturbing enough, Israel is concerned that a new anti-tank missile that Iran has begun manufacturing will be transferred to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, defense officials said on Monday.

Whenever I read of such things, or think of the 50,000 missiles Hezbollah already has pointed at Israel, or Iran’s Shihab missiles, and soon-to-have atomic bombs, I think of that line by the Russian playwright, Chekhov, “If you see a rifle over the fireplace in the first act, you can be sure it will be used in the third act.”

______________________________

Arutz Sheva – Terror groups based in Gaza have acquired anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets from Libya during its six-month civil war, Israeli officials told Reuters on Monday.

The officials said the weapons from Libya have enlarged but not significantly improved the arsenal in Gaza. They emphasized that while the rebellion against Muammar Qaddafi has stirred concern abroad about the fate of Libya’s chemical weapons stockpiles, there is no indication Hamas or other Gaza-based terror groups have sought these.

They noted, however, that an inflow of SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) has been detected as entering Gaza. One official described an overland supply route that opened up between eastern Libya, after it fell to the rebels, and the Gaza Strip via Egypt.

“We’ve been seeing more SA-7s and RPGs coming across,” the official told Reuters, adding: “It’s not a major qualitative enhancement for them.”

Another Israeli official told the news agency that “thousands” of the weapons had reached Gaza in recent months but did not provide figures on how many had originated in Libya.

Smuggling of weapons meant for Gaza terror groups is a major concern for Israel, particularly with the anarchy in the Sinai Peninsula and the infiltration of terror groups into the region following the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt, which has been attempting to crackdown on terror groups in the Sinai, deployed 1,500 more troops in the region on Monday following an agreement with Israel to increase the number of Egyptian troops in the peninsula’s areas B and C.

The entire area is on alert, and the IDF has beefed up its presence in the south amid a report that Islamic Jihad terrorists from Gaza are planning to attack from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

Gaddafi’s last stand crumbling

I’ll put down my marker:

1. As soon as it is confirmed that Gaddafi is gone, the Obama Administration’s state-run media apparatchiks will declare that Obama ‘freed’ Libya.

2. Not long after Gaddafi’s demise, rebel forces will fight among themselves until the most radical of them win out. Europe and America will pledge 1-3 billion dollars in aid, insisting it is necessary to spur democracy.

3. Libya will become, in time, a far greater threat than it was under Gaddafi. Obama will at first deny the obvious, and then blame the failure on Republicans.

______________________________

From the UK Daily Mail:

• Tanks open fire as rebel fighters try to break into Gaddafi’s compound
• Rebels chant ‘We are coming for you, frizz-head’ as they enter Green Square – already renamed Martyr’s Square
• Internet and mobile phones turned back on by the rebels as they take control of 95 per cent of Tripoli
• Wild celebrations of last night give way to grisly scenes of dead bodies on the street
• Government snipers deployed through city as fierce clashes begin with rebels using AK47s and grenades
• Gaddafi’s three sons being held by rebels as leader says Tripoli ‘is now like Baghdad’ in latest audio message
• David Cameron cuts short Cornish holiday and says regime is ‘falling apart’
• President Obama said Libya is ‘slipping from the grasp of a tyrant’
• Oil price falls by $3 a barrel following rebels’ advance

Colonel Gaddafi was today in hiding after rebel forces swept into the Libyan capital and fierce firefights took place outside the presidential compound.

Heavy gunfire continues to echo across the city after the encircled Libyan leader’s die-hard loyalists launched a final counter-attack.

Government tanks emerged from the complex, known as Bab al-Aziziya, and began firing shortly after dawn following an assault by rebels.

Residents said that fighters had attempted to scale the walls of Gaddafi’s compound but were met by a wall of gunfire. The Libyan leader still controls the Rixos area in the south west of Tripoli and mercenaries are continuing to fight for him. His youngest son, Khamis al-Gaddafi, is understood to be spearheading a fightback. (more >>>)

Obama’s Libyan rebels beheading and dumping Gaddafi loyalists

Americans still have no idea why we are spending billions of dollars fighting on the side of al-Qaeda in Libya. The Obama Administration has yet to explain what the mission is.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner-in-Chief Obama and Hillary Clinton promised that the war wasn’t a war, but a ”time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military action,” and that it would “last days, not weeks.” It has now been months.

(Telegraph) — The five corpses floated disfigured and bloating in the murky bottom of the water tank. Wearing green soldiers’ uniforms, the men lay belly down, decomposing in the putrid water.

The streaks of blood, smeared along the sides of this impromptu mass grave suggested a rushed operation, a hurried attempt to dispose of the victims.

Who the men were and what happened to them, close to the Libyan rebels’ western front line town of Al-Qawalish in the Nafusa Mountains, remains unknown.

But the evidence of a brutal end were clear. One of the corpses had been cleanly decapitated, while the trousers of another had been ripped down to his ankles, a way of humiliating a dead enemy.

The green uniforms were the same as those worn by loyalists fighting for Col. Muammer Gaddafi in Libya’s civil war. No one from the rebel side claimed the corpses, or declared their loved ones missing.

There was no funeral, or call to the media by the rebels to see the ‘atrocities committed by the regime’.

Since the bodies were seen by the Daily Telegraph attempts to discover their identities have been unsuccessful, in part because of obstruction by rebel authorities in the area. Having highlighted the discovery to those authorities the area was subsequently bulldozed and the bodies dissappeared. (more >>>)

NATO indignant that Gaddafi using human shields, cries foul

What begins with Palestinian barbarity against Israel never ends with Israel.

Plane hijackings, truck bombs, suicide bombers, self-detonating children and exploding mentally handicapped persons, and of course, human shields. All of these tactics are now on full display wherever militant Muslims are found, which is everywhere.

The EU, NATO, the UN, or Democrats never raised a finger of condemnation for the Palestinians’ use of human shields throughout their many wars and assaults on Israel, but suddenly they are in high dudgeon over Gaddafi resorting to the same tactic. Boohoo-hoo-hoo.

Washington Times - TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — NATO accused Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Saturday of using mosques and children’s parks as shields for his military operations, saying the longtime ruler who lashed out against alliance airstrikes is the one “brutally attacking the Libyan people.”

Hours later, at least two explosions shook Tripoli as NATO jets soared above the capital. It was not immediately clear what had been hit or if there were casualties in the late afternoon raid.

In a telephone call piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Tripoli’s Green Square on Friday, Gadhafirailed against NATO following a day of intensified bombing runs in the capital. NATO’s mandate is to protect civilians amid a four-month uprising that has devolved into a civil war.

“NATO will be defeated,” Gadhafi yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice to the crowd. “They will pull out in defeat.”

In Brussels on Saturday, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescudismissed Gadhafi’s speech as “outrageous.”

Palestinian human shields

“We are saving countless lives every day across the country,” she said. “We are conducting operations with utmost care and precision to avoid civilian casualties. Civilian casualties figures mentioned by the Libyan regime are pure propaganda.”

She also accused Gadhafi and his regime of “systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people,” saying government forces “have been shelling cities, mining ports and using mosques and children’s parks as shields.”

Oopsy, NATO misses Libyan targets again

Barack Obama’s “time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military action” in Libya continues unabated, and in direct opposition to congress. The media won’t report on how many civilians have been killed because there aren’t any Palestinians in Libya.

But the gang that can’t shoot straight has also mistakenly taken out some of their al-Qaeda allies, the group Obama and Europe are fighting to install in Libya.

If Bush had carried out a war without approval of congress, there would already be a major movement afoot by Democrats to impeach him. But the mainstream media has Obama’s back and so most Americans probably don’t even know we are bombing the hell out of Libya.

CNN — NATO expressed regret Saturday after its aircraft mistakenly struck vehicles aligned with the Libyan opposition in the key and hotly contested eastern oil city of al-Brega.

NATO did not provide details as to how many people, if any, died or were injured in Thursday’s strike. But in a statement released Saturday, NATO admitted that its forces hit vehicles that were “part of an opposition patrol” — an incident the military alliance described as “unfortunate.”

For weeks, NATO forces have been targeting forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in an effort to prevent civilian casualties. Most of those strikes have come from missiles fired from off-shore ships or aircraft flying high above the north African nation, though earlier this month British and French attack helicopters did fly closer to the ground in al-Brega to more precisely go after targets in that city.

Al-Brega is on a frontline — east of Gadhafi’s base in Tripoli and west of the rebels headquarters in Benghazi — in fighting that has taken place between the two sides over the past several months. (more >>>)

Obama spending $392,542 an hour in Libyan war that’s not a war

A $1.5 million U.S. firecracker goes boom.

The “time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military action” that Nakba-in-Chief Obama promised would last “days not weeks” is costing taxpayers some $9.5 million a day.

The War Powers Act of 1973 gave the Nobel Peace Prize winner 2 months to blow up stuff, but that expired a month ago.

President Obama is asking for patience and understanding as he and his NATO allies try to oust Moamar Gaddafi so that that the dictator can be replaced with moderate al-Qaeda.

LA Times (h/t Weasel Zippers) — The Obama administration is spending almost $9.5 million every single day to blow things up in Libya because the president has determined that is in the country’s national interest, this country’s national interest, not Libya’s.

You may not have noticed the $392,542 flowing out of the national treasury every hour, day and night, since those first $1.5 million Tomahawks flashed from the launch tubes back on March 19.

Happier days.

But Libya’s dictator Moammar Kadafi has. Not enough to quit, mind you, because he can hide while his troops do the dying and killing.

Kadafi’s military might has been degraded sufficiently by allied missiles and bombs to perhaps create a long-lasting stalemate with rebel forces in the desert conflict that Obama initially promised House members would last a matter of days, not weeks.  Keep reading…

 

Allen West ready to challenge Obama on Libya

According to the War Powers Act, President Obama had 60 days to explain to congress his rationale and goals for waging war on Libya. After almost 80 days, Rambo-in-Chief has yet to do so. Allen West gives him until 90 days to come clean with congress, and then time’s up. Explain to America his Libyan war and what U.S. interest it serves, or he will work to defund it.

h/t Trevorloudon.com

Obama’s Libyan war costing hundreds of millions more than estimated

Rambo-in-Chief Barack Obama’s “time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military action” in Libya that he promised would last “days not weeks” is well over two-months old now, and the price tag for Barack and Hillary’s excellent adventure is now around $750 million dollars.

Heck, the dynamic duo could have offered, say, $50 million for Gaddafi’s scalp, and some greedy Gaddafi insider would surely have delivered it within 72 hours, and so ended the madman’s regime to make way for al-Qaeda, which is what is going to happen anyway. But at least America wouldn’t have had to go to war alongside the French.

But now there is probably tens of billions of dollars of damage on the ground in Libya – that Obama will no doubt offer to pay for – untold numbers of dead, and Gaddafi is still alive.

If America had a real press with real journalists, Obama would be forced to answer questions about his pet Libyan war every day. But the mainstream media is now little more than the mouthpiece of the Democrat party, and so Barack Obama can and will continue to flout the 1973 War Powers Act which gave him 60 days before having to get the authorization of congress.

(FT) — US military operations in Libya are on course to cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than the Pentagon estimated, according to figures obtained by the Financial Times.

Robert Gates, the outgoing secretary of defence, said last month that the Pentagon expected to spend “somewhere in the ball park of $750m” in the 2011 fiscal year as part of efforts to protect the Libyan people.

But according to a Pentagon memo which includes a detailed update on the progress and pace of operations, by mid-May US operations in Libya had cost $664m, a figure confirmed by the Department of Defence.

The document, entitled the “United States Contribution to Operation Unified Protector’’, adds that US costs are running at a rate of about $2m a day or $60m a month. The memo has been circulating on Capitol Hill since last week. The DoD declined to comment on the increased costs of the operation. (more >>>)

Boehner gives Obama 2-week ultimatum on Libya

House Speaker John Boehner is giving Obama 2 weeks to ask for authorization for the military intervention in Libya or, get out. What’s taken so long?

Obama will ignore him and congress just like he always does. He is above the law.

No one knows why we’re in Libya, especially when the reasons cited could be applied to other Arab governments, who are even more deserving of being taken down, like Syria, and of course, Iran.

ABC News (h/t Weasel Zippers) – In the immortal words of the vice president, this could be a big $%^ing deal: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is throwing what one Republican calls “a legal and political hot potato at the President.”

In a resolution to be voted on in the House tomorrow, Boehner is giving the president two weeks – until the Pentagon Appropriations bill comes up – to either:

a)  Ask for authorization for the military intervention in Libya, or

b)  Figure out how to disengage the US from the NATO operation in Libya.

The resolution states: “The President has not sought, and Congress has not provided, authorization for the introduction or continued involvement of the United States Armed Forces in Libya.  Congress has the constitutional prerogative to withhold funding for any unauthorized use of the United States Armed Forces, including for unauthorized activities regarding Libya.”

Boehner is explicitly and formally stating that the president did not check the box on the War Powers Act before sending the US military to intervene in Libya.  (more >>>)

Obama: War Powers Act doesn’t apply to me except when I want it to

When Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Hussein Obama started a third Middle East war by joining with France, England, and al-Qaeda against Libya to keep their oil flowing, he cited the 1973 War Powers Act as the legal basis for his “time-limited, scope-limited kinetic military action.” It was a war effort that he promised the American people would “last days, not weeks.”

Well, time’s up. His 60 days granted under the War Powers Act has expired. But, as usual, Obama doesn’t think the laws of either Nature or congress apply to him. Nothing is over until he says it’s over – laws, courts, the constitution be damned.

ABC News  (h/t Weasel Zippers) — In an effort to satisfy those arguing he needs to seek congressional authorization to continue US military activity in accordance with the War Powers Resolution, President Obama wrote a letter to congressional leaders this afternoon suggesting that the role is now so “limited” he does not need to seek congressional approval.

“Since April 4,” the president wrote, “U.S. participation has consisted of: (1) non-kinetic support to the NATO-led operation, including intelligence, logistical support, and search and rescue assistance; (2) aircraft that have assisted in the suppression and destruction of air defenses in support of the no-fly zone; and (3) since April 23, precision strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles against a limited set of clearly defined targets in support of the NATO-led coalition’s efforts.”

From the beginning of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, the Obama administration has cited the 1973 War Powers Act as the legal basis of its ability to conduct military activities for 60 days without first seeking a declaration of war from Congress. The military intervention started on March 19; Congress was notified on March 21. Those 60 days expire today.

Obama blows up Libyan school for Down’s Syndrome

Fresh off of assassinating Gaddafi’s son and 3 of Gaddafi’s grandchildren, NATO took it to a school for Down’s Syndrome children, destroying it with an Obama “kinetic military operation” bomb.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner-in-Chief Barack Obama said that the war in Libya was not a war, that the U.S. was just going to help create a no-fly zone, and that the operation would be a matter of days, not weeks. As with everything else the man says, it was a bald faced lie. The war is over a month old, and he is bombing everything in sight.

And he’s doing it for both al-Queda, who is fighting along side the “rebels,” and for Iran, who also sides with the rebels. This is what Hillary Clinton meant by her “reset diplomacy”. Reset everything so that it favors Iran and terrorists everywhere.

He can do this because he knows that the state-run media won’t hold him to account, and won’t dare to ever question any statement or policy the hypocrite makes.

Reuters (h/t Weasel Zippers) - A mound of rubble was all that remained of one wing of the main building that adjoined the school, though an antenna of some kind protruded from the ruins.

Both Mehdi and Seddigh said they had assumed that the antenna on the building was there to strengthen mobile phone signals and were not aware of any other use.

In the rubble of the main building, a shredding machine packed with sliced up documents lay on its side. A fax and phone were nearby and shelves of files could be seen.

The Libyan government has repeatedly said that NATO airstrikes have hurt and killed civilians but has not responded to requests by journalists to visit the hospitals, making it tough to verify casualty figures.

NATO has hit inside or near Gaddafi’s compound before, or struck military or logisitical sites. Saturday’s government-organised visit was the first to bring journalists — whom government minders watch closely — to a civilian site.

Inside the school, the power had been knocked out by the strikes, the floor was wet because of a leaking pipe and desks were covered in glass and debris.

Seddigh’s school prepared children with Down’s Syndrome up to the age of 6 to go to normal schools, giving them speech therapy, handicrafts and sports sessions and teaching them to read and write. It handles 50 to 60 children a day. (Reporting by Lin Noueihed)

Obama assassinates Gaddafi’s son and 3 grandchildren

Saif al-Arab

Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Hussein Obama and Sectretary of  ’Reset Diplomacy’ Hillary Clinton, tried to assassinate Moamar Gaddafi over the weekend, but missed and killed his son, Saif al-Arab, age 29, and 3 of Gaddafi’s grandchildren in the targeted bombing.

The hypocrisy and obfuscation of Obama’s war on Libya continues without any criticism or questions by the state-run media. Meanwhile, the month-long slaughter of protestors by Syria’s Bashir Assad continues unabated as the death toll soars into the hundreds.

(CNN) - The Libyan government said Sunday that ruler Moammar Gadhafi’s son and his three grandchildren died in a NATO airstrike, and vowed to retaliate with death to “invaders” in the nation.

Gadhafi and his wife were in their son’s house when it was targeted, but they are in good health, government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told journalists.

In addition to Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, three of the ruler’s grandchildren also died in the attack, he said.

CNN could not independently confirm the reports.

Saif al-Arab Gadhafi is one of two sons whose names begin with Saif. The 29-year-old is the sixth of his eight biological children.

Another son — Saif al-Islam Gadhafi — had previously touted reform, but has emerged as one of his father’s most visible defenders in recent months.

The strikes destroyed the house in Tripoli, leaving a massive crater where it used to be. (more >>>)

U.S. targets Gaddafi for assassination

After a month of bumbling in Libya and untold billions of wasted dollars, Barack Obama and his two pigeons, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have decided to target Gadafi himself.

Why don’t these tough guys call for the same thing on Syria and Iran who have killed at least as many of their own people over the years as Gaddafi has? Ahmadinejad posses a threat a thousands times greater than Gaddafi.

McCain lost the election, but Obama is happy to have him play Commander-in-Chief for this unpopular and ridiculous war that has the U.S. aligned with al-Queda

Reuters (h/t Weasel Zippers) reported that a NATO airstrike flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound early Monday, in what a press official from Gaddafi’s government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader’s life. The destroyed building is thought to be used ministerial and other meetings. Possibly 45 people were injured, including 15 who were seriously hurt, and some were still unaccounted for after the attack.

McCain admits that NATO is as useless and feckless as the UN, “Our Nato allies neither have the assets, nor frankly the will — there’s only six countries of the 28 in Nato that are actively engaged in this situation.”

Telegraph — Senior western leaders called for Nato to adopt an assassination policy against Col Muammar Gaddafi to salvage the bombing campaign in Libya from a descent into stalemate.

The calls came as Col Gaddafi was reported to have strengthened his grip on power by repatriating billions of dollars in overseas assets that should have been frozen by UN sanctions.

On Sunday, there was growing pressure on Coalition forces to directly target Col Gaddafi with military strikes.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services committee, said that the quickest way to end the emerging stalemate was to “cut the head of the snake off”. He said: “The people around Gaddafi need to wake up every day wondering, ‘Will this be my last?’

Senator John McCain, who visited Libya at the weekend, also said that the Libyan dictator should be targeted but argued that it was more important to increase American firepower over Libya. He said: “It’s pretty obvious to me that the US has got to play a greater role on the air power side. Our Nato allies neither have the assets, nor frankly the will — there’s only six countries of the 28 in Nato that are actively engaged in this situation.”

U.S. providing $25 million in aid to Libya’s al-Qaeda-backed rebels

"Im rich! Thanks Barack!"

I wrote here weeks ago that soon we’ll be sending millions of dollars in aid to Libya’s al-Qaeda-backed rebels. The future is so much easier to predict in Obama’s new normal.

The Obama Administration is calling it “nonlethal assistance,” but congress was not consulted about the expenditure. Instead, the Obama Administration simply notified Congress by letter that it was going to throw $25 million that America doesn’t have at a bunch of rebels they know very little about.

A group called the Transitional National Council (TNC), the supposed political arm of the Libyan rebels, managed to persuade America’s gullible President and Sec. of State that the TNC was “committed to democratic reforms.” The “TNC has publicly rejected terrorism, embraced the Geneva Conventions, and emphasized its dedication to building democratic institutions to provide for a secular future in which a broad range of Libyan citizens will be able to participate.”

Hey, just like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt!

President Obama also said that Col. Gaddafi must step down from power, but stated that the United States does not support a policy of regime change in Libya.

Huh?

Iranian protestors, this is for you.

That, in a nutshell, tells you how incoherent and whimsical Obama and Hillary’s foreign policy is.

Meanwhile, not a penny or even a word of encouragement to the only real group of would-be democrats in the Middle East, the brave protestors in Iran. For them, the only finger Barack Hussein Obama will lift is his middle one.

America is in the hands of the biggest bunch of boobs in its history.

So here’s another prediction, this $25 million will prove to be just a down payment on hundreds of millions in the future. Furthermore, whatever it ends up buying will, in time, be used against us.

Washington Times - The Obama administration informed Congress on Friday that it is providing $25 million in nonlethal aid to Libya’s rebels, a sign that the United States and its allies are stepping up support for the opposition to Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in the Libyan civil war.

“The president’s proposed actions would provide urgently needed nonlethal assistance to support efforts to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack in Libya,” said Joseph E. Macmanus, acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, in an April 15 letter. A copy of the letter, sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was obtained by The Washington Times.

President Obama has said that Col. Gadhafi must step down from power, but he also stated that the United States does not support a policy of regime change in Libya.

The letter was disclosed as Britain announced it would be sending military trainers and advisers to Libya to help organize opposition troops. The European Union also said it would send an armed force to Libya to protect deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Reports last month, confirmed by The Times, stated that the CIA was providing covert assistance to elements of the Transitional National Council (TNC), the political arm of the Libyan rebels.

The new authorization for assistance would cover “vehicles, fuel trucks and fuel bladders, ambulances, medical equipment, protective vests, binoculars, and non-secure radios,” according to a memorandum attached to the letter.

Questions have emerged in recent weeks about the connection between some of the Libyan opposition and the al Qaeda terrorist group. Noman Benotman, a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, said in an interview last month that about 1,000 freelance jihadists are at large in Libya.

The State Department memorandum attached to the letter, however, stated that the United States finds the TNC to be committed to democratic reforms.

“The U.S. government has been in communication with the TNC in an effort to build a working relationship and to understand its security capabilities and shortfalls, while recognizing the key role that Libyan opposition forces play in the protection of civilians and civilian populated areas in Libya,” the memo said.

The memo also stated that “the TNC has publicly rejected terrorism, embraced the Geneva Conventions, and emphasized its dedication to building democratic institutions to provide for a secular future in which a broad range of Libyan citizens will be able to participate.”

The letter notified Congress that the administration authorized “any U.S. government agency to provide assistance to support efforts by Libyan groups such as the TNC to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack in Libya.”

The letter does not say how that assistance will be delivered or whether U.S. troops would be involved.

A Senate aide who asked not to be identified by name said the nonlethal assistance could open the door to future U.S. arms and other military assistance to the TNC.

“The justification in the letter appears to claim the TNC is stable, democratic and adhering to the Geneva Conventions,” the aide said. “If all of this is true, then why can’t you provide lethal military assistance as well?”

Danielle Pletka, the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said she is concerned by the aid.

“It would be great if they made a decision to support the rebels and to help to oust decisively Gadhafi from power,” she said. “But I worry this is a lot like the decision to work through NATO, which is rhetorical commitment without any effective strategy about what to do to actually achieve the goals the president of the United States laid out.”  (the whole quagmire >>)

Libyan rebel leader with links to Taliban, Al Qaeda and NATO killed in action

Abdul Monem Muktar Mohammed, left, seen with some of his men, was leading a convoy of 200 cars west of Ajdabiya, Libya, when a bullet struck him in the chest

Abdul Monem Muktar Mohammed was a Libyan rebel leader who had spent his life fighting infidels of one sort of another. His Jihadi career ended at the receiving end of a pro-Gaddafi bullet.

Mohammed, who had ties with mujahedin, Taliban, and al-Qaeda terrorists, died fighting on the same side as the Americans he once opposed. He is one of many Islamic militant leaders now ‘allied’ with U.S. and NATO forces against Gaddafi.

These veteran mujahedin call themselves the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, and have vowed to kill Kadafi, and declare an Islamic state.

With Barack Hussein Obama’s help, should they eventually prevail, one of these lovable rogues will likely emerge as the leader of the new ‘democratic’ state of Libya.

The world can hardly wait. There are no good guys in Libya, be it Gaddafi or the rebels, the country will forever be nothing but another failed Islamic state. All these failed Islamic countries have one thing in common, and it begins with ‘I‘ and ends with ‘slam!‘

LA Times — He once lived under the Taliban’s protection, met with Osama bin Laden and helped found a group the U.S. has listed as a terrorist organization. He died in a secondhand U.S. military uniform, ambushed by Moammar Kadafi’s men as he cleared a road after an airstrike by his new NATO allies.

Aides to Abdul Monem Muktar Mohammed say the Libyan rebel fighter was leading a convoy of 200 cars west of this hotly contested strategic city Friday when a bullet struck him on the right side of the chest. He opened his passenger door and jumped out. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded nearby.

“Don’t wait, go,” he yelled to his men. Then he got to his feet, staggered a few steps and fell.

Mohammed’s final days were a mirror of his past, of a life that saw contradictions and intersections with U.S. policy, ones that could return to haunt the United States.

He arrived in Afghanistan in 1990 at the conclusion of the mujahedin’s silent partnership with the United States against the Soviet-backed Afghan regime. The following decades saw him become an international pariah, operating in an underground world of armed training camps and safe houses.

But with the revolt against Kadafi that started in February, he once again found himself in an uneasy alliance with the United States.

Five days before he died, with gray in his hair and bags under his eyes, Mohammed climbed a concrete tower on the outskirts of Ajdabiya and phoned in positions to the rebel government so NATO could drop bombs on Kadafi’s forces.

Putting down his Thuraya satellite phone, Mohammed waved a shiny black 9-millimeter pistol on a road filled with empty bullet casings and waited for the explosions.

A few hours later, Mohammed and his Omar Mukhtar brigade, one of the new military units officially sanctioned by the opposition government, rejoiced as blasts shook the city. A few started dancing and singing “God is great.”    (keep reading >>>)

Hillary Clinton’s Libyan rebel leader: We want to “cut Gaddafi’s throat and establish an Islamic state”

Clinton's al-Qaeda teammate

Evidence keeps trickling out that America is fighting on the side of al-Qaeda in Libya. But not to worry, doing so, believes the Obama Administration, will only endear the U.S. to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Not only are we fighting for them, and arming them, we are propagandizing for them.

Already we hear the State Department try to convince us that we should differentiate between good and not-as-good Muslim Brotherhood, good and not-as-good Hezbollah, good and not-as-good Fatah and Hamas, good and not-as-good Taliban. It’s only a matter of time before we will hear about the good and not-as-good al-Qaeda.

John Rosenthal at Pajamas Media reported:

“The Jihadists Go to the Front.” This is the title of French journalist Julien Fouchet’s report from eastern Libya that appears in the latest edition of the French Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD). Whereas American officials have been straining to make out “flickers” of intelligence suggesting a jihadist influence in the eastern Libyan rebellion against the rule of Muammar al-Gaddafi, Fouchet encountered a flagrant jihadist presence and met with participants who talked openly about their dedication to jihad and/or their desire to establish an Islamic state.

On the front near the oil-producing town of Brega, for instance, Fouchet spotted a bearded commander on a sand dune giving orders by satellite phone. The man wore the traditional robe favored by the Salafist current of Islamic fundamentalism and had a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder. “You can’t speak to him,” rebel fighters told Fouchet. “He is not fighting for Libya. If he is fighting today, it’s for Allah.”

Fouchet describes seeing imams driving among the ranks of the rebel fighters in a pick-up truck and reciting prayers over a loudspeaker…

…In Darnah, Fouchet also spoke to a rebel commander whom he identifies as “Hakim al-Sadi.” The commander in question is presumably in fact Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, who, as reported on PJM, has admitted to fighting on the side of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as to recruiting Libyans to fight with al-Qaeda in Iraq. The biographical details attributed by Fouchet to “al-Sadi” correspond to the known details of the biography of al-Hasadi. These include his settling in Afghanistan prior to the 9/11 terror attacks and the subsequent American-led invasion, his detention by American forces in Pakistan in 2002, and his transfer to and imprisonment in his home country Libya.

Interestingly, Fouchet says that he spoke to “al-Sadi” as the latter was “leaving for the front to coordinate operations.” “In the past,” the rebel commander told Fouchet, “I didn’t like NATO. They fired missiles on Afghanistan. Now that they are helping us in Libya, it’s different. But if there are problems with them, if they begin to occupy our country, we can turn on them in the click of your fingers.”

As to his goals, “al-Sadi” explained to Fouchet that he had rejoined the jihad in order to “cut Gaddafi’s throat and establish an Islamic state.” h/t GWP

Meanwhile, IBT reports that a senior security official in Algeria is also claiming that the al Qaeda terrorist organization is taking advantage of the turmoil in Libya to purchase weapons, according to Reuters.

Reuters indicated that Algeria, which has been in conflict al Qaeda’s north African segment for years, closely observes insurgent activity across north Africa and the Sahara.

Algeria has already witnessed some unrest within its borders, but nothing of the magnitude seen in Libya and Egypt.

“The Algerians are very, very worried, and with good reason [about unrest in Libya spilling over],” a Western diplomat told Reuters.

Moreover, there are fears that Al-Qaeda could explicit the chaos in Libya, like they did in Somalia.

“Transforming Libya into a Somalia is very easy,” a source told Reuters.

“All the coalition has to do is turn a blind eye to AQIM’s activity in Libya now.”

Indeed, the Algerian security official believes Al-Qaeda had entered the ranks of the rebels.

“We understand that AQIM is evolving with ease among the rebels and is taking advantage to acquire the most sophisticated weapons such as SAM-7s [surface-to-air missiles],” he said.

He further warned: “If the Gaddafi regime goes, it is the whole of Libya — in terms of a country which has watertight borders and security and customs services which used to control these borders — which will disappear, at least for a good time, long enough for AQIM to re-deploy as far as the Libyan Mediterranean. The coalition forces must make an urgent choice. To allow chaos to settle in … or to preserve the Libyan regime, with or without Gaddafi, to restore the pre-uprising security situation.”