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Africa North
Libya’s National Forces Alliance, Mahmoud Jibril, has been infected with coronavirus in Egypt
2020-03-28
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
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Africa North
Libyan National Forces Alliance proposes ceasefire, political dialogue initiative
2019-06-26
[Libya Observer] The Libyan National Forces Alliance (NFA), along with several Libyan stakeholders, has proposed an initiative that aims at ending the fighting in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
 and calls for returning to the political process.

Chairman of the NFA, Mahmoud Jibril, said in a statement Tuesday that the initiative aims at limiting the perils caused by the continuous fighting in the country, especially in Tripoli, saying any ceasefire must be accompanied by an all-party political process.

"The first stage of the initiative is to urge Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
's forces to create a safe zone that allows humanitarian corridors to deliver assistance to the trapped people in fighting areas. This zone could remain active for a month or more, during which the initiative will aim at calling for forming a joint force from the Presidential Council's government forces and Haftar's ones of 10.000 fighters." Jibril said.

He added that the joint force, if agreed on, will be under an independent civilian authority in coordination with US Africa Command's (AFRICOM) forces and the Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an Union to fight terrorism and illegal migration.

The initiative also would urge for prisoners exchange and an end for media provocative campaigns, let alone making neutral the financial and monetary institutions in Libya by forming a committee in cooperation with the international community to monitor government expenditure, investments of Libya and Libyan assets.

"The second stage calls for holding conferences to consolidate the ceasefire and pave the way for a political solution. House of Representatives, High Council of State, and other political parties and entities should attend the first conference to devise a roadmap that tackles the constitution's draft and elections' vision." Jibril explained.

"The second conference will be social and economic to discuss the wealth distribution in Libya and the national reconciliation efforts." He added.

He also indicated that the third conference will be focusing on building the Libyan national army and security institutions and merging the armed factions in the regular armed forces.

"The initiative's results must be included in a document to be discussed at the Libyan National Conference under the UN auspices. The influential countries should support the results of the UN-backed conference, if convened." The initiative says.

NFA party and his chief were bitterly criticized for not condemning the attack on Tripoli by Haftar's forces, given their documented backup for Haftar in his operations in Benghazi, Ajdabiya and Derna.

NFA has also seen many resignations due to the stance of the party toward the war on Tripoli.

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Africa North
New Libya Fighting Chaos
2016-03-02
Washington- The fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi seemed to vindicate Hillary Clinton since after his fall, militias refused to disarm, neighbors fanned a civil war, and ISIS found refuge.

The US is considering another intervention in Libya, yet this time to fight ISIS; but the question remains whether a military solution is possible in this case.

The current chaos in Libya is certainly due to the military intervention in the country. Back then, Clinton found herself surrounded by British, French, and other doubters.

The military intervention marked a horrible start to the new era for Libya. The dictator was dragged from the sewer pipe where he was hiding, tossed around by furious rebel soldiers, beaten and stabbed.

A cellphone video showed the pocked face of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, “the Leader” who had terrified Libyans for four decades, looking frightened and bewildered, knowing he will soon be dead.

The first news reports of Colonel Qaddafi’s capture and killing in October 2011 reached the US Secretary of State in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she had just sat for a televised interview. “Wow!” she said, looking at an aide’s BlackBerry before cautiously noting that the report had not yet been confirmed. Nonetheless, Hillary Clinton seemed impatient for a conclusion to the multinational military intervention she had done so much to organize, and in a rare unguarded moment, she dropped her reserve and exclaimed: “We came, we saw, he died!”

Two days earlier, Mrs. Clinton had taken a triumphal tour in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and for weeks top aides had been circulating data describing her starring role in the events that had led to this moment.

In one of the memos, her top policy aide, Jake Sullivan, wrote, demonstrating Mrs. Clinton’s “leadership, US political orientation toward Libya from the beginning till the end.” The memo’s language put her at the center of everything: “HRC announces … HRC directs … HRC travels … HRC engages,” it read.

It was a brag sheet for a cabinet member with presidential goals and the Clinton team’s eagerness to claim credit for her prompted eye-rolling at the White House and the Pentagon. Some couldn’t prevent themselves from laughing after hearing her aides saying that she had practically called in the airstrikes in Libya herself.

However, there were plenty of signs that the triumph won’t last long and that the vacuum left by Colonel Qaddafi’s death will provoke violence acts and divisions.

In fact, on the same day that Mr. Sullivan compiled his laudatory memo in August, the US Under-Secretary General for Middle East Political Affairs, Jeffrey D. Feltman, had sent a lengthy email with an utterly different tone about what he had seen on his own visit to Libya.

The country’s interim leaders seemed shockingly disengaged, he wrote, indicating that Mahmoud Jibril, the acting Prime Minister, who had helped persuade Mrs. Clinton to back the opposition, was commuting from Qatar, making only “cameo” appearances in Libya.

In addition, a leading rebel general had been assassinated, underscoring the hazard of “revenge killings.” Islamists were moving aggressively to seize power and members of the anti-Qaddafi coalition were financing them.

Mr. Feltman reported an alarming lassitude regarding a task of utmost urgency, which was disarming the militia fighters who had dethroned the dictator but now threatened the nation’s unity. Mr. Jibril and his associates, he wrote, “tried to disregard the problem that militias could pose on Libya after Qaddafi’s era.”

In short, the well-intentioned men nominally running Libya were relying on “luck, tribal discipline and the ‘gentle character’ of the Libyan people” for a peaceful future. “We will continue to push on this,” he wrote.

In the ensuing months, Mr. Feltman’s memo proved hauntingly prescient. But Libya’s Western allies, preoccupied by domestic politics and the crisis in Syria, soon relegated the country to the back burner.

On the other hand, Mrs. Clinton would be mostly a bystander as the country dissolved into chaos, leading to a civil war that destabilized the region, provoking

the refugee crisis in Europe and allowing ISIS to establish a Libyan haven that the United States is now desperately trying to contain.

“Nobody will say it’s too late. No one wants to say it,” said Mahmud Shammam, who served as chief spokesman for the interim government. “But I’m afraid there is very little time left for Libya,” he added.

Media reports referred to Mrs. Clinton’s one brief visit to Libya in October 2011 as a “victory lap,” but the declaration was definitely premature.

During her visit, security precautions were extraordinary, with ships positioned off the coast in case an emergency evacuation was needed. As it turned out, there was no violence, but the wild celebratory scenes in the Libyan capital that day actually highlighted the divisions in the new order.

“I am proud to stand here on the soil of a free Libya,” she declared, standing alongside Mr. Jibril. “It is a great privilege to see a new future for Libya being born. No doubt the work ahead is quite challenging, but the Libyan people have demonstrated the resolve and resilience necessary to achieve their goals.”

Yet everywhere Mrs. Clinton went; there was the other face of the rebellion. Crowds of Kalashnikov-toting fighters, or revolutionaries, as they called themselves, mobbed her motorcade and pushed to glimpse the American celebrity. Mostly they cheered, and Mrs. Clinton remained poised, but her security guards watched the uproar with much concern.

Mrs. Clinton certainly understood how hard the transition to a post-Qaddafi Libya would be. In February, before the allied bombing began, she noted that political change in Egypt had proved tumultuous despite strong institutions.

“So imagine how difficult it will be in a country like Libya,” she said. “Qaddafi ruled for 42 years by basically destroying all institutions and never even creating an army, so that it could not be used against him.”

Earlier, the President’s National Security Adviser, Tom Donilon, had created a planning group called “Post-Qaddafi.”

Mrs. Clinton helped organize the Libya Contact Group, a powerhouse collection of countries that had pledged to work for a stable and prosperous future. By early 2012, she had flown to a dozen international meetings on Libya, part of a grueling

schedule of official travel in which she kept competitive track of miles traveled and countries visited.

For his part, Dennis B. Ross, a veteran Middle East expert at the National Security Council, argued unsuccessfully for an outside peacekeeping force; but with oil beginning to flow again from Libyan wells, he was pleasantly surprised by how things seemed to be going.

“I had unease that there wasn’t more being done more quickly to create cohesive security forces,” Mr. Ross said. “But the last six months of 2011, carried a fair amount of optimism.
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Africa North
Benghazi police chief orders Interior Minister's arrest
2015-05-23
[Libya Herald] In a startling and damaging display of political disunity within the internationally recognised government, the newly installed police chief in Benghazi has ordered the arrest of the Omar Sinki, officially still Minister of the Interior in the Beida government.

Colonel Mustafa Ragaig, who was appointed by the interior ministry as police chief in Benghazi (or more formally, head of the security directorate) two months ago but only took up office last week, has ordered checkpoints, airports and border crossing to detain Sinki if they encounter him and send him to Benghazi.

The move by Ragaig, announced yesterday, is thought not to be legal. Normally, only the public prosecutor is supposed to issue such a warrant.

No reasons have been given for the move although Ragaig is said to have raised allegations about financial corruption. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
 political infighting is seen as the real reason although it is not known if the police chief was acting under orders from above or made the decision himself.

In November, Thinni sacked Sinki as Interior, after Sinki had publicly attacked General Khalifa Hafter. However. Sinki refused to go, saying that he had been appointed by the House of Representatives (HoR) and only it could sack him. The House, although it had appointed Hafter as commander of the Libyan armed forces, agreed with Sinki and upheld his appointment in March.

Thinni, however, has effectively ignored this, refusing to accept Sinki back as interior minister and has instead relied on the deputy minister, Colonel Ahmed Ali Baraka, as the acting interior minister.

Two months ago, in a no-holds-barred attack on Sinki, the Prime Minister accused him of incompetence, complaining that he had been forced on him by the HoR. It had chosen him, Thinni claimed, because of pressure on it by the head of the National Forces Alliance, Mahmoud Jibril, and also because it wanted a top minister to be from Misrtata -- which is where Sinki comes from.

There are suggestions, however, that there is a longstanding personal feud between Sinki and Ragaig. At the beginning of the month, Sinki is reported to have sent a letter sacking Ragaig and reappointing his predecessor, Colonel Ramadan Elluhaishi.

It would not be the first time Ragaig has been sacked as Benghazi's police chief. He was appointed head of Benghazi's security directorate in November 2012 following the liquidation of Colonel Faraj Drissi.

He was sacked three months later by the then interior minister, Ashour Shuwail, following protests by the police who accused him of not being up to the task of ensuring security in Benghazi.

Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address...
 despite the arrest order and being shunned by the Prime Minister, Sinki has been continuing to operate as interior minister.

Yesterday, the same day that Ragaig was ordering his arrest, he opened the new criminal investigation department in Shahat, accompanied by various ministry and local security officials.

In his speech, he made pointed reference to the fact that the HoR was the highest authority in the country.
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Africa North
Pro-Dawn municipalities demand UN brand Jibril a war criminal
2015-03-27
[Libya Herald] In a letter to General Secretary of the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
 the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
, representatives from nine municipalities loyal to Libya Dawn, mainly mayors, are reported to have called on the UN to indict Mahmoud Jibril, the leader of the National Forces Alliance and prime minister in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, as a "war criminal".

The mayors claim that Jibril has obstructed the UN-brokered dialogue process, alleging that he was deliberately trying to deepen the rift between the continuing General National Congress (GNC) and the House of Representatives (HoR) by his partiality to the latter and support of Khalifa Hafter. They also complained that his presence in Brussels during the municipal representatives' meeting organised by the UN was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the talks.

A copy of the letter signed by the mayors or representatives of Central Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, Misrata, Sebha, Abu Sleem, Ghariyan, Ghat, Nalut, Sabratha and Suq Al-Juma, who were attending the dialogue talks, indicate that they were expecting others to sign it.

For his part, Jibril said yesterday during a phone call with Al-Dawlia satellite channel (which he co-owns) that his presence in Brussels had nothing to do with the mayors' meetings and that he had been invited to an annual conference in the city hosted by the German Marshall Fund.

Moreover, Jibril insisted that he had backed the national dialogue from the beginning. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
 he maintained that certain "national principles" had to be upheld in the process -- such as the values set forth by the 17 February Revolution and the legitimacy of the elected House of Representatives (HoR) as the sole legislative body of the Libyan people.

Jibril also said that he had had a phone call from US Ambassador Deborah Jones and that during a lengthy conversation, she indicated that there had been suggestions among some European ambassadors of putting him and HoR President Ageela Saleh Gwaider on the UN sanctions list because of their obstruction of the peace talks. Shortly after the call, he said he received another from UN Special Envoy to Libya Bernadino Leon who, he said, confirmed that he was at risk of being added to the sanctions list.

The following is a list of the municipalities represented by the nine mayors: Central Tripoli, Misrata, Sabratha, Sebha, Ghariyan, Abu Sleem, Ghat, Nalut, Suq Al-Juma
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Africa North
Thinni delays presentation of new cabinet: report
2014-09-09
[Libya Herald] Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni
He's the Tripoli/Islamist PM...
has delayed presenting his new slimmed-down government to the House of Representatives, its front man Faraj Hashim has told the Libya Herald. An announcement of the cabinet which is to have between eight and ten ministers was expected in the next 24 hours. According to Hashim, the delay is so that Thinni can "study more candidates".

Thinni was asked to form a new full time government by the HoR a week ago and it has been widely reported that he had already chosen his team.

It is being claimed, however, that he has since come under strong pressure both fromCyrenaica federalists and the National Forces Alliance led by Mahmoud Jibril as to the composition of the cabinet.
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Africa North
Congress members given ultimatum to resign or "be arrested"
2014-02-19
[Libya Herald] There was confusion at the General National Congress this evening after it was announced on TV that Zintan's Qaqaa and Sawaiq brigades had issued an ultimatum to its members to resign by 10 pm or be locked away
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
. Members and staff are reported to have left the Congress building but there was no visible extra security in the road outside which remains open to traffic, unlike previous occasions when there have been threats to Congress.

Zawia Congresswoman Naima Al-Hami told the Libya Herald that over 20 Congress members had left the GNC in response to the threats but that she herself had stayed, saying she would have the honour of being arrested in the chamber if it came to it.

She said that it was time for the government to protect the state. If it did not send troops then this would demonstrate its unwillingness to protect legitimate institutions and that it was complicit with the brigades.

The ultimatum was part of a statement reported this afternoon by Dawlia TV, seen as supportive of Mahmoud Jibril and the National Forces Alliance. The chairman of the latter's steering committee, Abdulmajid Milaiqtah, is the brother of Othman Milaiqtah, the commander of the Qaaqaa Brigade.

The statement allegedly claimed that instability in the country was the fault of the Moslem Brüderbund in Congress and those organizations sympathetic to it. The statement also reportedly said the Brotherhood was an epidemic and disease which only the brigades could cure.

Qaqaa and Sawaiq also allegedly claimed that they were not attempting to grab power but would act as "protectors of the homeland" until such time as the military and other security institutions had been built up to their full strength.

The statement provoked a call to Libyans by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to refrain from resorting to force to resolve political disputes and instead rely on dialogue to ensure a peaceful transfer of the powers of the GNC to a new elected body.

The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, La Belle France, Italia, the United Kingdom and the United States also put out a joint statement effectively giving their backing to Congress and stating that the use of force was not a legitimate means "to divert the democratic transition".

Reflecting UNSMIL's call, GNC President Nuri Abu Sahmain, speaking on Wataniya TV, said peaceful dialogue and the transition of power according to legal mechanisms were the only course open to Libya. He said that Congress had instructed the General Chief of Staff to take the necessary measures against the "gangs" and called on the Libyan people to "defend their political choices in the face of these threats".

Reports this evening that forces were heading from Misrata to Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
 to protect Congress appear, however, to be premature. According to the Libya Herald correspondent in the city, there has been no mobilisation. Nevertheless, the Military Council there has called forces to be on alert. The Council of Revolutionaries in nearby Zliten also issued a statement this evening calling on revolutionaries to be on alert and warning Qaaqaa and Sawaiq to stop interfering in Congress' affairs. It said that they would use an "iron fist" to punish anyone who harmed Congress.

Questions, however, surrounds the veracity of the statement. In what appears to be a repeat of General Hafter's coup that was not, there was no sign of the Qaqaa brigade in Tripoli this evening although, in what appears to be a precautionary measure, large numbers of military vehicles are reported to have been deployed at the roundabout near the Tripoli end of the Airport Road. It is viewed as a possible route of forces coming from Zintan.

Meanwhile Former Defence Minister Osama Juwaili, himself from Zintan, interviewed by on TV, distanced Zintan from the two brigades, saying they did not represent the town.

The government appears not to be overly concerned about the threat. It has denied on social media claims by Aljazeera TV that it had asked the ministries to evacuate in anticipation of an armed attack.
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Africa North
Libya's largest political party will boycott congress
2013-07-07
TRIPOLI -- Libya's largest coalition in the national assembly said it was boycotting sessions from Thursday, protesting at delays in drafting a constitution, it said on Thursday.

The National Forces Alliance (NFA), formed last year by liberal war-time leader Mahmoud Jibril, has 36 out of around 80 party seats in the General National Congress (GNC). The rest of the nearly 200 seats are held by independents. In a news conference, its members said the GNC, the legislature voted in last July, was too slow in drafting a law for electing a constitutional committee.

The constitution is to be drawn up by 60 members elected by Libyans, but the vote is still only a distant promise because of political squabbling and administrative delays.

"We have decided to suspend our participation within the GNC except for sessions relating to the law on the election of the constitutional committee," NFA spokesman Tawfiq Shahibi said, adding the GNC had "wasted time" discussing secondary issues.

"The GNC has been sidetracked from its major goals."

Shahibi did not cite any examples. But for many months, the GNC debated a "political isolation" law, which bans anyone who held a senior post under Muammar Qaddafi from government, regardless of their part in toppling the dictator. The law was adopted in May at the demand of armed factions that helped end Qaddafi's 42-year rule.

Armed violence and lawlessness caused in part by militia groups has hobbled governance in wide areas of the oil-producing state. In the latest incident highlighting Libya's precarious security, an armed group besieged the interior ministry for a third day.

The GNC was elected in Libya's first free elections in nearly 50 years, for an 18-month term to lead the North African country to polls once it had decided what political system it wanted. It will likely extend that term, given Libya is still far off from organizing elections. Shahibi said the NFA would attend regular GNC sessions once "an agreement was reached on completing our job within the correct time frame".

The majority of GNC members are civilian professionals and former exiled opposition members with little or no political experience or knowledge of how to run a government.
Of course, there's no one in Libya with "political experience or knowledge of how to run a government." That's how Daffy was able to run the place to his liking for forty years.
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Africa North
Ministries Sieges Lifted as Libya Adopts Law Barring Gadhafi-Era Officials
2013-05-06
[An Nahar] Libya's General National Congress, under pressure from militiamen, on Sunday voted through a controversial law to exclude former regime officials from government posts, a move that could see the premier removed from office.

Gunmen who had surrounded the foreign and justice ministries to press for officials from the strongman Muammar Qadaffy
...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later...
's regime who hold top government jobs to be sacked welcomed the vote and lifted their siege.

State television broadcast live coverage showing 164 politicians in the 200-member GNC vote in favor of the law with just four deputies present voting against.

Under the law, all those who held key official posts from September 1, 1969 when Qadaffy took power, until the fall of his regime in October 2011 will be excluded from government, but it was not immediately clear for how long.

An earlier draft bill seen by Agence La Belle France Presse said the ban would last five years, but later GNC sources said it could be up to 10 years before it is lifted.

The proposal for the law caused a stir among Libya's political elite, as senior members of the government could be affected, including Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and GNC president Mohamed Megaryef.

Both were diplomats under Qadaffy before joining the opposition in exile.

Fifteen politicians also risk loosing their jobs once the GNC's legal commission ratifies the law, including the vice president of the national assembly Jomaa Atiga, an official said.

"It is too early to speak of excluding Mr. Megaryef. The situation will be clearer in a week or 10 days," a source close to the GNC president told AFP.

He suggested there could be some "amendments" to the law.

Megaryef, who was ambassador to India in the 1980s, was not present for the vote and sent the GNC a letter saying he would stay away to avoid "embarrassing" the politicians as they cast their ballots.

A special commission will now be set up to implement the new law which also affects former government ministers, ambassadors, security officers as well as state media officials, public university professors and union leaders.

The gunnies, many former rebels who helped topple Qadaffy, had encircled the foreign ministry for a week and the justice ministry since Tuesday to pressure the national assembly to pass the law.

They vowed to stand their ground and expand their action unless their demands were satisfied, and warned against any GNC attempt to make exceptions to allow key individuals to keep their jobs.

Vice president Salah al-Makhzum said last week that a compromise had been reached among the political blocs by adding "exceptions" in the bill in order to retain key individuals.

Before Sunday's vote the GNC, Libya's national assembly and top political body, had debated the law several times without reaching an agreement.

The bill proved particularly controversial with the National Forces Alliance, the liberal coalition that dominated elections in July, who feared it was aimed at their leader Mahmoud Jibril who headed an economic council under Qadaffy.

Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
 had warned the GNC against a hasty vote.

"The GNC should not allow itself to be railroaded into making very bad laws because groups of gunnies are demanding it," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at HRW, said in a statement on Saturday.

"Libya's long-term prospects for peace and security will be seriously diminished if the congress agrees to nod through this law."
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Africa North
Tripoli TV station attacked, Officials kidnapped
2013-03-08
[Libya Herald] Several hundred gunnies stormed Alassema TV station this afternoon, Thursday, in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
's Gurgi district, smashed the place up and kidnapped five members of staff including the channel's manager and its chief executive officer.

According to Rajab Ben Gazi, one of Alassema's presenters who was present during the attack those involved were a mix of revolutionaries, Islamists and civilians. "Some of them were shouting 'the blood of the deaders will not go in vain'. Others set fire to part of the building and destroyed a lot of the channel equipment," he said.

Another member of staff told the Libya Herald that some were dressed in uniform and others in civilian clothes. They accused the station of causing fitna -- dissension and discord.

The gunnies then seized channel manager Juma Usata and his secretary, Mohamed Atif, its executive director, Nabil Shaibani, and two Alassema presenters, Mohamed Huni and Mahmoud Sharkisi.

"They accused us of being linked to Mahmoud Jibril (the head of the National Force Alliance) and said that our manager, Juma Usta, is a Qadaffy loyalists because he worked as manager of a Chamber Commerce and Industry during the Qadaffy regime," Ben Gazi said.

"The gunnies were asking about the editors of the channel and who was the responsible for the news tickers," he added.

"They told me to leave Tripoli immediately and return to Misrata."

The gunnies later released Sharkisi, Huni and Atif. Sharkisi said that he had been treated respectfully and that no one touched or hurt him.

Usata and Shaibani are still missing.

Following the attack, a force from the Chief General Staff arrived to assess the situation to take necessary measures to secure the place and assess the damage.

There are allegations circulating in Tripoli this evening linking the attack to Tuesday's seizure of Congress members and the attempt to force them to pass the "Political Isolation Law" which would ban senior Qadaffy officials from office, and the shooting at Congress President Mohamed Magarief's car afterwards.
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Africa North
Who Really Killed Gadhafi - And Why?
2012-10-02
Does this story fall into the category of "Tall Tales or True"?
If it's even close to reality .. maybe it will make politicians think twice about who's on their list of major campaign contributors. Hahahaha! :-)
Source: AllAfrica.com, Oct 1, 2012

French secret services organised the capture of former Libyan ruler Moamer Kadhafi and may have killed him on then-president Nicolas Sarkozy's orders, British and Italian papers claimed Sunday. And Kadhafi was located thanks to information provided by Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, reports say.

Sarkozy wanted Kadhafi dead after the Libyan leader publicly threatened to publish proof of his claim to have secretly financed Sarkozy's 2007 presidential election campaign, Britain's Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph claim.

Kadhafi was found hiding in a pipe near Sirte by rebel fighters on 20 October last year. He was beaten by his captors and killed, as recorded on gruesome mobile phone footage that was broadcast round the world.

Now the Mail claims that a French spy infiltrated the group and shot the deposed strongman in the head.

And the Telegraph says that French spies operating in Sirte were able to lead the rebels to him because Assad had given them his telephone number in exchange for France easing pressure on his regime.

As Kadhafi's forces lost Tripoli, Western attention turned to the violent repression of protests in Syria.

But, although Sarkozy had proposed humanitarian zones and intervention, Assad persuaded France to ease off in return for Kadhafi's Iridium satellite phone number, according to Rami Eel Obeidi, the former head of foreign intelligence for the rebels.

The French pinpointed Kadhafi after he phoned one of his supporters, Yusuf Shakir, and Palestinian left-wing leader Ahmed Jibril in Syria. They then directed militia fighters to a point where they could ambush Kadhafi, he said.

The ambush was "an exclusive French operation", although Turkish and British military intelligence in Sirte were informed, Obeidi said.

Also this weekend, Mahmoud Jibril, who was interim prime minister after Kadhafi's fall, told Egyptian television that Kadhafi was killed by "a foreign agent who mixed with the revolutionary brigades".

And Western diplomats told Italy's Corriere della Sera that the killer was "almost certainly French" and that "Sarkozy had every reason to want to get rid of the colonel as quickly as possible".

"The view is supported by information gathered by investigators in Benghazi, Libya's second city and the place where the 'Arab Spring' revolution against Gaddafi started in early 2011," comments the Daily Mail.

The French foreign ministry has refused to confirm or deny the claims.

Ben Omran Shaaban, a 22-year-old rebel fighter who was among the group who attacked Kadhafi and frequently brandished the gun said to have killed him, died in a Paris hospital on Monday.

He was reported to have been beaten up and shot by Kadhafi supporters and have been flown to France for treatment.
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Africa North
Analysis: What Went Wrong with Islamists in Libya
2012-07-22
[Tripoli Post] By Mohammad Azeemullah

While Arab Spring has witnessed the rise of Islamic parties to prominence, notably Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt and Ennahda in Tunisia, Libya has chosen to go the other way.

After seven months of constant NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
 bombings and perilous civil war in Libya, what did Libya need instantly after the revolution?

Did they need schools or colleges to be reconstructed or did they need the separation of boys and girls on the campus?

Did they need their economy to be brought back on track or did they need markets and shops for ladies to be closed?

Did they need to act for peace or did they need to widen social differences by destructing historical monuments?

Did they need to work out to reconstitute army for stability or did they need militias to remain with their arms forever?

What did they need? If one asks public these questions, their spontaneous answers go in favour of reconstruction, economy, peace and stability rather than those in contrast.

That is where Islamists have miserably failed to appeal to the masses. While they were engaged in clean-up operation of what contradicted Islam in visiting shrines, the Liberalsled by the National Forces Alliance (NFA) were making a convincing case about practical issues to win the heart and mind of the public.

Libya's political case is completely different from those of Egypt and Tunisia and from those of Moslem Brüderbund and Ennahda.

Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, people in Libya, from the start, took guns to get rid of the dictator whose sole mission was to coerce and rule whatever the price.

They spilled blood and went through critical phase of war, and thus their regard and value to 'freedom'exceed far more than those of other neighboring countries.

Instead of taking up existential issues to deal with and see to end ongoing crisis in the country, Islamists chose to look to the other way.

Well! Not all the parties under Islamic fold are to be criticized for the same reason as to why they failed to perform in the elections but certainly such actions as those of attacking Sufi shrines...Sidi Abdul-Salam Al-Asmar Al-Fituri in Zliten and the tomb of Zuhayr Ibn Qais Al-Balawi at the Sahaba Mosque in Derna have tarnished their image.

Instead of using a path of consensus and agreement to decide about the continued existence of Sufi shrines, they went on offensive unilaterally. Any undemocratic action is likely to backfire.

Public in general sensed if Islamistscame to power, possibly they might take away their hard-earned freedom and impose rules which contradict the fundamentalprinciples of 17th February.

That is how Mohammad Ahmad Al-Sheriff, a teacher by professionin Zliten puts it: 'People confront far graver issues to deal with than those invented by the Islamists. Truly, the recent actions and outbursts bySalafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
 certainly implied that if they came to power, they might impose restrictions they did not wish. We have had enough of that by Qadaffy. We do not want any more in any form'.

He added: 'Most of the Islamic parties in Libya have good intentions but a few among them have certainly spoiled the image.'

The result of the election might show Islamists vs Liberals in terms of winning the seats but the ground fact is that there is no division among the public over the line of religious thoughts.

Mohammad Mukhtar, a common man in Libya puts it thus: 'It is not about why we did not vote Islamic parties. It is about why we do not support those who wish to improve the system of the country...Mahmoud Jibril is a hope for millions. Even if he had joined Islamic Party, he could have won. It is about the man and his conviction'.

He further complemented, 'Had Islamists taken the same cause, people would have voted them to power. It is not about religion. It is about development. After all, we are all God- abiding citizens.'

Most people in Libya are religious and follow them in their actual course of life. What they do not like is something being imposed upon them what they are already actually practicing.

No one should forget that Islamists had played major role in the victory against Qadaffy. People would have voted them to power if they had sensibly taken up challenging issues toward reconstruction of the country.

It is not too late. There is still time to reflect upon what went wrong and alter the strategy that takes more pressing issues into concern. The rest will automatically follow.

The country needs development. People wish to see Libya more as an emerging nation to the world stage than get embroiled into conflicting issues and be left behind.
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