World Threats

Muammar Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, has announced that the regime has struck a deal with its Islamist opposition to turn Libya into a Sharia state and crush the secular rebels. This comes as the top rebel commander, Abdel Fateh Younes, was murdered, possibly by Islamists. The Islamist opposition, however, says Qaddafi is just trying to divide the rebels. Libya is now facing a civil war between a dictator who seeks Islamist support, and rebels with Islamists among them.

Seif al-Islam claims that a joint statement between the regime and its new Islamist friends will soon be released. He said that the agreement was reached when the regime agreed to make Sharia the law of the land. The rebel city of Darna will become “like Mecca” and has already become “Waziristan on the Mediterranean.” After winning the war, he said that “Libya will look like Saudi Arabia, like Iran.” As for the secular rebels, “The liberals will escape or be killed…We will do it together.”

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

From CAN:

Muammar Gaddafi, the dictator of Libya, has threatened to sponsor attacks in Europe in retaliation for NATO’s military intervention in his country’s civil war, the Associated Press reports. Gaddafi’s government was responsible for multiple terrorist attacks in Europe in the 1980s, but was removed from the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism after renouncing terrorism and dismantling its weapons of mass destruction programs.

Gaddafi said that his forces could go “to Europe, to target your homes, offices, families, which would become legitimate military targets, like you have targeted our homes.”

He has previously said that the West’s involvement in Libya would make “all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea” legitimate targets. He has also threatened to “ally ourselves with al-Qaeda and declare holy war,” though Al-Qaeda has endorsed his toppling.

U.S. officials have expressed skepticism of Gaddafi’s ability to attack the U.S. and Europe.

“He’s been out of this business a long time so whether he’s retained the capability is an open question. Whether he can resuscitate it, I think, is an even bigger question,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official named Phil Mudd said to ABC News.

Gaddafi has been blamed for several acts of terrorism in Europe, including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 189 Americans and a 1986 bombing of a disco in Germany that killed two U.S. troops.

The Daily Mail is reporting that Italy has called for a cease fire with Libya.

Italy broke ranks with Nato yesterday and demanded an urgent halt to hostilities in Libya. Franco Frattini, the foreign minister in Rome, called for an ‘immediate suspension’ of military operations to allow humanitarian aid to be brought to the wartorn country. He also said military leaders should provide more details about Nato bombing raids following mistakes which led to civilians being killed. His demand for a ceasefire echoed comments by Arab League Chairman Amr Moussa on Tuesday. However, British Prime Minister David Cameron played down calls to stop the mission and said it would eventually reach a ‘satisfactory conclusion’.

Please read the entire article for more important information.

Analysis. NATO is casualty averse. The major combatants may also be running out of ammunition.

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the head of the Royal Navy, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Simon Bryant, the RAF’s second-in-command, have both warned that their services would struggle to fight beyond six months because of defence cuts. It led Mr Cameron to slap down top brass by warning: ‘You do the fighting and I’ll do the talking.’ He told MPs: ‘I have sought assurances, and received them, from the Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards, that we are capable of keeping up this operation for as long as it takes.

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Eight high-ranking Libyan army officers are among at least 120 officials and soldiers to leave Qaddafi’s side in recent days, according to a report Monday from Reuters.

In a news conference organized by the Italian government, five former generals, two former colonels and a former major talked about the “killing, genocide and violence against women” they witnessed while under Qaddafi’s command. According to former General Salah Giuma Yahmed, Qaddafi’s army has been severely weakened by NATO operations. By his estimation, it has been “reduced to 20 percent of its original capacity” and ”not more than 10″ generals remain loyal to him.

The defectors said they escaped Qaddafi’s security forces by secretly fleeing across Libya’s western border with Tunisia, which is controlled by opposition rebels. Though Qaddafi will likely replace the officers remaining loyalists and/or family members, the senior commander’s move sets an important precedent for future defections, which, if they continue at this pace, could completely cripple what’s left of Qaddafi’s command structure.

Oun Ali Oun, one of the generals who spoke with reporters in Rome appealed directly to fellow soldiers and urged them to abandon Qaddafi “in the name of the martyrs who have fallen in the defense of freedom”. Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that South African President Jacob Zuma is holding talks in Tripoli ”to discuss an immediate ceasefire, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the implementation of reforms needed to end the crisis.” His office is adamant , however, that the talks will not be focusing on an exit strategy for Qaddafi.

I was a forceful advocate of U.S. action in Libya and it is no secret that I believe that overthrowing Muammar Qaddafi should be the objective of the mission, but I am not dismissive of the valid concerns of those who disagree. The truth is that there are individuals tied to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and Al-Qaeda engaged in the fighting on the rebel side, and they will likely be rewarded if the opposition wins.

On Sunday, it was reported that Tunisia had arrested two members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb with explosives and a bomb belt near the Libyan border. They were tied to two other individuals arrested a week earlier, presumably also members of Al-Qaeda. The terrorist group has endorsed the overthrow of Qaddafi, but has warned Muslims do not embrace the Coalition forces that intervened to save the rebels.

I still believe that you will see Al-Qaeda denounce the Libyan rebels as apostates once Qaddafi is overthrown. The leaders of the Transitional Council have denied being tied to the group and one top official flatly said, “There is no room for an Islamic state in Libya.” That is very strong and unequivocal language by the rebels that will earn them death threats.

The Libyan opposition claims that Qaddafi’s forces near Misrata are being given gas masks, indicating they are preparing for chemical warfare. Though Qaddafi gave up his WMD programs, about 9.5 tons of mustard gas remained to be destroyed by the time the war began. Misrata has been the focus of Qaddafi’s forces lately, relentlessly bombing and laying siege to the city without regard to civilian casualties. The regime is certainly frustrated at how the rebels, despite the heavy cost, have refused to give up this western city.

Experts say that Qaddafi’s chemical weapons pose a minimal risk because he lacks effective delivery systems. The substances are said to not be weaponized and to have significantly degraded. The distribution of gas masks may just be a psychological tactic, as it would be very difficult for the chemical weapons to be effectively used and any deployment would result in a massive international backlash that could result in the Coalition actively pursuing regime change.

On the other hand, Qaddafi is truly insane (even by the standards of a dictator) and he feel the international community doesn’t have the guts to escalate. On Tuesday, the regime said the rebels in Misrata had until midnight to surrender in exchange for amnesty and those that remain will face “fires from Hell.”

A claim from the Libyan government yesterday that NATO airstrikes on a Qaddafi compound in Tripoli killed three of the Libyan leader’s grandsons was fabricated, Al Arabiya sources have revealed.  The report confirms, however, the death of Qaddafi’s youngest son Saif al-Arab in what government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim has called a devastating “full power” coalition strike on his private residence.

According to Libyan government sources, NATO commanders received leaked information about the movements of Colonel Qaddafi in the moments before the attack. They have called the strike a direct attempt to assassinate the leader, who was in the building at the time of the bombing with his wife – both of whom are believed to have been unharmed.

Canada’s Lieut. General Charles Bouchard, NATO’s commanding officer of Libya operations, has totally denied claims that the airstrikes targeted Qaddafi and his family.  According to a Bouchard statement, “All NATO targets are military in nature … we do not target individuals.”

It’s very unlikely that Saif al-Arab was in any way an implied target of the attack. He has a minimal roll in the political structure of the Qaddafi regime and is perhaps the least prominent of Qaddafi’s many sons. His death is a failed outcome for NATO strategists and family spokesman Moussa Ibrahim is holding to the Libyan government’s original claim that three pre-teen grandsons of Qaddafi were also killed in the attack.

Two things are important to consider here:

First, as the Al Arabyia report rightly notes, “Qaddafi has been known to sire a great many children”. As a result, no reliable count on the number of his grandchildren exists, making all claims of death perfectly unverifiable. Second, Qaddafi has a history of forging history when it comes to his family. On this, Libya reporter MUSTAPHA AJBAILI writes,

After he took the power in the late 1960s, Mr. Qaddafi ordered the transfer of his father’s body to the Martyr’s Cemetery in Tripoli from a private graveyard. All official envoys to Libya are taken to visit his grave to pay their respects to Colonel Qaddafi’s father, as he is now a symbol of resistance against Italian occupation. Libyan unofficial historians say, however, that they don’t have sufficient information that could lead them to believe that Mr. Qaddafi’s father, Hamid Abouminiar, a nomad, was at all involved in the resistance.

According to multiple sources, when foreign journalists were whisked into Tripoli to view damages to the residence – though NATO forces have repeatedly called it “a known command and control building”- there was apparently no evidence of any deceased bodies.

On March 31, the Obama Administration gave command over military operations in Libya to NATO over French objections. The U.S. combat role officially ended but, like in Iraq, this declaration is nearly meaningless as American pilots continue to risk their lives. The U.S. is now engaged in military operations that are hamstrung by unreliable alliance members for the sake of preserving a stalemate.

The Obama Administration delayed action in Libya until it received the approval of the Arab League, the United Nations and NATO. It was eager to make sure the war was fought under an international banner, even though the U.S. would bear the brunt of the burden. The French government staunchly opposed giving command over to NATO, leading to fierce arguments between officials. France felt that it, along with the U.S. and U.K., should have political leadership over the war with NATO playing a supporting role. The French caved under American and British pressure.

It didn’t take long for fractures in NATO to appear after the handover. The French Foreign Minister and the British Foreign Secretary openly criticized other alliance members for not committing to the effort. Half of NATO’s members officially participated in the war, as did some other non-NATO countries, but only six were willing to actually carry out bombing raids with the other four being Norway, Canada, Denmark and Belgium. Many of the countries placed heavy restrictions on their military’s participation, forbidding bombing raids and attack missions and refusing to destroy certain types of targets like trucks. The end of the U.S. combat role decreased the amount of American aircraft available, such as the A-10 Warthog close-support aircraft.

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

Libyan rebels have been mired in a stalemate against the forces of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi. While they have actually lost some ground in the eastern part of the country, they are claiming a victory in the west, on the border of neighboring Tunisia.

According to rebel sources, they have captured a key border crossing entering into Tunisia. This point is an evacuation point both for civilians and Qaddafi’s forces leaving the army:

The crossing in Wazen, Libya, could prove key to access to the city of Nalut, under siege by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces for the past month. Thousands have fled the fighting through Wazen to the nearby Tunisian town of Dehiba, where temporary camps have been set up for the displaced.

It’s something, but the rebels in the West are still in trouble. I was reading an article yesterday about a NATO ground force….

I received an email from evangelist and TV host Ray Comfort about my Pajamas Media article criticizing an article he wrote and distributed in his newsletter about Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. You can read my article by clicking here. He told me I had misinterpreted his article and that he believes Gaddafi is evil. I told him that I’d be happy to publish a response, which he sent me and is as follows:

Ryan,

You are very kind to be willing to give my side:

I stated objective historical facts about how Gadhafi came to power and what he promoted about himself. The (not mentioned by you) two parts being “evil” qualified it, and our own moral state as a nation—regarding abortion–gave it context.  I have just finished a book about Adolf Hitler in which I give his historical background. I’m sure, if taken out of its historical context (he wanted to set Germany on its fiscal feet, clean up the nation—rid it of prostitutes, bring in full employment, and restore its former glory), it could be made to look as though I approved of and had a positive view of Hitler, when of course I don’t.  Context is everything.

I truly do appreciate the fact that Comfort took the time to respond, but I must say I find this response unsatisfactory.

Imagine if I wrote a short article titled, “What You May Not Know About Ahmadinejad” that said something like this: “In 2005, Ahmadinejad was elected as a champion of the poor who was the son of a mill worker. Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi has compared him to Hitler. His re-election was certified by the government and Al-Qaeda has said his government is an enemy. And now here we are, picking a fight with this man, trying to clean up his nation, while we have skyrocketing debt and high unemployment. Pray for America.” It would be roundly condemned, as it should be.

I thank Comfort for taking the time to reply. If you look on the second page of my piece, I indeed did include the sentence he mentioned containing the comment of the Sudanese President. If Comfort says that he believes Gaddafi is evil, I will accept that, but I do think the image put forth of Gaddafi to his readers was inappropriate and had to be addressed. It was an almost wholly positive summary and I am still amazed at his reference to Gaddafi as a “man, trying to clean up his nation.” I am still puzzled as to what the objective was behind putting forth such a sanitized description of the Libyan dictator.

Muammar Qaddafi’s willingness to slaughter his own people has long been known and is undeniable. It is hard to imagine that any human being would be willing to embrace him but the Nation of Islam and the Council on American-Islamic Relations did just that. Louis Farrakhan continues to even uphold him today, denying that he is guilty of any wrongdoing.

“You [Obama] can’t order him to step down, and get out—who the hell do you think you are, that you can talk to a man that built a country over 42 years, and ask him to step down and get out?” said Farrakhan when asked about U.S. involvement in the war in Libya.

He blamed the Zionists for leading President Obama to war, warning, “Don’t let these wicked demons move you in a direction that will absolutely ruin your future with your people in Africa and throughout the world.”

Farrakhan, whose organization has 20-50,000 members, even claimed that Qaddafi is innocent of charges against him. He said that the Libyan dictator was only “killing traitors” and “It’s a terrible thing for me to hear my brother called all these ugly and filthy names when I can’t recognize him as that.”

Qaddafi’s ties to the Nation of Islam go back decades to when he first loaned the organization $3 million in 1972 to purchase its headquarters in Chicago. Farrakhan admits that Qaddafi has loaned the group about $8 million total. In 1996, Qaddafi’s official news agency reported the two had established an alliance aimed at influencing the U.S. political system. “Our confrontation with America was like a fortress from outside, and today we found a breach to enter into this fortress and confront it,” it said. This alliance shouldn’t be surprising given Farrakhan’s rabidly anti-Semitic, anti-American preaching.

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

Muammar Gaddafi doesn’t exactly remind you of Jesus. So you can imagine my surprise when I opened up my inbox on April 4 and saw that Ray Comfort, a star in the evangelical world as co-host of The Way of the Master with Kirk Cameron, sent out a short piece titled, “What You May Not Know About Gaddafi.” What followed was what amounted to a press release for that lovable, grandpa-like Libyan dictator who, Comfort apparently believes, is being given a bad shake.

“He [Gaddafi] then promoted non-violent protests and said he believed that if a leader lost the popularity of his own people, he should peacefully step down. He also considered himself to be one of the people, and that’s why he preferred to be called ‘colonel’ rather than ‘general,’” Comfort writes.

With spin like that, Comfort could make a nice living as a freelance propagandist for every rogue leader around the world. Every single headline out of Libya since February 15 discredits this characterization of Gaddafi. He is a dictator, though Comfort does not call him that, and he has decided that it is worth subjecting his country to civil war and destruction to continue being one. The only way he has “promoted non-violent protests” is by instigating them with his bloodthirsty and power-hungry rule.

Click here to read the rest of my PJM article.

The see-saw battle in Libya rages on, with the rebels asking for a truce and in a full-scale retreat from cities they recently re-captured. The weaknesses of the rebel forces mean that they will need significant, long-term outside assistance to survive unless the coalition decides to remove Qaddafi from power. The West now faces a catch-22: It can provide the rebels with what they need, knowing there are Islamist elements among them or the rebels will go to those willing to help them, which could include Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and other Islamists.

The rebel forces have just incurred a series of losses as they pushed too far in their advances following the U.N.-authorized intervention. This stretched their forces and allowed Qaddafi’s military to launch successful counter-attacks. The rebels have complained about a sudden lack of airstrikes, which Admiral Mike Mullen says is due to poor weather. However, the announcement that the U.S. combat role is ending and strikes will no longer be carried out by American forces except at NATO’s specific request will cast doubts among the rebels over whether the air cover they need will return. One Libyan woman close to the National Transitional Council in Benghazi said that “They see non-commitment, commitment, non-commitment” and as a result, “their morale is very low.”

Click here to read the rest of my FPM article.

In Libya, the rebels are asking for a ceasefire with Qaddafi as there are rumors that a number of other senior Libyan officials are about to defect. Michael Totten has interviewed Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof of the Shabakat Group and she is in Benghazi. When asked about the rebels, she said they have a “powerful wish for democracy” and the Islamists, who she says are only a minority, are even grateful to the West.

“You would be amazed to see the number of people around here waving Western flags and thanking the West, especially France…They all say, “Allah saved us, he sent us French and British and American planes like angels, Alhamdulillah,” she said.

In Egypt, an Islamist-tied lawyer predicts that 3,000 members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad al-Gama’a al-Islamiya will come back over the next few days, including the brother of Anwar al-Sadat’s murderer and a participant in a plot to kill Mubarak in 1995.

In Bahrain, Ken Timmerman writes that Shiite opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman is opposing both Saudi and Iranian intervention and is asking the U.S. to demand the withdrawal of Saudi forces. A spokesman for al-Vefagh told him, “We have our own identity and we don’t want the Islamic Republic of Iran meddling in Bahrain. We don’t want the velayat-e-faqih in Bahrain” and amazingly, “Let the Palestinians solve their own problems.”

In Kuwait, the Emir has accepted the resignation of his cabinet to prevent the parliament from asking tough questions of three ministers.

In Lebanon, Israel has published a map showing that Hezbollah has 550 underground bunkers, 300 monitoring sites and 100 weapons depots in 270 villages, near hospitals, homes and schools.

In Saudi Arabia, members of the Coalition of Free Youth have called for a “Day of Rage” on April 22 to demand economic improvements, the release of political prisoners and more freedoms.

In Yemen, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has declared an Islamic Emirate encompassing Abyan Province where woman cannot go outside unnecessarily and must have ID and a male chaperone. Some believe that Saleh has purposely abandoned the area to Al-Qaeda in order to justify his rule.  Others say the Saleh regime completely fabricated the declaration in a very clever staged event.

Arnaud de Borchgrave writes that former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal has just called for the Gulf Cooperation Council to form a united army and to begin “acquiring the nuclear might to face that of Iran.” Maybe I’m overreacting, but I don’t think he’s talking about nuclear energy.

There is a big debate in the U.S. about the wisdom of arming the Libyan rebels. Though we know for a fact that at least one rebel commander is tied to Al-Qaeda and there are reports of a Hezbollah presence, U.S. intelligence believes that Islamists are only a small part of the opposition.

It’s also leaked out to the press that President Obama has signed a presidential “finding” authorizing the CIA to assist the rebels. In related news, Qaddafi’s Foreign Minister, Musa Kusa, has defected to the U.K., making him the highest official to switch sides yet. Kusa has long been said to have had a productive relationship with the CIA and he is reported to have been instrumental in Qaddafi’s decision to give up his WMDs, which would explain why his assets haven’t been frozen.

One of the biggest arguments against intervention in Libya has been the financial cost. Wired Magazine raises the question of whether contractors should be used to support the rebels instead of taxpayer money. This is a highly controversial proposal because it raises images of independent companies acting as guns-for-hire around the globe, but with the U.S. in such debt, it should at least be discussed (along with proper regulations). The U.S. cannot afford to be isolationist and withdrawn from these conflicts, but it can’t financially afford significant involvement either.

Some significant developments happened today in Syria as well. There are estimates that up to 25 people have died in Latakia today. Click here for very graphic video of the clashes today.

According to the Reform Party of Syria, a Kurdish website “central to their cause” called Soparo is calling on Kurds to join in the uprising. If this happens, the situation will dramatically escalate. Think of how much trouble the Kurds, with only 10 percent of the population, have caused Assad in the past.

RPS also reports that the 18-member religious High Council of the Allawites has sent a delegation to the regime to express its dissatisfaction.  The organization warns that the Assad regime might try to instigate sectarian warfare in Latakia, a city of 700,000 (400,000 Sunnis and 300,000 Allawites).