Luc MICHEL for ELAC & ALAC Committees/
with RT – AP – PCN-SPO – ELAC Website / 2013 10 11 /
http://www.elac-committees.org/
https://www.facebook.com/elac.committees
Post Gaddafi ‘made in NATO’ Libya is definitively fallen in chaos.
Puppet ‘Libyan’ PM Ali Zeidan freed after capture in Tripoli this wednesday by former rebels over US raid …
WHO IS ALI ZEIDAN ?
Ali Zeidan is a long-time opponent of Muammar Qaddafi and th US choice for “election” as prime minister by the Puppet Libyan “National Congress”. A former career diplomat, Zeidan defected in 1980 while he was serving at the Libyan embassy in India, and spent the next three decades in exile working for the CIA. He was a member of the opposition “National Front for the Salvation of Libya”, a puppet organisation of the CIA, established in 1981 with dissidents abroad, before becoming a Geneva-based advocate.
“Zeidan goes way back in his dealings with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In Europe he was the ‘poster-boy’ for the Libyan revolution” (sic), according to journalist Manuel Ocksenreiter. He believes that “Libya, with its interwoven conflicts over spheres of influence and resources, also has a major split between those so-called ‘poster-boys’ and the extremist elements running amok in the country”.
With two other CIA agents, all leading the NFSL, the “general” Khalifa Hifter – former commander in Fevruary 2011 of the katibas of the TNC in Benghazi -, the chief of the little “Libyan” new colonial army, and Ali Megaryef, chief of the Libyan liberal forces, Zeidan is the choice of Washington to control, as much as possible, the post Gaddafi Libya.
WHAT’ S HAPPENING IN TRIPOLI ?
Yesterday, Ali Zeidan spent several hours in captivity after a ‘former rebel’ – in fact islamist – militia – kidnapped him from Tripoli hotel Corinthia, in “retaliation for his apparent cooperation with a US anti-terror raid”.
After Zeidan was freed by his captors unharmed, he urged another militia group who helped in his release to join the regular armed forces. « Libyans need wisdom … not escalation … to deal with this situation, » (sic) Zeidan said during a televised cabinet meeting.
The AP believes that government forces may have intervened, as it appeared that Zeidan’s abductors were not willing to let him go. A militia commander with ties to the Interior Ministry – an indication of the libyan chaos, including in the center of Tripoli – told a private news channel that “another Tripoli-based militia intervened by storming the house where Zeidan was kept, securing his release”.
The commander of the intervening militia – calling itself the ‘Reinforcement Force’ – spoke to Al-Hurrah television, “recounting a gun fight in which his men attacked the building and freed Zeidan without any harm coming to him”. Security sources first told local media on Thursday morning that “armed units grabbed Zeidan from the Corinthia Hotel in the Libyan capital and took him to an unknown location”, Reuters says. The reports were later confirmed by a government statement, but government officials could not be reached for comment at the time.
Al Arabiya was earlier citing the country’s justice minister as saying that Zeidan was “kidnapped,” showing also some video stills that clearly displayed Zeidan with a troubling facial expression and with his shirt unbuttoned at the collar. He was being led out by armed men wearing civilian clothes. A Reuters journalist was on the scene, reporting that “protesters has opened fire on the building where Zeidan was being held, demanding that the group free the PM”.
Meanwhile, the main body of the Libyan government has denounced Zeidan’s seizure as a ‘criminal act,’ according to the AP.
THE FICTION OF THE PUPPET ‘LIBYAN’ STATE
It later turned out Zeidan was seized by the same former rebel group that is now working with the Interior Ministry to maintain security in the capital. Post Gaddafi police and army are a fiction. The armed power is in the hands of islamists katibas, private cities militias – such as Zinten or Misratta – and party-militias – such as al-Watan of former al-Qeida leader Habdelhakim Belhadj – …
Of particular importance here is the nature and origin of the rebel groups operating in Libya. The war that followed the toppling of Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi, sunk the country into lawlessness and broke it down into rebel units with changing affiliations, many of which were enlisted to serve in Libya’s security apparatus. However, their loyalties often lay with their commander – not with government. One such group was behind Zeidan’s seizure. They subsequently released a statement to the press explaining their actions.
« His arrest comes after the statement by [US Secretary of State] John Kerry about the capture of Abu Anas el-Liby, after he said the Libyan government was aware of the operation, » said a spokesperson for the group calling itself the “Operations Room of Libya’s Revolutionaries” (sic). The armed faction has promised that “it will pursue all other people it sees as having anything to do with the recent raid by US forces in collaboration with the Libyan government”.
The spokesman for Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs, Aleksandr Lukashevich, spoke to Interfax about the volatility of Libya’s security: “Today’s events concerning the terrorist kidnapping and subsequent return of Libya’s prime minister again serve to show the difficult security problems faced by the country and just how fragile that so-called stability our partners speak of with regard to Syria really is.”
RUSSIAN EXPERT: “AL-QAIDA OFFICERS INTEGRATED IN THE LIBYAN GOVERNEMENT”
Journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter, who specializes on the Middle East, believes the situation to be a result of a government that is really run by rebels, and is just one situation in which interests in post-coup Libya intersect and compete. “In Libya we see a disintegrated country controlled by warlords – by those gangs who have the biggest guns – and what they do is confusing for us, of course, so I’m not surprised at all,” Ocksenreiter said of the kidnapping. He went on to explain the composition of Libya’s current decision-making apparatus and how it arrived at this state of affairs since Gaddafi’s deposal.
“These were Al-Qaeda gangs, these were jihadists… and they are today integrated into the Libyan government. We have to see just one example: Abdelhakim Belhadj – a jihadist with strong links to Al-Qaeda who became a military commander of the Libyan capital and is now a politician in Libya. These are the so-called ‘allies’ of the West… [but] you cannot rely on those allies, and this is the lesson the West receives now. We may see now the revolution eating its children with this kidnapping now,” he said to RT.
THE SEQUEL OF THE US SPECIAL OPS RAID IN TRIPOLI
The rebels say they seized Zeidan in retaliation for his government’s role in assisting the US in the recent capture of a suspected top Al-Qaeda leader.
Less than a week ago, the suspect was seized by US forces in a raid in Tripoli. The incident has angered Islamist groups in the country, including the one that is thought to have been involved in the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. The suspected terrorist, Nazih Abdul-Hamed Ruqai, also going by the alias Abu Anas el-Liby, was sought by the US for his alleged participation in the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
« The Libyan government is following the news of the kidnapping of a Libyan citizen who is wanted by US authorities,” Zeidan said in the days shortly before being taken, as cited by Reuters. « The Libyan government has contacted US authorities to ask them to provide an explanation. »
Zeidan recently expressed fears that if he is accused of complicity with the US over the capture of Liby, which could lead to his confrontation with the Islamist part of the government that came to power following West-helped Muammar Gaddafi’s ousting two years ago.
US State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said on Thursday that Washington is seeking more information on the incident. « We are looking into these reports and we are in close touch with senior US and Libyan officials on the ground, » she told the press. « We are working to determine more details. Our embassy staff is safe in Tripoli. We have no further details at this time, » Psaki added.
Since Gaddafi’s deposal, the country has been in chaos, involving many players and factions all vying for power in different parts of the country, with the government still trying to bring the situation under control.
My readers know all this for long time!
See my article of August 28, 2012 :
WHERE IS LIBYA GOING TO?
FROM THE COMEDY OF « DEMOCRACY » TO THE SOMALIAZATION …
Luc MICHEL
For PCN-SPO / ELAC Website
