[Peace-discuss] Libyan rebels = CIA + AQ?

[C. G. Estabrook]

David Swanson asks, "What do people w/unstated careers in Northern Virginia tend 
to do? Is Libyan rebel leader CIA?"

Alex Cockburn asks "...to whom exactly are the interveners lending succor? 
There’s been great vagueness here, beyond enthusiastic references to the 
romantic revolutionaries of Benghazi, and much ridicule for Qaddafi’s 
identification of his opponents in eastern Libya as Al Qaida. In fact two 
documents strongly back Qaddafi on this issue. The first is a secret cable to 
the State Department from the US embassy in Tripoli in 2008, part of the 
Wikileaks trove, entitled “Extremism in Eastern Libya” which revealed that this 
area is rife with anti-American, pro-jihad sentiment ... The second document or 
rather set of documents are the so-called Sinjar Records, captured Al Qaeda 
documents that fell into American hands in 2007..." [See 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03252011.html>.]

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Posted on Saturday, 03.26.11
New Libyan rebel leader spent much of past 20 years in suburban Virginia

By CHRIS ADAMS
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The new leader of Libya's opposition military spent the past two 
decades in suburban Virginia but felt compelled - even in his late-60s - to 
return to the battlefield in his homeland, according to people who know him.

Khalifa Hifter was once a top military officer for Libyan leader Moammar 
Gadhafi, but after a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s, 
Hifter switched to the anti-Gadhafi opposition. In the early 1990s, he moved to 
suburban Virginia, where he established a life but maintained ties to 
anti-Gadhafi groups.

Late last week, Hifter was appointed to lead the rebel army, which has been in 
chaos for weeks. He is the third such leader in less than a month, and rebels 
interviewed in Libya openly voiced distrust for the most recent leader, Abdel 
Fatah Younes, who had been at Gadhafi's side until just a month ago.

At a news conference Thursday, the rebel's military spokesman said Younes will 
stay as Hifter's chief of staff, and added that the army - such as it is - would 
need "weeks" of training.

According to Abdel Salam Badr of Richmond, Va., who said he has known Hifter all 
his life - including back in Libya - Hifter, whose name is sometimes spelled 
Haftar, Hefter or Huftur, was motivated by his intense anti-Gadhafi feelings.

"Libyans - every single one of them - they hate that guy so much they will do 
whatever it takes," Badr said in an interview Saturday. "Khalifa has a personal 
grudge against Gadhafi.... That was his purpose in life."

According to Badr and another friend in the U.S., a Georgia-based Libyan 
activist named Salem alHasi, Hifter left for Libya two weeks ago.

alHasi, who said Hifter was once his superior in the opposition's military wing, 
said he and Hifter talked in mid-February about the possibility that Gadhafi 
would use force on protesters.

"He made the decision he had to go inside Libya," alHasi said Saturday. "With 
his military experience, and with his strong relationship with officers on many 
levels of rank, he decided to go and see the possibility of participating in the 
military effort against Gadhafi."

He added that Hifter is very popular among members of the Libyan army, "and he 
is the most experienced person in the whole Libyan army." He acted out of a 
sense of "national responsibility," alHasi said.

"This responsibility no one can take care of but him," alHasi said. "I know very 
well that the Libyan army especially in the eastern part is in desperate need of 
his presence."

Omar Elkeddi, a Libyan expatriate journalist based in Holland, said in an 
interview that the opposition forces are getting more organized than they were 
at the beginning up the uprising. Hifter, he said, is "very professional, very 
distinguished," and commands great respect.

Since arriving in the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban 
Virginia outside Washington, D.C. Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter 
did to support himself, and that Hifter primarily focused on helping his large 
family.

Read more: 
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/26/2136063/new-libyan-rebel-leader-spent.html#ixzz1HqaDOxhX