Losing Libya’s Revolution
Bayonet Brant's previous post refers to a war game 'Game Over', after reading the linked NYRB article earlier today the situation is more like 'Game is not Over':http://www.nybooks.com/articles/arch...o_Tz2i.twitter
Some classic passages, sometimes with Islam at the centre, others are legacy issues. Here is one:
Quote:
Benghazi, a city that farms out refuse collection to Bangladeshi and Sudanese migrant workers, still has five thousand Libyan garbage collectors on payroll. When an overconscientious official tried to stop paying them, hundreds stormed the municipality and chased out the councillors.
U.S. Raids in Libya and Somalia Strike Terror Targets
U.S. Raids in Libya and Somalia Strike Terror Targets
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
Tripoli protest: brings out HMGs
Sadly the crazies, a Misrata militia this time, reacted badly to an un-armed protest calling for them to leave the city, amidst the weapons a "technical" with a heavy machine gun - which is shown firing at the crowds.
Photo:https://twitter.com/Morning_LY/statu...129537/photo/1 The photographer's FB has more:https://www.facebook.com/ejjawkolla
Some of the protestors went home and came back:
Quote:
Demonstrators, some of which had been carrying white flags, fled but then returned, heavily armed, to attack the compound, where the militiamen remained holed up until early morning as fighting continued. Rocket-propelled grenades could be heard.
Link to news report:http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...n-tripoli?lite
Libya has dropped out of view of late, although I am sure SWC readers known it is unstable.
Making sense of Libya: cheering Humvees
An IISS Strategic Comment which IMHO describes the chaos that is the new or is it the old Libya:http://www.iiss.org/en/publications/...-militias-d401
Here is an illustration:
Quote:
The withdrawal of Misratan units was followed by that of other non-Tripoli militias, their place taken by the army's 151 and 166 brigades, newly trained and deploying with American equipment including tan-coloured humvees. Crowds cheered their arrival on the streets, though others remembered that the Misratans themselves had been cheered when they liberated the city two years before.
Libya’s Fractious South and Regional Instability
I noted some reporting via Twitter on the infighting in Southern Libya, but did not look further. Today this linked paper appeared and it opens with:
Quote:
A multitude of armed groups and smuggling networks with transnational reach are driving southern Libya’s integration into the Sahel–Sahara region. Contrary to widespread external perceptions, the extremist presence remains a marginal phenomenon in the southwest (Fezzan), at least in relation to the political struggles. Rivalries over the control of borders, smuggling routes, oilfields, and cities, as well as conflicts regarding the citizenship status of entire communities, are of far greater significance. These conflicts are centred on southern Libya, but have a regional dimension because of the transnational links of the parties involved.
Link:http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sana/...ispatch-3.html
There is a section on the Tuareg's too. Yet more to read.
Making sense of chaos and a little oil
A little more reporting. AJ's headline 'Libyan parliament sacks PM after tanker escapes rebel-held port', although the story is based on Reuters, which starts:
Quote:
Libya's parliament voted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan out of office on Tuesday after rebels humiliated the government by loading crude on a tanker that fled from naval forces, officials said, in a sign of the worsening chaos in the OPEC member state.
Libyan gunboats later chased the tanker along Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast and opened fire, damaging it, a military spokesman said. Italian naval ships were helping move the tanker to a Libyan government-controlled port, he said. But Italy denied any of its vessels were in the area at the time and the reported firing incident could not be confirmed.
Link:http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A2A0R820140311
With a backgrounder on the bubbling along civil strife in Libya:http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...rea?CMP=twt_gu
Southern Libya (Fezzan): backgrounder
This hitherto remote region, known as Fezzan, has become a "hot spot" with rival militias, militants, arms smuggling and oilfields. An excellent backgrounder, using open sources and field interviews comes from the Swiss-based Small Arms Survey:http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/filea...uous-South.pdf
They conclude:
Quote:
Southern Libya is set to remain a source of regional instability for the foreseeable future, and is also likely to become a growing concern for the emerging Libyan state.
How this squares with the clear issues of control = where most Libyans live, along the coast - is not clear. The report had noted, just before this sentence:
Quote:
...the Libyan government appears preoccupied with developments in the country’s northwest and east.
I was fascinated by this paragraph:
Quote:
Most Tuareg soldiers of Sahelian origin stayed in southern Libya. Defectors from the Maghawir Brigade set up the first ‘revolutionary’ Tuareg armed group after Tripoli’s fall: the Ténére Brigade. The Brigade’s entry into Ubari in September 2011 was considered the town’s ‘liberation’, and the group emerged as one of the two largest units in the town. The largest was the Maghawir Brigade—renamed the Tendé Brigade—which kept its structure and its status as an official unit of the Libyan Army. According to the Tendé Brigade’s commander, the vast majority of Maghawir soldiers who escaped to Mali in 2011 have since returned to the unit. The commander cited several reasons for their return: their families had stayed in Libya, the political situation in Mali (where the MNLA was overtaken by extremist groups), and the dissipation of the threat of retaliation against Sahelian Tuareg.
If there is one takeaway it is that business is good, even if shared.
aking sense of chaos and a little oil: a film clip
Watch and draw your own conclusions - what did NATO do? Link to a short film clip and the English language used:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxB4...T6N1Z_Lk8ztP_Q
Cleaning up Benghazi; stalled or failed?
That little 'small war' which rarely gets MSM reporting, so a welcome update and hat tip to WoTR:http://warontherocks.com/2014/07/lib...mist-campaign/
Libya and the robbers: bankers and militias
A fascinating article 'How Libya Blew Billions and Its Best Chance at Democracy' that reveals that Libya's riches have been stolen on a huge scale amidst the chaos of militias vying for control:http://www.businessweek.com/articles...ational-wealth
A taster:
Quote:
Of the nine companies to which the LIA entrusted its $70 billion bankroll, almost all appear to have lost incredible amounts of money while charging sky-high fees. According to an audit conducted by KPMG, Socit Gnrale managed to lose more than half of a $1.8 billion investment, while charging the Libyans tens of millions for its financial expertise. London-based investment management firm Permal Group, which received $300 million from LIA, lost 40 percent of it while earning $27 million in fees. BNP Paribas (
BNP:FP) lost 23 percent: High fees have been directly responsible for the poor results, the auditor noted. Credit Suisse (
CS) lost 29 percent of the funds that it managed. Millennium Global Investments, based in London, apparently lost all of a $100 million investment in its emerging credit fund, while a $300 million investment in Lehman Brothers vanished from the books after Lehman collapsed in 2008.