The new Libya: various aspects

[tequila]

From the BBC:

Will this be well covered by the US media?

Were any Americans killed?

[carl]

Will this be well covered by the US media?

Well covered? I don't know but it was covered and you could read about it in the local paper, here anyway. That is pretty good for something that happened where no Americans were killed.

[SWJ Blog]

White House Mulls How to Strike Over Libya Attack

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.

[SWJ Blog]

Petraeus’s Quieter Style at CIA Leaves Void on Libya Furor

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.

[BayonetBrant]

For anyone that might be interested, there's a scenario for the Lock'n'Load board game series that depicts the last stand of Kadhafi



other Libya scenarios are here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2...-day-of-heroes

[davidbfpo]

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:

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.

[SWJ Blog]

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.

[davidbfpo]

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:

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.

[davidbfpo]

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:

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.

[carl]

A Washington Post story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z1

about the Senate Benghazi investigation has this paragraph in it:

The report also noted, chillingly, that the FBI’s investigation of the attacks has been hampered in Libya and that 15 people “supporting the investigation or otherwise helpful to the United States” have since been killed in Benghazi. The report said it was unclear whether those killings were related to the inquiry.

Our ineptitude would be comical if it didn't result in so many people getting killed.

[davidbfpo]

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:

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.

[Bill Moore]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A2709K20140308

Libya threatens to bomb North Korean tanker if it ships oil from rebel port

Libya threatened on Saturday to bomb a North Korean-flagged tanker if it tried to ship oil from a rebel-controlled port, in a major escalation of a standoff over the country's petroleum wealth.

The rebels, who have seized three major Libyan ports since August to press their demands for more autonomy, warned Tripoli against staging an attack to halt the oil sale after the tanker docked at Es Sider terminal, one of the country's biggest. The vessel started loading crude late at night, oil officials said.

[JMA]

Carl,

Stumbled across this interview by Charlie Rose the other day.

Michael Morell, former deputy director of the CIA.

Covers the Bengazi fiasco and at the end touches on 'interrogation techniques' which is also interesting.

Must admit that I am still in agreement with Daniel Patrick Moynihan about the CIA.

A Washington Post story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z1

about the Senate Benghazi investigation has this paragraph in it:



Our ineptitude would be comical if it didn't result in so many people getting killed.

[davidbfpo]

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/

[davidbfpo]

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:

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:

...the Libyan government appears preoccupied with developments in the country’s northwest and east.

I was fascinated by this paragraph:

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.

[Jedburgh]

See also the 24 February 2014 USIP report Illicit Trafficking and Libya’s Transition: Profits and Losses. Although it is concerned with Libya as a whole, it does tie in activities in the south with the bigger picture, and makes for a useful read in conjunction with the SANA paper.

[AdamG]

Planes taking off from airfields in Libya and bombing Greek tankers sounds like a rerun of 1941.

CAIRO (AP) — Fighter jets dispatched by Libya's internationally recognized government bombed a Greek-owned tanker ship at an eastern city controlled by Islamist extremists Monday, killing two crew members and wounding two, Libyan and Greek officials said.

The bombing highlights the chaos that's gripped Libya since its 2011 civil war that deposed and killed dictator Moammar Gadahfi. Libyan officials apologized for the bombing as the Greek Foreign Ministry demanded compensation for the victims' families and punishment for those behind the attack.

Libyan military spokesman Ahmed al-Mesmari said jets struck the Liberian-flagged Araevo twice in Darna before his government learned the vessel was commissioned by the local power station. Darna is a base for Islamic extremists who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

http://news.yahoo.com/2-dead-unknown...092718995.html

[davidbfpo]

Provided by the Oxford Research Group:http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.u...xy_battlefield

On the eve of UN-brokered talks between rival Libyan leaders and militia due to convene in Geneva this briefing sets out the various rationales for intervention from Libya’s neighbours and other international actors and how these may impact on the case for peace through dialogue and reconciliation. It argues that now is a moment of opening that has the potential to save Libya from descent into full-blown civil war.

[davidbfpo]

That is my sad conclusion after reading this excellent summary of the position today in The Atlantic:http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...as-oil/385285/

It is now four years since the 'revolution' and there is no sign that the men with guns and pick-ups are ready to stop.

My only question after reading the article is whether the Libyan people are leaving. Again, as many left slowly whilst Gadafy was in power for decades.

[davidbfpo]

The result of touring around a long article in the New Yorker:http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...23/unravelling

I was wondering what happened to those Libyans who went home to oust Gadafy, the author says:

Many of the young Libyans I met during the revolution are now in Tunisia, Egypt, Bulgaria, London—anywhere but Libya. The exiles who came back to build a new country have largely left.