Posted on 03/25/2011 8:41:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
On his own admission, rebel leader Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi fought American troops in Afghanistan and recruited Libyans to fight American troops in Iraq.
Shortly after unrest broke out in eastern Libya in mid-February, reports emerged that an “Islamic Emirate” had been declared in the eastern Libyan town of Darnah and that, furthermore, the alleged head of that Emirate, Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, was a former detainee at the American prison camp in Guantánamo. The reports, which originated from Libyan government sources, were largely ignored or dismissed in the Western media.
Now, however, al-Hasadi has admitted in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore that he fought against American forces in Afghanistan. (Hat-tip: Thomas Joscelyn at the Weekly Standard.) Al-Hasadi says that he is the person responsible for the defense of Darnah — not the town’s “Emir.” In a previous interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail, he claimed to have a force of about 1,000 men and to have commanded rebel units in battles around the town of Bin Jawad.
“I have never been at Guantánamo,” al-Hasadi explained to Il Sole 24 Ore. “I was captured in 2002 in Peshawar in Pakistan, while I was returning from Afghanistan where I fought against the foreign invasion. I was turned over to the Americans, detained for a few months in Islamabad, then turned over to Libya and released from prison in 2008.”
Al-Hasadi’s account is largely confirmed by investigations conducted by Praveen Swami, the diplomatic editor of the British daily The Telegraph. Swami originally wrote about al-Hasadi’s background in the Afghan jihad in a March 21 column. In response to a query from the present author, Swami was able to obtain confirmation of al-Hasadi’s arrest and transfer to Libya from what he describes as a “senior source” in the Afghan government.
According to a separate UK intelligence source contacted by Swami, al-Hasadi was released by the Libyan government as part of a deal that was struck with the al-Qaeda-affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIGF). The LIGF has long opposed the rule of Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya.
On February 25, al-Hasadi had issued an ambiguous statement claiming that he had been a “political prisoner” and accusing the “Dictator Gaddafi” of spreading “lies.” Al-Jazeera provides an English translation of the statement here. (Scroll down to “12:46pm”.) A video of al-Hasadi reading his statement is available here.
In his more recent remarks to Il Sole 24 Ore, al-Hasadi admits not only to fighting against U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but also to recruiting Libyans to fight against American forces in Iraq. As noted in my earlier PJM report here, captured al-Qaeda personnel records show that al-Hasadi’s hometown of Darnah sent more foreign fighters to fight with al-Qaeda in Iraq than any other foreign city or town and “far and away the largest per capita number of fighters.” Al-Hasadi told Il Sole 24 Ore that he personally recruited “around 25” Libyans to fight in Iraq. “Some have come back and today are on the front at Ajdabiya,” al-Hasadi explained, “They are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists.” “The members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader,” al-Hasadi added.
The revelations about al-Hasadi’s involvement in the anti-American jihad are particularly troubling in light of clear evidence that Western forces are coordinating their attacks on Libyan government targets with rebel forces.
Reporting from the outskirts of Ajdabiya yesterday, Antoine Estève of the French news channel i-Télé noted that just “minutes” after rebel positions had been hit by artillery fire from Libyan government forces, the Libyan government positions were then bombarded by coalition aircraft. (Estève’s report can be viewed here.) In a March 19 dispatch from Benghazi for the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, correspondent Lorenzo Cremonesi cites rebel leaders as saying that they were given the opportunity to provide NATO with a map indicating enemy targets that they wanted bombed.
So, if we help this guy, it’s going to be just like with Fidel Castro, Afghanistan, and a whole lot of other cases of the last 60 years. There’s not going to be any “win” for the U.S., regardless how this thing turns out, but it WILL cost and cost again.
Tell me again, just what do we hope to accomplish in Libya?
And with the other hand we mail foreign aid checks to q-Daffy! We are governed by IDIOTS and criminal IDIOTS at that.
Obama’s peeps
Meanwhile, Obama and his fellow morons plan to provide these folks with arms/guns.
I knew it! I suspected all along these guys were playing the gov for fools. How come I can figure this out on my own, yet I didn’t go to Harvard or some prestigious military college?
Obamas C A L I P H A T E.
Here we see Islam at war wherever, fluid resources at work out to kill Americans. They are at war with us. Here we see Obama using the might of America to fight for them. For his brethren.
Its not about what is good for America, rather, the president has something else on his mind.
5.56mm
bttt
We have no business supporting this weasel or his designs.
The whole US/NATO intervention in Libya just doesn’t add up.
Qaddafi was bad, but he isn’t Al Qaeda and he wasn’t invading his neighbors. He limited his abuses (at least in last 15 years) to his own people. No different than “our friends” the Saudis.
He and his sons are certainly not Islamists, and the trend for Libya has been more integration into world affairs. Bush removed the “state sponsored terror” tag. Sarkozy welcomed Qaddafi to Paris on a State visit just @ 16 months ago, and even Hillary and Obambi supported Libya to join the UN Human Rights Commission.
What is going on there exactly?
It doesn't make sense to assume these people don't know.
So it’s now news that a top guy for the rebels isn’t exactly Luke Skywalker. What a shock. The problem I have is that this was not discussed in open debate in Congress when the President went there to get the Constitutional Congressional authority for this little military excursion.
Whatever reservations I had about Bush going into Iraq pale in comparison to the real concerns I have about this clown show.
All tentacles lead to Soros...
I'm more interested in why are we doing what we're doing.
This is positively shameful.
SOOO OBAMA is providing AID and COMFORT to an enemy we are at WAR with in Afganistan. (aid to Libyan “rebels”)
I wonder how MANY AMERICAN SOLDIERS this POS has maimed or killed?
Hillary and Obama should be in a Military Prison awaiting trial.
No wonder they were so fast to dump this in the lap of NATO yesterday.
I wonder what the Brits etc think about this revelation?
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