Gaddafi regime fed names of jihadists to the CIA and to Britain

The Australian ^ | March 22, 2011 | Alexi Mostrous

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

COLONEL Muammar Gaddafi's regime secretly provided information to Britain and the US on Islamic extremists in the east of Libya, according to leaked diplomatic cables and intelligence sources.

The names of hundreds of suspects were passed to the CIA and British intelligence.

“There was a strong, shared concern between Gaddafi and the US and UK Governments about radical Sunni jihadist terrorists, including the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG),” Paul Pillar, a CIA veteran who negotiated with Libya over its nuclear program, told The Times.

Diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks paint eastern Libya as a fertile ground for radical extremism. One source told US officials in 2008 that for young men from Derna, a city east of Benghazi, “resistance against coalition forces in Iraq was an important act of 'jihad' and a last act of defiance against the Gaddafi regime”.

[FreeReign]

Q: Name three sworn enemies of radical islam. A. the Shah or Iran, Saddam Hussein, and Moammar Gaddafi

Unbelievable.

Gaddafi has a long track record of promoting radical Islam outside of his borders.

Link

[FreeReign]

A quick look at some of your links shows that the "Al Qaeda is in E. Libya" claim is coming from Gaddafi and his own officials.

Perhaps I haven't read the good stuff yet.

[FreeReign]

Your third link does show useful information that FIGL is becoming part of Al Qaeda.

"Ayman al-Zawahri purportedly said the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya was becoming part of al-Qaeda."

[ScottinVA]

Separated at birth?

[Leaning Right]

Gaddafi has a long track record of promoting radical Islam outside of his borders.

OK, assuming that your link is an unbiased one, let us then ask why Gaddafi is supporting radical islam.

Is it because he dreams of an AQ caliphate, encompassing all of the middle east, including his own country?

Does he dream of handing off power in Libya to an ayatollah (instead of to one of his sons)?

I'd argue that the answer to these two questions is obviously no. Then why does Gaddafi give any support to radical islam? To do below-the-public-radar damage to the West.

So, sure, Gaddafi is no friend, just as Saddam Hussein was no friend. But IMHO they are much less dangerous than the alternative, a string of radical islamic states.

And no, I do not buy the Bush 2 argument that the alternative to Arab dictatorship is Western-style democracy. Ain't gonna happen.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The missing piece...

Libya Islamists 'seize arms, take hostages' (This is how it all started--with an Al Qaeda attack)

[piasa]

ping