What happened in Libya
Since the end of the Civil War almost 3 years ago, the revolution has been hijacked, and another Civil War has started. How did Libya come to this?
This started right with the election of the General National Council. Though the MB-Aligned Islamist lost, they were gradually able to take power, largely through intimidation, and assassination.
In addition, as the GNC was under their control, a number of members, notably a Nouri Abusahmain. He personally divert money into creating the Libyan Revolutionary Operations Room. This organization would later abduct the then-Prime Minister Ali Zeidan in a coup attempt.
The GNC was believed by its opponents to be allowing Islamist groups to conduct assassinations, and kidnappings, especially in Benghazi. Prominent Islamist incidents in 2013-14 included the kidnapping of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan in October 2013, and the kidnapping of Egyptian diplomats in January 2014. Both incidents were carried out by the LROR.
In October 2013, following the kidnapping of the prime minister, Abusahmain used his presidency to change the agenda of the GNC in order to prevent a debate over disestablishing the LROR. At the same time, he cancelled a request to establish a committee to investigate the allocation, by Abusahmain himself, of 900 million Libyan Dinars (US $720 million) to the LROR and various other Islamist armed groups.
In Benghazi, now a center of fighting, there has been allegations that the GNC turned a blind eye to the various radical militias that popped up, including Ansar Al-Sharia, which would attack the US Consolate in Benghazi on September 11th, 2013.
As the second Civil War came closer, in April of last year, an Anti-Terrorist camp, called, Camp 27 was seized by forces under the command of the Libyan Shield Force, which has links to Al-Qaeda through its leaders. This Ibrahim Tantoush has also been cited by the UN as a Terrorist.
Another angle on this is the women’s rights one. Since the GNC was hijacked, they have been following the pronouncements of a Sadiq Ghariani. Unfortuately, people have been intimdated and killed for opposing him, with Hamida Al-Hadi Al-Asfar being tortured and killed in August of 2013 and no arrests being made. In an earlier incident, in April of the same year, two politicians, Ali Tekbali and Fathi Sager were arrested. The following section, from Wikipedia and sourced from Amnesty International, and the election results last year:
In June 2013, two politicians, Ali Tekbali and Fathi Sager, appeared in court for “insulting Islam” for publishing a cartoon promoting women’s rights. Under sharia law they were facing a possible death penalty. The case caused widespread concern although they were eventually acquitted in March 2014. After the GNC was forced to accept new elections, Ali Tekbali was elected to the new House of Representatives.
The last piece of the powder keg was when the Islamist-hijacked GNC tried to try to vote itself more time without elections. This occured in the late part of 2013, into 2014. This was not handled well by people in many regions, and protests continued for months. In Feburary of 2014, Gen Haftar commanded that the GNC stand down for elections. The GNC responded by calling him a dictator, and calling his demands ridiculous. The GNC would only allow new elections in May, after General Hafter started a Military Operation against the GNC. The Islamists promptly suffered a devastating defeat. However, Islamists, mostly supported by Misrata, refused the results, and started attacking. They eventually took Tripoli, and the Airport, forcing the government to Tobruq. Islamist units militias in Benghazi started attacks on Haftar’s forces, with the city see-sawing in terms of control. One thing of note here. The Islamist forces fighting in Benghazi are under the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, under which is Ansar al-Sharia. Another group is Libyan Shield 1, based out of Misrata, and was set up in 2012 by the Libyan Ministry of Defense. I would argue this is a sign that, since it was set up by the Government, it is still presumably under control of the MB-Government in Tripoli, which means at some level, they approved the attack on our consulate. I would at that, the New Yorker puts a pretty good summary of the Libyan Government in Tripoli.
The group aligned against Haftar, Libya Dawn, is an uneasy coalition; it includes former Al Qaeda jihadists who fought against Qaddafi in the nineties, Berber ethnic militias, members of Libya’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a network of conservative merchants from Misrata, whose fighters make up the largest block of Libya Dawn’s forces.
So, what do we have as a picture here? Well, the MB seems to have a lust for power that means they are quite willing to cause civil war, murder opponents, use thuggery to get their laws past, and disappear people at will, as happened in Tarhouna today, against an elder opposed the MB. The Muslim Brotherhood is also not representative of Islam, as shown by their willingness to kill other Muslims who think differently than they do. And they are also incompetent in governance, as shown by the Corinthian Hotel attack last month, which literally happened under their nose. And, as a result of the fighting caused by the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS now has control over the area of Derna, along with the area around Sirte. They seem to have also eliminated Forces friendly to the MB in the east.
This represents a major threat to Europe and NATO, as this is right on Italy and Greece’s doorstep. The US, which is for some inane reason remaining neutral, needs to start assisting the Government of Tobruq against both ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, considering the Government in power in neighboring Algeria is partially controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, a major investigation should be done to see if they are supporting the MB in Libya.
I would completely support attacks by the US and NATO against the Tripoli Government, and ISIS. In addition, there should be an assistance force, to help train the military and government in Tobruq, and a Marshall Plan to rebuild the Nation of Libya after the actions of Gadhafi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I also think that, after this, the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated a terrorist organization by the United States.