Qaddafi revolutionaries rule Libyan streets

A report in the New York Times written by Mai Ayyad reveals that revolutionaries rules the streets and the so called new government of Libya is impotent and cannot enforce its writ in the cities and towns–not even Benghazi and Tripoli where the US Marines rule and support the new government installed after bombing Libya for nine months.

The New York Times reveals the panic in Washington and London which had thought that the Libyan project was complete and Libya had become another Qatar, more obsequious than Germany and more docile than Japan.

The rude awakening in Washington about the Arab Summer makes them forget Pakistan for a bit. Suddenly Ansar Al Sharia (Partisans of Islamic law”) Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and other Qaddafi loyalists have become more important than the Haqqanis.

The reversals in Libya has far reaching consequences in Chad, Sudan, Egypt and Yamen.

Why was US ambassador Christopher Stevens’ hated so much that his
“dead body through the streets of Benghazi on Tuesday, kicking and punching the corpse”? Apparently he was the one who directed a similar fate on Colonel Qaddafi.

The NYT says:

“The organization and firepower used in the assault, which killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, has raised alarm in Washington about the possibility of links to Al Qaeda and a premeditated conspiracy that found a pretext in anger over an American-made video mocking the Prophet Muhammad. ”

Only Libya watchers have heard of the Qaddafi loyalists like Ansar Al Shariya, Feb 17th Brigade and the Ilhwan in Libya. “It is just one of many autonomous battalions of heavily armed men formed during and after the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi who have filled the void in public security left by his fall, resisting calls to disarm by saying that the weak transitional government is not up to the job.”

Libya is run by the forces loyal to Qaddafi and the newly installed government cannot even guard hospitals.

The Yamen Post describes Ansar as having Yameni origins where it controls “The Islamic Emirate of Abyan” a giver ate of Yamen “Ansar Al-Sharia (Supporters of the Islamic Law), the group connected to Al-Qaeda, has disclosed for the first time that Abu Baseer Nasser Al-Wuhaishi is the leader of the group.
In a statement circulated to media outlets, the group said that Al-Wohaish ordered to release 73 soldiers who were captured since last March as militants of the organization attacked positions of the military around Zinjibar in Abyan. Many questions were raised about the connections of the group that emerged in South Yemen and captured some towns in Abyan and Shabwa. ”

France 24 describes the situation:

“After the revolution and subsequent election failed to result in an Islamic state, Ansar al-Sharia vowed to continue their fight. They established headquarters in Benghazi and began marking their territory by securing control of local state and military outfits in the city, including the main hospital.
They went on to make a name for themselves in the national and international press, hitting the headlines in June for allegedly planning an attack against the British ambassador, and later in August for destroying Sufi shrines across the country.”

Discussing the Ansar the NYT says:

“And when instead they turned their guns on the United States mission, American security officers and the Libyan authorities did not call for help from any formal military or police force — there is none to speak of — but turned to the leader of another autonomous militia with its own Islamist ties.”

It is widely believed that the assault, which killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, was an act of revenge for the brutal torture and murder of Qaddafi. Stevens had actually led the rebel forces and those killing him reminded the frenzied crowd of that fact.

The battle over the US “mission has also became the latest skirmish in a larger struggle unfolding across the region between hard-line and moderate” determined to bring about a real Arab Spring free of TE Lawrence Type of foreign forces which tried to bring about fake “revolutions” in the Middle East. Those heads of states selected in propped elections and then installed in the palaces of former dictators now face the wrath of the people who in the midst of the Arab Summer want a Middle East free of foreign interference.

Ambassador Stevens, was a widely reviled by the Qaddafi loyalists and the Ikhwan.

The NYT reports:

“But since the militiamen, who still call themselves ‘revolutionaries,’ remain the power on the streets, there is an open question who will disarm or control them. ‘The government is required to do so,’ said Mr. Bukatef, leader of eastern Libya’s most potent armed force, the February 17 Brigade. “But the government can’t do it without the revolutionaries,” he said, noting that many brigades continued to operate independently even though they now nominally report to the defense minister. “It takes a delicate approach.”

Ansar al-Sharia and Colonel Qaddafi loyalists rule Libya. The bombing and occupation has had no affect. It’s like Afghanistan. Ten years of occupation and the Talibs are still in power.

According to the NYT the Ansar decapitated the Anti-Qaddafi forces and killed commander Abdul Fattah.

The Fifty shades of Green in Libya defy definition with various groups and sub-groups obfuscating the political landscape and thwarting all foreign efforts to eliminate them.

Mr. Bukatef and his brigade has been a member of Libya’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, “and one of his group’s commanders reporting to him is Ismail al-Salabi, who leads a group of Islamist fighters and is the brother of Libya’s most prominent Islamist thinker, Ali al-Salabi. But unlike Ansar al-Sharia, both Mr. Bukatef and the Salabi brothers have emphasized their conviction that Islam requires a democratic, constitutional government.”

The NYT reports that “Witnesses at the scene of the assault on the mission said they saw pickup trucks labeled with the group’s logo, which is well known in Benghazi. Fighters attacking the embassy acknowledged then that they belonged to Ansar al-Sharia, although they said there were other unarmed protesters joining them.”

However Ansar Commander Mohammed Ali al-Zahawi, Commenting on a previous attack told The Washington Post, “If it had been our attack on the U.S. Consulate, we would have flattened it.”

The Ansar philosophy is:
“Democracy is a human condition where laws are made by people,” it said. “Only God has the authority to make law and that is why Islam and Sharia are incompatible with democracy.”

The NYT reports that “The Libyan guards who were outside the United States mission during the assault said the attackers, whoever they were, made their militant ideology clear, charging that any Muslim who defended Americans had effectively disavowed the faith.”

The NYT reports from the scene of the assault on the US Embassy

“You are an unbeliever! You are shooting at us with the Americans,” the attackers shouted at one wounded Libyan guard, as he later recalled from his hospital bed, with two bullet wounds in his right leg and shrapnel from a grenade in his left. (He spoke anonymously for his safety.) “I am just the gardener,” the guard said he eventually lied to a second wave of fighters, who carried him to the hospital.”

Qaddafi revolutionaries rule Libyan streets