Gaddafi came over because he's got a couple of thousand al Qaida in the mountains and they're all gunning for him.
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AL-QAEDA TARGETS GADDAFI
CSIS: Exclusive: Report suggests possible motive for Libya's campaign to appease the West
by Stewart Bell
National Post
December 24, 2003
A Canadian intelligence report says al-Qaeda-backed militants in Libya want to assassinate Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, providing a possible explanation for the dictator's recent attempts to improve relations with the West.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service report shows that Col. Gaddafi, once a major sponsor of terrorist violence, is now a terrorist target who shares a common enemy with the West: Osama bin Laden.
The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) is the most powerful radical faction waging holy war against Col. Gaddafi. It aims to establish an Islamic state in Libya and views the current regime as oppressive, corrupt and anti-Muslim, CSIS said.
"The group has clearly stated its view on the use of force, promoting the ideology that Libyan people can only gain freedom by actively supporting the mujahedin in the war against Gaddafi's regime," the report said.
"In order to achieve their goals, the LIFG has made numerous attempts to kill Colonel Gaddafi," said the "Unclassified: For Official Use Only" report, dated September, 2002, and titled Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
A section of the report called "Presence and Activities in Canada" was entirely deleted by CSIS before the document was released to the National Post under the Access to Information Act.
The United States and Britain announced last Friday that Col. Gaddafi had agreed to dismantle Libya's weapons of mass destruction programs. UN weapons inspectors are to arrive in the country as early as next week.
Yesterday, Col. Gaddafi called on other "rogue states" to follow his dramatic example if they were to prevent "tragedy" from striking their nations.
The move has led to widespread speculation about Col. Gaddafi's motives, but largely overlooked has been the impact that Western intelligence co-operation could have in helping Col. Gaddafi suppress his hardline Islamic opponents.
Headed by Anas Sebai, a key al-Qaeda leader, the Libyan fighting group includes about 2,500 "Libyan Afghans" who fought in the 1979-89 Soviet War in Afghanistan and then returned home to ignite an Islamic rebellion.
The group's stronghold is in the mountains on Libya's northeast coast. "Using the mountains around the Benghazi and al-Akhdar area as a base, the LIFG employs ... guerrilla tactics to attack Gaddafi's forces and then retreat into hiding."
Three other armed groups, the Islamic Movement of Martyrs, Libyan Jihad Movement and Islamic Movement for Change, are also battling Col. Gaddafi and at one point had "thousands, if not tens of thousands of supporters," CSIS said.
"All Libyan Islamist terrorist groups, including the LIFG, are believed to have links with neighbouring Islamic extremist groups in Egypt and Algeria. Furthermore ... the LIFG has openly pledged to show support and loyalty to all jihad groups everywhere. This has led the LIFG to be recognized as a key component in the global network of militant Islamic groups," the CSIS report said.
The LIFG began trying to kill Col. Gaddafi in 1995 and its last attempt was in August, 1998, when the colonel's motorcade was attacked. The LIFG smuggles weapons into Libya from neighbouring North African countries, and is funded by private donations, Islamic aid agencies and criminal activity, CSIS said.
Washington hopes to portray Libya as an example of how rogue nations can rejoin the international community by renouncing terrorism, but some observers remain skeptical due to Libya's long-standing support for Palestinian terrorism and its involvement in such attacks as the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The UN lifted economic sanctions against Libya after Tripoli agreed to compensate the families of the Lockerbie victims. The United States may also lift its embargo and remove Libya from its list of terror-sponsoring nations.
Col. Gaddafi's stark warning yesterday to other "rogue" states appeared to offer endorsement of Washington's and London's policy of diplomacy backed by pre-emptive strikes. Asked if he had a message for other leaders, especially the heads of Syria, Iran and North Korea, he replied: "They should follow the steps of Libya, or take an example from Libya, so that they prevent any tragedy being inflicted upon their own peoples."
He went on to accuse Israel of harbouring illicit weapons, saying a wholesale disarmament in the Muslim world "would tighten the rope or the noose around the Israelis, so they would expose their programs and their weapons of mass destruction."
Col. Gaddafi, speaking in a Bedouin tent near Tripoli denied that he possessed weapons of mass destruction, saying only that Libya possessed "certain machines" and research programs. "We have not these weapons," he said, adding that his research projects "would have been for peaceful purposes -- but nevertheless we decided to get rid of them completely."
Britain and the United States say that Libya had confessed that it was closer than thought to producing enriched uranium, suitable for use in an atomic bomb. It also possesses chemical weapons.
Col. Gaddafi has not lost all his fiery rhetoric, telling critics of his weapons programs: "You exercise terrorist policy against the Libyan people by accusing us."
But he repeated his vow that international inspectors would be allowed to conduct snap visits to the formerly closed North African nation, saying they would learn "we don't have anything to hide."
Sometimes speaking in English, he seemed at pains to reach out to Britain and the United States, insisting that his country was not a terrorist sponsor, and expressing hopes for a new era of Anglo-American commercial ties.
British and American officials have not hesitated to credit the allies' tough line on Iraq for Libya's decision and believe the effect may spread.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday that Mr. Blair hoped to use the Libyan breakthrough to step up secret talks to secure similar concessions on weapons of mass destruction.
The lifting of U.S. sanctions on Libya is the top priority for Col. Gaddafi, who this year paved the way for a reopening of ties when he agreed to take responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.
U.S. oil companies were leading players in the Libyan oil industry until 1986, when they were ordered out of the country by president Ronald Reagan. Marathon, Amerada Hess and ConocoPhillips jointly hold permits to develop the huge Waha field.
Most of those permits expire in 2005, raising fears among U.S. oil executives that their rights could be transferred to European firms.
© National Post 2003
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