Libya/Civil War: Libyan rebel leader spent much of past 20 years in suburban Virginia

WASHINGTON - The new leader of Libya's opposition military spent the past two decades in suburban Virginia but felt compelled — even in his late-60s — to return to the battlefield in his homeland, according to people who know him.

Khalifa Hifter was once a top military officer for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but after a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s, Hifter switched to the anti-Gadhafi opposition. In the early 1990s, he moved to suburban Virginia, where he established a life but maintained ties to anti-Gadhafi groups.

Late last week, Hifter was appointed to lead the rebel army, which has been in chaos for weeks. He is the third such leader in less than a month, and rebels interviewed in Libya openly voiced distrust for the most recent leader, Abdel Fatah Younes, who had been at Gadhafi's side until just a month ago.

At a news conference Thursday, the rebel's military spokesman said Younes will stay as Hifter's chief of staff, and added that the army — such as it is — would need "weeks" of training.

According to Abdel Salam Badr of Richmond, Va., who said he has known Hifter all his life — including back in Libya — Hifter -- whose name is sometimes spelled Haftar, Hefter or Huftur -- was motivated by his intense anti-Gadhafi feelings.

"Libyans — every single one of them — they hate that guy so much they will do whatever it takes," Badr said in an interview Saturday. "Khalifa has a personal grudge against Gadhafi... That was his purpose in life."

According to Badr and another friend in the U.S., a Georgia-based Libyan activist named Salem alHasi, Hifter left for Libya two weeks ago.

alHasi, who said Hifter was once his superior in the opposition's military wing, said he and Hifter talked in mid-February about the possibility that Gadhafi would use force on protesters.

"He made the decision he had to go inside Libya," alHasi said Saturday. "With his military experience, and with his strong relationship with officers on many levels of rank, he decided to go and see the possibility of participating in the military effort against Gadhafi."

He added that Hifter is very popular among members of the Libyan army, "and he is the most experienced person in the whole Libyan army." He acted out of a sense of "national responsibility," alHasi said.

"This responsibility no one can take care of but him," alHasi said. "I know very well that the Libyan army especially in the eastern part is in desperate need of his presence."

Omar Elkeddi, a Libyan expatriate journalist based in Holland, said in an interview that the opposition forces are getting more organized than they were at the beginning up the uprising. Hifter, he said, is "very professional, very distinguished," and commands great respect.

Since coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself, and that Hifter primarily focused on helping his large family.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/26/111109/new-rebel-leader-spent-much-of.html#ixzz1HwwRBVOC

By Chris Adams | McClatchy Newspapers

Libya/War 2011: Allies target Libyan ground forces after decimating air force

The massive strikes on Col. Qaddafi’s ground forces, including his big Armada of tanks, mobile rocket launchers, heavy guns and short range battle missiles, mark the second phase of operation ‘Odyssey Dawn’, British Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell said.

U.S. and allied forces today shifted focus on hitting Libyan ground forces, targeting tanks and artillery to obliterate Muammar Qaddafi’s war waging machine, as French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe warned that the campaign may go on for weeks.

The shift to attack the ground forces came after coalition commanders claimed that Libyan air force had been completely destroyed and that the U.S. and NATO warplanes had total sway of the Libyan sky.

The massive strikes on Col. Qaddafi’s ground forces, including his big Armada of tanks, mobile rocket launchers, heavy guns and short range battle missiles, mark the second phase of operation ‘Odyssey Dawn’, British Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell said.

Col. Qaddafi’s air force “no longer exists a fighting force,” Air Vice Marshal Bagwell said as a flotilla of NATO warships patrolled Libya’s coast to enforce an arms embargo against Qaddafi.

As the allied operation entered the sixth day, French Foreign Minister Juppe said the campaign would continue.

“It will last for days and weeks. But, not months,” he said, spelling out for the first time the expected duration of the military campaign.

The French Minister was speaking to reporters in Brussels ahead of a crucial EU—NATO meeting to discuss how to coordinate airstrikes on Libya.

The coalition warplanes pounded the rebel—held city of Misruta, forcing Col. Qaddafi’s forces to pull back from the outskirts of the city, but residents said by nightfall the tanks and artillery had renewed their the shelling on the city which is virtually under siege.

Similar strikes were aimed at Col. Qaddafi’s forces stalking the towns of Adjabiyah and Zintan. “We are interdicting and putting pressure on Qaddafi’s forces that are attacking population centres,” said Rear Admiral Gerard P. Hueber, the Chief of Staffs for the American—led operational command.

“The air attacks continued day and night yesterday and resumed this morning on Qaddafi’s ground forces in both Misurata in the west and Adjabiyah in the east,” the Admiral said as NATO’s top military commander U.S. Admiral James Stavridis flew into Turkey to hold talks with Turkish military leaders who are holding up an agreement for NATO to take over command of Operation Odyssey.

The allied forces also continued Tomahawk missile strikes and air bombing of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

A BBC correspondent said the city was rocked by seven explosions and witnesses said a military base at Tajura, 32 km. east of the capital was hit.

Al Jazeera said eight explosions were also heard in the east of the capital last night.

The official JANA news agency said coalition raids on Tajura had killed a large number of civilians. Tajura, which houses a massive military complex, including a missile base, has been hit thrice.

JANA said the latest raid had targeted rescue workers who were trying to remove the dead and wounded from the rubble left by the first two raids.

Although the endgame in Libya remains unclear, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, now on a farewell visit to Egypt, said that mounting pressure on Col. Qaddafi could encourage his inner circle and even members of his family to turn on him.

“I think there are any number of possible outcomes here, and no one is in a position to predict them,” Mr. Gates said.

A U.S. commander said the allies flew 175 sorties in 24 hours, and the U.S. flew 113 of those. French defence minister Gerard Longuet, meanwhile, said France had destroyed about 10 Libyan armoured vehicles over three days.

However, there was no let up in Col. Qaddafi's forces’ shelling of the rebel—held cities.

In the coastal city of Misurata, around 200km east of Tripoli, government snipers fired indiscriminately, killing 16 people, Al Jazeera reported.

It quoted a rebel spokesman as saying that four children were killed in the city on Tuesday as regime forces pressed their siege.

Via | Thehindu.com

El descaro de los invasores a Libia: “Vengan con nosotros y únanse a esta ‘transición democrática’”

La invasión trasladó por primera vez sus operaciones a las ciudades de Al Yubra y Sebha, bastiones de la tribu Guededfa, de la que forma parte el líder libio. Francia desmintió la caída de uno de sus aviones. ”Los bombardeos empezaron a partir de las 02H00 locales. Hemos escuchado aviones y disparos de baterías antiaéreas y luego varias explosiones”, relató un habitante de Sehba citado por agencias internacionales.

Es la primera vez que la invasión que lideran EEUU, Francia y el Reino Unido, realizan operaciones en ciudades ubicadas al sur de Trípoli, una región bajo dominio absoluto del gobierno. El líder libio ha centrado sus ataques en las ciudades del este controladas por la oposición.

Al mismo tiempo, el diario digital libio Al Watan había informado sobre la caída de un avión de avión francés en la ciudad natal del líder libio. “Ningún avión francés fue derribado en Sirte la noche pasada”, dijo el coronel Thierry Burkhard, vocero de las Fuerzas Armadas de Francia.

El aparato de propaganda del gobierno ha acelerado su campaña contra los ataques aliados. La televisión mostró imágenes de cadáveres parcialmente carbonizados. Fuentes opositoras rechazaron, sin embargo, que se tratara de civiles muertos en los ataques aéreos de la invasión internacional.

Desde que comenzaron los ataques aéreos para imponer una zona de exclusión aérea sobre Libia, el sábado pasado, la oposición ha tildado de falsas las informaciones de los medios estatales sobre supuestas víctimas civiles. En tierra, los enfrentamientos entre las tropas leales a Gadafi y los rebeldes se centran en estos momentos en las ciudades de Aydabiya y Misurata, al este de Trípoli.

El Pentágono insistió este jueves en que había establecido con éxito una zona de exclusión aérea sobre las zonas costeras de Libia y afirmó que había pasado a atacar la artillería de Gadafi. En sintonía, Gran Bretaña señaló que había lanzado misiles guiados Tomahawk desde un submarino clase contra defensas aéreas libias. Y el ministro de Defensa francés, Gerard Longuet, indicó que su país destruyó unos 10 vehículos blindados libios durante tres días.

Mucho más lejos fue el oficial de alto rango de la Royal Air Force británica, Greg Bagwell, quien señaló que la aviación libia “ya no existe como fuerza de combate”. Sin embargo, los tanques de Gadafi se acercaron a la estratégica ciudad de Misrata, la tercera más grande del país, aún en poder de los rebeldes. Al amparo de la oscuridad, comenzaron a disparar contra el área cerca del hospital principal, dijeron residentes y rebeldes, con lo que reanudaron su ataque luego de que sus armas fueran silenciadas durante el día por los bombardeos aliados.

En la capital, la defensa antiaérea del gobierno comenzó a disparar en la madrugada local y se escucharon luego varias explosiones. A su vez, al comenzar la noche, se había producido una fuerte explosión en una base del ejército libio, a 32 kilómetros al este de Trípoli. Luego los testigos vieron llamas en el lugar.

La agencia oficial Jana había indicado, entonces, que los bombardeos de la coalición internacional en los suburbios de Trípoli el miércoles por la noche, que tuvieron como objetivo “un barrio residencial”, dejaron “una importante cantidad de muertos entre los civiles”. Según la agencia, un “tercer bombardeo” de la invasión “tomó como blanco a los socorristas que estaban trabajando para extraer los muertos y heridos” en el lugar. También denunció que hubo muertos civiles en Jafra, en Jemil, en Misrata y al sur de Bengasi.

La información fue desmentida por el Pentágono. En sintonía, al ser interrogado sobre los disparos de la invasión que afectaron a civiles, el canciller francés Alain Juppé, respondió que lo que se produjo “es exactamente lo contrario”. Sin embargo, fuentes distintas afirmaron que la invasión a Libia ha cobrado más civiles inocentes que personas cercanas a Gadafi.

El líder libio niega que su ejército esté realizando cualquier operación ofensiva y sostiene que sus tropas sólo se están defendiendo cuando son atacadas. Pero un residente en Zintan, al suroeste de Trípoli, dijo que las fuerzas del Gadafi están reuniendo más tropas y tanques para bombardear a los invasores.

Mientras, las fuerzas rebeldes en el este aún están detenidas afuera de Ajdabiyah, una ciudad clave, luego de intentar recapturarla por más de tres días.

“Nosotros continuaremos los ataques aéreos. Tomamos como blanco a los medios militares y nada más”, afirmó el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores francés, Alain Juppé, a la emisora RTL. “Esto continuará el tiempo que sea necesario”, agregó, considerando que el comienzo de las operaciones desde el sábado pasado era “un éxito”.

“La solución puramente militar no existe. En un momento dado, deberá esbozarse un proceso político”, afirmó, de su lado, la presidencia gala en un comunicado.

No obstante, indicó que “no incumbe a los europeos dictar el proceso a los libios”. Y concluyó: “En cambio, animamos a los libios a desertar, unirse a las oposiciones que se expresan, a unirse en un proceso de transición democrática”.

http://wmaracaibo.com/?p=22942

Libya/Civilian War: Like Vitnam 2000 US Marines on ground in Libya, says ABC

An ABC affiliate in North Carolina says more than 2,000 U.S. Marines are on the ground in Libya.

WCTI-TV in New Bern reports those Marines, assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) at Camp Lejuene, are "preserving the sanctity of the city [of Ajdubiyah] and the safety of the civilians within it."

Capt. Timothy Patrick with the 26th MEU told the station: "In Libya right now they are doing exactly what we need them to do. They are doing what they are told, and right now that's protecting Libyan people against Qadhafi forces."

Evidently the Marines' efforts are being successful. The commanding officer of the 26th MEU, Col. Mark Desens, says that following a second round of strikes by AV-8B Harrier jets, the Libyan dictator's forces "are now less capable of threatening the town than before."

According to the report, the 2,200 Marines with the 26th MEU are nearing the end of their deployment in the Mediterranean area and are due to be replaced with Marines from the 22nd MEU out of Camp Lejeune. A March 7 notice from the commanding officer of the 22nd MEU says that unit was being deployed to the Mediterranean Sea earlier than previously planned.

The new face of war: A female general commands the U.S. air campaign in Libya 2011

This is the general overseeing the American part of the air campaign in Libya. Air Force Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, commander of the 17th Air Force, based in Germany, seems to be an expert in refueling and mobility, which is probably why she was picked for Africa Command, whose planners likely expected the command mainly to be doing humanitarian relief missions. Instead she is overseeing airstrikes by B-2 bombers, F-15E fighter/bombers, and F-16 CJ jammers.

To my knowledge, this is the first time a woman has ever overseen an air campaign.

U.S. Treasury Identifies 14 Companies Owned By Libya’s National Oil Corporation As Subject To Sanctions

WASHINGTON--(ENEWSPF)--March 22, 2011.  The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today identified 14 companies owned by Libya’s National Oil Corporation, as subject to sanctions pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13566.

The National Oil Corporation is the centerpiece of Libya’s state-owned oil apparatus, and controls a network of companies involved in oil exploration, production, and sale.  E.O. 13566 blocks all property and interests in property of the Government of Libya and its agencies, instrumentalities and controlled entities within U.S. jurisdiction, whether specifically identified by OFAC or not.  U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in business with any Libyan state-owned entity. Today’s identifications are intended to aid financial institutions in meeting their obligations under E.O. 13566.

“The Libyan National Oil Corporation has been a primary funding source for the Qadhafi regime,” said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin. “Consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 1973, all governments should block the National Oil Corporation's assets and ensure that Qadhafi cannot use this network of companies to support his activities.”

Treasury will continue monitoring the National Oil Corporation’s operations in Libya.  Should National Oil Corporation subsidiaries or facilities come under different ownership and control, Treasury may consider authorizing dealings with such entities.

OFAC identified the following as companies owned by of Libya’s National Oil Corporation:

1. Arabian Gulf Oil Company
2. Azzawiya Oil Refining Company
3. Brega Petroleum Marketing Company
4. Harouge Oil Operations
5. Jamahiriya Oil Well Fluids And Equipment
6. Mediterranean Oil Services Company
7. Mediterranean Oil Services GMBH
8. National Oil Fields and Terminals Catering Company
9. North African Geophysical Exploration Company
10. National Oil Wells Drilling and Workover Company
11. Ras Lanuf Oil And Gas Processing Company
12. Sirte Oil Company for Production Manufacturing of Oil and Gas
13. Zueitina Oil Company
14. Waha Oil Company  ​

Source: treasury.gov

Libya War/ANALYSIS - Libya is biggest gamble yet for France's Sarkozy

* Sarkozy determined to be seen leading action on Libya

* Sarkozy ranked 3rd in some opinion polls for 2012 election

* President risking backlash if Libya mission goes awry

By Catherine Bremer

PARIS, March 22 (Reuters) - Plagued by ruinous poll ratings a year before a likely re-election battle, French President Nicolas Sarkozy pulled off a public relations coup by leaping into the driving seat of the intervention in Libya.

His glory could be short-lived though if what first looked like a heroic operation to save civilians ends up pulling France and its partners into a lengthy and complex foreign conflict.

A rift between Western powers who back the Libyan operation and developing countries who oppose it -- and bickering about who should run it -- raises the spectre of disastrous consequences for the action-man leader if things go awry.

"This is a gamble he's taken and I think it was mainly for domestic reasons," said political analyst Jacques Reland of the Global Policy Institute. "He's a man who doesn't let an opportunity go by, but this could end up as a quagmire. It's very risky and this could be make or break for him."

Waging a foreign war is not an obvious way to win support among the conflict-wary French, but Sarkozy had made it clear he would show leadership over Libya to make up for clumsy handling of the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt.

Muammar Gaddafi made an appropriate target too after Sarkozy came under fire in France for rolling the red carpet out to the Libyan leader in 2007 and letting him pitch his Bedouin-style tent by the Elysee Palace.

That state visit, Gaddafi's first in decades to a Western leader, came after Sarkozy helped get five Bulgarian nurses freed from a Libyan jail in one of a string of swashbuckling foreign missions since he came to power in 2007.

Opinion polls show Sarkozy has now fallen behind far-right leader Marine Le Pen as well as veteran leftists. Ratings below 30 percent make him one of France's least popular presidents ever.

Sarkozy saw France's year-long presidency of the G20 and G8 as opportunities for international grandstanding but has been hampered by a tough debate on his global monetary reform plans and by his poor early handling of unrest in North Africa.

Now he hopes the sight of him summoning world leaders to Paris and being the one to come out and announce action to save Libyans from bloodshed will fill French hearts with national pride.

"The president loves crises with their concomitant surge of adrenalin," Dominique Moisi of the French Institute for International Relations was quoted as saying in a blog.

"Sarkozy is taking a high but legitimate risk that he can retake the moral (and political) high ground."

FAILURE COULD HURT

The possibility of his Libya initiative coming back to bite him is looming larger as the dust settles from the first French strikes, which were minutes away from happening as Sarkozy announced on Saturday that fighter jets were over Libya.

His decision to charge ahead with action within hours of U.N. approval has set off a raft of divisions. Opposition is mounting from China, Russia, Brazil, India and others, and the West is arguing about what role NATO should take in the operation as the United States steps back.

Even before France deployed its jets, Sarkozy's breathless pace of action, coming out early to recognize the rebel opposition and mooting the idea of targeted strikes, irked Germany, which ended up declining to participate.

A chief influence on Sarkozy this month was philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy, who flew to Libya on a fact-finding mission and telephoned Sarkozy from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Sarkozy unveiled the operation in a solemn speech alone at a lectern and left world figures like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to arrange private media briefings.

"I do not like the way it was stage-managed," said Reland.

"What makes me ill at ease is whether there was really a danger of massacres in Benghazi. We don't know enough about these insurgents and we don't know enough about Libya."

On Tuesday, Sarkozy made a flying visit to a French air base on the Mediterranean island of Corsica with his defence minister.

France defended itself on Tuesday against reports of rifts with its allies, saying its armed forces chief had told its partners in full about the strikes it planned in Libya.

"The heads of the armed forces of France, Britain and America were in close coordination. Our counterparts were kept up to date on all our intentions and did not show any objections," armed forces spokesman Thierry Burkhard said.

International divisions aside, it is unclear whether Sarkozy stands to gain as much from a successful Libyan intervention as he stands to lose if it all goes wrong.

A survey conducted by pollster IFOP on March 10, before the U.N. resolution on a no-fly zone, found only 30 percent of respondents would support French military action in Libya, compared with 55 percent who in a 2001 poll backed action in Afghanistan. A fresh IFOP poll on Tuesday found 66 percent of French people supported the coalition's Libya intervention.

"It's not the main preoccupation of the French," said IPSOS head Jean-Francois Doridot. Preoccupied by economic gloom, voters might worry about repercussions by terror groups.

Surprisingly few opposition politicians have accused Sarkozy of engineering the operation's timing for political reasons, one exception being National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen who is harbouring dreams of seeing his daughter as French president.

"Everyone knows that when things aren't going very well on the home front that's when you get the flag out, sound the bugle," Le Pen told France 2 television on Tuesday.

"You bang the drum to play on people's patriotic reflexes but for us, at any rate, it will not work at all." (Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage and John Irish; Editing by Janet Lawrence)