Libya Updates 6/12/17

Libya seizes oil tankers after shootout at sea
4/30/17

Libya's coastguard has seized two foreign-flagged tankers and detained their crews for allegedly smuggling oil after an hours-long gun battle off the west coast.

The coastguard spotted the vessels on Thursday night about 2km off Sidi Said near Zuwara, a town on the central coast, authorities said.

"The Libyan coastguard boarded the two tankers, one flying the Ukrainian flag, the Ruta, and the other, the Stark, flying the Congolese flag," said General Ayoub Qassem.

[link to www.aljazeera.com]

Really well thought out and thorough thread. Pinning. For years I've thought that our real trouble was going to actually come from Libya. The real demise of the US. I know it sounds crazy, but I have always though it was going to come from a surprise part of the world, that NO ONE saw coming.

Thanks for the support. Interesting thought there... If you think about it, Libya was the linchpin for the refugee crisis, so it already has had a great effect on things.
I'm sure this won't stay pinned long, but I appreciate the effort.
Have a nice day

Presidency Council member: I am a spoiler
5/1/17

Al-Gotrani, a puppet in the hands of renegade General Khalifa Haftar, claimed that the military solution is the only way out of Libya’s crisis.
“The military option is inevitable whether they sit down for talks or not,” he said.
He threatened to call for a handover of power to so-called “Armed Forces” if the House of Representatives failed to elect a new governor for the Central Bank of Libya in the next sessions.

[link to www.libyaobserver.ly (secure)]

Hafter in Abu Dhabi amid rumours of planned meeting with Serraj
5/1/17

According to a statement from the Libyan National Army General Command media office, the visit is at the invitation of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy commander of the UAE armed forces. However, there have been constant rumours over the past three or four days of an encounter between him and Serraj having been organised by the Emiratis.

Hafter is said to be under heavy pressure by the Emiratis as well as by the Egyptians, Russians and the Americans to meet the PC head who, it is said, will arrive in the UAE in the next couple of days.

[link to www.libyaherald.com (secure)]

UK accused of failing victims of IRA killed by Libya-supplied weapons
5/2/17

British governments have repeatedly let down IRA victims who were injured or had loved ones killed with Libyan-supplied weapons, a high-powered parliamentary report has concluded.

The Northern Ireland affairs committee at Westminster is expected to accuse successive Labour and Tory administrations of failing to offer proper support to those individuals and families caught up in IRA terror attacks in which Libyan arms and explosives were used.

[link to www.theguardian.com (secure)]

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Give me a break... What about all the deaths caused by those who arm and train Mideast factions? Didn't McCain aid in the Maiden coup, along with Syria and Iraq? What about his deals with the FSA? What about Obama, Clinton, and Marc Turi and the weapons smuggling in Libya? Instead of putting on a show of blaming this on past 'admins', how about dealing with those criminal maggots currently in the game, destabilizing the world with their 'gods of war' bullshit?

German Minister Cools on Support for Migrant Camps in Libya
5/2/17

ADDIS ABABA - A deal between Italy and Libya to hold migrants in camps in the north African country ignores "catastrophic conditions" in Libya and would not curb migration, Germany's foreign minister said on Tuesday, contradicting Berlin's previous support for the plan.

[link to www.usnews.com (secure)]

Libya has become a hub for online arms trading, report says
5/2/17

Since 2011, Libya has become a hot spot of illicit weapons sales, many of which occur through messaging applications and social media networks, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report — which tracks more than 1,300 attempted online sales from 2014 to 2015 — was published by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, and uses data collected and analyzed by the group Armament Research Services. Although its authors say that the data set is only a small fraction of illicit arms sales in Libya, the report highlights trends in the growing trade.

[link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]
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Funny, the same year they offed Qaddafi, his country becomes a 'hub' for unchecked illegal activity. Well, no shit Sherlock. And just who set up that 'hub', me wonders?

Fayez al-Sarraj meets Khalifa Haftar in UAE for talks
5/2/17

Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya's UN-backed government, has met renegade general Khalifa Haftar in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a rare meeting between the key figures from two rival Libyan camps.

The two men held face-to-face talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday "thanks to international and Arab mediation", the LANA news agency said.

There was no official statement after the meeting, the second since Sarraj was named prime minister-designate after a UN-backed deal in late 2015.
***
Both men were expected to discuss army-related amendments to an agreement signed by the Libyan factions in Morocco in December 2015, according to Abu Bakr Baeira, a member of the Tobruk-based parliament in eastern Libya, which backs Haftar.

[link to www.aljazeera.com]

Haftar to run for president of Libya in March 2018, agreement with Al-Serraj says
5/3/17

Haftar will be nominated for president of Libya in March 2018 in an agreed on upcoming elections for president and for the parliament, the sources revealed, adding that Al-Serraj expressed satisfaction with this point.

[link to www.libyanexpress.com]

Sadek Ghariani says the Serraj-Hafter meeting is a conspiracy
5/3/17

The Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council, which has received the blessing of Ghariani, was even more forthright in a statement it put out today. Describing Hafter as “an infidel tyrant” it called on all “Benghazi revolutionaries” to join it in its fight against him.

[link to www.libyaherald.com (secure)]

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Gee, so much for things calming down.......

The Complete Chronology of the Benghazi Deception
5/6/14

January 23, 2013: Clinton asks, “What difference, at this point, does it make whether it was a terrorist attack or a spontaneous demonstration?”

[link to www.nationalreview.com]

Benghazi: Deception, Denial and Fatal Diplomacy
2014

The present work used operational and intelligence analytical techniques. These analytical
techniques focused on the wide range of indicators and warnings surrounding the terrorist attacks
in Benghazi on 11-12 September 2012 to answer the question: Were the deaths of four
Americans preventable? The objective was to determine: a) the relationships between militias,
terrorist organizations and the state’s security apparatus; b) the degree of influence with respect
to State’s official and semi-official organizations in aiding and abetting terrorist organizations;
and c) the probability of an alternative outcome to the Benghazi attack. Research included a
comprehensive review and analysis of governmental and non-governmental reporting. Research
suggested that a dynamic shift in U.S. policy was fatal to the protection and security of U.S.
personnel and facilities in Benghazi.

[link to globalsecuritystudies.com]

Libya-Based Smugglers Kill Man for Baseball Hat, Rescued Migrants Say
5/5/17

ABOARD THE PHOENIX - Rescuers picked up 560 migrants from unsafe boats off the coast of Libya on Thursday, Italy's Coast Guard said, including the body of a young man who the migrants said had been shot by smugglers on the beach for his baseball cap.

Italian Navy and Coast Guard boats participated in the rescues together with two humanitarian vessels, a spokesman said. The migrants were traveling on board two large rubber boats and five small wooden ones, he added.

The Phoenix, a rescue ship operated by the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), took 422 on board, plus the body of the allegedly murdered young Gambian.

[link to www.usnews.com (secure)]

Boris Johnson throws weight behind Libya peace process
5/4/17

The Foreign Office kept the Johnson trip under wraps due to the military instability in Tripoli, including recent kidnappings and firefights. Johnson also met Abdurrahman Swehli, the president of Libya’s high state council, an advisory body opposed to Haftar.

The UK has been supportive of the UN-backed Serraj government, but has recently accepted that the political agreement signed in December 2015 needs revision and Haftar needs to be given a greater role, so long as he is under some form of political control.

***This article has been amended to make clear Boris Johnson only met Fayez al-Serraj, and not Khalifa Haftar.

[link to www.theguardian.com (secure)]

Libya rendition case against ex-MI6 officer may be held partly in secret
5/4/17

The unusual procedure is being heard by the lord chief justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, and Mr Justice Popplewell. The court has not yet determined whether it is involved in a criminal or civil case.

Belhaj and another Libyan dissident Sami al-Saadi, who was also abducted in east Asia, were flown back by the CIA to Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya. Belhaj and Saadi claim they were frequently tortured. Their wives and children were forcibly returned to Libya along with them.

Evidence of MI6 involvement in their ordeal emerged in correspondence with Allen found inside the abandoned office of Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi’s foreign minister and former intelligence chief, after the regime fell in 2011.

[link to www.theguardian.com (secure)]

Wikileaks founder calls Hillary Clinton “butcher of Libya”
5/4/17

In a tweet, Assange branded Clinton as the “butcher of Libya” in a scathing response to the former presidential candidate’s labeling of Wikileaks as “Russian Wikileaks.

[link to www.libyanexpress.com]

Well, duh Julian.....

Court Rules Trump State Dept Must Release Clinton Emails of Obama Response to Benghazi
5/5/17

The unredacted emails requested "had the subject line 'Quick Summary of POTUS Calls to Presidents of Libya and Egypt,' and were among emails stored on Clinton's unofficial email server," said Judicial Watch.

"Judge Jackson reviewed the documents directly and rejected the government's contention that the records had been properly withheld under" a FOIA "deliberative process" exemption.

The emails may reveal what Secretary Clinton and President Obama knew about the Benghazi attack the day after it happened.

[link to www.cnsnews.com]

Serraj updates Presidency Council on Hafter meeting
5/6/17

All six active members of the Presidency Council (PC) met together on Friday night to review Faiez Serraj’s Abu Dhabi meeting with Khalifa Hafter as well as assess the situation in southern Libya.

Serraj said the aim of his Hafter talks had been to reach a political consensus based on the Skhirat Agreement, prevent any further escalations of violence and to support the stability of Libya.

[link to www.libyaherald.com (secure)]

Kobler and Ageela Saleh hold latest round of talks
5/6/17

Fast on the heels of this week’s ice-breaking Faiez Serraj-Khalifa Hafter meeting in Abu Dhabi, UN envoy Martin Kobler had a “constructive meeting” with House of Representatives (HoR) head Ageela Saleh today in the latter’s home town of Guba, 200 kilometres west of Tobruk.

It is the fourth meeting between the two since Kobler was shunned by Ageela Saleh in January and his plane prevented from landing in Tobruk.

[link to www.libyaherald.com (secure)]

Libya foreign minister names Khalifa Haftar army chief
5/9/17

Libya's foreign minister has named renegade General Khalifa Haftar, the controversial chief of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), as the head of the country's army - provided that he recognises the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) as the only authority.

Haftar, whose LNA forces control key oil ports, is a dominant figure for factions in eastern Libya that have rejected the GNA, contributing to its failure to expand its power in the capital, Tripoli, and beyond.
***
"Many people are angry and are wondering how a general whose forces have committed atrocities in Benghazi, whose aircrafts have been raiding ports and airports all over Libya, can be called by the UN-backed GNA as the commander and chief of the Libyan army," he said.

"There is a contradiction here because Haftar himself does not recognise the UN-backed government."

[link to www.aljazeera.com]

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Look at him go. From obscurity to celebrity, from 'renegade General' to
Libyan Presidential nominee for 2018, nicely chronicled on this here thread. lol

Boris Johnson: This is a moment of hope for Libya. We can’t afford to miss it
5/11/17

We have to deal with the economic roots of the migration crisis. But we must also recognise that there is a particular problem on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, a political crisis that has given the racketeers their opening.

That crisis is Libya. That is the gaping exit from which the migrants are making their journeys, and unless we staunch the wound the haemorrhage of humanity will continue.

To look at Libya, the place is physically a mess — half-finished buildings, burned-out cars, and the entire landscape plagued with plastic litter, wind-ripped black bags that flutter like birds on every fence.

The political mess is far worse. For 42 years the Libyans were under the rule of Gaddafi. That rule was vile, incompetent, tyrannical, ludicrous — but it kept the country together. Today there is no single pole of authority — and there has not been since Gaddafi was removed from office in 2011, before being dragged from a storm drain and murdered in repulsive circumstances.

Libya is fantastically rich in oil — but that wealth is not being used for the benefit of the Libyans. How could it be? For the past six years a civil war has sputtered between east and west. Prime Minister Serraj — the man whose authority is recognised by the international community — is doing his best, but in reality he struggles to exert power beyond Tripoli.

[link to www.spectator.co.uk (secure)]

Libya should be more of a priority for the US
5/11/17

Walid Phares, a Lebanese-American consultant who served as a Trump campaign adviser on the Middle East and north Africa last year, said that while the US president had stated he had no plan for Libya, “that can change”.

Phares said Trump’s forthcoming visit to the Middle East – during which he is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia and Israel – along with his attendance at a NATO summit after that “could give him [and our Congress] a view that is more advanced regarding Libya” but he warned Libyans not to expect “dramatic changes”. Phares said more needed to be done to drum up-interest. “Understanding of Libya is limited in the US” – including the appointment of envoys.

Libya’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdulbasit Albadri, a close ally of Khalifa Haftar and an interlocutor for him with Russia, told the conference he hoped that the issue of greater US engagement with Libya would be raised during Trump’s visit to Riyadh.

In response to a question from the floor, Albadri said it was not the case that Saudi Arabia was backing Haftar exclusively but, he argued, Riyadh’s view of the Libyan situation was coloured by its decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation in 2014. Asked about the role of Saudi-linked Madkhali Salafists in Haftar’s camp – they have played a key role in his Operation Dignity since 2014 – Albadri at first declined to answer the question then acknowledged they had fought for Haftar, describing it as “a matter of revenge”.

[link to www.libyaherald.com (secure)]

Serraj “to meet Hafter” in Cairo on Thursday; meets supporting HoR members in Tripoi today
5/10/17

Presidency Council (PC) head Faiez Serraj will meet with Marshal Field Khalifa Hafter in Cairo tomorrow for the second stage of their discussions, usually reliable sources in Tripoli have told the Libya Herald. They said that he had already left for the Egyptian capital and that Hafter had likewise flown this evening from Benghazi’s Benina airbase.

Neither report has been confirmed.

[link to www.libyaherald.com (secure)]

Misratan MPs slam Siala’s Hafter remark
5/11/17

Government of National Accord (GNA) foreign minister Mohamed Siala’s reference to Khalifa Hafter as commander of the Libyan army continues to draw flack from the general’s opponents.

Siala used the expression during Monday’s summit of foreign ministers from neighbouring countries, staged in Algiers.
Today Misratan members of the House of Representatives (HoR) warned that his comment could pave the way for civil war and undermined local and international efforts to make the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) work. Every Libyan would pay a heavy price if it failed.

[link to www.libyaherald.com (secure)]

Egypt Calls for Lifting of Arms Embargo on Libya
5/13/17

CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi reiterated a call on the international community to lift an arms embargo on Libya on Saturday, which would allow weapons to be delivered legally to a powerful general he backs in the fractured country's east.

After meeting Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter in Cairo, el-Sissi, himself a former general, said in a statement that Hifter's Libyan National Army required the weapons to fight terrorism. Efforts should be made to stop foreign funding from flowing to terrorist groups in Libya, he added.

[link to www.usnews.com (secure)]

Libya crimes, gang-violence refugees, and an Afghan surge? The cheat sheet
5/12/17

News of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean – most having set off from Libya in flimsy smugglers’ dinghies – has become numbingly routine. At least 245 people have died or gone missing attempting the crossing in the last week alone, bringing the total who have succumbed to the route so far in 2017 above 1,300. That people are still attempting such dangerous journeys is a sign not only of how bad things are in their home countries but also in Libya, where IRIN and others have reported human trafficking, extortion, and forced prostitution (among other horrors). This week, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the Security Council that the court was exploring the possibility of an investigation into migrant-related crimes. If you’re curious what that might look like in a court that doesn’t appear to get much done, stay tuned – we’re looking into it. Meanwhile, despite violent disputes over oil – Libya’s main source of income – the country is now pumping more of the stuff than it has since 2014. That’s a good sign, as is a recent meeting between two rival leaders. Just returned from the country, having visited migrant detention centres and lunched in Tripoli, UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson writes in the Spectator that Libya “can have a great future. All it takes is political will and the courage to compromise.” Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

[link to www.irinnews.org (secure)]

Hafter back in Benghazi for Operation Dignity celebrations
5/13/17

Khalifa Hafter flew back from Cairo today after apparently warm talks with Egyptian president Fateh El-Sisi but no talks with Presidency Council (PC) president Faiez Serraj who had at one point also been expected in the Egyptian capital. In fact Serraj flew yesterday from a Tunis meeting with eastern members of the HoR back to Tripoli.

The armed forces commander-in-chief’s return to Benghazi comes ahead of Tuesday’s formal celebrations of the third anniversary start of his Dignity (Karama) operation against Islamist militants.

[link to www.libyaherald.com (secure)]

Germany and Italy want EU to halt migrants in Libya
5/15/17

German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday (14 May) that the German interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, and his Italian counterpart, Marco Minniti, want the mission set up between Libya and Niger.

The ministers sent a joint-letter last week to the European Commission, saying that an EU mission at the border between the two nations was needed "as soon as possible."
"The first months of this year have shown that our efforts up to this point have been insufficient. We must prevent hundreds of thousands of people who are in the hands of smugglers from risking their lives in Libya and the Mediterranean," the letter states.

[link to euobserver.com (secure)]

And just where the fuck was that sentiment two years ago, when this began in earnest? Hmmmm? Why wait until the inundation is already in full swing?
Hmmm?