Libya: CIA’s Haftar Giving It Another Try

May 18, 2014

In February the anti-Ghaddafi general Khalifa Haftar tried to instigate another coup in Libya. As we wrote:

without NATO air support, not likely to come again, Haftar's forces only have a small chance to win.

That prediction was correct but now Haftar is giving it another try:

Heavily armed gunmen stormed into Libya's parliament on Sunday after attacking the building with anti-aircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, witnesses and residents said.

Details of the armed group were unclear, but a spokesman for retired Libyan general Khalifa Haftar said his irregular forces had carried out the assault as part of his campaign against Islamist militants.
…
Haftar, a former rebel in the war against Gaddafi, sent his fighters into Benghazi on Friday against Islamist militants based in the city after, saying Libya's government had failed to halt violence there.

Reuters does not mention this but Haftar (also spelled Hiftar) is not only "a former rebel" but also a CIA asset:

There has been widespread speculation that Hifter, who spent his exile in Fairfax, Va., had worked with the CIA. He did not deny having had contact with the U.S. intelligence agency but said he had never worked for it.

Coincidentally the U.S. military is again moving a bit towards Libya:

The Pentagon said on Wednesday it has temporarily moved nearly 200 Marines to Sicily from their base in Spain as a precaution due to concerns about unrest in North Africa, bolstering the U.S. ability to respond to any crisis.

The Pentagon declined to single out any countries but two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said American concerns were centered squarely on Libya ..
…
[Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman,] said the Pentagon's decision to move the forces, along with six aircraft, followed a request from the U.S. State Department.

Warren stressed that while the Marines were "unquestionably" focused on the protection of embassies, he did not rule out the possibility they could be called upon for a different mission.

News from Libya is unreliable. I have therefore no idea what is really going on. But my hunch is that the motives for moving forces nearer to Libya are not solely based on "a request from the U.S. State Department."

The chaos Obama created in Libya is haunting him. The Republicans will not let go of the issue about Benghazi and will continue to do so up to the midterm elections. Obama can not publicly reveal the real issues, the weapons to Syria program, behind the Benghazi incident that cost an ambassador's life.

Could it be possible that Obama has decided to somewhat clean up in Libya and to thereby take the wind out of the Republicans Benghazi sail? Could it be that the CIA and the Pentagon are behind the Haftar revolt? If so they better have many more assets available as any chance for success will otherwise be quite low.

Posted by b on May 18, 2014 at 17:37 UTC | Permalink

Comments

one more distraction via the evil empire..

Posted by: james | May 18 2014 18:10 utc | 1

Imo this last-gasp revival of the US-NATO Libya pantomime is aimed at Putin. But China, knowing how busy Putin is at present, will do any heavy lifting in Libya – if required. Xi Xinping knows everything one needs to know about taming Paper Tigers.
It’s kinda cute that the Full Spectrum Dumbinence Yankees, having got themselves into a serious jam in Afghanistan, are now falling over themselves to embark on a similarly spectacular blunder in Libya.
Talk about believing too much of one’s own bs…

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 18 2014 18:16 utc | 2

I’ve always wondered if Haftar and Stevens crossed paths (IMHO, almost certainly) and exactly when. I recall when Haftar was airlifted into Libya with great fanfare and the absolute silence that followed … as if (reminiscent of the Iraqis lack of interest in the American-associated Iraqi ex-pats, particularly Challabi) they really wanted America to handpick their leadership. He appears to be pulling an Al-Hague, somebody’s gotta be in charge, power grab.
CBSNEWS who is calling it an apparent “coup bid”.
Re Chris Stevens in the early days of Libya’s revolt: ABC NEWS.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | May 18 2014 18:22 utc | 3

Is obama retarded? Sorry but who gave him the right to plan attacks against Africa now?

Posted by: Anonymous | May 18 2014 18:32 utc | 4

Sorry but who gave him the right to plan attacks against Africa now?

Well, he was in the neighborhood, hell-bent on “making good” on his promises to the Syrian rebels … when someone whispered to him that on the eve of yet-more Benghazi hearings, Benghazi was in flames …
AlJazeera — apparently Haftar is an anti-Islamacist renegade who commands aircraft to target Islamists … oh yeah, that’s gonna work out well.

The Libyan army has imposed a no fly zone over Benghazi in a direct challenge to a retired general who has been using government aircraft and troops in an unauthorised campaign against Islamist groups.
snip
On Friday his paramilitary force, backed by warplanes and helicopters, pounded Islamist fighters in Libya’s second biggest city, in clashes that killed at least 36 people and injured another 138.

I suspect Haftar is acting with our permission and our assistance, likely going back some time …
One of the interesting things about the Boku Haram/Michelle Obama’s twitter campaign has been a resurgence of some pretty virulent anti-Muslim hate talk.
Killing more Muslims is always popular in the heartland, particularly those who fail to be grateful for “all we’ve already done for them.”

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | May 18 2014 18:46 utc | 5

http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/05/18/the-source-of-illegitimate-intelligence/
“•Don Bacon on May 18, 2014 at 12:13 pm
The basic assumption here is that the “intelligence community ” is a distinct entity separate from others, which is incorrect. Intelligence is tightly interwoven with Defense, State, Drug enforcement and Homeland Security, to name a few relationships.
.
A current example is Benghazi, which was a CIA operation not a consulate as often portrayed, especially when H. Clinton is forced to take the responsibility because nobody of importance can disparage the CIA (and live). And in fact Ambassador Stevens was away from his primary post in Tripoli and playing CIA agent in Benghazi, shipping arms to Turkey for use in Syria, when he met his demise. It’s difficult to distinguish State from CIA, any more. Defense is similar especially with the special forces — CIA similarity.
.
And as for “paradox” — the public has grown deeply anxious about our intelligence authorities — that’s poppycock. “The public has grown deeply anxious” give me a break. Who the hell cares about “the public?” Nobody, that’s who. The public’s opinions are easily formed by the garbage put out by the MSM — and that includes the crap published by Wittes’ Lawfare as seen here in ‘Today’s Headlines.”
.
So what is Wittes (and Brookings) pushing here? It can’t be good.”
Wherever the Amer-Israeli Empire treads, “Things Fall Apart.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2014/05/libya-0
“Libya’s neighbours and allies are rattled. Tunisia has sent 5,000 troops to its border with Libya while Algerian special forces flew into Tripoli to evacuate their ambassador. Days earlier, the Pentagon had announced the deployment of 200 marines and vertical takeoff aircraft in Sicily as a contingency measure.”

Posted by: truthbetold | May 18 2014 19:15 utc | 6

Nothing to get excited about, after screwing up the Ukraine and pissing off Russia so they’ll caught off Europe from gas and oil this is plan b go back to Tripoli install a bought and sold cia general. Then all the have to do is crush the tribes controlling the oil fields and port. Then everything will be back to the new normal for Libya. Russia will just sell everything to China and India. What could go wrong?
Everything is on schedule, please move along.
Posted by: truthbetold | May 18, 2014 3:15:28 PM | 6 Yep

Posted by: jo6pac | May 18 2014 20:00 utc | 7

Europe is occupied territory. The Libyans have the same type of reputation as the Afghans, 200 marines today, then 2000 more tomorrow, soon 200,000 and the trillions, gazillions and counting. Ay Dios mio, will they ever freaking learn?
The imperial machinations go on and on, just like in Venezuela and Venezuela. Maduro and Assad are not going anywhere. The CIA people are a bunch of screw ups!!!
If the criterion is to cause as much damage as possible then they are doing a great job.
But back to Libya, mark my words. We have not heard the last of the Gaddafi’s. Saif and Aisha will be back, the desire for vengeance burns deeply and it burns bright.
This is not over.

Posted by: Fernando | May 18 2014 21:13 utc | 8

I meant to write as in Venezuela and Syria. Maduro and Assad are not going anywhere, gracias Amigos.

Posted by: Fernando | May 18 2014 21:15 utc | 9

Jazeera doesn’t sound very keen on Haftar. Perhaps this is another case (like Syria & Egypt) where the CIA wants to line up an army of Salafi-Jihadi mercenaries, but Qatar (Jazeera’s owners) would have preferred to use MB types (which are, ironically I suppose, more ‘moderate’, but also less politically reliable, from CIA’s viewpoint).

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | May 19 2014 0:51 utc | 10

When we consider the question “what does it look like when an independent country that gets absorbed into the US empire” we can answer “with a simple Libya”.
The only thing missing at this point is a ruler strong enough to set up a hegemonic rule over the whole or distinct parts of the country. This is perhaps what the US is up to with these latest moves. No doubt the powerful in the United States and Europe would like to see a strong ruler emerge over the ruins of the once prosperous country – the kind of man who can keep the oil flowing, the torture prisons full, the social divide wide, and the immigrants from trying to set out for the EU.

Posted by: guest77 | May 19 2014 1:37 utc | 11

From MEMO… Saudi and UAE media support for Libyan coup attempts
It seems that Al-Sisi is eyeballing the Libyan Oilfields… Will Al Sisi repeat Saddam’s mistake and attack eastern Libya for oil?

Posted by: CTuttle | May 19 2014 1:48 utc | 12

From MEMO… Saudi and UAE media support for Libyan coup attempts
It seems that Al-Sisi is eyeballing the Libyan Oilfields… Will Al Sisi repeat Saddam’s mistake and attack eastern Libya for oil?

Posted by: CTuttle | May 19 2014 1:48 utc | 13

Could it be that the CIA and the Pentagon are behind the Haftar revolt?
Libya’s puppet government is subordinate to US, why another coup? US never had a problem with pliant Islamist in power, unless US wants even more submissive puppet in power. Or is it because current gov. are unable to fully control oil fields? I doubt Haftar would have a better luck there either.

Posted by: Harry | May 19 2014 1:49 utc | 14

@18 ctuttle. thanks for the links. quote from your 2nd link at bottom of article. “The sources quoted Sheikh Muhammad Bin Zayid Bin Sultan Al-Nuhayyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, as saying that he supports the opinion of Al-Sisi, the leader of the military coup in Egypt, that joint U.S. and Arab ground troops should enter Libya and finish off the armed groups that exist there, especially since most of these groups adhere to an Islamic ideology that threatens the stability of the region and do have expansionist objectives at the expense of the region’s states, as they claim.”
that is pretty rich…

Posted by: james | May 19 2014 2:16 utc | 15

Heinrich Himmler: “When handling foreign people in the East we will have to take care as much as possible to recognize different kinds of people and to promote them (…) I would like to add that we not only have great interest not to unite these people from the East, but on the contrary, to split them in as much as possible into more small pieces.”
Legacy of prominent Nazi leader from 40s is still corner stone of the Nazis 2014 – disguised as a democracy & liberalism.

Posted by: neretva’43 | May 19 2014 2:26 utc | 16

Benghazi was planned as an “October Surprise” to deliver the election to Romney. To Get the Truth about Benghazi, Probe the CIA Mormon Mafia and the Romney Campaign

…there was a power struggle for control of the Libyan rebel forces between the faction of General Abdul Fath Younes and the faction of Khalifa Hifter. Khalifa Hifter defected from the Gaddafi regime and created his own militia with money from the CIA, according to his own 2001 book Manipulations africaines, published by Le Monde Diplomatique. Hifter came to the United States and lived for about 20 years in Vienna, Virginia, only 5 miles from CIA headquarters.
Hifter was the CIA candidate to take over the Libyan military. In July 2011, Younes was assassinated by the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, which must thus be seen as a CIA asset.
The Benghazi killings thus represent: a US Ambassador killed by a CIA asset, while a CIA team and another group of CIA assets conveniently fail in their mission to provide security.

Also interesting:
May 2014: News From Occupied Libya | Libya 360°
Benghazi and the Birth of the “New Normal” in Africa | Libya 360°

Posted by: ProPeace | May 19 2014 3:29 utc | 17

I was going over some old Libya materials recently, here is an excellent Chossudovsky talk on Libya from the height of the fighting: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/68638
@16 – Absolutely right.

Posted by: guest77 | May 19 2014 3:45 utc | 18

@11 Holy cow that got fucked up.
I meant to say: When we consider the question “what does it look like when an independent country gets absorbed into the US empire” we can answer with a simple “Libya”.

Posted by: guest77 | May 19 2014 3:57 utc | 19

The empire will never relent. Don’t ya’ just love the application of “Full Spectrum Dominance”?
http://www.amazon.com/Full-Spectrum-Dominance-Totalitarian-Democracy/dp/1615776540

Posted by: ben | May 19 2014 5:12 utc | 20

OT, but important:
The Hindu communalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was swept to power in last week’s Indian national election. Gujarat Chief Minister and self-styled Hindu strongman Narendra Modi—who gained Indian and indeed international infamy for his role in instigating the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat—is to become prime minister, supposedly to lead economic “development.”
Indian and international capital have embraced the BJP as the instrument to push through unpopular, free-market measures and align India more closely with US foreign policy. The party’s program includes deep cuts to social services; scrapping food, energy and fertilizer price subsidies; privatizing state-owned companies; eliminating remaining limits on foreign investment; shifting the tax burden onto workers; and massive state handouts to the banks.
The programs targeted for elimination constitute for hundreds of millions of Indian people the difference between malnourishment and starvation. The ground is being laid for an eruption of class struggle.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/19/pers-m19.html
I saw Modi’s win as disturbing the BRICKS, to the point that the “I” will have to be deleted. And I’ve never thought South Africa should have been the grouping – like India decades as a neoliberal outfit.

Posted by: okie farmer | May 19 2014 12:24 utc | 21

Glad to see the site back up, b!

Posted by: Rusty Pipes | May 20 2014 2:07 utc | 22

Indeed: another 12-hour collapse of all of Typepad. One would be interested to know why.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | May 20 2014 2:43 utc | 23

@23 – another DDOS, coupled with some goofing with server config files afaict. Hmm, sticking Cloudfare in between didn’t do much good apparently…
Anyway, glad to see MOA back up.

Posted by: Philippe | May 20 2014 3:01 utc | 24

A new front for Amerika.
http://www.correntewire.com/thai_army_declares_martial_law
Sad

Posted by: jo6pac | May 20 2014 3:20 utc | 25

A new front for Amerika.
http://www.correntewire.com/thai_army_declares_martial_law
Sad

Posted by: jo6pac | May 20 2014 3:21 utc | 26

The U.S. has now doubled the number of planes in Sicily. Waiting for orders …
But Haftar optained his own air-force: Libyan air force base in eastern city says joins renegade general’s forces

A Libyan air force base in the eastern city of Tobruk said on Monday it was allying itself with a renegade general who has promised to purge the country of Islamist militants.
A statement from the air base said its personnel wanted to fight what it called extremists, echoing the rhetoric of General Khalifa Haftar.

Now Haftar allied with the Zitan tribes and his Air Force will attack and bomb renegade Islamic tribal fighters from Misurata and Benghazi.
Wasn’t that exactly the stated reason why Ghaddafi had to be attacked?

Posted by: b | May 20 2014 3:37 utc | 27

The U.S. has now doubled the number of planes in Sicily. Waiting for orders …
But Haftar optained his own air-force: Libyan air force base in eastern city says joins renegade general’s forces

A Libyan air force base in the eastern city of Tobruk said on Monday it was allying itself with a renegade general who has promised to purge the country of Islamist militants.
A statement from the air base said its personnel wanted to fight what it called extremists, echoing the rhetoric of General Khalifa Haftar.

Posted by: b | May 20 2014 3:39 utc | 28

Wasn’t that exactly the stated reason why Ghaddafi had to be attacked?
It was indeed.
Which suggests that Egoism (ie believing your own bs) is as blind as Love – but a helluva lot dumber.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 20 2014 3:52 utc | 29

Wasn’t that exactly the stated reason why Ghaddafi had to be attacked?
It was indeed.
Which suggests that Egoism (ie believing your own bs) is as blind as Love – but a helluva lot dumber.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 20 2014 3:54 utc | 30

Ha, bernhard, I see it’s doing it to you too. You think it has got stuck at the ‘Preview’ stage, but actually it has already posted your comment. But this is a very elegant platform. My own platform, WordPress, is ideal for smaller blogs, but it would look very silly if it had to deal with 100 comments on every post. It is badly laid out for that situation, with a narrower spread for comments, so they go down further, and one would be scrolling even more furiously than one does here. Saker’s platform is the worst of all, because the comments don’t even have separate URLs. It annoys me somewhat that he claims to have 20,000 visitors a day. Lies always annoy me, because they obscure reality, and I don’t think we have the time to deal with such obscurity, whether trivial or not.
Talking of which, there has been an absolute explosion of disinfo regarding Ukraine, and the rather engaging Graham Philips is right in the middle of it. To be honest, I wouldn’t give much for his chances if he stays. Streltsev said in a video two days ago that the resistance is so undermanned as to be worthless, except as a noble gesture. Well, he didn’t put it quite like that, but that was what he meant. Absent a genuine, mass uprising of the Donbass population, the game is alas over. And Israel Shamir, alas is quite wrong about the inevitability of a pro-Russian Novorossiya successfully breaking away from Kiev. It won’t happen. Unless Russia invades, and then we’re back to the original WW3 scenario, with probable nuclear escalation.
And talking of that, Kiev and Westinghouse have cooked up a vile plan to refill all of Ukraine’s reactors with Usaian fuel rods, which will probably lead to another Chernobyl, but it will give them the pretext to fill the country with anti-terrorist nuclear protection teams, which will be shoot-on-sight type characters. Sorry to wander off topic.Who knows whether Typepad will vanish again in the next hour or two? And why on earth would anyone attack it, twice in a month? Is it that much of a threat to the ruling classes?

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | May 20 2014 3:58 utc | 31

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | May 20 2014 3:59 utc | 32

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | May 20 2014 4:01 utc | 33

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | May 20 2014 4:02 utc | 34

Oh, good grief, I’m sorry. From now on, I shall never ‘try again’ if it seems not to have posted. I shall try once, then forget it. That’s a promise.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | May 20 2014 4:36 utc | 35

Posted by: jo6pac | May 19, 2014 11:21:18 PM | 26
“A new front for Amerika.
http://www.correntewire.com/thai_army_declares_martial_law
Sad”
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2014/05/thailand-military-move-is-not-coup.html#more Thailand: Military Move is Not a Coup
“The Royal Thai Army (RTA) has announced that it is taking over responsibility for national security from the current regime’s so-called “Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order” (CAPO). The move came after nearly six months of terrorism carried out by pro-regime militants the regime itself has failed categorically to either condemn or counter with its sweeping, self-granted security powers. As recently as last Thursday, an M79 grenade attack on anti-regime protesters left 3 dead and many more maimed, including an elderly woman who lost her eye.
Additionally, stockpiles of weapons have been stumbled across by police, who in fact are loyal to the current regime. This indicates that so many weapons have been brought into Bangkok or readied elsewhere by the regime to carry out a concerted terrorist campaign, that their own police are stumbling over them by accident while on routine calls.”

Posted by: scalawag | May 20 2014 5:58 utc | 36

Today,the NYTs,Wapo,and the Guardian have no stories about Ukraine on at least their front pages.Seems they have turned a page,at least until they can find a new angle to try and enrage liberal idiots,as the comments to their lying bellicosity must have reamed their sphincters.
Anything we touch(US) turns to sh*t.The poison ivy league failure association.
Yankee Come Home!

Posted by: dahoit | May 20 2014 14:42 utc | 37

And yeah,why is this site unreachable sometimes?A threat to the PTB I reckon will lead to silencing,no doubt in my mind.Where do you think the Net control is coming from,a government who can’t control their lying narrative.

Posted by: dahoit | May 20 2014 14:45 utc | 38

Dahoit, on each occasion, the attack has been on the whole of Typepad. Unless it’s a form of blackmail, accompanied by a demand to pay them to go away, I don’t get it at all.
bernhard, thanks for removing duplicate posts.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | May 20 2014 17:11 utc | 39

I hesitate to “go here'”, but typepad also hosts a very controversial anti-vaccine blog that regularly gets shouted down by top pharma and health officials and is professionally trolled, as are its hosts and journalists when they choose to defend themselves elsewhere. Illuminating the details of this will probably sound like Greek to those who don’t follow the issue so I’ll refrain…but let it be known that among the cooking and shopping blogs which are ubiquitous in every forum platform, Typepad has two of the most controversial – you could even say THE most controversial, in their area – blogs in existence which challenge the State’s sacrosanct narrative.

Posted by: Anonymous | May 20 2014 21:08 utc | 40

Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn’s take on the situation in Libya. The weak prime minister of Libya has called upon the islamist groups to support him against general Hiftar.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/20/libya-on-the-brink-of-civil-war/

Posted by: Willy2 | May 20 2014 21:50 utc | 41

See this quote from Hifter (from the article mentioned in post #41)
Quote:
“Gen Hifter said “this is not a coup against the state, we are not seeking power. Terrorism and its servants want it to be a battle”.”
It’s clearly Hifter has adopted the language of the Bush & Obama administration in order to justify his actions/attsck.

Posted by: Willy2 | May 20 2014 21:54 utc | 42

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