Army chief warns of IS spread to Europe if Libya gets no aid

[webfact]

Army chief warns of IS spread to Europe if Libya gets no aid
By MOUNIR AL-DRISI and MAGGIE MICHAEL

AL-MARJ, Libya (AP) — Libya's army chief, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, warned in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that Europe will face infiltration by Islamic State group militants from Libya if the West fails to support his forces with arms and ammunition.

The Islamic State group has seized control of at least two cities along Libya's long Mediterranean coastline and has a strong presence in several others, its first major expansion from its base in Syria and Iraq. In a sign of the group's reach, it claimed responsibility on Thursday for an attack a day earlier on a museum in neighboring Tunisia that killed 23 people, mostly foreign tourists.

The militants have been able to expand by taking advantage of the chaos in Libya, where rival governments are fighting for power. The elected government, which is internationally recognized and which Hifter backs, was driven out of the capital, Tripoli, last year and has been relegated to the small eastern city of Tobruk and other nearby towns. A bloc of Islamist parties, backed by militias, has set up its own government in Tripoli.

Hifter, once a top general of Moammar Gadhafi before turning against him decades ago, is a controversial figure. Supporters see him as the country's savior from Islamic militants, while opponents accuse him of seeking to grab power on behalf of supporters of Gadhafi's former regime, which was ousted in 2011. He was recently named military chief by the Tobruk-based parliament, and spoke to the AP in one of his eastern strongholds, al-Marj, where he has wide tribal support.

He said his forces need backing from the West against the Islamic State group.

"We want weapons and ammunition only. We have the men. The army is increasing in number every day," he said.

He warned that IS militants will "spread in even the European countries if (the West) doesn't offer real help to the Libyan people, especially the Libyan army." The extremists, he said, "will head with the illegal migrants to Europe, where corruption and destruction will spread just like Libya. But there it will be hard to confront them."

The number of Islamic State militants has grown to an estimated 7,000 to 7,500, Hifter said, including fighters from African, Arab and Middle Eastern countries trained in Syria.

Libya's elected government has appealed to the U.N. Security Council to lift an arms embargo and facilitate its request for dozens of fighter jets, tanks and other weapons it says it needs to fight the Islamic State group.

The chaos in Libya is complicated because multiple conflicts are intertwined.

Over the past year, Hifter's troops have been fighting his main Libyan rivals, the Libya Dawn militia and other allied militias that back the Tripoli-based Islamist government. On Thursday, his warplanes hit Tripoli's only functioning airport, the Matiga air base, damaging the tarmac.

Army spokesman Ahmed al-Mesmari said the base was being used to move militant fighters and weapons, an allegation the Tripoli-based government denies. Troops under Hifter's command also fought Thursday with Libya Dawn militiamen outside of Zawiya, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Tripoli.

The yearlong violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of Libyans, and has prompted the mass flight of foreign workers and the closure of embassies.

At the same time, the Islamic State has entered the fray, taking control of the coastal cities of Darna and Sirte and spreading its influence to others, including the western city of Sebratha, the most active launching point for illegal migrants heading to Europe.

It has carried out attacks targeting hotels housing foreigners in Tripoli, overrun oil fields and kidnapped foreign workers. Last month, it released a video of a mass beheading of Egyptian Christians kidnapped from Sirte.

The Islamic State group is fighting both rival governments: It is battling Libya Dawn outside of Sirte and has been targeted by Hifter's warplanes in Darna, prompting retaliatory suicide attacks by the extremists against the elected government.

In Libya's second-biggest city, Benghazi, Hifter's forces have been fighting IS fighters and a mix of other Islamic militant groups for months in battles that have repeatedly seen gruesome beheadings of his soldiers by IS militants.

Hifter accuses the Tripoli government and its allied militias of helping the Islamic State extremists, a claim they deny. Speaking to the AP, he also accused Qatar and Turkey of facilitating transit of IS fighters to and from Libya, a claim both countries deny.

Hifter said the Islamic State group had set its sights on Libya because "it is an oil country, with a small population, a vast country (where it is) easy to spread ... Libya's resources of oil, gas, gold and uranium could be used (to finance) their movement."

He said his forces were making progress against the militants in Benghazi.

"Benghazi is not simple," he said. "We tried to push them out of the city and we curbed most of them."

But in addition to the guerrilla fighting, the extremists are resorting to what he called a "war of tunnels" in Benghazi, in which government and residential buildings are being connected via underground tunnels.

"We can't declare that the city is 100 percent secure ... until after searching all the buildings, especially the government buildings," he said.

The battle against the militants has brought Hifter back into prominence in Libya after a long and controversial career.

In the 1969 coup that toppled Libya's monarch and brought Gadhafi to power, Hifter provided crucial backing for Gadhafi by taking over Tripoli's Matiga air base. He rose in the ranks to become head of Gadhafi's military, but was tainted by a disastrous defeat in a war against neighboring Chad in the 1980s. He was captured and, when the war ended in 1987, he defected, turning against the Gadhafi regime and eventually fleeing to the United States.

Living in exile in Virginia, he became commander of the armed wing of an opposition group, the Libyan National Salvation Front, and orchestrated a couple of failed coup attempts against Gadhafi before breaking with the group. In interviews with Arab media in the 1990s, he described himself as building an armed force with U.S. assistance to topple Gadhafi and his associates. A 1996 Congressional Research Service report suggested that the United States provided money and training to the National Salvation Front.

Hifter returned to Libya during the 2011 civil war that led to Gadhafi's ouster and death.

In earlier interviews, including one with the AP last year, he insisted that he does not seek power for himself but rather a road map in which Libya would be governed by a presidential council for a year until new civilian leadership emerges.

"If we wanted power, nothing would prevent us. But we want a civilian state," he said at the time.

However, during Wednesday's interview, Hifter didn't outright deny aspiring to a future political role. Asked if he would run should a presidential vote be held in Libya, he gave only a vague response.

"We are not in a situation to talk politics. When the time of politics comes, that will be the time to talk" he said.

"Our eyes are all on the terrorists, wherever they are," he added.
___

Michael reported from Cairo.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-20

[EnglishJohn]

Unfortunately nobody in that area can be trusted. Commanders will get new weapons then sell them on the black market and pocket the cash while their men continue using the rusty old ones.

The West seems incapable of learning that when you give weapons to Muslim groups, sooner or later they will be used back against you.

Yet public opinion at home means any political party who sends in ground troops will face the same BS they have up to now - where ISIS can behead 100 innocent civilians in cold blood without making the news, but if a coalition soldier shoots somebody who is not actually firing a gun at him, it's all over the news and he gets charged with murder.

This is a serious mess and the more weapons which get given to them, the worse it will get. I have no idea how bad it will end up before drastic action is needed and we find ourselves in WWIII.

[zydeco]

ISIS is an infection. The only answer is to quarantine the site and growth medium (Muslim countries with the exception, perhaps, of the likes of Malaysia and Muslim immigration into the West that carries the virus with it) that engenders its spread and then let it burn itself out.

[Credo]

This is a horrible thing to say, but perhaps the intelligence agencies should try to infiltrate these groups and introduce drugs. During the Vietnam war, it worked with the protesters to get them stoned out of their minds. All those illegal drugs could help to cure this disease.

Between religion and drugs, most young people chose drugs.

Then once the religion has been defeated with drugs, NGO's can set up drug rehabilitation centers.

[Baerboxer]

This is a horrible thing to say, but perhaps the intelligence agencies should try to infiltrate these groups and introduce drugs. During the Vietnam war, it worked with the protesters to get them stoned out of their minds. All those illegal drugs could help to cure this disease.

Between religion and drugs, most young people chose drugs.

Then once the religion has been defeated with drugs, NGO's can set up drug rehabilitation centers.

Sex, drugs and rock n' roll eh.

Get them stoned, promise them a clutch of virgins for their pleasure and get them singing all those catchy hippy peace songs.

Good thinking Batman.

Where do you get the "fact" most young people chose drugs over religion?

Whatever it is you're smoking, drinking, inhaling or injecting - stop. Quickly.

[arjunadawn]

ISIS is an infection. The only answer is to quarantine the site and growth medium (Muslim countries with the exception, perhaps, of the likes of Malaysia and Muslim immigration into the West that carries the virus with it) that engenders its spread and then let it burn itself out.

If in this modern age humans are so stupid that they cannot see whats going on it is simply not possible for western civilization to survive; nature is not kind to gross stupidity. A fool knows the entire current mid east drama was caused by the US and its dog pecker gnats. The bill of complaint list proving this narrative is nearly endless at this point; its a nearly accepted condition of reality so not worth objecting to. But with some retrograde amnesia the citizens of the very countries who caused this morass are then asked to now, officially, willfully, endorse the very thing their governments were doing illegally, covertly- send more arms to the enemies of... to the enemies of the West! This absurd transfer of military wealth into the hands of the enemies of the West to the point of relative parity will only succeed at reducing future viable military options for the west when it finally does decide to defend its civilization.

There is no person, group, government, or organization in this part of the world who knows a damn thing about freedom nor do they want to, notwithstanding the BS from OUR leaders. Freedom itself, in the way the West defines this narrative, is anathema to Islam. Al Lah does not provide freedom in the way the west understands it. There is object- Al Lah, and subject- slave/human. The two can never meet and the mechanics for life, expression, devotion, government, justice, war, municipal functions, learning, home rearing, all- are contained in the Shar'ia. The west is sowing the seeds of its own destruction.

Isolate Libya and bomb any craft that exits their territorial waters. Carry the big stick as the Barbary Pirates were addressed. NOTE: the sitting president at the time of the Barbary Pirates reached the very same conclusions about these people that I assert above!

Edit: I can find no better analogy to describe this process than "virus;" you are simply spot on correct. This is less disparaging than it is a statement of observation. This is exactly how this ideology spreads, lies static, activates, and consumes the host- waits, finds a vector (hirjah), then moves to another host, lies dormant, then uses the host dna to replicate its rna ideology until the new host is consumed, then lies dormant (hirjah), then another vector...

Edited March 20, 2015 by arjunadawn

[Kerryd]

That region is already overflowing with so many weapons the only possible reason they could need more is to sell them. Every single time you see a wedding, funeral or demonstration in that region, what do you notice ? Dozens/hundreds/thousands of people firing weapons into the air. It's almost as if every person in every country over there gets an AK for their 10th birthday or something.

But it's never enough, is it ? And it's always the same threat "give us weapons/ammo or else". Of course that is pretty much what the Syrian rebels were crying for as well in the beginning (along with air strikes). It was noted that a large amount of the weapons that had been given to the Syrian rebels ended up in what is now ISIS's hands (along with large stockpiles of weapons that had been given to the Iraqi military).

Ugh - every time one of these stories pops up I spend hours researching, typing, reviewing and editing a response that always starts going off the deep end about the causes and effects of these events, only to end up in a long-winded rant that does nothing but frustrate me further until I delete almost the entire thing leaving just a paragraph or 2 of undefined commentary.

[KhnomKhnom]

USA destabilized Libya and the whole region. The selfish reason was to keep those nations fighting interior and exterior forces while leaving USA alone. That worked. However, just like every other place the USA has touched (S. America, etc.) and destabilized, the actual ongoing results are a horror for the ordinary people, constant upset and fighting, and broken national economies. This is how USA has ruled for over sixty years, often with the addition of repressive strong-man leaders like Saddam and Noriega that USA inserts, props up, and then takes out. It is how USA has ruled Thailand, too.

Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago? And ten years ago they had Gaddafi but also stability and oil was steadily coming out to USA. Now a real mess there, but likely not sending any bombers to the USA for now.

[BKKBobby]

This is a horrible thing to say, but perhaps the intelligence agencies should try to infiltrate these groups and introduce drugs. During the Vietnam war, it worked with the protesters to get them stoned out of their minds. All those illegal drugs could help to cure this disease.

Between religion and drugs, most young people chose drugs.

Then once the religion has been defeated with drugs, NGO's can set up drug rehabilitation centers.

I thought that the US government didnt want people to get stoned because it makes the young adults lazy and just hang out or sit at home discussing stuff during the Vietnam War.

Only benefit to the government was that you could throw a protester in jail for having/smoking weed.

If someone want to make people passive then its bensodiazepines and opium derivates that is the drugs of choice.

Your idea sounds "crazy" but theres a lot of unclassified information about different "crazy" government tests.

Edited March 20, 2015 by BKKBobby

[maidee]

good for us, we dont live in europe anymore, right ?

[Asiantravel]

USA destabilized Libya and the whole region. The selfish reason was to keep those nations fighting interior and exterior forces while leaving USA alone. That worked. However, just like every other place the USA has touched (S. America, etc.) and destabilized, the actual ongoing results are a horror for the ordinary people, constant upset and fighting, and broken national economies. This is how USA has ruled for over sixty years, often with the addition of repressive strong-man leaders like Saddam and Noriega that USA inserts, props up, and then takes out. It is how USA has ruled Thailand, too.

Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago? And ten years ago they had Gaddafi but also stability and oil was steadily coming out to USA. Now a real mess there, but likely not sending any bombers to the USA for now.

" Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago?"

Yes indeed! In fact if you see a list of all the benefits Libyan citizens used to receive under Gaddafi it would even put the supposedly “ Greatest Nation on Earth “to shame right now

http://tnvrstar.expertscolumn.com/article/list-good-things-muammar-gaddafi-done-people-libya

[neverdie]

That region is already overflowing with so many weapons the only possible reason they could need more is to sell them. Every single time you see a wedding, funeral or demonstration in that region, what do you notice ? Dozens/hundreds/thousands of people firing weapons into the air. It's almost as if every person in every country over there gets an AK for their 10th birthday or something.

But it's never enough, is it ? And it's always the same threat "give us weapons/ammo or else". Of course that is pretty much what the Syrian rebels were crying for as well in the beginning (along with air strikes). It was noted that a large amount of the weapons that had been given to the Syrian rebels ended up in what is now ISIS's hands (along with large stockpiles of weapons that had been given to the Iraqi military).

Ugh - every time one of these stories pops up I spend hours researching, typing, reviewing and editing a response that always starts going off the deep end about the causes and effects of these events, only to end up in a long-winded rant that does nothing but frustrate me further until I delete almost the entire thing leaving just a paragraph or 2 of undefined commentary.

Lol.

[Credo]

USA destabilized Libya and the whole region. The selfish reason was to keep those nations fighting interior and exterior forces while leaving USA alone. That worked. However, just like every other place the USA has touched (S. America, etc.) and destabilized, the actual ongoing results are a horror for the ordinary people, constant upset and fighting, and broken national economies. This is how USA has ruled for over sixty years, often with the addition of repressive strong-man leaders like Saddam and Noriega that USA inserts, props up, and then takes out. It is how USA has ruled Thailand, too.

Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago? And ten years ago they had Gaddafi but also stability and oil was steadily coming out to USA. Now a real mess there, but likely not sending any bombers to the USA for now.

Oh, the weary old canard. Before the US the world was all one lovely peaceful place right?

No wars, no problem?

[Mosha]

USA destabilized Libya and the whole region. The selfish reason was to keep those nations fighting interior and exterior forces while leaving USA alone. That worked. However, just like every other place the USA has touched (S. America, etc.) and destabilized, the actual ongoing results are a horror for the ordinary people, constant upset and fighting, and broken national economies. This is how USA has ruled for over sixty years, often with the addition of repressive strong-man leaders like Saddam and Noriega that USA inserts, props up, and then takes out. It is how USA has ruled Thailand, too.

Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago? And ten years ago they had Gaddafi but also stability and oil was steadily coming out to USA. Now a real mess there, but likely not sending any bombers to the USA for now.

Oh, the weary old canard. Before the US the world was all one lovely peaceful place right?

No wars, no problem?

It's the whole of the west to blame. They were a really peaceful bunch until we interfered. (Insert sarcasm smiley)

[Remi080]

Yeah, thailand isnt so bad after all.

[cookee68]

ISIS is an infection. The only answer is to quarantine the site and growth medium (Muslim countries with the exception, perhaps, of the likes of Malaysia and Muslim immigration into the West that carries the virus with it) that engenders its spread and then let it burn itself out.

If in this modern age humans are so stupid that they cannot see whats going on it is simply not possible for western civilization to survive; nature is not kind to gross stupidity. A fool knows the entire current mid east drama was caused by the US and its dog pecker gnats. The bill of complaint list proving this narrative is nearly endless at this point; its a nearly accepted condition of reality so not worth objecting to. But with some retrograde amnesia the citizens of the very countries who caused this morass are then asked to now, officially, willfully, endorse the very thing their governments were doing illegally, covertly- send more arms to the enemies of... to the enemies of the West! This absurd transfer of military wealth into the hands of the enemies of the West to the point of relative parity will only succeed at reducing future viable military options for the west when it finally does decide to defend its civilization.

There is no person, group, government, or organization in this part of the world who knows a damn thing about freedom nor do they want to, notwithstanding the BS from OUR leaders. Freedom itself, in the way the West defines this narrative, is anathema to Islam. Al Lah does not provide freedom in the way the west understands it. There is object- Al Lah, and subject- slave/human. The two can never meet and the mechanics for life, expression, devotion, government, justice, war, municipal functions, learning, home rearing, all- are contained in the Shar'ia. The west is sowing the seeds of its own destruction.

Isolate Libya and bomb any craft that exits their territorial waters. Carry the big stick as the Barbary Pirates were addressed. NOTE: the sitting president at the time of the Barbary Pirates reached the very same conclusions about these people that I assert above!

Edit: I can find no better analogy to describe this process than "virus;" you are simply spot on correct. This is less disparaging than it is a statement of observation. This is exactly how this ideology spreads, lies static, activates, and consumes the host- waits, finds a vector (hirjah), then moves to another host, lies dormant, then uses the host dna to replicate its rna ideology until the new host is consumed, then lies dormant (hirjah), then another vector...

All this religion is shit, nobody else is out there, they are praying to nothing, and will get nothing, Europe should adapt to their way of thinking, take no prisoners, get rid of human rights, and move in full on, many innocent people will die, but that's happening now, and stop advertising them,

[cookee68]

We know where those weapons will end up, and as far as being in Europe, there has been many religious freaks in Europe since the age of time, and that will never change, the only trouble is that ISIS may convert the average Muslim to there way, but they wont convert the westerners to take up there religion, and I don't see them ridding bare back through the streets like they do in them Muslim countries, with there rifles and there 10 year old soldiers along side them, unless that is their wives

[Rancid]

This is a horrible thing to say, but perhaps the intelligence agencies should try to infiltrate these groups and introduce drugs. During the Vietnam war, it worked with the protesters to get them stoned out of their minds. All those illegal drugs could help to cure this disease.

Between religion and drugs, most young people chose drugs.

Then once the religion has been defeated with drugs, NGO's can set up drug rehabilitation centers.

Interesting thought but wrong interpretation. Seems Vietnam was when the CIA started seriously in the drug business, still going strong today but coming out of Afghanistan.

Sort of puts another perspective on the "war on drugs" , 2+2 will equal 4 if you think it all the way through. Things get really ugly once the blinders come off.

[Credo]

The difficulty with articles that this is that the OP asserts that Europe will get ISIS if they don't aid Libya. If they do aid Libya, does that mean that Europe won't get ISIS? Will it be a situation where in the end ISIS gets Libya and a whole lot of modern weapons?

[Yahooka]

USA destabilized Libya and the whole region. The selfish reason was to keep those nations fighting interior and exterior forces while leaving USA alone. That worked. However, just like every other place the USA has touched (S. America, etc.) and destabilized, the actual ongoing results are a horror for the ordinary people, constant upset and fighting, and broken national economies. This is how USA has ruled for over sixty years, often with the addition of repressive strong-man leaders like Saddam and Noriega that USA inserts, props up, and then takes out. It is how USA has ruled Thailand, too.

Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago? And ten years ago they had Gaddafi but also stability and oil was steadily coming out to USA. Now a real mess there, but likely not sending any bombers to the USA for now.

NATO destabilized Libya,not the US in what was the biggest f..k up in that organizations history !!

[Exsexyman]

USA destabilized Libya and the whole region. The selfish reason was to keep those nations fighting interior and exterior forces while leaving USA alone. That worked. However, just like every other place the USA has touched (S. America, etc.) and destabilized, the actual ongoing results are a horror for the ordinary people, constant upset and fighting, and broken national economies. This is how USA has ruled for over sixty years, often with the addition of repressive strong-man leaders like Saddam and Noriega that USA inserts, props up, and then takes out. It is how USA has ruled Thailand, too.

Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago? And ten years ago they had Gaddafi but also stability and oil was steadily coming out to USA. Now a real mess there, but likely not sending any bombers to the USA for now.

NATO destabilized Libya,not the US in what was the biggest f..k up in that organizations history !!

It was no <deleted> up by NATO, the destabilization of Libya was deliberate. Before NATO's intervention Libya was a fully functioning, modern, secular nation, with absolutely no tolerance shown to Al Queda or any of the other Islamic jihadists. The first world leader to warn against Al Qaeda was Ghaddafi, he was also the first world leader to call for the arrest of Bin Laden, long before the events of 9-11. The problem Ghaddafi had was that he was planning to set up an African currency based on gold called the African Dinar to trade in oil, bypassing the US dollar. He also built a massive reservoir to supply fresh water to the country as well as many other infrastructure projects to benefit the people, at the cost of mind boggling amounts of money, all without any loans from any Western central banking system. So of course this could not be tolerated. He had to go. Now look at the place, total anarchy, various competing Islamic Jihadists overunning the country, reports this week that the ISIS fighters who launched the attack in Tunisia trained at Libyan training camps. The reservoir and the rest of the infrastructure destroyed by NATO bombings. A result as far as NATO are concerned, Libya now a dysfunctional state which was clearly the purpose of the exercise, after all, just about every expert on the region warned that this would be the result of the intervention so they can hardly wring their hands now and pretend that this outcome could not have been foreseen. Obama, Cameron and Hague, Sarkozy and of course Lady Hillary of Benghazi are responsible for this mess, and should be held accountable. But of course they never will, they will just move on to do it all over again somewhere else. The manner of Ghaddafi's death was appalling, a 70 year old man raped to death with a dagger up his behind. And this is the reaction of the US Secretary of State commenting on it. God help us all if this obvious psychopath becomes the 'Leader of the free world'.

[Prbkk]

USA destabilized Libya and the whole region. The selfish reason was to keep those nations fighting interior and exterior forces while leaving USA alone. That worked. However, just like every other place the USA has touched (S. America, etc.) and destabilized, the actual ongoing results are a horror for the ordinary people, constant upset and fighting, and broken national economies. This is how USA has ruled for over sixty years, often with the addition of repressive strong-man leaders like Saddam and Noriega that USA inserts, props up, and then takes out. It is how USA has ruled Thailand, too.

Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago? And ten years ago they had Gaddafi but also stability and oil was steadily coming out to USA. Now a real mess there, but likely not sending any bombers to the USA for now.

NATO destabilized Libya,not the US in what was the biggest f..k up in that organizations history !!

It was no <deleted> up by NATO, the destabilization of Libya was deliberate. Before NATO's intervention Libya was a fully functioning, modern, secular nation, with absolutely no tolerance shown to Al Queda or any of the other Islamic jihadists. The first world leader to warn against Al Qaeda was Ghaddafi, he was also the first world leader to call for the arrest of Bin Laden, long before the events of 9-11. The problem Ghaddafi had was that he was planning to set up an African currency based on gold called the African Dinar to trade in oil, bypassing the US dollar. He also built a massive reservoir to supply fresh water to the country as well as many other infrastructure projects to benefit the people, at the cost of mind boggling amounts of money, all without any loans from any Western central banking system. So of course this could not be tolerated. He had to go. Now look at the place, total anarchy, various competing Islamic Jihadists overunning the country, reports this week that the ISIS fighters who launched the attack in Tunisia trained at Libyan training camps. The reservoir and the rest of the infrastructure destroyed by NATO bombings. A result as far as NATO are concerned, Libya now a dysfunctional state which was clearly the purpose of the exercise, after all, just about every expert on the region warned that this would be the result of the intervention so they can hardly wring their hands now and pretend that this outcome could not have been foreseen. Obama, Cameron and Hague, Sarkozy and of course Lady Hillary of Benghazi are responsible for this mess, and should be held accountable. But of course they never will, they will just move on to do it all over again somewhere else. The manner of Ghaddafi's death was appalling, a 70 year old man raped to death with a dagger up his behind. And this is the reaction of the US Secretary of State commenting on it. God help us all if this obvious psychopath becomes the 'Leader of the free world'.

There is much truth in what you write. However, remember that was Ghaddafi who first promoted the pan-islam state now being pushed by ISIL. At one time he became so obsessed with it that Nasser eventually cut him off and wrote him off as a dangerous nutter..

[JockPieandBeans]

'' Give me '' '' Give me '' '' Give me ''

I think that these words are drilled into the from birth.

[Rancid]

The the war and fear monger fascists are in full swing at the moment, something will be afoot soon.

Will the new war be middle east or Russia? Carpet bombing the Arabs is relatively painless, if you ignore the police state that follows for our "safety", so let's hope they don't try for nuclear armed Russia.

[NeverSure]

USA destabilized Libya and the whole region. The selfish reason was to keep those nations fighting interior and exterior forces while leaving USA alone. That worked. However, just like every other place the USA has touched (S. America, etc.) and destabilized, the actual ongoing results are a horror for the ordinary people, constant upset and fighting, and broken national economies. This is how USA has ruled for over sixty years, often with the addition of repressive strong-man leaders like Saddam and Noriega that USA inserts, props up, and then takes out. It is how USA has ruled Thailand, too.

Ask Libya people which situation they want........ now or ten yrs ago? And ten years ago they had Gaddafi but also stability and oil was steadily coming out to USA. Now a real mess there, but likely not sending any bombers to the USA for now.

NATO, led by France, took out Gaddafi and therefore Libya.

Gaddafi was a terrorist who admitted to, and paid reparations to relatives of, the in-flight bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.

Now, what did the US do?

[NeverSure]

A fool knows the entire current mid east drama was caused by the US and its dog pecker gnats.

This is the dumbest post you've ever made.

Terrorists were striking long before, but most of the world didn't know yet what it was. Terrorists bombed the Twin Towers in 1993 but failed to take them down. They did kill and maim. The next and successful attempt was on 9/11 before the invasion of Iraq.

Gaddafi of Libya claimed responsibility for the in-flight bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.

It was NATO led by France that took out Gaddafi.

There was the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

I could go on back, but we had these operatives working long before most of us knew what this terrorism really is and the West Didn't Start It.

[BKKBobby]

A fool knows the entire current mid east drama was caused by the US and its dog pecker gnats.

This is the dumbest post you've ever made.

Terrorists were striking long before, but most of the world didn't know yet what it was. Terrorists bombed the Twin Towers in 1993 but failed to take them down. They did kill and maim. The next and successful attempt was on 9/11 before the invasion of Iraq.

Gaddafi of Libya claimed responsibility for the in-flight bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.

It was NATO led by France that took out Gaddafi.

There was the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

I could go on back, but we had these operatives working long before most of us knew what this terrorism really is and the West Didn't Start It.

Bin Laden was working with the US before he choose to turn on US and Al-Qaida bombed USS Cole and flew planes thru US buildings, just saying. Edited March 23, 2015 by BKKBobby

[Scott]

....And meanwhile back to the topic of ISIS and the threat to Europe.

[RuamRudy]

A fool knows the entire current mid east drama was caused by the US and its dog pecker gnats.

This is the dumbest post you've ever made.

Terrorists were striking long before, but most of the world didn't know yet what it was. Terrorists bombed the Twin Towers in 1993 but failed to take them down. They did kill and maim. The next and successful attempt was on 9/11 before the invasion of Iraq.

Gaddafi of Libya claimed responsibility for the in-flight bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.

It was NATO led by France that took out Gaddafi.

There was the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

I could go on back, but we had these operatives working long before most of us knew what this terrorism really is and the West Didn't Start It.

You make it sound like some triumphalist proclamation of 'we did it' whereas the reality was that after years of sanctions, Bush and Blair saw opportunities to make their friends rich so offered to return Libya to the fold if they say mea culpa.

The evidence, although sufficient to satisfy a couple of Scottish stooge judges, is so laughable that even victims' families don't believe that the Libyans had anything to do with Lockerbie.

[NeverSure]

A fool knows the entire current mid east drama was caused by the US and its dog pecker gnats.

This is the dumbest post you've ever made.

Terrorists were striking long before, but most of the world didn't know yet what it was. Terrorists bombed the Twin Towers in 1993 but failed to take them down. They did kill and maim. The next and successful attempt was on 9/11 before the invasion of Iraq.

Gaddafi of Libya claimed responsibility for the in-flight bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.

It was NATO led by France that took out Gaddafi.

There was the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

I could go on back, but we had these operatives working long before most of us knew what this terrorism really is and the West Didn't Start It.

You make it sound like some triumphalist proclamation of 'we did it' whereas the reality was that after years of sanctions, Bush and Blair saw opportunities to make their friends rich so offered to return Libya to the fold if they say mea culpa.

The evidence, although sufficient to satisfy a couple of Scottish stooge judges, is so laughable that even victims' families don't believe that the Libyans had anything to do with Lockerbie.

We are talking about ISIS and someone wants to blame the US for "the entire mideast drama." I think that deserves rebuttal since the UK and Tony Blair supplied 1/3 of the troops for the Iraq invasion and 22 countries including Thailand supplied troops for the war.

ISIS is one more in a line of Al Qaedas and other groups and we have to blame them for what they are a deal with it accordingly.

As to Gaddafi, he accepted "Libya's responsibility" and paid reparations to the victims families. His own people said he ordered it, but whatever it was a Libyan terrorist attack in 1988.

Hillary Clinton

Aljazeera

We were dealing with this before a lot of us ever heard the terms Islamic terrorist or caliphate.