A simple Information Operations procedure may have been used to tip the balance in favor of Libya’s rebel forces in Tripoli:
Offering a clue as to why the capital, Tripoli, may have fallen as quickly as it did, rebel fighters here said that as soon as word came that Colonel Qaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam had been captured in Tripoli (even though he apparently had not), the loyalist forces defending the town and its refinery simply gave up and fled.
“They don’t want to fight us anymore,” said Mohammed Abdul Aziz Saeed, a rebel from the elite Ali Hassan al-Jaber Brigade, in the forefront of the fighting.
I wonder how any brigade – even one named after an al-Jazeera journalist – gets to be “elite” after a seven month civil war.
The killing and dying there may not be over, as loyalist holdouts, victorious rebels and competing clans vie for power in the new Libyan order:
Amnesty International said Friday that it had evidence that forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had killed rebels who had been held in custody in two camps. In one camp, it said, guards killed five detainees held in solitary confinement, and in another they opened the gates, telling the rebels they were free to go, then tossed grenades and fired on the men as they tried to run for freedom.
The report, based on accounts from escaped prisoners, cited no death toll, but said that of the 160 detainees attacked, only 23 were known to have escaped.
On Thursday, there were reports that the bullet-riddled bodies of more than 30 pro-Qaddafi fighters had been found at a military encampment in central Tripoli. At least two were bound with plastic handcuffs, suggesting that they had been executed, and five of the dead were found at a field hospital.
Qaddafi’s home village of Surt remains in loyalist hands, and even as the internecine killing goes on, and the rebel government asks for international aid. Meanwhile, outsiders with their own interests are circling the corpse of Gaddafi’s state:
In a setback for the rebel leadership, the African Union, meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, refused to recognize the Transitional National Council as the legitimate government of Libya and called instead for a government that includes Qaddafi-era officials, Reuters reported.
Over the years, Colonel Qaddafi has spread Libya’s oil wealth liberally among numerous African nations, winning the loyalty of their leaders, who fear they will not receive the same largess under a new, more democratic government.
Libyan Transitional National Council Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil - he of the zabibah marked forehead - is deemed the rebellion’s indispensable man, and he had a laudable track record for agitating against the Gaddhafi government’s most egregious civil rights violations in the past. But he was also blamed for affirming the death penalty for six foreign medical workers in the infamous HIV trial of 1998. Abdul Jalil has gotten religion since then: In February he laid the blame solidly at the feet of the Gaddhafi government.
Thomas Jefferson could not be reached for comment.
They get to be elite by the fact that the SAS have finally convinced them to keep their eyes open when they rip off a clip from their AK-47′s
agesilaus- :0) I do not think Daffi and his Spawn are going to be that easy…
BTW I worked for (as a Pilot) and Ag Chemical out fit that, back in the Carter years- helped build a plant for Daffi. Easy to make the Changeover to Phosgene from Parathion…
Okay, “we” won, I guess.
But, what was the vital U.S. national interest that was served, or will be improved in the future.
Or, is this jingoistic interventionism against some feeble thug dictator? At the same time ignoring even worse thug dictators in Syria and Iran who are engaged in jihad against the U.S. by proxy in their wars on Israel and supporting “insurgents” in Iraq and Aghanistan?
The Libya adventure was a waste of ordnance and effort for no worthwhile cause, and a serious discredit on Obama’s already meager foreign affiars diddling.
Well at the very least our interest was served in that the UK and France asked for our help. Alliances are a two-way street. I think we could also have reaped some benefit in the region if Clinton had kept her damn mouth shut and not said we weren’t looking at attacking Syria. An uncertain Assad is not a bad thing for us.
Of course it would be great if we could have had a national discussion of these issues, possibly culminating in a vote by some deliberative body. We could call it a Congressional Authorization of the Use of Force. It’s probably totally impractical and would never work.
Well, I can’t say I support the summary execution of captured rebels, but that’s not really a human rights violation, in spite of Amnesty International’s whining.
It has always been accepted that the punishment for rebellion is death.
“…a
laudablelaughable track record….”There. Fixed it for y’all.
Come on now. They’re elite. Just ask ‘em. They’ll tell you all about it.
Um, QM, are we still talking about Libyan rebels, or did we segue back to fighter jocks again?
I have to say, the real fighting hasn’t started, yet.
Information Operations? Ah, Sun Tzu would be proud. . .
The current reports that are most telling, and galling, are that the NATO countries that participated (Note: Not the USA is not mentioned among them) are fighting over who gets how much of the Libyan spoils. Great isn’t it?? We were criticized for Iraq as ‘wanting their oil’ and we got how much or which drilling contracts? From what I’ve seen not much if any of either. And the Euro-weenies now help beat up on a feckless country (granted, said country was led by a true dick) and the accusers are now taking what they can find but we, for our billion or more, again are to get zilch? Well, maybe we get a country that is governed by Sharia and that will, like some other regime changeovers assisted by The One’s administration, turn more radical and less likely to help us. In other words, we’ve probably bought ourselves more problems and we still don’t get even a little monetary compensation. Dumb and Dumber.