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[Urist McDepravity]

It stands to reason there's going to a few AQ folks trying to work their way into the Libyan resistance and steer it towards establishing a religious state. Doesn't mean they're going to succeed.

Well, does being one of 'rebel commanders' counts as 'succeed'?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html

al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against 'the foreign invasion' in Afghanistan

[Sowelu]

Not all terrorists are related to Al Quaeda (Most notable would be Qadaffi himself, he ordered the Lockerbie bombing)

Hell, not all Al Qaeda are related to Al Qaeda.  It's mostly just a loose conglomeration of terrorists who have adopted a common name.  Almost exactly like Anonymous, but with more religion and guns...  When they pick up a cause, suddenly you get this zerg swarm of little bitty groups working together.  Larger operations are relatively rare.

[Phmcw]

Isn't the Telegraph a dubious news sources?
Anyway, calling one men the rebel leader now is very interpretative. And just snippet of the interview... hmmm. I'd say right wing newspaper fear-mongering, but we'll see.

[olemars]

It stands to reason there's going to a few AQ folks trying to work their way into the Libyan resistance and steer it towards establishing a religious state. Doesn't mean they're going to succeed.

Well, does being one of 'rebel commanders' counts as 'succeed'?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html

al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against 'the foreign invasion' in Afghanistan

"Commander" is a title the 'graph has decided to bestow on him. Even the article suggests he only "commands" a handful of people.

The Telegraph article is also based on snippets from another article, in an italian newspaper. Anyone who speaka da italiano can read the original piece here.

[RedKing]

It stands to reason there's going to a few AQ folks trying to work their way into the Libyan resistance and steer it towards establishing a religious state. Doesn't mean they're going to succeed.

Well, does being one of 'rebel commanders' counts as 'succeed'?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html

al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against 'the foreign invasion' in Afghanistan

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader".

I don't see where he's saying the 25 guys under him are al-Qaeda. It's clever juxtaposition by the editors.

US and British government sources said Mr al-Hasidi was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which killed dozens of Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around Derna and Benghazi in 1995 and 1996.

Even though the LIFG is not part of the al-Qaeda organisation, the United States military's West Point academy has said the two share an "increasingly co-operative relationship". In 2007, documents captured by allied forces from the town of Sinjar, showed LIFG emmbers made up the second-largest cohort of foreign fighters in Iraq, after Saudi Arabia.

Hence, the dude's not even al-Qaeda. He's an Islamist militant, but not all Islamists are created equal. (Not to mention, as a weird aside, when did West Point become a clearinghouse of intel analysis?). I'm not surprised to see some mujhadeen showing up in Libya. Qaddafi was just as repressive towards overtly religious Muslims as most of the Arab dictators are. Mubarak suppressed religion, Ben Ali in Tunisia absolutely repressed it -- women could go to jail for wearing an abaya. They have the same "lip-service/power rivalry" relationship with Islam as many European monarchs did with the Catholic Church.

[olemars]

Queuing up for fuel in Tripoli.

And the Libyan foreign minister Musa Kusa has gone and defected to the UK (I always chuckle in a juvenile manner at his name, both the first and last name are used as slang for "cunt" in norwegian). I guess Moussa Ibrahim, the interpreter spokesperson deputy foreign minister, is up for another promotion. Rebels might be inept fighters, but the regime is feeling the heat too in their Tripoli surreality bubble.

[Aqizzar]

Breaking news everywhere: CIA on the ground in Libya, confirmed by Reuters, Obama not ordering any direct action but covert agents in communication with rebels, Congressional approval and consultation is iffy as everyone clams up.

Gettin' weird out there.

[Puzzlemaker]

Is it bad that I keep thinking about how awesome of a movie this would make?

[Willfor]

Is it bad that I keep thinking about how awesome of a movie this would make?

In a hundred and fifty years the reincarnations of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum will blow up another alien ship in celebration of it.

[PTTG??]

I still can't get my mind around the fact that we are allies and simultaneously enemies with Al-Queda. I get that they are different cells and Kaddaffi isn't exactly Mr. Happy Herpes, but still, it seems like we're getting Quantum Computing just in time to start writing our diplomacy memos.

[olemars]

It's depressing how easily people take the logical step of
"there's a handful of AQ/islamist fighters among the rebels" -> "NATO is now the AQ Air Force".
 There's no proven islamist influence of any significance in the leadership of the anti-gaddafi movement, even less so of the Al-Qaeda type of islamism.

Was the same in Egypt. "Hey, great, the people are rising up against oppression! But wait! Oh shit the Muslim Brotherhood is signaling ambivalent support for the uprising, the terrorists are behind it all!"

I guess AQ have been more successful than I thought, and it's not by their own doing. Any time the word Al-Qaeda can be even tenuously connected to anything it sends shockwaves through the media and the public, yet the group itself haven't been much of a threat since 2004-5 except for locally in the middle east.

fakeedit: haha, the forum spell check puts red squiggly lines under Qaeda and suggests Qaddafi as correction. Quite fitting since Qaddafi is a far more potent terror threat.

[Virex]

I still can't get my mind around the fact that we are allies and simultaneously enemies with Al-Queda. I get that they are different cells and Kaddaffi isn't exactly Mr. Happy Herpes, but still, it seems like we're getting Quantum Computing just in time to start writing our diplomacy memos.

That even depends on what Al Quaida you're talking about. Al Quaida cells in Libya don't have much contact with the cells in Afghanistan.

[Kogan Loloklam]

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/03/30/libya-government-use-landmines-confirmed

[RedKing]

Arson, Murder and Jaywalking? 

Not to dismiss the use of landmines (although it should be noted that the US has never banned their use), but we're talking about a guy who ordered the bombing of his own capital to suppress unarmed protestors. Who leveled the fourth-largest city in his own country with artillery and tank fire. Who, 25 years ago, ordered the bombing of a civilian airliner in the UK, killing 250+ people.

Laying a few dozen assorted mines in an active combat zone isn't exactly going to top the list of his crimes.

[Blargityblarg]

Arson, Murder and Jaywalking? 

Not to dismiss the use of landmines (although it should be noted that the US has never banned their use), but we're talking about a guy who ordered the bombing of his own capital to suppress unarmed protestors. Who leveled the fourth-largest city in his own country with artillery and tank fire. Who, 25 years ago, ordered the bombing of a civilian airliner in the UK, killing 250+ people.

Laying a few dozen assorted mines in an active combat zone isn't exactly going to top the list of his crimes.

Except that landmines are the gift that keeps on giving. You can never be sure you've tripped or removed all the mines; Therefore, Libyans lose either land or limbs, long after Qaddafi has been nailed to several trees.