Posted on 11/03/2007 2:53:07 AM PDT by Wiz
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 figure harshly criticized Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in a new audio tape Saturday, accusing him of being an enemy of Islam and threatening a wave of attacks against the North African country because it improved relations with the U.S.
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In the 28-minute audio tape called "Unity of the Ranks," Ayman al-Zawahri also announced that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was joining ranks with al-Qaida.
"The Islamic nation is witnessing a blessed step ... The brothers are escalating the confrontation against the enemies of Islam: Gadhafi and his masters, the Washington crusaders," al-Zawahri said in the audio tape. The recording could not be independently verified, but it appeared on a Web site commonly used by insurgents and carried the logo of al-Qaida's media production house, as-Sahab.
The recording also carried a message from Abu Laith al-Libi, a Libyan al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan who accused Gadhafi of decades of tyranny.
"He is the tyranny of Libya and is dragging the country to the swamp," al-Libi said in the recording that also featured old video footage of him walking with other masked gunmen.
"After long years, he (Gadhafi) discovered suddenly that America is not an enemy ... and is turning Libya into another crusader base," said al-Libi, who has appeared in several recent al-Qaida videos.
For decades, the U.S. had regarded Libya as a pariah state after Gadhafi came to power in a military coup in 1969 and turned against the West.
Libya was demonized for sponsoring various terrorist groups and for trying to undermine pro-Western governments in Africa. Washington put Libya on a list of state sponsors of terrorism and imposed sanctions that barred American companies from doing business in the oil-rich country. In 1986, U.S. warplanes carried out airstrikes against Libya.
But the tide started to turn in 2003, after Gadhafi's surprise decision to dismantle Libya's clandestine nuclear program. That same year, Libya reached a $2.7 billion settlement with families of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the next year it paid $170 million in compensation to the families of the 170 victims of the 1989 bombing of a French UTA passenger jet.
The U.S. resumed full diplomatic relations with Libya last year and removed Libya from the State Department's list of terrorism sponsors.
The State Department also has praised Libya's cooperation in helping the U.S. in the search for al-Qaida and other terror suspects in the Middle East and North Africa.
Al Qaida vs Moammar Gadhafi ping
One of the benefits of the the action President Bush took against Saddam Hussein.
This is a very positive development. Al Qaida is isolating itself futher and helping us obtain more committed in the that part of the world in the WOT. I hope they announce they are targeting a few more Arab states.
O.K., great! Now ... how much oil we able to buy?
Al Qaeda has done so well in Iraq that they are now moving on to Libya. (/sarcasm)
As for Ghadaffi, or however we are spelling his name these days, someone once pointed out that you have to suspect the mental capacity of a dictator who has absolute power and can’t give himself any higher rank than “colonel”. (/mild sarcasm)
It’s funny how we’ve gone from “You can’t defeat Al Qaeda, they are too fluid an entity!” to “Bush was a fool, invading Iraq to defeat these nobodys and causing a huge mess!”
I don’t think this makes Gadhafi into a good guy. It can be entertaining, though, when evil consumes itself.
Not much foreign oil is politically clean these days. I curse that most of the oil fields concentrate under dictators’ land.
Agree, I thought this news was just such an entertainment.
Gadhafi most likely retains a ruthless & loyal secret team of specialists able to: wire tape and torture his insurgents without much oversite.
“Al Qaeda has done so well in Iraq that they are now moving on to Libya. (/sarcasm)
WIth everything going on, it is my bet the majority of Al Queada still alive in Iraq are moving back to Pakistan. They tried to get to Somalia but we(was it Eithiopia or Kenya) killed a bunch of them there.
Some may have escaped to Tehran and are going to wreak havoc with the Kurds in exchange for passage.
Unfortunately 1 Al Queada is too much. It is time to kill Zwahiri and take out Osama once and for all.
That little Exploding House Trick that Reagan pulled on him has really worked wonders.
Terror doesn’t do well against a totaltarian Muslim leader. It was tried in Egypt and was snuffed out in a hurry.
Al Qaida continues on its path to oblivion, growing more grandiose as its failures mount. Gadhafi don’t play fair, and he doesn’t know the Geneva Conventions.
Oh *this* aughtta be good...Ghaddafi an american puppet???? Old Zawahiri must be suffering a major case of cabin fever.
Ghaddafi: “ Waterboarding??? We don’t need no steeenking waterboarding!”
Ghaddifi will exterminate anyone in Libya he even *suspects* has any ties to Al Qaeda, now.
Knowing him, he’ll have no compuctions against getting them first.
aQ and similar wahhabbists/salafists have threatened Qadhafi for many years and that was the main reason for his political turnaround a few years ago. Another reason was the bad economy due to the (then) low (Sic!) oil price.
Well considering the fact that al Qaeda in the Maghreb are getting their asses kicked lately I think any serious reprisals against ole’ Moammar are pretty unlikely.
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