REBEL RECONNAISSANCE: An anti- Gaddafi fighter looks into the cockpit of a damaged aircraft outside the Khamis Brigade's military base, which was destroyed during a Nato air strike yesterday . Picture: REUTERS
Posted on 09/09/2011 5:14:17 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The violent conflict in Libya has turned the neighbouring Sahel desert into a powder keg, regional powers said yesterday in Algiers, as former leader Muammar Gaddafi's arsenal risks being snapped up by al- Qaeda's local franchise...
Algeria and other Libyan neighbours have expressed fears that the ousted Libyan leader's arsenal and remaining loyalists would be scattered across the Sahel, an 8- million-square-kilometre desert area south of the Sahara.
Mr Bazoum said half a ton of Semtex explosive was seized in Niger in June, and warned that there might have been more, as well as surface- to-air missiles...
French, American and British delegates speaking at the conference agreed that the military effort should be led by the region...
Responding to rumours this week, Niger has denied Mr Gaddafi is in the landlocked former French colony. Meanwhile, Libya's former rebels yesterday said they had Mr Gaddafi surrounded, and it was only a matter of time until he was captured or killed.
A top spokesman for Tripoli's new military council, Anis Sharif, would not say where Mr Gaddafi had been found, but said he was still in Libya.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessday.co.za ...
REBEL RECONNAISSANCE: An anti- Gaddafi fighter looks into the cockpit of a damaged aircraft outside the Khamis Brigade's military base, which was destroyed during a Nato air strike yesterday . Picture: REUTERS
A map of the Sahel region showing where Al Qaeda operates (AFP/Graphic)
Powderkeg is a good descriptor.
Kadaffy has been importing mercenaries out of Chad and other sub-Libya African nations, mainly because they have no compunction about shooting Libyans, where Kadaffy’s fellow tribesmen would. Most of Africa has been armed in one way or another through countries like Libya, and that is one of the reasons that makes a complete lack of American Leadership in this so dangerous.
When this whole thing first started flaring up last Winter, and Kadaffy first started shooting his own Civilians, I was one of the people asking where in hell the US Navy was. Had the United States Navy kept a Nimitz class flight deck and an accompanying strike group in the Med, we would have been in a position to immediately impose a no-fly zone simply by flying CAP over his entire coastline and shooting down any Libyan raghead who was stupid enough to try and fly.
The problem was, and still is, that we do not have a carrier present in the Med for the first time in some 30 plus years, and the extended conflict in Libya, that is rapidly spreading South into areas of Africa that were extremely unstable in the first place, is a natural consequence of the decisions that have been made in the Oval Office.
This is one of the results of losing an election.
This is one of the results of allowing the other Party to pick you candidate.
This is one of the results of having your Secretary of State flying around the World holding tupperware parties while “Special Advisers” to the (P)resident are really calling the shots.
This is one of the results of electing the least qualified guy in any room he walks into, to the highest office in the land, and handing him all of the keys to the Kingdom.
It isn’t nuclear weapons or ICBMs we need to be worried about, it is homemade IEDs based on the millions of conventional weapons that are widely available all over the world because of dictators like Libya’s Kadaffy, but the real guy to blame is the one who thinks he is leading from the rear...
Premier “Hindmost” Hussein....
That is all.
Yeah I'm holding my breath for fear these powers might go postal on us.
It’s not these powers that would go postal but they would become terrorist training grounds. A few barbs, a few US servicemen or women killed.
if it’s muslims killing muslims and they keep it within their borders, good.
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