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This report attempts to assess al-Qaeda’s presence in Libya. Al-Qaeda Senior Leadership
(AQSL) and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have sought to take advantage of the
Libyan Revolution to recruit militants and to reinforce their operational capabilities in an attempt
to create a safe haven and possibly to extend their area of operations to Libya. Reports have
indicated that AQSL is seeking to create an al-Qaeda clandestine network in Libya that could be
activated in the future to destabilize the government and/or to offer logistical support to al-
Qaeda’s activities in North Africa and the Sahel. AQIM has reportedly formed sleeper cells that
are probably connected to an al-Qaeda underground network in Libya, likely as a way, primarily,
to secure the supply of arms for its ongoing jihadist operations in Algeria and the Sahel. This
report discusses how al-Qaeda and its North African affiliate are using communications media
and face-to-face contacts to shift the still-evolving post-revolutionary political and social
dynamic in Libya in a direction that is conducive to jihad and hateful of the West.
The information in this report is drawn largely from the Internet and Western and Libyan
online publications. Particular attention has been given to AQSL and AQIM sources, especially
propaganda videos featuring their leaders and a written essay from ‘Atiyah al-Libi, an influential
Libyan al-Qaeda leader killed in Pakistan by a U.S. drone strike in August 2011. Although a
wide range of sources were utilized, including those in French and Arabic, as well as in English,
the information found was quite limited and largely presumptive. Given the scarcity of
information, further research is needed to better penetrate the organization of al-Qaeda’s
clandestine network in Libya, its leaders, areas of concentration, and chain of command. The
Web addresses presented in this report were valid as of August 2012.

Benghazi: A Sea of Al-Qaeda Flags NRO Nov. 5, 2011
Al Qaeda Plants Its Flag in Libya posted October 28, 2011
Niger fears takeover by militants in neighbour Libya July 17, 2011
Exiled Islamists Fuel Libyan Revolution (Obama & NATO islamic allies....) July 19, 2011
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Libyan Rebels Led by "Former-Mujahedeen" from Guantanamo Bay April 02, 2011
Abdel Hakim al-Hasady, an influential Islamic preacher and school teacher, who spent five years in a training camp in eastern Afghanistan, oversees the recruitment, training and deployment of about 300 rebel fighters Darna.
Field Commander Mr. Hasady in the first line is Salah al-Barrani, a veteran of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which was formed in the early 1990 by the Libyan mujahideen returning home after helping expel the Soviets from Afghanistan and dedicated to the expulsion of Mr Gaddafi's power.
Sufyan bin Qumu, an Army veteran who worked for the Libyan holding company of Usama bin Laden in Sudan and later for a charity linked to al Qaeda in Afghanistan, is the training of recruits many rebels in the city.
Both Ben and colleagues Hasady Qumu Pakistani authorities picked up after the US-led invasion in Afghanistan in 2001 and fell in SU Dr. Hasady reached with Libya in prison two months later. Mr. Ben Qumu spent six years at Guantanamo Bay before he was imprisoned in 2007 killed Libya.
They were both released from prison in Libya in 2008 as part of the liquidation of the Islamists in Libya.

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Jihadists plot to take over Libya
The Washington Times, Bill Gertz; September 4, 2011
Jihadists among the Libyan rebels revealed plans last week on the Internet to subvert the post-Moammar Gadhafi government and create an Islamist state, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

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Libya: Now What? New American; Thursday, 10 November 2011
Gadhafi Becomes the Enemy
The evidence favors Gadhafi’s version of events. Of course, Gadhafi’s past record of human rights abuses does make his claims suspect, to say the least. But how about the veracity of the rebels? As The New American reported early on, numerous current and former al-Qaeda leaders — as well as other affiliated extremists who boasted of having battled U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — were largely leading the rebellion. And they had been armed and trained by foreign powers including the U.S. government well before the “international community” officially intervened.
Al-Qaeda & Co. Become Allies
As Gadhafi became public enemy number one, other veteran foes of the U.S. government suddenly went from dangerous terrorists to democratic “freedom fighters.” Most prominent among the terror groups that became Western allies was the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
According to a 2007 study entitled “Al Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq” by the U.S. military, the organization had an “increasingly cooperative relationship with al-Qa’ida, which culminated in the LIFG officially joining al-Qa’ida on November 3, 2007.” Before that, former CIA boss George Tenet warned the U.S. Senate in 2004 that al-Qaeda-linked groups like the LIFG represented “one of the most immediate threats” to American security.