Former Gadaffi air force chief rumoured to have returned to Libya

Gaddafi's last commander of his air force Ali Sharif Al-Rifi fled Libya in 2011 but is now reported to have returned to his home town of Waddan in the Al-Jufra area.

Al-Rifi fled in 2011 as Tripoli fell. He is thought to have fled over the border into Niger where he met the Tuareg leader and Gaddafi loyalist Ali Kana. Al-Rifi had previously served in the 1986-87 war with Chad, during which Khalifa Hafta,r now commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), was captured. The LNA are the armed forces of the eastern-based House of Representatives (HoR) government. After being captured, Haftar and his mean were abandoned by Gaddafi. At the time, Al-Rifi had been a ground forces commander during the war, organizing logistics and reinforcements from the central desert area of Al-Kufra.

Al-Rifi later moved to the Niger capital Niamey where he was a close associate of Saadi Gaddafi the third son of Moammar Gaddafi the former Libyan leader. On the the fifth of March of 2014 Saadi was arrested in Niger and extradited to Libya to face murder charges. His lawyer Nick Kaufman protested that it was doubtful if the process was legal as it was not clear that there was any court hearing or if Gaddafi was allowed a lawyer. In August 2015 video appeared that purported to show Saadi being tortured in prison in Libya. It is not known if at the time of Saadi's arrest if Al-Rifi stayed in Niger.

The second son of Gaddafi Saif al-Islam is also apparently free in Libya. He was released from prison in Zintan by the brigade that held him allegedly under an amnesty law passed by the House of Representatives. However, this was over a week ago and there have been no confirmed reports of his whereabouts. Former security chief Abduallah Senussi and other regime figures were also released from Habda prison and are thought to be free in Tripoli.

Back in March, the head of the Libyan National Army’s air force Major-General Saqr Geroushi is reported to have suffered a heart attack and to have been put in intensive care in Marj hospital. Geroushi has been one of Haftar's right hand men since the start of Haftar's Operation Dignity in May of 2014. He has had the heart condition for some time and had been in Jordan for treatment for part of 2016. Now that Al-Rifi is back in Libya he may perhaps take on some of the duties of Geroushi if he is still recovering. Members of the old Gadaffi regime appear to be welcomed back by Haftar and some may play a key role in Libya's future if Haftar has his way.

A recent tweet confirms the return of Al-Rifi showing his return to an airbase in al-Jufra: "Ali Sharif Al-Rifi, Kadhafi’s airforce commander, arriving in Jufrah airbase. He fled in Niger in 2011 then Egypt & came back in east Libya."

Safia, Gadaffi's widow allowed to return to home town in Libya

Former Libyan ruler Colonel Gadaffi's widow, Safia Farkash Gadaffi, has been given permission to return back to Libya to her home town of Bayda, in the east of the country.

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The Telegraph reports:

 Libyan officials have allowed Colonel Gaddafi's widow to return from exile abroad as part of a new program of national reconciliation.The Libyan authorities are keen to pacify the country's pro-Gaddafi tribes ahead of a planned major battle to retake the Islamic State-held city of Sirte, Colonel Gaddafi's home town.Strangely enough, the Telegraph does not say which Libyan officials have allowed Safia to return. I presume it is not those of the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli but the government of PM Al-Thinni of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR). Many government facilities of the HoR are in Bayda and the HoR does not yet recognize the GNA since the HoR has not held an official vote of confidence in the GNA or amended the constitutional declaration of 2011. The local municipal council also agreed to the return of Safia and a number of her children. According to one source :Libyan authorities are embarking on this move to appease pro-Gaddafi tribes prior to their planned battle to retake the Islamic State-held city of Sirte, also the hometown of Colonel Gaddafi.

Again the "Libyan authorities" are not identified but are probably those of the HoR government. Both Haftar, commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA) of the HoR, and the GNA are planning campaigns to retake Sirte. Sirte has many Gaddafi loyalists but is now the headquarters of the Islamic State in Syria. Many loyalists were embittered by their experience within the Salvation Government of the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC) and allied themselves with the jihadists in spite of Gadaffi's opposition to radical Islamists.

Many former military officers associated with the Gadaffi regime are now part of the LNA under Haftar. Haftar himself was part of the original coup that took power in 1969. However, Haftar was abandoned by Gadaffi during a losing war in Chad: In 1987, he became a prisoner of war during the war against Chad. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Gaddafi. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining U.S. citizenship.[3Many in Gadaffi's forces joined the rebels eventually with a number of them now serving with Haftar in the LNA. Haftar played an important military role in the revolution but some fear that Haftar wants to return to a Gadaffi-like regime. His Operation Dignity started in May of 2014 to rid Libya of Islamists, is aimed at all Islamists who oppose him not just the Islamic State.

Gadaffi's widow, Safia, supported him right up until he was killed outside of Sirte. Safia married Gadaffi in 1970 and bore six children by him. She fled Libya to Algeria in August of 2011 as the capital Tripoli fell to rebels: On 29 August, the Algerian government officially announced that Safia together with daughter Ayesha and sons Muhammad and Hannibal, had crossed into Algeria early on 29 August.[32][33] An Algerian Foreign Ministry official said all the people in the convoy were now in Algiers, and that none of them had been named in warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes charges.Safia breached some of the terms for her staying in Algeria and had to leave with other members of her family. They went to the Gulf state of Oman where they were given political asylum. Safia is reputed to be very rich although in March of 2012 the central bank of the UAE ordered all her accounts in the country frozen along with those of other former high-ranking officials of the Gadaffi government. The Wikipedia entry on Safia says: " It has been estimated that Farkash has an independent wealth of US$30Bn, which includes 20 tons of gold." There is a note that the source for this is not reliable!

Although not charged with any regime crimes, Safia's return is not without controversy. Many in Libya still hold grudges against the entire ruling Gadaffi family because of their lavish lifestyle and repression of opposition. As shown in the appended photo, even Bayda was the site of anti-Gadaffi demonstrations. Safia apparently met Gadaffi while nursing him in a hospital. While mostly keeping a low profile during his reign, she did appear with him in meetings with world leaders. She also went on radio to support Gadaffi during the uprising against him. One daughter, Aisha, is still believed to be in Oman.

Internationally-recognized Libyan government bombs its own oil tanker killing two

The Libyan Air Force bombed an oil tanker operated by Greece but leased by the Libyan National Oil Company(NOC) killing two members of the crew.

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A spokesperson for the Libyan military said that the movements of the ship in the port of Derna aroused suspicions. Derna is governed by radical Islamists.The NOC claimed that the ship had been delivering fuel to industrial facilities and that authorities had been kept informed of this. However, military authorities said that the ship had been asked to stop twice but refused to do so. Colonel Ahmed Mesmari said the tanker was targeted because it had failed to submit to an inspection before entering the port. He claims the vessel was to dock at a power plant but instead took a different route that entered a "military zone".

This is not the first time that the Libyan military has attacked Derna. Last year it bombed the city several times targeting militant groups there. When Gadaffi did this sort of thing he was said to be bombing his own people and western countries were quick to denounce the actions and even mounted an international campaign to create a no-fly zone supposedly to protect civilians but actually intended to degrade Gadaffi's armed forces and eventually help the rebels produce regime change. Don't expect this to happen this time around. The internationally recognized government in Tobruk has bombed Tripoli numerous times including the one functioning airport. CIA-linked General Khalifa Haftar whose Operation Dignity involved attacking and burning the parliament buildings, produced the backlash that now sees a rival government based in Tripoli ruling much of the country. Now he is heading the attack on the Tripoli government with the blessing of the Tobruk government. The prime minister Abdullah Al-Thinni was also prime minister of the parliament during the Operation Dignity attack on the former parliament. He then called the action illegal and a warrant was put out for Haftar's arrest. Now Haftar has the green light from this same Al-Thinni to liberate Benghazi and Tripoli. The UN has called for the attacks and bombings to stop but to no avail. Don't expect western countries to do anything except perhaps intervene on the side of the Tobruk government as France would like to do and Egypt and the UAE are already doing. On November 6th, the Libyan Supreme Court declared that the June elections for the House of Representatives (HoR) were unconstitutional and that the HoR parliament in Tobruk should be dissolved. The Tobruk government immediately rejected the decision. This is in contrast to the reaction to the Supreme Court decision when the Islamist supported Prime Minister for the Libyan Parliament, Ahmed Maiteg, was declared to have been illegally elected. This decision left Al Thinni as the recognized prime minister of Libya. The defeated Islamist candidate accepted the decision. Al Thinni and his government welcomed that decision.

The UN envoy to Libya, Bernadino Leon, has for some time been attempting to gather the conflicting parties together to try to find a political solution to the crisis.There was to be a dialogue originally set for January 6th somewhere outside of Libya that would seek a peaceful solution to the conflict but now that dialogue has been postponed indefinitely: The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Sunday indefinitely postponed the conference of the Libyan dialogue among the country's political parties, which was set to be held on Jan. 5, according to a Libyan parliament member. Expect the internationally-recognized Libyan government in Tobruk to continue to bomb its own people with at most a few bleats of disapproval from the UN and perhaps even from some western countries.

The drumbeat stressing the narrative of Libya as a danger to the whole region because of the presence of radical Islamists in the country will increase in volume. This narrative fits in perfectly with General Khalifa's claim that his opponents are Islamic terrorists. We have heard that refrain once before from one Colonel Gadaffi:Muammar Gaddafi's insistent claim that al-Qaida is behind the Libyan uprising – made in all his public appearances since the crisis began – has been dismissed at home and abroad as propaganda. But Gaddafi's preoccupation with the jihadi group is genuine and reflects years of repression and counter-terrorist co-operation, which has enhanced his value to the US and other western governments. Of course, there is no denying there are radical Islamists in Libya in fact some of the same ones who were there when Gadaffi ruled. However now as then the opponents of the Libyan government are of many different political stripes. What they all have in common is opposition to the recognized government. The only difference this time around is that most in the west and in the Arab world would like to see the Tobruk government stay in power rather than support regime change. What could be better than a government with a CIA-linked general, Khalifa Haftar, being head of a campaign that he claims will rid Libya of Islamist terrorists?

Assad may have helped French spies ambush Gadaffi

According to an article in a British newspaper the Syrian government offered French spies operating in Sirte, Gadaffi's satellite telephone number. This aided them in trapping Gadaffi by alerting Libyan militia as to where they could ambush his convoy.

Rami El Obeidi, a former senior intelligence officer in Tripoli, said:

"In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime – which is what happened,"

International attention was shifting from the situation in Libya to that in Syria and Assad hoped that by helping the French, pressure would be removed from his regime. Assad should have known better. It worked for a short while only. For years Assad had acted as a destination for terror suspects who were rendered to notorious Syrian prisons for interrogation and torture. He always obediently provided guarantees that the suspects would not be tortured so U.S. authorities would not be complicit in sending anyone to be tortured. He was not rewarded for that either. In time the French along with the rest of western countries would turn against Assad as he crushed dissent within Syria. Now Islamic terrorists are allied with the west in attempting to overthrow Assad. If Assad is eventually overthrown do not expect gratitude from the jihadists.

Nicolas Sarkozy the former president of France was one of the first and most avid supporters of western intervention in Libya. France also played a leading role in the UN-approved NATO mission to bomb Libya, supposedly to protect civilians.

Mahmoud Jibril, who was prime minister under the Libyan transitional government, confirmed that a foreign "agent" was involved in the operation that ultimately killed Gadaffi. However, Jibril did not identify the nationality of the agent. An Italian newspaper quoted western diplomats in Tripoli who claimed that if a foreign agent were involved it was almost certainly a French agent.

This revelation could be embarrassing for NATO. NATO has always claimed that it did not target individuals. However on several occasions NATO bombed sites where Gadaffi might have been staying.

The official story of Gadaffi's death is that an RAF surveillance plane spotted a large convoy of vehicles leaving Sirte on October 20th last year. NATO warplanes bombed the convoy supposedly unaware that Gadaffi was traveling in it. Militia members found Gadaffi in a drainpipe and he was killed by one of his captors. As is often the case the official story is not likely true. The French spy had told the militia where Gadaffi's convoy could be ambushed. According to Mr El Obeidi:

"French intelligence played a direct tole in the death of Gaddafi, including his killing.They gave directions that he was to be apprehended, but they didn't care if he was bloodied or beaten up as long as he was delivered alive."

Of course it turns out he was not delivered alive.

French intelligence officers were able to pinpoint Gadaffi's location when he made a call to a loyalist and a Palestinian militant leader in Syria. Obeidi said although both Turkish and British intelligence officers were informed of the ambush it was an exclusively French operation.

Gadaffi was double-crossed by the French as well. He had been on good terms with Sarkozy even donating considerable amounts to Sarkozy's election campaign. He had threatened to reveal details of these donations when Sarkozy no longer supported him. Western diplomats said according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera

:“Sarkozy had every reason to want to get rid of the colonel as quickly as possible."

That mission has been long accomplished. What remains is for France to negotiate new and better contracts for Libyan oil.