Al-Qaeda targets Gaddafi

[Flightful]

A Canadian intelligence report says al-Qaeda-backed militants in Libya want to assassinate Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, providing a possible explanation for the dictator's recent attempts to improve relations with the West.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service report shows that Col. Gaddafi, once a major sponsor of terrorist violence, is now a terrorist target who shares a common enemy with the West: Osama bin Laden.

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) is the most powerful radical faction waging holy war against Col. Gaddafi. It aims to establish an Islamic state in Libya and views the current regime as oppressive, corrupt and anti-Muslim, CSIS said.

"The group has clearly stated its view on the use of force, promoting the ideology that Libyan people can only gain freedom by actively supporting the mujahedin in the war against Gaddafi's regime," the report said.

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=13f7af9f-21dd-4a05-9b45-df4d902f4eb8

[htuttle]

1. Wouldn't be the first time

Although last time, the British hired them to do it.

Here's a link to the whole sordid affair:
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/archive_shayler

NOTE: don't be put off by the source site -- they didn't originate any of this information, but I used them since they'd collected lots of stories into one place. The story has become very hard to report on, since it is all under an official D-Notice for censorship by the British government.

Here's another link from the Guardian (surprised this is still up, actually):
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,837333,00.html

British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.

(snip)

The Observer has been restrained from printing details of the allegations during the course of the trial of David Shayler, who was last week sentenced to six months in prison for disclosing documents obtained during his time as an MI5 officer. He was not allowed to argue that he made the revelations in the public interest.

During his closing speech last week, Shayler repeated claims that he was gagged from talking about 'a crime so heinous' that he had no choice but to go to the press with his story. The 'crime' was the alleged MI6 involvement in the plot to assassinate Gadaffi, hatched in late 1995.

(snip)

The assassination attempt on Gadaffi was planned for early 1996 in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte. It is thought that an operation by the Islamic Fighting Group in the city was foiled in March 1996 and in the gun battle that followed several militants were killed. In 1998, the Libyans released TV footage of a 1996 grenade attack on Gadaffi that they claimed had been carried out by a British agent.

(more at link)

[cowpie]

2. strange bedfellows wouldn't you say?

Do you really think the muslims would carry out operations for the British government?

[johnny_red]

3. yeah

and history would agree.

its never just two in bed... there is always that makes for a manage a troi, sometimes called money, sometimes called power. its what both partners are after.