Thursday, May 31, 2007

The Libyan Escapee Shoots Off His Mouth


So, this Libyan Al-Qaeda insurgent who escaped from U.S. detention in Bagram, in July 2005,lashes out at U.S. and its Saudi allies. The Associated Press bureau in Cairo often reports on these Internet video postings. A 45-minute rant on video by Abu Yahia al-Libi, was monitored by IntelCenter, a U.S.government contractor.
LINK: AP Wire Story
http://fe56.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070530/ap_on_re_mi_ea/al_qaida_saudi_video
“Al-Libi” which means “of Libya” - speaks out against the Saudi ruling family, the “House of al-Saud.”
He accuses the Saudi elites of seeking praise from the White House and allowing U.S. warplanes to launch attacks on Muslims. This Spring, the Saudi government rounded up dozens of “terrorists,” who are likely Wahabi islamic militants – who really seek to wrestle control from what they feel is an oppressive and corrupt government headed by Saudi Royals.
Al-Libi’s comments offer the enemy’s perspective – key to countering such elusive foes in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He even offers insights into how he observed U.S. troops who guarded him for years at Bagram.

LINK: More info on Al-Libi
http://siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications186606&Category=publications&Subcategory=0

IntelCenter now says that al-Libi has become al-Qaida's most visible face on the Internet, more than Osama binLaden's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri. He’s the spokesman, the dude who escaped from our jail – damn, we screwed up letting this guy go free – he’s become a hero for the insurgents and a black eye for us.
For more information on al-Libi, check out the April 2 posting on the Bunker:
http://bunker-chatter.blogspot.com/2007/04/al-qaida-gets-their-message-outdo-we.html

Yet, because of his emotion – al-Libi’s lashing out at the Saudi Royals exposes a rift among Arabs and among Muslims that should be examined and perhaps exploited – should we ever truly seek success against global terrorism.
This sustained unpopularity that many Saudi people feel toward their oil-revenue wealthy rulers is fueled by the fundamental Wahabi movement – a clear and present threat not just to the Saudi royals, but to U.S. oil interests in the region.

Yet, how often do you hear about Wahabi insurgents on our news here in the U.S.? It’s hard to explain to average Americans what “wahabi” means. Just as difficult is discussing Hezb-Islami-Gulbuldin (HIG) fighting U.S. troops on Afghanistan or the Deobandi movement festering from Pakistani madrassas.

These are some of the real roots of terror – yet, Americans are clearly overwhelmed by Iraq to take time and understand who are real enemy are. While in Afghanistan, I had been reading the Robert Baer book “Sleeping With The Devil.”

LINK: Robert Baer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baer

Baer, a former covert CIA agent, details our relationship with the Saudis, dating back to the end of WWII – when we sent over oil rig experts to take the crude from Saudi land – creating fuel for America and enormous wealth for Saudi elites. This business relationship has dictated U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East for our country’s entire role as a superpower – to in clued defending Saudi Arabia in Desert Storm when we liberated Kuwait from Saddam. Most of all, our need for oil and the U.S. government and business relationships with the House of Al-Saud has the Islamic fundamentalists pissed off.

In late-2005, I had a coffee at Bagram airfield with an Iraqi-American analyst who worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). I asked him what he thought, “Are the Muslims fundamentalists more upset over U.S. support of Israel over Palestine or U.S. support of the House of al-Saud?”
The intel analyst paused, his jaw dropped. He said that very few Americans, if any, had ever discussed that topic – commonly known on the Arab street as the two main causes for terrorist hostilities.

And again, no one in America even talks about these problems.
How does this topic compare at the water cooler with American Idol?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

THIS COMMENT CAME UNDER ANOTHER POST - BUT CLEARLY REFERS TO THE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE HOUSE OF AL-SAUD...

"Good to understand the enemy. I'm curious.. when you spoke to the Defense Intel guy, what was his rely as to which was the greater threat --Israel or the House of Saud??
a friend from Bagram days..."

hoochBP12 said...

First of all, the Defense Intel guy was struck with surprise - so the discussion turned to how I understood about al-saud and Wahhabis. Then, he told me as a Sunni Iraqi - who grew up in America, he saw the problem from outside his normal culture and religion - that his perspective was that people clearly see the Israel-Palestinian conflict as the obvious root of conflcit in the Middle east - the Wahhabi/al-saud conflict was just as dangerous - yet unknown to most. There are few Western reporters allowed to cover anything in Saudi Arabia - let alone the rival insurgent movement. So again, we are forced to know only what we can through limited open source infromation - because the Saudis also understand the importance of controlling messages. Perhaps the DIA guy had covert sources to analyze on Wahhabi terrorists- but the general public does not.