World View – Report: Libya Attack a Preemptive Response to Planned Assassination of Al-Qaeda Leader

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:

• Debka: Benghazi murder of Chris Stevens was revenge for plot against al-Qaeda
• France’s Hollande calls for immediate military action in Mali
• Aftermath of Libyan military action sees big increase in al-Qaeda activity in Africa

Debka: Benghazi murder of Chris Stevens was revenge for plot against al-Qaeda

Debka, which sometimes gets things wrong, is quoting its militaryintelligence sources as saying that the reason why the Obamaadministration is covering up the al-Qaeda links to the murder ofAmerican ambassador Chris Stevens on September 11 in Benghazi, Libya,was because the murder was an act of revenge for US-led plans toassassinate the terrorist Abdelmalek Droukdel, “Emir of Al Qaeda inthe Land of the Maghreb”, or Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).According to the details of the story, which Debka says are not fullyconfirmed, the Americans collaborated with the Libyan, Algerian andTunisian secret services to kill Droukdel and the entire AQIMleadership, an accomplishment that would have rivaled the killing ofOsama bin Laden for the Obama administration. However, Droukdel gotwind of the assassination plans, and turned the tables, killingStevens. The “spontaneous attack” theory put forward by numerousofficials in the administration was a full-throated lie. 

Armed Islamist groups, including AQIM, Libya’s Ansar al-Sharia,Nigeria’s Boko Haram, Mali’s Ansar al-Dine and the West AfricanMonotheism and Jihad are now preparing to discuss expanding theirjoint operations, including the smuggling of arms, money andjihadists, using the impetus provided by their Benghazi “success.”Debka

France’s Hollande calls for immediate military action in Mali

France’s President François Hollande called Wednesday for the SecurityCouncil to approve African military intervention in Mali “as quicklyas possible.” France and the African union would provide logisticalsupport to an effort led by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West AfricanStates). Mali is a former French colony, and al-Qaeda linked Ansaral-Dine has now taken control of 2/3rds of the country, an area aslarge as France itself. A side meeting of the U.N. Security Councilwas held on Mali, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clintonagreed that the Mali situation was serious: 

We all know too well what is happening in Mali, andthe incredible danger posed by violent extremists imposing theirbrutal ideology, committing human rights abuses, destroyingirreplaceable cultural heritage. We have to train the securityforces in Mali, help them dislodge the extremists, protect humanrights, and defend borders.

However, Clinton and other U.N. Security Council members urgedcaution, and there will be no support for military action in Mali.AP and Reuters

Aftermath of Libyan military action sees big increase in al-Qaeda activity in Africa

The death of Osama bin Laden raised the hope that al-Qaeda was indecline, but the killing of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens was only thelatest of the successes of a newly invigorated group of al-Qaedalinked militant organizations in Africa. Much of their successfollows from the aftermath of the military action in Libya last year.As I’ve been reporting for over a year, the fall of Muammar Gaddafileft behind huge warehouses of modern weapons that have now falleninto the hands of these major African Islamic militant groups –Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Libya’s Ansar al-Sharia,Nigeria’s Boko Haram, Mali’s Ansar al-Dine and the West AfricanMonotheism and Jihad. (See: “8-Sep-11 World View — Thousands of surface-to-air missiles missing from Libya warehouses”) These weapons were used in theBenghazi attack that killed Chris Stevens, they were used in thetakeover of Mali, they’ve been used in terrorist attacks in Algeria,they’ve been used in battles between Christians ans Muslims inNigeria, they’ve been used against Egyptian forces in the Sinai, andthere is certainly much worse to come. 

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