Al-Qaida and the CIA in Libya

Coincidence? Just when we began worrying in the United States about the presence of al-Qaida among the Libyan rebels, the Obama administration made it known that for weeks now, it has been sending groups of CIA agents to these same rebels. As The New York Times reported, citing American officials, these agents are charged with helping to locate the arms caches or Gadhafi’s troops’ hideouts. But they also have as a mission to help in “understanding who their leaders are and the allegiances of the groups opposed to Colonel Gadhafi.” Also, several weeks ago Barack Obama had signed a secret decree, permitting the CIA to provide arms or money to the rebels, but, as we learned Wednesday, no supply of weapons has yet been made.

These revelations come, putting the repeated promises of Barack Obama into perspective, just as he had sworn that he did not want to send American troops into Libya. But the troops arrive just in the nick of time when the United States is concerned about the presence … of al-Qaida among the rebels. The idea is not new, but by dint of repeating that his opponents are not terrorists on al-Qaida’s payroll, Col. Gadhafi himself was largely discredited. Now that the rebels have shown their weakness, and the United States has some reasons to doubt the outcome of the conflict, the question “But who exactly are these opponents?” returns in force.

Admiral James Stavridis, commander of the NATO forces in Europe, acknowledged Tuesday during a Senate hearing that Western intelligence agencies have “suspicions” of the presence of al-Qaida or Hezbollah among the Libyan rebels. American services remember above all that in Iraq they had captured several Libyan combatants more or less affiliated with al-Qaida and that most originated from eastern Libya, where rebels are now at work. For Bruce Riedel, former CIA officer and occasional adviser to the Obama administration, al-Qaida plays quite a role in the Libyan revolt: “’It’s almost a certitude that at least part’ of the opposition includes members of al-Qaida,” he explained to The Washington Post, recalling that in the past, the anti-Gadhafi opposition in Benghazi had “very close associations with al-Qaida. I would hope that we now have a good sense of the opposition in Libya,” continues Riedel, “and can say that this (those associated with al-Qaida) is 2 percent, not 20 percent.” To date, the official estimates of the U.S. services remain that the majority of rebels are mostly “good guys” and have little to do with al-Qaida. Admiral Stavridis assured that the information that he is receiving at the moment “makes me feel that the leadership that I’m seeing are responsible men and women who are struggling against Colonel Gadhafi.”