Here are three things Americans need to know about the Libyan “rebels” that the U.S. government isn’t telling us. One: The inspiration of the Libyan war is as much anti-Western as it is anti-Gadhafi. The “Day of Rage” that kick-started the Libyan war on Feb. 17 marked the fifth anniversary of violent protests in Benghazi, which included an assault on the Italian consulate during which at least 11 were killed.
The 2006 mayhem, as John Rosenthal has reported, during which consulate staff were evacuated after 1,000 to several thousand men tried to storm and burn the building, may be linked to the Italian TV appearance two days earlier of Italian minister Roberto Calderoli.
It was then that Calderoli, in defiance of worldwide Islamic rioting against cartoons of Muhammad in a tiny Danish newspaper, revealed he was wearing an undershirt decorated with such a cartoon.
As Calderoli explained, the gesture was a matter of a “battle for freedom.” He added: “When they [the cartoon rioters] recognize our rights, I’ll take off the shirt.”
Unfortunately — and not just for the Italian minister — Calderoli’s boss, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, didn’t recognize those rights. One day after the Benghazi rioting, Calderoli resigned, a political collapse indicative of Western tendencies to renounce rights that conflict with Islamic law (Shariah).
Two: The anti-Gadhafi, anti-Western forces that NATO power has brought to apparent victory (so far costing U.S. taxpayers $1 billion) include jihadist forces the U.S. and NATO allies have been fighting for the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Captured al Qaeda documents analyzed at West Point reveal that not only did Libya send far more recruits per capita to fight with al Qaeda in Iraq than any other nation (including Saudi Arabia), but also that the “rebel” stronghold of Darnah sent more recruits per capita than any other city.
This Libyan surge, the report explains, may have been because of the “increasingly cooperative relationship with al Qa’ida” of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. The LIFG, designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2004, is a prominent faction among anti-Qadhafi forces today.
Little wonder the Los Angeles Times discovered “at least 20 former Islamic militant leaders in battlefield roles” in Libya. These include LIFG leader Abdelhakim Belhaj, recently described as the rebel commander in Tripoli.
Another rebel leader and LIFG member, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu, is also an ex-Guantanamo detainee, as the New York Times has pointed out.
And another rebel leader, Abdul Hakim Hasadi, as John Rosenthal has reported, admitted to Italian media earlier this year not only to “fighting against U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but also to recruiting Libyans to fight against American forces in Iraq.”
Some of those same recruits “have come back and today are on the front at Ajdabiya,” Hasadi explained, referring to a northeastern Libyan town. “They are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists. The members of al Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader,” Hasadi added.
3) The draft constitution of the anti-Qadhafi forces cites “Shariah” as the “principal source of legislation.”
Shariah is Islamic law, the basis of conquest or control of non-Muslims, conscience, speech and other Western-style liberties. Not too surprisingly, rebel spokesman Mustafa Abduljalil, former Libyan justice minister, sports a “zabibah,” the forehead bruise of fanatical adherence to Islamic law.
His forays into secular law, meanwhile, are nothing short of grotesque. In 1998, Abduljalil sentenced six Bulgarian nurses to death in a notorious show trial.
Still, U.S. government officials promise the new Libya will be “moderate,” “modern” and “secular.” But don’t laugh too hard. The joke is on us.
Examiner Columnist Diana West is syndicated nationally by United Media and is the author of “The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization.”
