A Police State With an Islamist Twist: Inside Hifter’s Libya

The overthrow of a longtime ferocious dictator does not always translate into the desired or anticipated result, chiefly one of a democratic environment. Rather, one of a chaotic milieu or even worse, as the newly, multifaceted problems associated with so may affirm; and particularly, as the so-called newly leaders, truly leaders engage themselves in a fight, showing no mercy or pity for those deemed their political enemies; worse, enemies of the state, even when there is no basis for such a contention; for absolute power, or complete dominance over the affairs of the state that has found itself under siege, often for a long duration of time, as the fratricidal, violent confrontation or struggle sadly persist. Let’s not also forget a multitude of other problems that always, in a significant way, in various ways, help define the transitory period or the post-murderous tyrant era. Among them are ancient conflicts. Please see The 1789 French Revolution or The Reign of Terror (Maximilien Robesque-Pierre); Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s forced departure from Haiti, in 1986 and Haiti, even more 30 years later and now, Libya.

When transnational corruption, including that of political nature and gravity, of an epic proportion, spirals into the hands of men of unrestrained terror – jihadists, kidnappers and drug runners - the more there is a possibility for a land, such as Libya, to more become a fertile ground for the Prophet Muhammad’s Disease, "Terrorism"

The Egyptian and Russian governments seem to hope that they're allying themselves with the second coming of Qaddafi. They're liable to regret a client who's allied to Salafists, even if at the moment the Salafists say that they advocate obedience to the secular ruler. That sort of obedience is always conditional. If the Hiftar faction takes over all of Libya's more settled territory, the relationship seems unlikely to work out in a way that will be comfortable for the kleptocrats in Moscow and Cairo.

Hifter was prepped and trained and funded by the CIA? I am neither surprised nor consoled. The hubris of thinking we can prop up a dictator of our choosing as he de spoils his country is a diplomatic mindset whose time ought to have passed.

Oh I thought I was going to read about the United States & the coming of the trump regime.

BTW 'Hifter' is usually transliterated as 'Haftar'. It's difficult to transliterate Arabic names (I have seen Qaddafi - to use NYT's preferred spelling - at least ten different ways) because (a) there is no exact equivalent between Arabic and English consonants and (b) short vowel sounds usually do not appear in Arabic words except in calligraphic representations as diacritical marks (known as harakat) off the main line of the text. I see no reason to use the less common 'Hifter' unless one wants to make some sort of misguided attempt to conflate him with another dictator with a similar name.

This looks like the blackest yet of black tragicomedies on a national scale. I hitch-hiked through Libya in 1962 and found friendly truckers and tribesmen, and a fully-functional Italian restaurant in a desert sandstorm. When I first saw the headline, I misread the name 'Hifter' as 'Hitler', and when I saw the picture of the comic-opera dictator uniform it seemed that I wasn't far wrong. What's wrong with the world? Perhaps the human species, having reached the limits of its physical and intellectual evolution and feeling the effects of overpopulation and environmental degradation, is now devolving. Is our future one of jam-packed Neanderthals casually butchering each other?

“If you are with Hifter then you are under his umbrella and you can do whatever you want,” he said. “If you aren’t, you are an enemy and you may be jailed, killed or exiled.” Why does that seem so familiar?

Our world has never been a fair and democratic place but I remember when we are growing up in 70's 80's 90's at ;least there was a sentiment for yearning to democracy. In many places that yearning was fake but sentiment was there. Nowadays, there is literally no yearning for Democracy, Hope died long ago, Trump solidified the change which is no need to Post WWII values which should be the target for all of us to reach. We are back 19th century Dickensian world. Cruel, merciless, transactional, harsh and cold.

Those who say this is all America's fault are only half right. The main culprit is a French Intellectual named Bernard-Henri Lévy who convinced France's Sarkozy to take on this "project", during Obama's "Lead from Behind" period. To be sure, Lévy appeared regularly on Fox News speaking in English (probably Fox's only favored Frenchman). And there are similarities to the U.S.'s adventure in Iraq. Just as Cheney was influenced by long-time exiles like Ahmed Chalabi who swore it (Iraq) would be a cake walk, so Lévy was surrounded and encouraged by Libyan exiles. Interestingly, the Libyan "revolution" occurred not long after Italy's Berlusconi paid billions to Kadhafi in reparations for Italian Colonialism; and even now, France and Italy are on opposite sides of the war, as oil contracts hang in the balance. And speaking of opposite sides, the U.N. backed government in Tripoli seems to be the last manifestation of the Qatar-Turkey-Islamic Brotherhood alliance on the African Continent; which of course its opposite, the Saudi Arabia-U.A.E.-al-Sissi alliance would like to eliminate. What a mess.

The coalition, that we were part of taking down Qaddafi and destabilizing Libya is one of a few mistakes Obama made in the Middle East. Like W and Iraq, some countries are better off with a nutty dictator left in charge. It wasn't long after we reestablished communication ties with Libya, that we launched our cruise missiles and dropped our smart bombs in efforts to kill Qaddafi. It's another phony coalition where our technology and weaponry was the spearhead a limited military operation. I was on the same page as Obama on most topics but not with taking out Qaddafi and the horrible relationship he had with our ally Israel.

This is what American-imperial regime change looks like, an "aging" and "distracted" dictator, a gerontocrat who is seldom seen and has built "an unwieldy authoritarianism that in many ways is both more puritanical and more lawless than Libya was under its last dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi." This is Obama's legacy in Libya after an intervention to stop a genocide that wasn't happening endorsed by the UN. This should be a lessen to Americans who keep electing politicians who carry out Bush Doctrine.

Oh yes. The unanticipated consequences of purposive regime change. At least we now know that the Europeans can be just as costly-mistake prone as the Americans.

As demand for crude decreases across the globe, all that oil in the ground will become more and more worthless. What will happen to the tinpot dictators when oil finally loses its luster?

It seems there will not be any type of democratic system in Lybia. Democracy is dying everywhere. Pick your dictator. Seems that a third of the country will rule, a third will be oppressed while the remaining third keeps quiet. - No different than most places these days.

“Libya” is a modern invention. The East, with Benghazi as its capital, was/is Cyrenaica. The West, with Tripoli as its capital, was/is Tripolitania. 1400 years ago Islamic armies conquered both. But the Berber tribes of the East fought to keep their identities and culture. The West was conquered by European forces in 1100 and essentially remained in their control for 400 years. The West remained free of outside control. Then the Ottomans ruled Tripoli but the not the West until the 17th Century. Even then Cyrenaica was a separate entity. In the early 20th Century Italy conquered both states but kept them administratively separate. Tripolitania was long favored and light years ahead of Cyrenaica is development. Italy adopted the name “Libya” for its colonies. After World War 2, the UN created the Kingdom of Libya. Oil was discovered in 1959. Later Qaddafi took over exploiting the 2000 years rivalry between East and West. Why does all this matter? Because oil drives Easterner Hifter to take control from his Tripoli rivals. The Easterners believe that this is their moment to rule.

"Mr. Hifter had served as an officer in Colonel el-Qaddafi’s army, but later fled to the United States where he lived for decades as a C.I.A. client before returning to Libya during the uprising in 2011." A client is someone who pays or rewards to get what they need. If the C.I.A. operates by "taking on clients", and this sick gangster regime was the result. I'd say that the C.I.A. is either a poor judge of character or, more likely, lost control of their strongman to the U.A.E. and Russia.

They probably still have better healthcare than the U.S. lol!

The west got rid of Gadaffi and promised Libyans democracy and freedom. Here they are, 8yrs after .....no democracy, no freedom, no economy, nothing but misery and death.

Who supports them? No mention where the money comes from... Follow the money...Great reporting; nobody asks the most basic question...

When can we all agree: One: UN is useless, so it focuses on Israel. Two: US should watch Russia, Turkey and others wrestle with the Libyan quagmire. Three: Russia’s choices to ally with the likes of Assad and Hifter—along with their own actions in Ukraine and Crimea—tells us enough about who Putin is. The US should not reward him in anyway for his choices.

I spent a year in Eastern Libya in the late 70s as a expatriate with some expertise in water treatment, sewage technology and public health. It was 10 years after Qaddafi's (almost) bloodless revolution and although they regarded him with some trepidation, for most Libyans he was a huge improvement over the vile and corrupt King Idris. The Libyan people I knew were the kindest I have ever known and they loved life. I had Libyan women friends who worked with me. This was a far cry from the treatment of women in other parts of the Arab world. Qaddafi championed education for all; hospitals; roads; and the spreading of the oil wealth. If Hifter lives an hour east of Benghazi he is pretty much where I was in the Jebel Akdar (Green Mountain) region which was then the breadbasket of Libya. So many friends, so many laughs, and I dread to think of their circumstances now.

You Americans created this fiasco. You Americans can learn to live with it.

More strongmen. Sick. What is so broken in these cultures that they can't have a free and fair election and a government that protects minority rights? It's not normal. (Cue the snide anti-Americanism fueled by TDS.)

Was I the only one to laugh at the picture with the caption "A rally in support of Mr Hifter's militia was reminiscent of Qaddafi-era displays of forced enthusiasm". It looks like a scene from a Monty Python movie!

If the international community, mainly the USA, can not reign in on utter despotic and extremist Islamic regimes of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Iran, there is no chance of any decent peace in Arab world- in both Middle East and North Africa. Increasingly, Erodgan's Turkey is joining in that list. Decline of oil price and its importance in geopolitics would make the situation worse as most of these dictators rely on that money to silence frustration of local people, suppress occasional civil unrest, export Islamic terrorism, and totally neglect of all civilized discourse to get/continue in power in international diplomacy. These people never learn even the basic of truth and logic. Western democracies must gradually distance themselves from these regimes, besides stop promoting the elites from such countries in their own countries in Europe and North America. Brutal dictators like Saudi Arabia's criminal Prince MBS, UAE's sultan, Gaddfi, Saddam Hussein etc. must not be allowed to send their children to prestigious western universities like Oxford, London School of Economics, or Harvard.

His name is terrifyingly similar to another evil of history. The more I learn of him, the more his character matches too. Any Libyan able to get him out of power has a duty to do so.