A recent revelation, albeit quietly by choice, has been trickling under the popular western-dominated news radar. This under-reported, to the point of outright censored, exposé, has to do with Israel secretly providing weapons and military assistance to Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), one of the factions in the so-called Libyan Civil War.
Libya has remained in a state of war for over six years - since 2011, when a western-concocted and directed uprising led to the demise of the country’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The strongest faction in war-torn and chaos-ridden Libya is the eastern-based Tobruk-led Government, which is affiliated with LNA, who’s commander is Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, an old adversary of Gaddafi, who lived in the United States for several decades and became a U.S. citizen before returning to Libya in 2011.
In February of 2011 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1970, which prohibits the export of war materiel to Libya. Only two months ago, in June 2017, the United Nations accused Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of violating the embargo by providing secret military assistance and weapons to Haftar and the LNA:
The panel of experts which reports on violations of U.N. sanctions across Libya said Haftar's forces had received aircraft as well as military vehicles from the United Arab Emirates, and had built up an air base at Al Khadim. The annual U.N. report provides rare detail on the level of outside intervention in Libya, where foreign backing for rival armed camps is widely seen as having exacerbated conflict.
"The United Arab Emirates have been providing both material support and direct support to the LNA, which have significantly increased the air support available to the LNA," it said. The U.N. report included satellite imagery of Al Khadim air base, about 105 km (65 miles) east of Benghazi, between July 2014 and March 2017, showing a gradual build-up of infrastructure and aircraft, including drones "most probably" operated by the UAE.
The panel said it had confirmed a delivery of 93 armored personnel carriers and 549 armored and non-armored vehicles to the LNA in the eastern city of Tobruk in April 2016. The personnel carriers likely included Panther T6 and Tygra models, both made by companies based in the UAE, the report said, and were delivered by ship from Saudi Arabia.
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Yet, despite recent reports establishing Israel as a supplier of war materiel and air power support to LNA-Haftar, there has not been a peep from either the United Nations or the Western media outlets. Here are a few excerpts from this highly significant revelation:
Khalifa Haftar, the military commander who controls the east of the Libya, has reportedly been receiving Israeli military aid following meetings with Israeli intelligence that were allegedly mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
A high-ranking military source in Haftar's forces told The New Arab on Monday that the controversial UAE-backed military strongman has held secret meetings with the Israeli agents over the past two years. "Coordination between Haftar and Israel has been ongoing, he held talks with Mossad agents in Jordan in 2015 and 2016," the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety, said.
"The meetings, which appear to have been mediated by the UAE, were held in strict secrecy," he said, adding that he has seen documents that reveal Haftar met with Israeli intelligence agents going by the names Ackerman and Mizrachi. The source said that Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army [LNA] has been provided with Israeli military aid in the form of sniper rifles and night vision equipment.
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The intimate partnership and military-intelligence coalition between Haftar and Israel are not as secret as the media outlets recently reporting on it claim. For instance, only a month ago, on July 5, 2017, it was openly reported that one of Haftar’s ministers and close associates, Omar Al-Gawairi, had met with Israeli officials in Greece. However, the word ‘secret’ was inserted in the title- “Libyan minister met with Israeli officials in ‘secret’ meeting”:
An east Libyan minister has been pictured meeting with two prominent Israelis over the weekend. The Minister of Media, Culture and Antiquities for the General National Congress in the eastern Beida authority, Omar Al-Gawairi, who is linked with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, “secretly” attended a conference on the right of return for Libyan Jews in Rhodes, Greece, according to the New Arab.
Held at the Rhodos Palace Hotel between 29 June and 2 July, the conference focused on the 50th anniversary of the “last exodus of Jews from Libya” after the 1967 war with Israel.
In the picture, Gawairi is seen standing next to Yehiel Bar, the deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset, as well as Israel’s Minister of Communications, Ayoub Kara.
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Not only that, Haftar has been linked with Israelis before. He previously paid $6 million to use the services of the Canadian lobbying firm, Dickens and Madson, headed by Ari Ben-Menashe, who is an ex-junior officer in the Israeli intelligence:
The US Department of Justice had published the contract of six Million US dollars that was signed last year between the Israeli Businessman, Ari Ben-Menashe, and the Libyan side that was represented the Head of the House of Representatives (HoR), Ageela Saleh, the commander of the HoR army, General Khalifa Haftar, Abdul-Razek Al-Nadhouri, and Murad Al-Sharif.
According to the contract, which was published by the US Department of Justice, the Libyan side had hired Ben Menashe’s firm (Dickens & Madson) to get them the support of the US, the EU, Russia, and the UN for the army of the HoR under the leadership of Haftar to succeed in his war in Benghazi.
Montreal-based Dickens and Madson is run by notorious lobbyist Ari Ben-Menashe, a former employee of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate. It worth mentioning that Canada-based Dickens & Madson is under the management of Ben-Menashe, who is an Iranian-borne Israeli Businessman. He was previously an employee of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate from 1977 to 1987 and an arms dealer. He now lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and runs an international commodity exporting firm, Traeger Resources and Logistics Inc, according to online Wikipedia.
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Just a few cursory glances through various Israeli defense related news and analyses sites makes Israel’s view and support of Haftar overtly clear. Last February Israel Defense published an analysis titled The Global Strategy of General Khalifa Haftar. It would be impossible to miss the value Israel placed on Haftar, turning him from a dictator CIA-Puppet in Libya to the only hope and salvation against Islamic factions and movements threatening Israel’s interests in the region. In fact, the analysis assumes an accusatory and scolding tone towards the United States’ recent semi-abandonment of Haftar:
However, in the naive mentality of the major international decision-makers, only Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army was the true enemy of national reconciliation. The former US Secretary of State, John Kerry, referred precisely to the former Gaddafi’s protégé when he said that the "battles of individuals, having only their own interest in mind, jeopardize the security of Libya."
We know for a fact that, for some strange alchemy, the former Secretary of State stated the exact opposite of the truth, with haughtiness and self-conceit. Hence, we can infer that Haftar’s forces were inevitable to eliminate the jihadist militants in the Sirte region, which, however, is a fact.
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Moreover, at the meeting of the African Union held in Brazzaville on 30 January last, Al-Serraj said he wanted to create an "anti-terrorist" unit and, to this end, he could meet General Haftar.
The agreement that al-Serraj has in mind is certainly the appointment of Haftar as Commander-in-Chief of the joint Libyan Armed Forces but above all the preservation of his Tripoli government and his current job.
At least by capitalizing on his international connections and support, namely the "disarmed prophets" of the West.
The role played by Israel in Libya, including its military support of another dictator initially supported and installed by the US-CIA, despite direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1970, does not seem so secret or covert. However, the blanket blackout by the Western media is eerie considering how the same media has been making one sensational accusatory splash after another against Russia for trying to insert its own influence in Libya. Just check out the title alone in an article published by Russia-Gate Junk News Player Huffington Post: “Russia Is Emboldening A Libyan Strongman Who Could Dictate The Future Of The Country!” And it gets better (sarcasm intended) with the subtitle for the same article: “Khalifa Haftar could be the next Assad if the U.S. and EU don’t act fast!” Let’s check out a few more excerpts:
Six years after the revolution that drove former dictator Muammar Gaddafi from power, Libya remains deeply divided. Now, Russia is fueling another military strongman who threatens to make the situation far worse for Western powers and Libyans in what would be a major blow to the democratic hopes that sparked the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. How the international community responds ― especially on the heels of a U.S. strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government ― could be critical for the future of Libya and the surrounding region.
Amidst this chaos, Khalifa Haftar, a U.S. citizen and ex-Libyan military officer who once served and later turned on Gaddafi, has emerged as a key influencer in the country. If he plays his cards right, Haftar may have the fate of a nation in his hands.
As early as 2014, he called for the overthrow of the Libyan General National Congress and for the arrest of all the elected officials. And in a tactic used worldwide to delegitimize political opposition, he labeled his internal opponents “terrorists,” and even launched a military assault on the Libyan parliament building in Tripoli in an attempt to topple the elected government there.
Running out of options, Haftar has now turned to the Russians for help fighting off Islamists preventing him from solidifying control. Recent reports indicate that Russia, which benefitted from having an authoritarian leader like Gaddafi in Libya, may be providing Haftar with military assistance in the form of both arms and surveillance equipment. And there are already reports of Russian forces massing near or in Libya, with Russian denials and state media accusing the West of exaggerating the Russian influence.
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Many other similar, almost identical, headlines are being used by the Russia-Gate-Creating-Junk-Mainstream sites to vilify Russians for possibly meddling in Libya and possibly weaponizing Haftar’s military (or is it actually paramilitary) unit in Libya in violation of the ever-hypocritical-toothless UN resolution-to sample a few look at this, this, and this.
Then, there is this complete silence and blanket censorship on the Israel-Haftar coalition, secret arms transfer from Israel to Haftar, and even a six-million-dollar lobbying arrangement between Haftar and Israel …
Where were these outlets when Haftar was transported from the US to Libya by his CIA handlers in 2011, after more than two-decades-long grooming in Langley Virginia? You see, up until 2014, when the supposed fallout between US-Haftar forces occurred, you only had sites like this trying to expose documented factual background on Haftar. And then came the 2014 fallout, and once given the script by their handlers you had the mainstream scream ‘Bloody CIA-Man Haftar (See here, here and here).
Considering Israel’s track record in the region, from playing both sides to far more nefarious false-flag creation, shouldn’t the international community and the media be paying more attention to the not-so-secret Israeli double-game in and weaponization of Libya than to some manufactured Russia-Gate connection with a far-fetched spillover in Libya?
The manner in which Israel’s Mossad tricked the United States into attacking Libya was described in detail by former Mossad case officer Victor Ostrovsky in “The Other Side of Deception,” the second of two revealing books he wrote after he left Israel’s foreign intelligence service. The story began in February 1986 when Israel sent a team of navy commandos in miniature submarines into Tripoli to land and install a “Trojan,” a 2-meter-long communications device, on the top floor of a five-storey apartment building. The device, only about 20 centimeters in diameter, was capable of receiving messages broadcast by Mossad’s LAP (LohAma Psicologit psychological warfare or disinformation section) on one frequency and automatically relaying the broadcasts on a different frequency used by the Libyan government.
The commandos activated the Trojan and left it in the care of a lone Mossad agent in Tripoli who had leased the apartment and who had met them at the beach in a rented van. “By the end of March, the Americans were already intercepting messages broadcast by the Trojan,” Ostrovsky writes. “Using the Trojan, the Mossad tried to make it appear that a long series of terrorist orders were being transmitted to various Libyan embassies around the world.” As the Mossad had hoped, the transmissions were deciphered by the Americans and construed as ample proof that the Libyans were active sponsors of terrorism. What’s more, the Americans pointed out, Mossad reports confirmed it.
“The French and the Spanish, though, were not buying into the new stream of information. To them it seemed suspicious that suddenly, out of the blue, the Libyans, who had been extremely careful in the past, would start advertising their future actions. The French and the Spanish were right. The information was bogus,” he continues.
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“Operation Trojan was one of the Mossad’s greatest successes,” Ostrovsky writes. “It brought about the air strike on Libya that President Reagan had promised.” He doesn’t mention, however, the other apparent direct result of the Mossad “success:” The bombing of PanAm Flight 103.
Despite the refusal by mainstream American media to revisit the well-documented facts presented above, they contain some obvious political lessons for the United States. For example, the U.S. government might decide to continue its sanctions on Libya in retaliation for the deaths of the 270 victims of the PanAm bombing, regardless of the verdict of the Scottish judges. In that case, however, true justice would also require the imposition of similar U.S. sanctions against Israel for instigating the U.S. bombing of Tripoli, in retaliation for the bombing of La Belle Discotheque, a crime which the Israelis knew from the beginning the Libyans had not committed.
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Sibel Edmonds is editor and publisher of Newsbud, founder and president of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), and author of the acclaimed books Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story, and The Lone Gladio, a Political Spy Thriller. She is the recipient of the 2006 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award. Ms. Edmonds is a certified linguist, fluent in four languages, and has an MA in public policy from George Mason University and a BA in criminal justice and psychology from George Washington University.