Post-Gaddafi years of terrorism: Eighth anniversary since Brotherhood militias destroyed Libya
On February 17, 2011, Libyan revolutionaries managed to
overthrow late Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, an event described as
historical, since it brought with it dreams of a new era of openness after many
years of the colonel’s rule. But what happened was the exact opposite, as
removing Gaddafi from the scene allowed for the expansion dynamic Islamist
groups, specifically the Brotherhood and terrorist elements affiliated with al-Qaeda.
This eventually led to the current complex situation in which Libyan cities are
subject to control by terrorist militias, which would not have been possible
had the Brotherhood not hijacked the 2011 revolution.
Brotherhood
On the eighth anniversary of the February 17th Revolution,
the Reference sought the opinions of Libyan politicians regarding Gaddafi’s
overthrow and how the Brotherhood and other militias rose to official Libyan
institutions.
Abdel Moneim al-Yassir, former chairman of the Libyan
National Congress’s national defense and security committee, said that the
Brotherhood had not announced a clear position from the first moment of the
demonstrations.
The Brotherhood worked on several fronts, as it usually does,
Yassir explained. While some of the group’s members pretended to be cooperating
with the former regime to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, other
elements were with the militant group, establishing local military councils in
all cities where the regime had lost control. They additionally misled the
media and created lies so that the international community would condemn the
regime, while also communicating with the governments of NATO countries to
rally against the Libyan state.
Yassir added that some Brotherhood members worked to stoke the situation and increase violence, inciting young demonstrators to storm police stations and military camps and to carry out terrorist bombings.
The Brotherhood was responsible for the size of the youths’ brutality, Yassir said, as the group, along with al-Qaeda elements, convinced the Libyan youth of their terrorist ideology.
Regarding the period after the collapse of the former Libyan regime, Yassir said that the Brotherhood managed to penetrate the Libyan state through Saif Gaddafi since 2005. After the Brotherhood’s secret terrorist organization failed to overthrow the regime in the 1990s, they adopted a peaceful truce as a trick. But when the Arab Spring came, the group found it to be a valuable opportunity to overthrow Arab regimes that were affected as a first stage, followed by the rest of the countries in the region.
The Brotherhood militias took advantage of the weakness of the national political force and the semi-absence of any authority, in addition to the face that the state’s security and military institutions were completely destroyed, according to Yassir. Under these conditions they were able to first control the transitional council, which they used to appoint a Brotherhood government in October 2011, which then funded all the militias the Brotherhood has established.
Yassir added that the support made available to the Brotherhood and its militias enabled them to supply militants with weapons and work to block any attempt aimed at rebuilding state institutions.
Libyan politician and researcher Mohammed al-Zubaidi told the Reference that the Brotherhood had its eyes on the state’s economic institutions since the outbreak of the demonstrations, including the authorities involved in oil production and the Libyan Central Bank, seeking to get its hands on the state funds.
Zubaidi said that the Brotherhood was seduced by the weakness of the state institutions and the large amount of money from selling oil. He accused the international terrorist organization of dealing with Libya as a rich source of funding with no oversight.
Meanwhile, the Libyan Central Bank is under the control of a Brotherhood administration, Zubaidi said, stressing that many documents have appeared accusing the central bank’s administration of covering up the disappearance of funds that were in its possession.
Zubaidi held the Brotherhood responsible for what happened to Gaddafi, pointing out that the group had mobilized the youth and convinced them that anything was permitted to them as "revolutionaries".
He pointed out that the group had been secretly planning to overthrow the regime until it had the conditions to rise to power.
