Libya : A no lie zone

[Magda Hassan]

Several European airlines have already suspended travel to Libya.

[David Guyatt]

A bit more detail in the below.

Libyan prime minister kidnappedAli Zeidan taken from hotel in Tripoli by gunmen and driven away to an undisclosed location, government confirms

Staff and agencies
theguardian.com, Thursday 10 October 2013 07.20 BST


Armed men have kidnapped the Libyan prime minister, Ali Zeidan, from the hotel in Tripoli where he lives.
"The head of the transitional government, Ali Zeidan, was taken to an unknown destination for unknown reasons," the Libyan government said on its website, attributing the kidnapping to a group of men believed to be former rebels.
The abduction early Thursday comes amid anger among Libya's powerful Islamic militant groups over the US special forces raid on Saturday that seized a Libyan al-Qaida suspect known as Abu Anas al-Libi. Several groups accused the government of colluding in or allowing the raid, though the government denied having any prior knowledge of the operation.
Hours before the abduction Zeidan had met with al-Libi's family, the Associated Press said.
Abu Dhabi-based Sky News Arabia quoted Libyan security sources as saying that Zeidan was seized from the hotel and taken to an unknown destination. Dubai-based al-Arabiya carried a similar report.
According to CNN, armed rebels escorted Zeidan from the Corinthian Hotel in Tripol and took him away in a car. The news service quoted a hotel clerk as saying there was no gunfire and the gunmen "caused no trouble".
Zeidan's office initially denied the abduction on Facebook but later stated the denial was made at the order of the kidnappers.
The Libyan cabinet held an emergency meeting on Thursday morning, headed by Zidan's deputy, Abdel-Salam al-Qadi.
Reflecting the divided and chaotic state of Libya's government, Zidan's seizure was depicted by different sources as either an "arrest" or an abduction
Abdel-Moneim al-Hour, an official with the country's Anti-Crime Committee, told the Associated Press that Zidan had been arrested on accusations of harming state security and corruption. But the public prosecutor's office said it had issued no warrant for Zidan's arrest.
A government official said two guards abducted with Zidan were beaten but later released.
US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, travelling in Brunei with the secretary of state, John Kerry, said: "We are looking into these reports and we are in close touch with senior US and Libyan officials on the ground."

[Magda Hassan]

Plenty of very weird things happening just now in Libya.....How did he come to have German citizenship?! Was he living there during the Qaddafi regime?

I'd say, but don't know for sure, that he was living there during Gaddafi's time and got it then. I'm looking forward to see what Merkel says about this. Germany pretty well stayed out of the Libyan invasion.

[Magda Hassan]

PM held at Interior Ministry's anti-crime department, says official Haaretz

[Peter Lemkin]

(Reuters) - Gunmen from a former rebel faction kidnapped Libya's prime minister on Thursday in reprisal for the government's role in the U.S. capture of a top al Qaeda suspect, shattering a fragile peace.
The militia, which had been hired by the government to provide security in Tripoli, said it "arrested" Ali Zeidan after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed Libya's role in the weekend capture in the city of Abu Anas al-Liby.
"His arrest comes after ... (Kerry) said the Libyan government was aware of the operation," a spokesman for the group, known as the Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries, told Reuters.
Two years after a revolution toppled Col. Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is in turmoil, with its vulnerable central government and nascent armed forces struggling to contain rival tribal militias and Islamist militants who control parts of the country.
The kidnapping raises the stakes in the unruly OPEC nation, where the regional factions are also seeking control over its oil wealth, which provides Libya with the vast bulk of government revenues.
Brent oil prices rose on the news.
"Everybody is watching this... We still haven't seen any disruption to supply from Libya, so we don't expect a spike in prices," said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity sales manager at NewedgeJapan.
A mix of striking workers, militias and political activists have blocked Libya's oilfields and ports for more than two months resulting, according to Oil Minister Abdelbari Arusi, in over $5 billion of lost revenues.
He said on October 2 that oil exports could return to full capacity in days once the strikes ended.
UNKNOWN LOCATION
It was unclear where Zeidan was being held, but the Libyan government in a statement confirmed the premier was taken at dawn to "an unknown place for unknown reasons."
U.S. special forces on Saturday seized Nazih al-Ragye, known by his alias Abu Anas al-Liby - a Libyan suspected in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Liby is being held on a Navy ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
The U.S. State Department was looking into the reports of Zeidan's kidnapping and was "in close touch with senior U.S. and Libyan officials on the ground," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Brunei, where Kerry is on an official visit.
The Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries had been affiliated with the Interior Ministry which assigned them to provide security in the capital as part of a program to reintegrate former fighters.
Guards at the Hotel said no shots fired or clashes during the incident.
Al-Arabiya television channel quoted Libya's justice minister as saying that Zeidan had been "kidnapped" and showed what it said were video stills of Zeidan frowning and wearing a grey shirt undone at the collar surrounded by several men in civilian clothes pressing closely around him.
Zeidan said on Tuesday Libyans accused of crimes should be tried at home, but that the raid to capture Liby would not harm U.S. ties - trying preserve ties with a major ally without provoking a backlash from Islamist militants.
But the raid angered militant groups, including one blamed for the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in 2012, who called for revenge attacks on strategic targets including gas export pipelines, planes and ships, as well as for the kidnappings of Americans in the capital.
(Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by John Stonestreet)

[Magda Hassan]

According to Hashim Bishir on Libya Al-Ahrar "Ali Zidna has been released"

[Peter Lemkin]

According to Hashim Bishir on Libya Al-Ahrar "Ali Zidna has been released"

A live broadcast moments ago by some high level Libyan minister didn't indicate anything of the kind. They just denied that the 'arrest' was a the request of the Ministry of Justice, as some reports claim is reported by the 'arresters/kidnappers'. Confusion obviously reigns, but Libya post NATO destabalization mixed in with some indigenous efforts to remove Qadaffi, have left it fractured, split into various factions that don't work together nor coordinate, armed rebel gangs and foreign and domestic intel networks doing what they or their sponsors please they do. What a mess. I'm interested to see what happens to Saif and if he is tried and if so, where. He can call Blair as a character witness! ::bowtie::

[Magda Hassan]

A western source in Libya of journalist Yannis Koutsomitis is saying Libya is forming a new government, no idea of compassion or if this amounts to coup. Apparently Zeidan was unlikely to win the upcoming election in any case.

[Peter Lemkin]

A western source in Libya of journalist Yannis Koutsomitis is saying Libya is forming a new government, no idea of compassion or if this amounts to coup. Apparently Zeidan was unlikely to win the upcoming election in any case.

Apparently, now he has been confirmed as released and [surprisingly] reported as 'in his office' rather than having a bath and stiff drink at home....and arranging better body-guard protection.

[Magda Hassan]

Libyan PM Ali Zeidan says his kidnap was coup attempt
Zeidan says armed militias that still hold sway across Libya will not be able to continue to operate with impunity


Chris Stephen in Tripoli
theguardian.com, Saturday 12 October 2013 05.58 AEST




Ali Zeidan, Libya's prime minister, in Tripoli. Photograph: Ismail Zitouny/Reuters
Libya's prime minister has denounced his kidnapping this week as an attempted coup and warned that some of the country's many armed militias want to turn it into "another Afghanistan or Somalia".


In his most impassioned speech since coming to power in 2012, Ali Zeidan said a large force of gunmen had seized him from his city centre hotel room at dawn on Thursday: "One hundred vehicles came with heavy and medium weapons," he said. "This is a coup against legitimacy."


Zeidan demanded an explanation from the group which snatched him. He said his captors identified themselves as from the "revolutionaries' operation room," the headquarters of a group of former rebel militias called the Libya Shield who were drafted into Tripoli during the summer by the congress leader, Nuri Abu Sahmain.


Giving his first account of his ordeal, which ended when local militias stormed the Tripoli police station where he was being held on Thursday afternoon, he said: "I faced men who claimed to be revolutionaries, they demanded things, they came with their weapons, with their bombs, they came with different threatening methods but I refused to do anything."


Zeidan said his kidnappers had attacked and abused diplomats living in the Corinthian hotel while searching for him. "They entered international and diplomatic missions they terrified employees got them down on their knees," he said.


The German and Qatari embassies are based in the hotel, along with the European Union support mission.


Zeidan warned the armed militias which still hold sway across Libya and which have stubbornly resisted attempts to disarm that they would not be able to continue to operate with impunity. "In the coming days we are going to concentrate on security," said Zeidan. "If anyone gets killed [in security operations], I ask his family not to come for revenge but to ask why he was killed."


Zeidan's speech puts the prime minister, a former human rights lawyer once exiled in Switzerland, on a collision course with powerful militia formations based in Tripoli, in a trial of strength he characterised as a battle for democracy.


"The kidnappers were former revolutionaries who refused to follow the law. They don't want democracy to be established. If they cannot take down the government with votes they want to take it down with weapons."


Zeidan announced criminal investigations against militia leaders, and demanded the armed factions surrender those responsible for his attempted kidnapping: "Everyone thought when I was talking with a soft tone, everyone thought Zeidan was afraid or Zeidan is weak. That is not so."


Zeidan accused a minority in the national congress of seeking to undermine him. The prime minister did not name his opponents, but he has made no secret of his hostility to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose Justice and Construction party is the second largest in the congress. Last month he returned from meeting Egypt's new military rulers to declare: "The Muslim Brotherhood has been trying to undermine me for months."


Mohammed Sawan, JCP leader, told the Guardian last month that his party had been trying to sack Zeidan using constitutional methods but had failed to find a suitable alternative prime minister.


Evidence is mounting that a number of former rebel units grouped together for the kidnapping. Hours after Zeidan was captured, the state news service LANA announced he had been arrested and would face criminal charges. The attorney general denied issuing an arrest warrant, and has begun investigating paramilitary units in eastern Tripoli involved in the abduction.


"Its a conspiracy, its clearly a conspiracy," said Michel Cousins editor of the English language Libya Herald. He said the coup failed because of an unexpectedly strong show of support for a prime minister who was until this week regarded as weak and ineffectual. "The people who took him thought they would be heroes [but] all the government stayed by Zeidan. Lots of people who don't like Zeidan were appalled by this."


Zeidan said he was trying to rebuild the army, but that the British government was demanding £3m to pay for training of army units in the UK, and that Libya's congress had refused to authorise the money.


His address ended a dramatic week of violence and tension following the seizure on Sunday by US Delta Force commandos of al-Qaida suspect Anas al-Liby. Zeidan condemned the raid, saying Libyan forces should have detained Liby. "Everyone knows about America's intelligence capacity, everyone knows that Libya is not able to face America, but we condemn this kidnaping of a Libyan citizen. The arrest of Libyan citizen needs to be dealt with by Libya."


As he spoke, opposition protestors gathered outside, with army units arriving in pickup trucks mounting anti-aircraft guns, shouting at journalists and bystanders to leave as they expected armed clashes. Meanwhile al-Qaida supporters in Benghazi, Libya's second city, called for attacks on foreigners in reprisal for the US raid. Protesters waved placards bearing the face of Liby, who is now being held on a US navy ship and has been accused of involvement in the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998. Other mass-produced placards said: "Death to traitors and foreigners."