Libya: WikiLeaks Cables Warn Of Extremist Beliefs
By Heidi Blake
09 March, 2011
The Telegraph
Leaked diplomatic cables obtained by the WikiLeaks website and passed to The Daily Telegraph disclose fears that eastern Libya is being overrun by extremists intent on overthrowing Colonel Gaddafi's regime
Former jihadi fighters who underwent "religious and ideological training" in Afghanistan, Lebanon and the West Bank in the 1980s have returned to eastern towns in Libya such as Benghazi and Derna to propagate their Islamist beliefs, the cables warn.
Derna has become a particular stronghold for the former fighters and conservative imams who have shut down "un-Islamic" social and cultural organisations such as sports leagues, theatres and youth clubs, the cables report.
Local sources blame deliberate government efforts to "keep the east poor" for growing extremism in towns such as Derna.
One cable sent to Washington in February 2008 reports a conversation with a local businessman who described the increasingly incendiary rhetoric at backstreet mosques in Derna, where coded talk of "martyrdom operations" had become commonplace.
The cable states: "By contrast with mosques in Tripoli and elsewhere in the country, where references to jihad are extremely rare, in Benghazi and Derna they are fairly frequent subjects."
It continues: "Citing conversations with relatives, xxxxxxxxxxxx said the unemployed, disfranchised young men of eastern Libya 'have nothing to lose' and are therefore 'willing to sacrifice themselves' for something greater than themselves by engaging in extremism in the name of religion.
"'Their lives mean nothing and they know it, so they seek to give meaning to their existence through their deaths'."
Another confidential cable to Washington from the US embassy in Tripoli in June 2008 described Derna as a "wellspring" of insurgent fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq.
The cable quoted a resident as saying that while "not everyone likes the bearded ones" (a reference to conservative imams), "it's jihad – it's our duty, and you're talking about people who don't have much else to be proud of".
The cable continues: "Referring to actor Bruce Willis' character in the action picture "Die Hard", who stubbornly refused to die quietly, he said many young men in Derna viewed resistance against Qadhafi's regime and against coalition forces in Iraq as an important last act of defiance."
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