Thursday, March 17, 2016

As Libya Descends Into Chaos, The Islamic State Expands

Spiegel Online

Christoph Reuter, Spiegel Online: The Next Disaster: Islamic State Expands as Libya Descends into Chaos

With two separate governments waging war against each other, Libya is crumbling. Islamic State is taking advantage of the turmoil to put down roots in the country. The US is weighing intervention.

The brass band starts playing. The musicians march along the Corniche, their blue uniforms starched and instruments polished and shining. The foreign minister has arranged for the celebration of several grand openings. Shops and cafés have opened their doors and red-black-green flags have been strung up all over, marking the fifth anniversary of the revolution.

Nothing in the capital city of Tripoli hints that Libya is in the throes of a civil war.
Still, an advance car equipped with a signal jammer that is supposed to block the detonation of any remote controlled explosives drives ahead of the foreign minister's motorcade. And there are only a few consuls from neighboring countries walking along with the parade. After a brief address, the foreign minister plants an olive tree and then inaugurates a new low-rise government building. As he does so, secret service operatives dressed in civilian clothing go after a cameraman from the US TV station HBO. His offense is having filmed one of their white automobiles parked on the side of the road, though around three-quarters of all cars in Libya are white. They jerk the camera away from him amid the loud protestations of his crew. The band continues playing and then cake is served.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The time to act is now .... but Europe is in chaos because of the migrant crisis, and President Obama is not willing to commit military resources to the fight. My prediction .... the Libyan crisis is going to be handed to the next U.S. President.

2 comments:

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James said...

Libya "descends into chaos". Must have been a very short fall. Christoph Reuter, I wonder how he got into journalism.