Sunday, March 6, 2016

Is U.S. Intelligence On Islamic State Strength In Libya Faulty?

ISIL loyalists at the training at a camp in Libya which was struck by the Americans in February 2016 Photo: SITE

The Telegraph: US planning to strike Isil in Libya based on 'faulty intelligence'

Experts and officials believe that America's assessment of Isil's strength in Libya is overblown.

The United States is basing plans for military intervention in Libya on faulty intelligence, Western officials and country experts have told the Sunday Telegraph.

American intelligence agencies assess that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has doubled in size in Libya, with between 5,000 and 6,500 fighters in the country.

Privately, however, some US officials say they believe these estimates to be overblown. Independent experts have come to the same conclusion.

"The estimates of the number of jihadists is grossly exaggerated,” said Karim Mezran, a Libya expert with the Atlantic Council in Washington.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: It would not be the first time that U.S. intelligence was wrong.

2 comments:

B.Posterj said...

You are so right. US intellegence has been wrong so many times its hard to know whree to begin. Unfortunately the "experts" are wrong. Far from being overblown the threat posed by ISIS is WAY understated. To tell the American people the truth about threat, would bring the American and perhaps much of the world economy to a grinding halt.

If the gravity of the threat were properly understood, perhaps an agreement witb Russia to confront ISIS might occurr. Of course Iran, Russia's ally seems to be a greater long range threat. As long as Iran has Russia as an ally, there's nothing we can do. If we were to help Russia with regards to Ukraine and Eastern Europe, perhaps they'd agree to help us with Iran. In any event, if Russian leadership were to explain to them in word and deed tnat "death to America" is wholly unacceptable and eufh approaches will lead to extreme prejudice in terms of a Russian military response against them perhaps we could make positive ptogress.

Declaring the threat of ISIS as overblown is false. Perhaps someone would do so for short term political gain and to gain favor with an American public who hates thenselves and their country so much that they they will blindly embrace any barrative that supports such a view.

If only America would flog itself enough and make enough concessions, all threats would go away, if only. America has been trying this and it hasn't worked which means the nation has bad to use the hated military.

One definition of insanity is continuing to use the same failed strategies over and over again. By this definition Ametican leaders would seem to be insane.






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phill said...

Well it only took 800 fighters to take Mosul.