Are British Troops About To Be Deployed To Libya?

A team of six RAF officers and MI6 operatives flew to an airbase near the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk to plan airtstrikes against ISIS, according to reports. Daily Mail

Daily Mail: UK pleads with Libya to accept 1,000 British troops to break ISIS foothold just 200 miles from Europe on the Mediterranean coast

* ISIS has set up North African HQ in Muammar Gaddaffi coastal hometown
* Authorities fear militants could pose as refugees boarding boats to Europe
* RAF prepares series of air strikes against the 3,000 ISIS fighters in Libya
* British troops could join 6,000 Italian-led forces training the Libyans

Up to 1,000 British troops could be sent into Libya to shore up the country's fragile military in its fight against ISIS and halt its expansion on the Mediterranean coast.

The Islamic terror group has seized control of strategically important points along the Libyan coast over the last year and its headquarters in the country - Sirte - sits just 200 miles from Europe.

Officials from British and US governments are in talks with the Libyan government about accepting extra help to add to the Italian-led 6,000 forces who are currently train the Libyans, according to reports in The Times.

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WNU Editor: The British Ministry of Defense is saying that a decision has not been made on such a deployment of British forces .... No Decision Made on Deployment of Troops to Libya Yet - UK Defenсe Ministry (Sputnik). The U.S. is also hinting that they may get involved .... U.S. will act on any threat from Libya: U.S. official (Reuters), as well as the French .... Isis in Libya is 'major risk to Europe', says French minister (The Local).

More News On Reports That British Troops May Be Deployed To Libya

1,000 British troops set to tackle Isis threat in Libya -- The Times
War on ISIS: British warplanes may soon be bombing Daesh strongholds in Libya -- IBTimes
Now Britain plans to hit ISIS in Libya as secret team flies in to draw up list of targets for bombing raids -- Daily Mail
Scramble for Africa? UK troops set for Libya as Sudan deployment begins -- RT
UK, US Looking to Send 1,000 Soldiers to Libya – Reports -- Sputnik
Western powers make plans to hit ISIS in Libya -- News 24
A new war in Libya: A fresh US campaign may start in weeks, but it will achieve nothing so long as the terror group thrives in Syria and Iraq -- Sami Moubayed, Special to Gulf News

Update: UK awaits outcome of Libya talks as it weighs military options (The Guardian)

U.K. Preparing To Send 1,000 Troops And Special Forces To Libya

No decisions have been made about any deployment of British troops to Libya, the Government said

Daily Mail: Britain prepares to send 1,000 troops and Special Forces to Libya to help stem the rise of ISIS

* Britain is preparing to deploy up to 1,000 troops and Special Forces to Libya
* Fears remain over growing expansion of ISIS presence in and around Sirte
* A small team of soldiers will be deployed to carry out 'scoping' missions
* British military personnel would contribute to a 6,000-strong Italian-led mission to train and support local forces

Britain is preparing to deploy up to 1,000 troops and Special Forces to Libya to help wipe out Islamic State jihadists.

Military officials are examining plans to send soldiers to the country to help train Libyan security forces to fight militants taking over the region.

They will follow a team of a handful of soldiers who will be deployed to the country to carry out a 'scoping' mission.

Update #1: British troops could be sent to Libya to train local forces (ITV)
Update #2: British Troops Prepare For Libya Deployment (Forces TV)
Update #3: UK 'stands ready' to help deliver stable Libya -- Press Association

WNU Editor: No final decision has been made to send UK troops .... but in a sign on how disarray Libya is right now, U.S. Special Forces who landed in Libya on Monday have been told to leave .... U.S. Special Operations Forces Ordered to Leave Libya After Apparent Mix-Up (NBC).

After Committing A Number Of Sex Crimes, Libyan Cadets Sent Home As The U.K. Scraps Their Military Training Program

Bassingbourn Barracks. Cambridge News

Libyan Troops Flown Home As Cameron Scraps UK Training Camp -- The Guardian

Camp was intended to train 2,000 soldiers to bolster security in Libya but indiscipline - including rape charges - was rife

A group of Libyan troops has been flown out of the UK as David Cameron, described the failure to maintain discipline at their Ministry of Defence training camp as “completely unacceptable” and confirmed the scheme to train them in the UK had been permanently scrapped.

Some of the recruits were allowed to take part in a hastily convened passing-out parade at Bassingbourn barracks, Cambridgeshire, where the training scheme had collapsed in disarray after a breakdown in discipline and charges for sexual assaults. An MoD spokeswoman described the graduation ceremony as small and low-key.

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Previous Post: Libyan Troops Go Wild In Britain

More News On The U.K. Scraping Their Libyan Training Program

Now 300 soldiers are guarding out 240 Libyan cadets... but Cameron insists we won't grant them asylum -- Daily Mail
More Bassingbourn Libyan cadets to leave UK -- BBC
Libyan Army Evicted After Going on Rape Jihad in England -- AINA
Libyan soldiers who went on rampage were 'beyond the pale' -- The Independent

My Comment: What is astounding is that some of these Libyan cadets are now requesting asylum .... Libyan Soldiers Claim Asylum After Training Mission Sex Attacks (Breitbart). But what is even more outrageous is that some of these cadets are blaming the British for their "bad behavior" .... Cambridge Sex Attacks: Army did not explain right from wrong, Libyan soldier claims as troops prepare to leave Bassingbourn (Cambridge News).

Libyan Troops Go Wild In Britain

Reuters/Ismail Zitouny

Libyan Troops Go Wild In England -- Nico Hines, Daily Beast

They were supposed to be the “new” Libyan Army. Instead they allegedly went crazy in the streets of Cambridge, assaulting strangers, and brutally raping one young man.

LONDON, England — The mantra that we need to train the forces of friendly governments and, for that matter, rebel groups, may have become a staple of every 21st century Western intervention in the Middle East, but sometimes things just go wrong. Really wrong.

A new generation of the Libyan army was supposed to be trained in the West as part of international efforts to rebuild the country after the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. Hand-picked recruits were invited to rural England for basic infantry and junior command training.

On Tuesday, however, the British Ministry of Defense announced that all 300 trainees would be sent home early after a string of sexual assaults were perpetrated against the residents of Cambridgeshire, culminating in the alleged gang rape of a young man.

Britain had pledged to train 2,000 Libyan recruits in total, but that commitment is now under review.

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More News On Britain Ending It's Military Training Of Libyan Soldiers At Cambridge

Libyan troops training at Bassingbourn barracks to be sent home early after Cambridge sex attacks, MoD confirms -- Cambridge
Government ends training of Libyan soldiers in UK as five face court today charged with sex attacks on men and women -- Daily Mail
UK to end training of Libyan troops early after sex attacks -- Reuters
Libyan troops based in Britain accused of committing series of sex attacks -- The Telegraph
MoD plan to train Libyan troops in Britain falls apart after spate of sexual assaults -- The Independent
Libyan soldiers sent home in disgrace after sexually assaulting men and women in Britain -- Mirror
UK ends Libyan army training over assaults -- SKY News
Libyan troops training in UK sent home in disgrace -- Channel 4 News
UK ends Libya army course after 'sex attacks' -- Al Jazeera
Libyan soldiers trained in UK sent home amid sex assault allegations -- RT
Libyan cadets implicated in British sex attack -- iol News

Did MI6 Plan To Spirit Gaddafi Out Of Libya?

Bad memories: The sky filled with billowing smoke was a constant visual during the Libyan troubles of 2011

Revealed: Secret MI6 Plan To Spirit Gaddafi Out Of Libya So He Could Live Out His Days Beyond The Reach Of International Courts -- Daily Mail

* Andrew Mitchell began to 'build contacts' with the regime
* Britain planned to offer Gaddafi an escape route to Equatorial Guinea
* But Gaddafi was killed as he was trying to flee to Niger

The British government drew up plans to whisk Colonel Gaddafi out of Libya and allow him to live out his days in another African country, it was reported last night.

The MI6 plan would have placed the dictator ‘in retirement’ and out of the reach of international law in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

It was regarded as an option for ending the devastation and loss of life during the rebel uprising and subsequent international assault by Nato forces including Britain in 2011.

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My Comment: I never believed in these reports that Gaddaffi was interested in escaping Libya. To him ... he was Libya .... and his ego would never have permitted him to leave.

Are Hundreds Of British Soldiers About To Be Deployed To Libya?

Prime Minister David Cameron, pictured at Camp Bastion, is deeply concerned that Libyan could quickly become a failed state and a haven for al-Qaeda sympathisers

Hundreds Of British Soldiers To Deploy To Libya 'Within Months' To Train Army In Their Battle With Al Qaeda Extremists -- Daily Mail

* UK soldiers would be sent ‘within months’ to help train the Libyan army
* There are fears that Libya is becoming a safe haven for Islamist fanatics
* Critics have raised concerns that Britain could suffer ‘mission creep’ and be sucked into another bloody war

Hundreds of British troops are being prepared to deploy to North Africa to tackle al Qaeda-inspired extremists.

Under secret plans being drawn up urgently by top brass, UK soldiers would be sent ‘within months’ to the region to help train the Libyan army.

Political and military chiefs have acted amid mounting fears that Libya is rapidly becoming a safe haven for Islamist fanatics after Coloner Gadaffi was toppled in October 2011.

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My Comment: If true, this should be a multinational operation .... but I guess the Brits are the only ones who are making themselves available for such a mission.

MI5 Worked Closely With Libyan intelligence After 2004

MI5 'Gave Libyan Spies Details Of Dissidents In Britain' -- The Guardian

Tripoli agents were reportedly greeted at Heathrow and given mobiles and a safe house in Knightsbridge on 2006 mission.

The UK's intelligence services have come under renewed pressure with the emergence of a fresh cache of secret documents that suggest MI5 officers forced Libyans seeking asylum in Britain to co-operate with the regime they had fled.

For the last three months, Scotland Yard detectives have been investigating MI6's alleged involvement in two so-called rendition operations that saw two Libyan dissidents kidnapped along with their families and flown to one of Muammar Gaddafi's prisons in 2004.

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My Comment: What was the former British Labor government thinking? What was exactly the quid pro quo for this cooperation. Why is this info coming out now?

A former aide to British PM Tony Blair comments on this evolving story.

MI6 - Gaddafi Intelligence Alliance Revealed

Tony Blair at a meeting with Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi at his desert base in 2007. The Telegraph

Western Allies Of MI6 'Kept In Dark’ Over Mosque Sting Plan -- The Telegraph

MI6 and Col Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan intelligence service set up a radical mosque in a Western European city in order to lure in al-Qaeda terrorists, it can be revealed.

The joint operation, which was undertaken as Britain attempted to secure a deal with Col Gaddafi to reopen diplomatic relations, shows how closely Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service was prepared to work with his regime’s spies despite widespread allegations of human rights abuses.

At the time, Britain was encouraging Col Gaddafi to give up plans for weapons of mass destruction. Four months later, the dictator and Tony Blair, then prime minister, struck the 2004 “deal in the desert” which ended Libya’s pariah status.

The cooperation extended to recruiting an agent to infiltrate an al-Qaeda terrorist cell in the Western European city, which cannot be named for security reasons.

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My Comment: Talk about making a deal with the devil.

Why Britain's New Labour May Not Relish Gaddafi's Son Telling All In A War Trial

Photo: Saif al-Islam spent a lot of time in Britain, and is pictured here at his suite at Claridges in London

How Much Damage Could Saif Still Do To Britain: Why New Labour May Not Relish Gaddafi's Son Telling All In A War Trial -- Daily Mail

A few days after the fall of Tripoli to anti-Gaddafi forces, I visited the newly reopened Libyan foreign ministry and took tea with the head of its ‘British desk’.

Like a surprising number of senior civil servants under the old regime, he had survived the transition in place.

Our talk turned to the remarkable period during Britain’s New Labour government when Gaddafi’s Libya changed almost overnight from being a pariah state, whose operatives had killed a London policewoman and sponsored IRA terrorism, to our new best friend.

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My Comment: Regular readers of this blog know that I have always been a fierce critic of the former British Labour Party's policies that resulted in the release of the Lockerbie bomber, as well as its efforts to develop close ties with the Gaddafi regime. Now that everything has fallen apart, I would love to have Saif Gaddafi in some war crimes courtroom spilling the beans .... but my guess is that he will never see the inside of a courtroom .... that he will either be permitted to escape and live in exile, or he will be killed while doing it.

So Much For Claims Of Running An ‘Ethical Foreign Policy’.

Prime Minister Tony Blair embraces Colonel Moammar Gaddafi in Sirte, Libya in 2007. Photo from The Daily Mail

So Much For Mr Blair's 'Ethical' Foreign Policy -- Daily Mail

In sickeningly jaunty language, a senior figure in MI6 oils up to the head of Colonel Gaddafi’s brutal intelligence services after handing over a rebel leader for what must have been certain torture.

‘I congratulate you on the safe arrival of Abu Abd Allah Sadiq,’ writes ‘Mark in London’ to Musa Kusa. ‘This is the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.’

With those chilling words, written in 2004, the official blows apart, once and for all, Tony Blair’s last threadbare claim that he ran an ‘ethical foreign policy’.

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My Comment: Michael Burleigh does an excellent job of shredding former PM Blair's contentions of running a "moral" foreign policy. But what galls me was the depth of former PM Blair's relations with the Gaddafi family.

How Did The SAS Operation In Libya Go All Wrong

Libya: Inside The SAS Operation That Went Wrong -- The Telegraph

As the diplomatic team in Libya were rescued by HMS Cumberland after their humiliating capture, the Ministry of Defence was left trying to work out what on earth went wrong.

When the helicopter touched down outside Benghazi in the early hours of Friday morning, the SAS troops on board knew they were entering a volatile situation.

Tasked with escorting a diplomat to meet rebel Libyan forces and assessing the humanitarian situation on the ground, they did not, however, expect a hostile reception.

With the British Government openly rejecting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and already in dialogue with opposition leaders, it should have been an uncontroversial visit.

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Update: SAS and MI6 officers released by Libya's rebel commanders -- The Guardian

My Comment: My prediction .... in future SAS and MI6 classes they are going to use this experience as a case study on how NOT TO run an operation.

If there is any consolation, at least pictures of these SAS detainees are not splashed on every newspaper and news service in the world.

Look At Who Is Training The Libyan Army

Gordon Brown and Col Gadaffi Photo: PA

SAS Trains Libyan Troops -- The Telegraph

The SAS has been ordered by the Government to train Libyan special forces despite the country having armed the IRA, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

For the past six months Britain’s elite troops have been schooling soldiers working for Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, which for years provided Republican terrorists with the Semtex explosive, machine-guns and anti-aircraft missiles used against British troops during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Sources within the SAS have expressed distaste at the agreement, which they believe could be connected to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

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My Comment: This Libyan connection to the U.K. Government is getting better everyday.