Libya's Liberation Front Organizing in the Sahel
by FRANKLIN LAMB
On the edge of the Sahel, Niger
"Sahel" in Arabic means "coast" or
"shoreline." Unless one was present 5000 years ago when, according to anthropologists,
our planets first cultivation of crops began in this then plush, but now
semiarid region where temperatures reach 125 degrees F, and only camels and an
assortment of creatures can sniff out water sources, it seems an odd
geographical name place for this up 450 miles wide swatch of baked sand that
runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
Yet, when standing along its edge, the Sahel does have the appearance of a sort of dividing shoreline between the endless sands of the Sahara and the Savanna grasses to the south. Parts of Mali, Algeria, Niger, Chad, and Sudan, all along the Libyan border fall within this supposed no man's land.
Today the Sahel is providing
protection, weapons gathering and storage facilities, sites for training camps,
and hideouts as well as a generally formidable base for those working to
organize the growing Libyan Liberation Front (LLF). The aim of the LLF is to
liberate Libya from what it considers NATO installed colonial puppets. The
Sahel region is only one of multiple locations which are becoming active as the
Libyan counter revolution, led by members of the Gadahfi and Wafalla, make
preparations for the next phase of resistance.
When I entered an office conference room in Niger recently to meet with some recent evacuees from Libya who I was advised were preparing to launch a "people's struggle employing the Maoist tactic of 1000 cuts "against the current group claiming to represent Libya," two facts struck me.
One was how many were present and did not appear to be scruffy, intensely zealous or desperate but who were obviously rested, calm, organized and methodical in their demeanor.
My colleague, a member of the Gadhafi tribe from Sirte explained "More than 800 organizers have arrived from Libya just to Niger and more come every day". An officer in uniform added, "It is not like your western media presents the situation, of desperate Gadhafi loyalists frantically handing out bundles of cash and gold bars to buy their safety from the NATO death squads now swarming around the northern areas of our motherland. Our brothers have controlled the borderless routes in this region for thousands of years and they know how not to be detected even by NATO satellites and drones."
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