GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: DEBKAfile: US military advisers in Cyrenaica. Qaddafi's loses his air force

 

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: DEBKAfile

25February2011 1:15pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Hundreds of US, British and French military advisers have arrived in Cyrenaica, Libya's eastern breakaway province, DEBKAfile's military sources report exclusively.

This is the first time America and Europe have intervened militarily in any of the popular upheavals rolling through the Middle East since Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution in early January.  The advisers, including intelligence officers, were dropped from warships and missile boats at the coastal towns of Benghazi and Tobruk Thursday Feb. 24, for a threefold mission:

1. To help the revolutionary committees controlling eastern Libyan establish government frameworks for supplying two million inhabitants with basic services and commodities;
2. To organize them into paramilitary units, teach them how to use the weapons they captured from Libyan army facilities, help them restore law and order on the streets and train them to fight Muammar Qaddafi's combat units coming to retake Cyrenaica.
3. The prepare infrastructure for the intake of additional foreign troops. Egyptian units are among those under consideration.

Qaddafi was shaken up badly Friday, Feb. 25, when many of his air force commanders decided to no longer obey his orders or those of his commanders, DEBKAfile's exclusive military sources report. 

This loss deprived him at one stroke of one of the key pillars sustaining his fight for survival against the opposition since Sunday, Feb. 20. It means he is short of an essential resource for recapturing the eastern half of the country where half of Libya's oil wealth and its main oil export terminals are situated.

Friday, NATO Council and the UN Security Council meet in separate emergency sessions to consider ways to halt the bloodletting in Libya and punish its ruler Qaddafi for his violent crackdown of protesters. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Qaddafi blames protests on drug-laced milk

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Arab News

24February2011 5:00pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: BENGHAZI, Libya: Forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi launched a fierce counter-attack on Thursday, fighting gun battles with rebels who have threatened the Libyan leader by seizing important towns close to the capital.

The opposition were already in control of major centers in the east, including the regional capital Benghazi, and reports that the towns of Misrata and Zuara in the west had also fallen brought the tide of rebellion closer to Qaddafi’s power base.

Gun battles in Zawiyah, an oil terminal 0 km (30 miles) from the capital, left 10 people dead, a Libyan newspaper said.

France’s top human rights official said up to 2,000 people might have died so far in the uprising.

In a rambling appeal for calm, Qaddafi blamed the revolt on Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and said the protesters were fueled by milk and Nescafe spiked with hallucinogenic drugs,

Qaddafi, who just two days ago vowed in a televised address to crush the revolt and fight to the last, showed none of the fist-thumping rage of that speech.

This time, he spoke to state television by telephone without appearing in person, and his tone seemed more conciliatory.

“Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe,” Qaddafi said. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Civil War in Libya: Jets bomb civilians. Pilots, high officials flee to Malta

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: DEBKAfile

21February2011 3:00pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Muammar Qaddafi's 42-year rule of Libya appeared to have begun disintegrating Monday, Feb. 21, as civil war swept the country with no signs of him quitting. Instead, he ordered the army to redouble its brutal assaults on the opposition. The Air Force began bombing crowds at random while army tanks and armored vehicles blasted them with live ammunition – not just in the insurgent eastern provinces of Cyrenaica, but the capital of Tripoli and its environs too.

There, helicopter gunships aimed heavy machine fire into the main market, the Souk al Jumma, while the first tribal militias loyal to Qaddafi to arrive in the capital from the Sahara fought alongside the army. Casualties soared to an estimated 600, with 250 in Tripoli alone as Qaddafi rallied for a bloody civil war that could linger for years.

High officials of his regime and businessmen began fleeing Tripoli aboard Libyan Air Force fighter jets and helicopters which landed Monday at Malta's MIA international airport.  Government officials in Valetta said the pilots had defected rather than bomb demonstrators, while all the Libyan arrivals asked for political asylum and more flights were on the way.  

The United States and European Union have concentrated airplanes and ferries on the island ready to evacuate the thousands of their citizens employed in Libya, most in the oil and gas fields, starting Monday night, while the price of crude oil shot up 5 percent.

The 48 hours during which Qaddafi dropped out of sight from Saturday were spent, DEBKAfile's sources report, in mustering embers of loyal Libyan tribes to fight along the remnants of the army for his reinstatement. There are no signs he has any intention of following in the footsteps of the Tunisians and Egyptian presidents and step down. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Saudis ready to aid Bahraini ruler. First riots in Libya after Yemen, Jordan

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: DEBKAfile

16February2011 7:52amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Despite security police efforts to dislodge them, anti-government protesters continued to occupy the main square of Manama, Bahrain Tuesday night, Feb. 15, even after its ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa made a rare television appearance to regret the two deaths and promised a full investigation.

Wednesday, first protests were reported in Libya, starting in Benghazi, where eyewitnesses report
police responded to stone-throwers with water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets.

In Yemen, security forces stayed on alert after five days of disturbances by protesters demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh's removal from power although he promised not to run again when his term ends in 2013. Wednesday saw, security forces in Jordan and the army in Syria on high alert.

Saudi Arabia is especially alarmed by the swelling protest in its small but strategic neighbor, Bahrain, site of US Fifth Fleet headquarters for the Gulf region. For the first time, Sunni Muslims joined the majority Shiite protest against the rule of the Al Khalifas who have been in power since 1971.

DEBKAfile discloses that shortly before dawn Wednesday, Feb. 16, the Bahraini king secretly asked the Saudis for riot dispersal gear for his security forces to break up the protests. He also asked Saudi Arabia to place its security forces on the ready in case they got out of hand. (read full report)

 

 

 

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.