Libyan Rebel Leader Spent Much of Past 20 Years in Suburban Virginia
March 31st, 2011Easily the best line in a couple of weeks. *chortle*:
Since coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself…
Via: McClatchy:
The new leader of Libya’s opposition military spent the past two decades in suburban Virginia but felt compelled — even in his late-60s — to return to the battlefield in his homeland, according to people who know him.
Khalifa Hifter was once a top military officer for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but after a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s, Hifter switched to the anti-Gadhafi opposition. In the early 1990s, he moved to suburban Virginia, where he established a life but maintained ties to anti-Gadhafi groups.
Late last week, Hifter was appointed to lead the rebel army, which has been in chaos for weeks. He is the third such leader in less than a month, and rebels interviewed in Libya openly voiced distrust for the most recent leader, Abdel Fatah Younes, who had been at Gadhafi’s side until just a month ago.
At a news conference Thursday, the rebel’s military spokesman said Younes will stay as Hifter’s chief of staff, and added that the army — such as it is — would need “weeks” of training.
According to Abdel Salam Badr of Richmond, Va., who said he has known Hifter all his life — including back in Libya — Hifter — whose name is sometimes spelled Haftar, Hefter or Huftur — was motivated by his intense anti-Gadhafi feelings.
…
Since coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself, and that Hifter primarily focused on helping his large family.
Research Credit: cptmarginal
This from May 1991.
Quote.
‘About 350 Libyan guerrillas trained by the United States to fight dictator Moammar Gadhafi have been scattered in undisclosed locations in the United States to be resettled at government expense, officials said Friday.
The decision to accept the soldiers of the self-styled Libya National Army as refugees ended a six-month odyssey for the men who once served in Gadhafi’s expeditionary force that invaded Chad, Libya’s neighbor to the south, and later decided to attack their north African homeland.On Thursday, the guerrillas were quietly flown from Kenya to New York. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that after they landed in the United States they were sent “to various destinations,”
He refused to say exactly where they went or to identify the private agencies the government has retained to help the new arrivals.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/162875/US-PAYS-FOR-RESETTLEMENT-OF-GADHAFI-FIGHTERS.html