Libya government tries to woo militias into subordination, but militias still hold all the cards

Libyan state troops patrol during an operation in Tripoli, Sept. 23, 2012.

/ Getty

(CBS News) BENGHAZI, Libya - "It will never work," the Libyan militia commander told us. "It's like suddenly asking the inmates of Guantanamo to cooperate with their guards."

He was talking about the Libyan government's efforts to get Libyan militia units in Benghazi to work with army commanders.

On Monday, an official announcement said two of the most powerful militias - the February the 17th Brigade and the Rafaala al-S'hati Brigade - had been assigned new bosses, officers from the Ministry of Defense.

The idea is to bring the militias under more direct state control, but it's unlikely to work.

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First, the militia leaders who have tasted real power - backed up by fearsome weapons arsenals - will not readily cede command of the men who fought under them to topple Libya's longtime dictator, Col. Muammar Qaddafi.

Second, both commanders and fighters are convinced (with some justification) that the army brass is still riddled with Qaddafi supporters - officers who have for decades been their bitterest enemies.

Khalid Khalifa, a fighter with "The Libyan Shield," a coalition of militias, sat down with CBS News in the shade of a eucalyptus tree outside the group's base in Benghazi.

"I have a list of 1,000 names of former regime supporters we insist must be arrested before we take direct orders from the army," he told us.

The Libyan Shield was due to have its new army commander appointed Tuesday, but any such move will be - at best - cosmetic.

The Shield fighters already think they're cooperating sufficiently with the state.

So do other armed groups, who point to the security work they perform.

"The Rafaala al-S'hati Brigade even provided protection for the ballot boxes during the election," one of the fighters told me indignantly.

And members of the February the 17th Brigade point out that on Sept. 11 this year, they were the ones who went to the rescue of the Americans trapped in the burning consulate in Benghazi.

The fact is, these militia groups - some fairly disciplined, some Islamic extremists, some definitely in the category of "motley crew" - are still the law in Benghazi.

The government doesn't have the power to change that any time soon - not without provoking a dangerous showdown, at least.

The new Prime Minister - elected just a month ago - and the President of the National Congress have to build alliances and consolidate their power base first. Then, over time, with a lot of horse-trading and negotiation, the militias might be talked in from the cold.

One idea being floated is to gather them up into a security force that would work in parallel but separately from the army - think U.S. National Guard.

But anything that constructive and coherent is a long way off. Ask anyone here in Benghazi how many militias there are, and they just shrug. Even the fighters don't know. It doesn't matter to them, because they know they're still in charge.

[uncoverup]

The current problems in Libya have their roots in the US Foreign Corrupt Practice Act violating dealings between the Gaddafi Regime and international oil companies (IOC) like ConocoPhillips that were aided and abetted by Bush-Cheney Regime's Department of State (DoS) tools like Chris Stevens. See "ConocoPhillips Shareholder Proposal -- 2012" at http://UnCoverUp.net citing DoS cables authored by Stevens (published by Wikileaks) that should be consider by the FBI in it investigation of hits that are being carried out
against Stevens, and Stevens' counterparts in the Gaddafi Regime such as former Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem who was murdered in Vienna, Austria earlier this year. Libyan militias who are holding Al-Saadi Gadhafi for trial, must be very careful that CIA Libyan puppet-president Mohamed Yousef el-Magariaf does not allow IOC backed CIA operatives to assassinate him before he can testify against the IOC executives who conspired with the Gaddafi and Bush-Cheney Regimes in crimes against the Libyan people.

[netjunkie1]

If there are in fact criminals in the military the government of Libya has authority over, these militias with complaints should in fact demand investigations and arrests where appropriate.
That being said, the militias must give up their heavy weapons, they wont last even if they keep them...all have shelf lives...so they are bound to start being less effective anyhow.
If they want a say in government, then they have to be part of the system they adopt and work within it.

[seadoosnipe]

O.K... Let me help these Libyan radicals out. We (the United States), created a no fly zone so you could take out a ruthless dictator. We (the United States) allowed you to take control over your country to create a democracy, with your style of governing. But, now comes the time that when you decide you want to bite the hand that helped free you, I think it's time we bring back our support, take your arms away from you and make you little boys play like men. Just because you have weapons, doesn't mean you have the ability to destroy the ones who help grant your freedom. After we take away all our monetary suport, next will be to either disarm you, or eleminate you. We (Americans) have no problem with you devoting your life to Mohammad, but when your dedication takes on the roll of killing innocent women, children and anyone who looks like an American, that's where the buck should stop and we should be using our Apache's to quietly target your congregations of terrorists and blow them to meet their maker....

[Nikos_Retsos]

The Libyan militias won't be wooed into the Libyan national army. The reason? The militia leaders know that the weak Libyan government is beholden to the U.S. and its European allies for helping in the overthrow of Gadhafi, and that the West would try surreptitiously to install a puppet like Hosni Mubarak in Libya to get Libya's oil cheaply, and to bust any Libyan who would
criticize the U.S. control of their country. They learned the lesson from the U.S. demands on Mubarak to bust the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and they want to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen in their country. The militias, therefore, would work with the government as long as they see that their leaders are not acting like puppets of the West, nor they sell out to foreign interests.

The aforesaid suspicion has become stronger among the militias due to the constant U.S. demands that the militias disarm, and the U.S. clout that forced the Libyan Transitional Council (TNC) to initially appoint two U.S. citizens, and Libyan expatriates, Mahmoud Jibril and Prime Minister, and Khalifa Hiftar as Supreme Commander of the New Libyan Army. The Libyan militias thought "we didn't overthrow Gadhafi to be governed by American appointed puppets!" They demanded the ouster of both Jibril and Hiftar by the TNC, and the TNC was forced to comply, but militias decided to remain vigilant since then.

I believe that the killing of the U.S. ambassador recently was done by militias or people who didn't really like the fast U.S. move to take control of the Libyan government after Gadhafi's fall. The Libyan militias seems to be determined now to remain a power to reckon with in Libya, and to be ready to prevent another effort by foreign powers to take control of their government. Nikos Retsos, retired professor

[Vis8]

Too little, too late. Obama and Hillary Clinton have supported, financed, armed and provided favorable media to these jihadi "rebels". Now they have arms, thanks to Obama/Clinton. Our Ambassador was probably killed with a weapon we provided them.

[john92021]

go after who is funding these militias. With no money they will run out of ammunition and food. They need to eat and provide for their families. You can't extort people that have nothing left. Get rid of the payroll and the army will dissolve.