Militia chiefs trip up Zeidan Prime minister Ali Zeidan’s decision to drop a project to set up a National Guard backed by NATO reveals his powerlessness when it comes to confronting half a dozen key militiamen who truly rule the country and were dead set against the project. Among the most mighty are Hashim Bishar, chief of the Supreme Security Committee (MC 1072) in Tripoli, who has battled-hardened rebels under his command, and the Salafist Guiniawa backed by militia in the Abu Salim neighbourhood in Tripoli, reputed to be among the toughest. Other decision-makers who remain highly critical of Zeidan actually belong to the government, like the number two man at the defence ministry, Khaled al Sharif, former head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (an affiliate of Al Qaida); and the Moslem Brotherhood member Omar Khadraoui, deputy interior minister but the real boss in the department. And Zeidan has even managed to alienate Salem Al Hassi, the intelligence service boss who formerly lived in exile in the U.S. and is close to militia in Cyrenaica.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 23:09:59 +0000
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