LIBYA: 2009 COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM

UNCLAS TRIPOLI 001030

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR S/CT AND NEA/MAG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER ASEC EFIN KCRM KHLS AEMR LY
SUBJECT: LIBYA: 2009 COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM

REF: STATE 109980


1. (U) The United States rescinded Libya's designation as a
state sponsor of terrorism in June 2006. Libya renounced
terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in 2003 and has
continued to cooperate with the United Sates and the
international community to combat terrorism and terrorist
financing.


2. (U) On July 20, Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure
confirmed to the Malian press that Libya, Algeria, and Mali
planned to coordinate military and intelligence efforts to fight
security threats linked to al-Qa'ida in the Lands of the Islamic
Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahel-Saharan region.


3. (U) In November 2007, Egyptian cleric and al-Qa'ida (AQ)
leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced a merger between AQIM and the
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). In an audiotape,
al-Zawahiri urged AQ fighters to topple the Government of Libya,
describing Muammar al-Qadhafi as an "enemy of Islam" and
criticizing the 2003 decision to renounce WMD and terrorism. In
late September, six leading members of the Libyan Islamic
Fighting Group, being held in the Abu Salim prison, issued a
document renouncing violence and claiming to adhere to a more
sound Islamic theology than that of Al Qaeda and other jihadist
organizations. The 417-page, Arabic-language document, entitled
"Revisionist Studies of the Concepts of Jihad, Verification, and
Judgment of People," was the product of a two-year
reconciliation project between the Government of Libya and the
LIFG, facilitated by the Qadhafi Development Foundation. The
authors state that "The lack of religious knowledge, whether it
was a result of an absence of 'ulama' (religious scholars) or
the neglect of people in receiving it and attaining it, or due
to the absence of its sources, is the biggest cause of errors
and religious violations."


4. (U) In the text, the authors directly challenge al-Qa'ida,
addressing the recantation to "anyone who we might have once had
organizational or brotherly ties with." The document gives
detailed interpretations of the "ethics and morals to jihad,"
which include the rejection of violence as a means to change
political situations in Muslim majority countries whose leader
is a Muslim and condemns "the killing of women, children, the
elderly, monks/priests, wage earners, messengers, merchants and
the like." It claims that "The reduction of jihad to fighting
with the sword is an error and shortcoming." According to press
and government sources, at least 144 former LIFG members and 60
members of other jihadist groups have been released from prison
after completing this rehabilitation effort.


5. (U) On March 23, a foreign embassy in Tripoli recommended
that travelers avoid the cities of Ghadames and Ghat on the
Libya-Algeria border. The Ministry cited Libyan authorities
speaking of "an increasing threat of terrorism" and "risk of
abduction" due to "heightened political tensions in the Arabic
or Islamic world."


6. (U) On August 14, 2008 Libya and the United States signed a
comprehensive claims settlement agreement to provide
compensation to claimants in both countries who allege the other
country's responsibility in incidents causing injury or death.
Included in the settlement agreement are claims stemming from
the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland,
and the 1986 bombing of the La Belle nightclub in Berlin.

CRETZ