The same man who triumphantly led Libyan rebels into Gadhafi's compound
last week first came to the attention of the U.S. intelligence community
years ago -- as a founder of a terror group.
Abdelhakim Belhaj, who was recently appointed to Tripoli's rebel
military council, was one of the original founders of the Libyan Islamic
Fighting Group, an anti-Gadhafi group which was later designated by the
U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization with links to al
Qaeda, according to U.S. government reports.
"We proudly announce the liberation of Libya and that Libya has become
free and that the rule of the tyrant and the era of oppression is behind
us," a victorious Belhaj told reporters after the storming of Gadhafi's
Bab al-Aziziya compound last week. Ousting Gadhafi had been the main
objective of the LIFG since its inception in the early 1990s, even if
some of the fighters believed that meant putting Americans in the
crossfire.
The group carried out operations against the Libyan government including at least four suspected assassination attempts
against Gadhafi in the 1990s and was also believed to be connected to a
series of suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, in 2003, the U.S.
State Department reported. As relations between the U.S. and Gadhafi
improved in the mid-2000s, some LIFG leaders cultivated relationships
with top al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden and were suspected of funneling fighters to Iraq to carry out operations against U.S. soldiers.
When the LIFG was designated a terror organization in 2004, it was meant as a "gesture of solidarity" with the Libyan government, according to a March 2011 congressional report.
DOWNLOAD: Libya, Unrest and U.S. Policy
Contrary to several U.S. government reports, Libyan rebel ambassador to
the U.S., Ali Aujali, told ABC News that the LIFG was never connected to
al Qaeda and did not carry out terrorist operations.
"They were only opposed to Gadhafi during his rule and paid the price for that by being oppressed by the regime," Aujali said.
The CIA first publicly voiced its concerns
about the connection between the LIFG and al Qaeda in 2004 when
then-director George Tenet testified before the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence and listed the LIFG among groups that represented an
"immediate threat... [that] has benefited from al Qaeda links."
By that time Belhaj had been arrested and jailed in Libya where he would
stay for years, but outside the prison walls, some other LIFG leaders
reportedly tightened their relationship with al Qaeda. In 2007 al
Qaeda's then-deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri announced a formal alliance
between the groups, mentioning Belhaj personally.
"Dear brothers... the amir of the mujahideen, the patient and steadfast
Abu-Abdallah al-Sadiq; and the rest of the captives of the fighting
Islamic group in Libya, here is good news for you," Zawahiri said in a
video, using Belhaj's nom de guerre. "Your brothers are continuing your
march after you... escalating their confrontation with the enemies of
Islam: Gadhafi and his masters, the crusaders of Washington."
Though a recent congressional report
said the alliance was viewed by terror analysts at the time as "having
political rather than operational relevance," a leaked 2008 State
Department cable and a separate report by the Counter Terrorism Center
at West Point noted that an inordinate number of anti-U.S. insurgents in
Iraq came from Libya and the LIFG.
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