Al Qaeda sends fighters to Libya

CNN:
Al Qaeda's leadership has sent experienced jihadists to Libya in an effort to build a fighting force there, according to a Libyan source briefed by Western counter-terrorism officials.
The jihadists include one veteran fighter who had been detained in Britain on suspicion of terrorism. The source describes him as committed to al Qaeda's global cause and to attacking U.S. interests.
The source told CNN that the al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, personally dispatched the former British detainee to Libya earlier this year as the Gadhafi regime lost control of large swathes of the country.
The man arrived in Libya in May and has since begun recruiting fighters in the eastern region of the country, near the Egyptian border. He now has some 200 fighters mobilized, the source added. Western intelligence agencies are aware of his activities, according to the source.
Another al Qaeda operative, of dual European-Libyan nationality, was arrested in an unnamed country on his way to Libya from the Afghan-Pakistan border region.
The individual now trying to establish a bridgehead for al Qaeda in Libya is known as "AA." His name has not been made public because of UK law on terrorist suspects who are detained but not charged.
"AA" has been close to Ayman al-Zawahiri since the 1980s and first traveled to Afghanistan in the early 1990s to join mujahideen fighting the Soviet occupation -- as did hundreds of Arab fighters.
... 
The British terror protection laws do not make much sense.  If this guy is the threat they believe him to be, they should release his name so that the public can be on the look out for him and make it easier to capture and detain him.  We need to make sure Libya can breakup this groups before it can reach critical mass.

I think this is a sign of al Qaeda desperation.  It has always tried to spread the battle space by dispersing its forces.  Those forces have shrunk in recent years, and they have had a tough time recruiting because their brand has been tarnished by their actions particularly in Iraq.  Mass murder for Allah is not as popular as it used to be.

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