'NATO uses al-Qaeda to topple Gaddafi'

In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Webster Tarpley, author and historian, says that the new rebel commander of Tripoli is a top al-Qaeda leader who used to work for the Afghanis and fight against the US.

Press TV: Do you think that Gaddafi and his family can get out of this situation alive?

Tarpley: I think that the Gaddafi family in whole or in part will survive and fight on for quite a long time. This is an open ended conflict and I don't think anyone can guarantee which way it's going to go especially in light of today's news. It is a shocking and unbelievable nightmarish report.

The new rebel commander, the military dictator of the city of Tripoli is none other than the infamous Abdul Hakim “Belhadj”. This is an international terrorist. He is a famous, notorious “genocidalist” of al-Qaeda. He has fought for al-Qaeda and carried out international terrorism all across the globe.

He is now exercising powers of life and death over the inhabitants of Tripoli.

And, of course, he's been brought into town on a carpet of NATO bombs. He's going to be receiving billions of dollars from the United States, the most modern weapons, diplomatic support, recognition, media support, moral support, Special Forces support and everything else.

This guy is a moving target because he uses multiple aliases. But I think there's every reason to believe that he is a former member of the Libyan Islamic fighting group, and I think that his existing sources point to the fact that his cover name is “Abdul Hakim Hasadak”, and that would make him the infamous Hasadi.

I think we could tentatively identify him as the terror emir of the city of Darnah. Remember Hasadi got a lot of attention earlier this year. He was written up in the Italian papers, he was written up in the daily Telegraph of London, in the Wall Street Journal, the weekly standard here in Washington.

There were three top terrorists running the city of Darnah and that was this “Hasadi” or “Hasadat”, that's “Bellhadj” under one of his aliases. Then we had [Salim Hamdan] the former chauffeur for Osama Bin Laden who had spent six years in Guantanamo Bay concentration camp. And then, we have the infamous Barani of the Libyan Islamic fighting group.

This guy “BellHadj” or “Hasadi”, if that's the identification, was trained personally by Osama Bin Laden at cost in Afghanistan. He has boasted in the past of taking 25 terrorists into Afghanistan. He boasted of killing American soldiers. He was for a time a US prisoner of war, I believe, in Pakistan, although other reports say Thailand. He's been all across the globe.

Remember, in the springtime we had Admiral Stavridis, the US intelligence czar, said we had flickers of al-Qaeda. Well, this is not a flicker; this is a supernova of al-Qaeda now bursting over the city of Tripoli. The presence of this butcher, this killer, because he's a mass murderer, this guy is on the level of Heimlich Himmler or numerous warlords. This is an embarrassment to Obama.

Press TV: Mahmoud Jibril, the head executive chairman of the National Transitional Council, last week was having a press conference with Nicholas Sarkozy, French president, and they were keen on using France as saying that big brother France will back them up, continue to send them aid and to continue to help them militarily. Why do you think that is?

Tarpley: It's because NATO has been using al-Qaeda infantry, and that's exactly what we see here. The ground forces, this rabble, they're essentially this kind of irregular force between guerillas and terrorists.

They would never be able to advance one inch or attack any significant target if it weren't for this comprehensive, overwhelming NATO air bombardment. So, it's essentially “war-on-the-cheap”. You don't really have to use mercenaries, you can simply bring in these al-Qaeda people and they fight as fanatics.

After that, they demand the 80 billion dollars of Libyan assets that they're going to steal. These people will put it away then and there in their numbered accounts in Switzerland.

Sarkozy, of course, is the biggest adventurer in all of this. He's been the more aggressive, the most outrageous in his being out in front in this entire effort.

But now, I think it's going to come home to roost because now we've got a top al-Qaeda leader, a notorious international terrorist who is their guide running the city of Tripoli. And this is supposed to be democracy and human rights under the constitution except it is an al-Qaeda terrorist carrying this all about.

Any normal Libyan has no hope under these circumstances. Any woman is in big trouble. There's a Roman Catholic population there, a minority, and it is in trouble.