Libya and Terrorism

Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice Management

October 15, 2012

Introduction Libya is one of the largest countries in Africa, but largely due to its vast desert environment, with the population being less than most of the other surrounding countries. Libya has no water above ground; everything comes either from the ocean or the underground water system that irrigate the underside of Libya. Libya’s flag is now the same flag that Libya used between 1951 and 1969 which represents the “Libyan Republic.” Libya also has a huge history of religions and cultured as well as some of the oldest architectures on the planet.

Geography Libya expands over 1, 759, 540 square kilometers, making it the 17th largest nation in the world by size and slightly larger then Alaska. Libya’s coastline is the longest coastline of any African country bordering the Mediterranean at 1, 770 kilometers. For the most party, Libya experiences a dry climate and desert like in nature with most of its natural hazards starting because of the hot and dry conditions. As a result the highest temperature recorded from September 13, 1922 was approximately 136 degrees Fahrenheit.

People The vast land has an extremely small population, estimated at 5,613,380 million in July of 2012; this number does not include the estimated 166,520 non-nationals. The indigenous population is homogenous, with 97 percent claiming to be of Arab ancestry. While largely rural, the massive oil wealth beginning in the 1960’s changed the economic and residential profile of the population. For instance, between 1954 and 1964, the citizen population of Tripoli grew by 58%, while Benghazi grew by 66 percent. A five-year placed introduced in the 1960’s was geared to bring prosperity to rural areas. Its success slowed the migrations to the urban areas and made paid employment widely available through the country. With the large oil industry, numbers of Europeans and North American traveled to Libya and became workers to the country. Oil revenues allowed the stated to greatly expand its work force while the wealth stimulated the private sector. Thus over the years, large numbers of guest workers have found their way to Libya from Eastern Europe and the surrounding Mediterranean and Arab states.
Government
Libya's government is based on popular assemblies. All Libyan citizens age 18 or older may vote and hold public office. About 1,000 local groups elect a representative to the General People's Congress (GPC), which officially runs the national government. The General People's Congress meets every year to consider legislation and to select the members of the General People's Committee, which develops national policy. Libya is divided into 24 political units called baldiyas. When Gaddafi took power, he formed an inner circle filled with a necessary strength to keep the nation moving in the proper progressive direction. It was Gaddafi’s strength and his functioning, “State of the masses,” that satisfied the Libyan’s and made them willing to accept the power structures until the civil war in 2011. Although the Libyans were accepting of this new form of government, the dictatorship was bound to become corrupt-seeing that close friends and family took part in different divisions of the government. The tribal leaders were allowed to represent their local communities and provide socio-economic development plans, which allowed them to protect the tribal and regional interest. This allowed for tribes to feel that they had some sort of say at the national level.

After Gaddafi’s death on October 20th, 2011, Libya became liberated and “The NTC declares Libya to be officially ‘liberated” and announces plans to hold elections within eight months.” As of August 8, 2012, the National Transitional Council officially handed power over to the wholly elected General National Congress, which is tasked with the formation of an interim government and the drafting of a new Libyan Constitution to be approved in a general referendum.
Economy
The two major components of the traditional Libyan economy were agriculture and pastoralism, both largely subsistence activities. Most agriculture communities were kin-based, organized through patrilineal descent. Differences in wealth produced a class of local notables who relied upon the community for their influence and power. There was a tendency for communities to view themselves as corporate groups rather than agricultural communities or pastoral hinterlands. There were influential trading families in the larger commercial centers, but their power in the hinterland was limited. Communities tended to be self-contained and were based on subsistence activities in which families provided for most of their needs from their own labor. Surpluses were traded in local markets and exchanged in networks of pastoral families. Libya has been described as a “hydrocarbon state” since oil sales have an all-pervasive role in the Libyan economy, politics, and social structure. The discovery of oil in the late 1950’s radically altered development and ushered in a period of massive economic redirection. In the first phase of exploration, the oil companies spend large sums and expenditures increased rapidly. The first substantial oil revenues were paid to the government in 1962 and these revenues increased dramatically during the 1960’s, providing rapid expansion in both the private and public sectors.

Communications The state-owned General Post and Telecommunications Company (GPTC) dominates the Libyan telecommunications system. It provides fixed telephone services; a private company in which the GPTC has a 20 percent stake provides cellular telephone service. There are at least 1 million fixed telephone lines and 10 millions cellular phones users. All Libyan radio and television programs are state-run. There were 24 AM, FM and short wave radio programs, and 12 television programs in the late 1990’s, but many people in urban areas had access to satellite television programs. There were also 1.35 million radios and 730,000 televisions in use. Internet access is also provided by GPTC with an estimated 353, 900 users.
Transportation
Sea and air connections are facilitated through several ports and airports. As of 2012, there were approximately 144 airports. 64 of the airports were paved with runways while approximately 80 airports were still functioning with unpaved runways. Since 1965, all railway operations were disbanded and all previous narrow gauge lines were dismantled. A new rail system has since been under development for some time.

Military The Libyan National Army was founded in 2011 by the National Transitional Council, after forces aligned to it defeated the previous Libyan Army and overthrew Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Supply depots, bases and the new army during the civil war was faced with the challenge of having to rebuild much of the country's military infrastructure. In November 2011, the National Transitional Council begun the difficult process of restructuring the army, with military personnel who defected from the Gaddafi regime and former rebel fighters of the National Liberation Army forming the basis is the new Libyan Army. The Libyan Army only numbered "a few thousand" trained soldiers in November 2011, and was rapidly trying to train up new fighters who could keep the peace nationwide and deter rogue militias from acting without NTC orders. In December 2011, it was reported that the National Liberation Army was to integrate up to 50,000 former rebel fighters into the new Libyan national army and police forces, with the aid of French training, with long term aims to integrate as many as 200,000 fighters from the brigades that had fought against Gaddafi during the civil war. General Yousef Mangoush stated that Libya's new army faces major obstacles such as rebuilding bases destroyed during the conflict, as well as disarming militias that were not part of the new army.

International Issues NATO's operation in Libya has rightly been hailed as a model intervention. The alliance responded rapidly to a deteriorating situation that threatened hundreds of thousands of civilians rebelling against an oppressive regime. It succeeded in protecting those civilians and, ultimately, in providing the time and space necessary for local forces to overthrow Muammar al-Qaddafi. And it did so by involving partners in the region and sharing the burden among the alliance's members. 
NATO's involvement in Libya demonstrated that the alliance remains an essential source of stability. But to preserve that role, NATO had to solidify the political cohesion and shared capabilities that made the operation in Libya possible. With the fall of the Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, the United States and its allies faced a familiar challenge of post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction. As in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the United States and its allies prevailed militarily and Western governments needed to assume some role in helping establish a new order. Given the mixed results of the ventures in those regions, it was worth examining how Libya compares to them in terms of size, wealth, homogeneity, geography, and political maturity. Nation building is resource-intensive, and the size of the country is a major determinant of the scale of the effort needed. Libya was between two and three times more populous than Bosnia and Kosovo, but less than one third the size of Iraq and Afghanistan, suggesting that the reconstruction effort in Libya would fall somewhere between the operations in the Balkans in the 1990s and the more demanding efforts after 9/11 in terms of cost, time, and difficulty.
Terrorism Issues In 2006 the United States is restored full diplomatic relations with Libya and removing the North African country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after 27 years. "We are taking these actions in recognition of Libya's continued commitment to its renunciation of terrorism," said a statement from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She also referred to "the excellent cooperation Libya has provided to the United States and other members of the international community in response to common global threats faced by the civilized world since September 11, 2001." In September of 2012, the Us Embassy was attacked in Libya killing an US Ambassador and 3 members of his staff. President Obama condemned the killings, promised to bring the assailants to justice and ordered tighter security at all American diplomatic installations. The administration also sent 50 Marines to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to help with security at the American Embassy there, ordered all nonemergency personnel to leave Libya and warned Americans not to travel there. A senior defense official said that the Pentagon sent two warships toward the Libyan coast as a precaution. Libyan leaders also vowed to track down the attackers and stressed their unity with Washington. Yussef Magariaf, president of the newly elected Libyan National Congress, offered “an apology to the United States and the Arab people, if not the whole world, for what happened.” He pledged new measures to ensure the security of foreign diplomats and companies. “We together with the United States government are on the same side, standing in a united front in the face of these murderous outlaws.”
Criminal Issues Crime levels in Libya have significantly increased since the fall of Gaddafi’s. There have been increased incidents of armed robbery, carjacking, burglary, and crimes involving weapons. The Libyan police and internal security institutions have not fully reconstructed themselves since the revolution, and the majority of the 16,000 criminals released from prisons by the former regime remain at large. Hundreds of thousands of small arms stolen from government facilities are now in the hands of the local street thugs and militias, which have also contributed to the rise in violent crime. With the uprising in February 2011, various militias have supplemented the police in maintaining internal security. Militia personnel operate checkpoints within and between major cities. Members of the Libya Militia’s are poorly trained and loosely affiliated with the interim government, which has not yet fully reconstructed the national army and police. The Embassy receives frequent reports of clashes between rival militias and occasional reports of vigilante revenge killings. Travelers and Foreigners have been detained by militia groups, often for unknown reasons and without access to a lawyer. U.S. citizens are advised to carry proof of citizenship and valid immigration status on them at all times. The Embassy has extremely limited capacity to assist U.S. citizens who have been detained by militia groups. Because the Libyan government does not recognize dual citizenship, dual Libyan-U.S. citizens are not afforded access to U.S. embassy officials when they are detained.

References
Chick, Kristen. “Tribal Divisions may test new Libya Government.” Christian Science Monitor 25 Aug. 2011: N.Pag. Academic Search Complete. Web 28 Apr. 2012

“Libya Profile.” BBC News. BBC, 18 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 Apr 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13755445.

Africa: Libya. (2012). The World Factbook. Retrieved on October 14, 2012. Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/.html.
Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Press Releases/Fact Sheets. (2012). U.S. Department of State: Diplomacy In Action. Retrieved on October 14, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/ly/c11008.htm.