A threat we have already talked about in previous analyzes since 2011 (see articles of September 27th and 27 October 2011) when reliable sources reported that during the civil war, chemical weapons had been stolen from arsenals of the Muammar Gaddafi regime located in the central and southern provinces of Libya.
At that moment it was appropriated by the opposing "militias" of the Libyan regular army as reported on the website of Asharq Al-Awsat, an authoritative pan-Arab newspaper based in London. The quantity stolen at that time was not quantified, but Libyan military sources already reported to the pro-Saudi newspaper that in Libya there were chemical weapons hidden in places known to the loyalist militias and also to the rebels close to the Al Qaeda nuclei settled in Cyrenaica. , during the civil war, they had seized it along with tons of conventional armament which was then resold to Syrian rebels.
Secret arsenals, buried in the Libyan desert, which could now become prey to ISIS as, moreover, seems to be already happening according to accredited press sources. Material that could be used for both large scale attacks and conventional attacks using "dirty" IED (Improvised Explosive Device).
Aggressive at the time created in the "pharmaceutical factories" suitably located by Gaddafi immediately behind the Tchiad and which produced, in particular, mustard gas and Sarin nerve gas.
Some of this material (Iprite) has already entered the availability of ISIS, as reported by the very informed newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, stolen from a deposit located in the desert of the Jufra district about 600 kilometers south of Tripoli and now probably transferred in Misurata.
ISIS threatens and approaches Tripoli while the West continues to take time discussing possible initiatives to be taken and in Libya the situation escalates allowing the Caliphate troops to appropriate Gaddafi's large arsenal still present in the country, including aggressive chemicals still hidden in the Libyan desert and certainly known to the Bedouin tribes of Cyrenaica who have always been close to the subversive extremism of Al Qaeda.
A real danger that the National Transitional Council of Libya denounced since the first days of the revolt. It is certain, in fact, that Gaddafi had tons of toxic gases produced and hidden in a factory in Rabat, southwest of Tripoli, confirming a hypothesis that the US had formulated since 1988.
Quantities partially destroyed by Gaddafi, but of which there should still be some hidden availability, probably in deposits entrusted to the custody of tribes once close to the regime, such as the Khadafa and Magarha, allies of the Tuareg and concentrated in the north-western area of Libya .
With equal certainty, therefore, in the Libyan desert there are still dozens of abandoned military deposits, in which toxic agents not destroyed by the Libyan regime by 2010 could be stored, as required by international agreements. Material that could already be in the availability of Al Qaeda cells present in Mali and connected to those operating in the Maghreb, now certainly part of the ISIS fighting army advancing towards the north of the country towards the borders of Tunisia.
Not only chemicals, but also radioactive material already reported on 23 September 2011 by Libyan revolutionary forces who had found it in Sabha, about 750 kilometers from Tripoli. Hundreds of drums with radioactive substances and yellow plastic bags. News that found what was already known to the Atomic Agency (IAEA) on the existence in Libya of deposits of nuclear material, even if the exact nature and consistency with respect to what was declared at the time by Gaddafi was not known.
In Sabha, moreover, hundreds of bullets containing mustards manufactured in Korea were found together with bins and bags sealed with adhesive tape with written only in English and without any notation in Arabic. In the plastic bags a yellow powder as published on an Internet site (link). Material that in all probability could be "yeollowcake" (yellow cake), slag from the purification processes of minerals that contain uranium. In summary, uranium oxides (dioxide and trioxide) with little radioactive value, but very toxic if ingested or inhaled.
During the war, in addition to the Sabha deposit, other hiding places were also identified as confirmed by the Institute of Strategic Studies in London. Radioactive waste from the old Tajoura plant located on the outskirts of Tripoli and highly lethal chemical material which, as reported by Lynn Pascoe, UN political office chief, represented the remainder of what was not destroyed by Gaddafi despite having joined international agreements in 2003 on the use of chemical weapons.
Gaddafi was hastily murdered. With his death, the secret of where nuclear and chemical material could be hidden and, above all, who over time had provided Libya with the necessary raw materials and technologies to treat uranium and manufacture lethal gases became a tombstone. Even the Rais archive found in the Tripoli bunker will certainly not be able to provide specific useful information, as it is now abundantly purged in the many changes of hands from the moment of discovery.
ISIS is spreading in the country certainly helped by former Al Qaeda fighters who know the territory well and know exactly where to draw to appropriate both chemical and nuclear unconventional material. Nuclear gas and waste which represent a desirable resource for subversive purposes if someone intends to carry out "dirty" terrorist attacks and, at the same time, represent a substantial economic resource if placed on the clandestine arms market.
A threat that can neither be overlooked nor underestimated, but must be the subject of careful analysis by the United Nations that are preparing to make decisions to face and eradicate the threat of ISIS.
Fernando Termentini
(photo: US DoD / archive)
