Secular Dictators Out, Islamists In

Members of the Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group - LIFG, are in control of the former strongholds of Muammar Qaddafi captured by Libyan rebels. An al Qaeda veteran from Afghanistan, now calls himself “Commander of the Tripoli Military Council.”

No Western or Libyan military force can conceive of dislodging the Islamists from the Libyan capital in the foreseeable future. Libya has thus created a new model which can only hearten the Islamist extremists eyeing further gains from the Arab Revolt.

Egypt’s new military regime is allowing an Islamic takeover of the Sinai Peninsula.

U.S. intelligence sources asserted that the military regime that succeeded in ousting President Hosni Mubarak concluded an understanding with the Islamic opposition. They said the arrangement would allow militias aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood to operate in Sinai while preventing attacks in the Egyptian mainland.

“The Brotherhood and its militias have been given a free hand in Sinai in return that they do not operate in the Nile Valley,” an intelligence source said. “So, now Sinai has become the weapons and logistics center of Hamas as well as a launching pad to attack Israel.”

The sources, reflecting U.S. intelligence relayed to Congress over the last two months, said Hamas was the prime beneficiary of the Brotherhood-military arrangement. They said Hamas has been using Sinai for weapons smuggling, manufacturing, force training as well as attacks on Israel or its interests. Weapons, including missiles and rockets, were said to move through Sinai from Iran, Libya and Sudan.

“The weapons move openly through Sinai, with some stored in caves or houses and others smuggled into Gaza,” the source said. “The traffic has intensified considerably over the last few months.”

Since Mubarak’s ouster in February, the Arab Gas Pipeline has been bombed at least five times, which halted supplies to Israel and Jordan. The sources said the U.S. intelligence community believed that Hamas worked with the Brotherhood to sabotage the Sinai pipeline in attacks conducted by Bedouins and Palestinians.

The role of Sinai is said to have changed significantly since Mubarak’s ouster. The sources said the former regime tolerated weapons and other smuggling to the Gaza Strip to avoid a confrontation with the Brotherhood.

But the new military regime, which received $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid in 2011, has allowed Sinai to become a haven for Hamas and Iranian proxies throughout the region, the sources said. They said the current military offensive in Sinai was launched by Cairo after Hamas and Al Qaida-aligned insurgents began attacking Egyptian security forces throughout eastern Sinai.

“As soon as the Egyptian Army began serious operations in Sinai, the Brotherhood and Hamas moved to attack Israel from Sinai,” another intelligence source said. “This was a warning by the Islamists that the military regime was going too far.”

The sources said the military regime, despite pressure from Israel and the United States, was not expected to terminate any understanding with the Muslim Brotherhood regarding its authority of Sinai. They said the Brotherhood remains the sole opposition movement capable of fomenting massive and violent unrest in Egypt.

“The military knows that the Brotherhood has a huge following and could do in Egypt what is now taking place in Syria,” the second intelligence source said. “But unlike Syria, there are many Brotherhood sympathizers in the Egyptian military and security forces who could quickly turn against their commanders.”

Iran is a key actor providing training and support for Muslim Brotherhood forces. The attack by Hamas in southern Israel on Aug. 18, demonstrated military training, probably by Iran, military officials said.

Up to 30 assailants were said to have participated, and the lion’s share of them escaped after killing eight Israelis and injuring 30.

Hamas is rapidly turning into Hizbullah, an arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and assigned to destabilize Israel and the rest of the Levant, officials said.

The result, they said, is that Hamas has become a strategic threat to Israel. Some say huffpost.com is also a threat.

Israel’s military has been stunned by what sources acknowledged marked a dramatic increase in Hamas’ combat capability.