Meanwhile, Russ Baker at Alternet announces (“The CIA’s Man in Libya?” April 26) that the latest head of rebel forces in Libya, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, is a CIA asset. Hifter has lived in the Greater Washington area of Virginia (cough cough Langley cough) for almost twenty years, enjoying an unusually comfortable lifestyle considerably disproportionate to his visible means of support. Hifter has headed the military wing (Libyan National Army) of an opposition movement in exile (NSFL) for most of that time. The CIA sponsored a training operation for the Libyan National Army at a base in Chad during the reign of Bush I, with a view to a possible future overthrow of Qaddafi. In 1996, Hifter headed a failed overthrow attempt, after which he returned to the United States. >>>
