“This is like a litmus test of how much you know about Libya. If the only thing you know is that it was cut into three, then it shows you are clueless about the situation in Libya.” Mattia Toaldo — Libya expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations

On September 15 2016, INTEL TODAY suggested that “somebody has decided that such division of Libya was the best that could be managed at this point”. The Guardian just confirmed this information. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

On Monday April 10 2017, The Guardian revealed that:

Former Ottoman provinces of Libya

Prior to the Italian invasion of 1911, the area of Libya was administered as three separate provinces (“Vilayets”) of the Ottoman Empire: Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. [WIKIPEDIA]

Analysis

Dr Geoff Porter has ridiculed Gorka’s idea to partition Libya. Of course, the revenues from the oil industry would be very unequal. But there is much more to the ongoing conflict than controlling the oil revenues.

“But the Libyan conflict is already about oil and about controlling the revenue that oil generates. This became abundantly clear last month when militias allied with the Government of National Accord in Tripoli seized four oil export terminals that had earlier been captured by the military allied with the eastern government in Tobruk, which in turn had captured from a separatist cum gangster. (Are you following along, Dr. Gorka?)” “Libya’s current conflict, though, is also about more than oil. It is about former Qadhafi regime members trying to reclaim what they lost in the 2011 revolution. It is about Islamists—no, not radical Islamic terrorists—trying to preserve the political gains they made during Libya’s brief democratic interlude in the aftermath of the revolution that ousted Qadhafi. It is about former political dissidents—some who were imprisoned, others who were exiled, trying to gain some political power for the first time in a country they call their own. And into this mix add jihadi terrorists organizations like the Islamic State; the remnants of Benghazi consulate attackers Ansar al-Sharia; and some components of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a regional terrorist group with a large presence in the south. None of these groups fits neatly into Ottoman-era borders. Which new country would you give to the Islamists? Which one would the former Qadhafi henchmen get? Who ends up with the bulk of the terrorists?”

Drawing map on a napkin

About Sebastian Gorka

Sebastian Lukács Gorka (Hungarian: Gorka Sebestyén Lukács; born 1970) is an American military and intelligence analyst, professor and member of the national security advisory staff. He serves as a deputy assistant to the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Gorka was born in the United Kingdom to Hungarian parents, lived in Hungary from 1992 to 2008, and in 2012 became a naturalized American citizen.

Gorka has written for a variety of publications and is generally considered politically conservative. As a national security advisor, Gorka specializes in irregular warfare, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism. Gorka’s view of the ideological role of Islam in terrorism has sparked controversy. [Wikipedia]

As a former Breitbart editor, Gorka is close to Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, who believes the struggle against radical Islam should be the central theme of US foreign policy. [NOTE: Bannon lost his seat on the national security council last week.]

Sebastian Gorka is vying to become presidential special envoy to Libya. Such position has yet to be created. Gorka’s rivals for the envoy job include Pete Hoekstra, a former congressman and lobbyist, and Phillip Escaravage, a former US intelligence official who worked on Libya for more than a decade. Escaravage is generally considered to be the clear favorite for the post.

Donald Trump aide Sebastian Gorka accuses BBC of ‘fake news’- BBC Newsnight

REFERENCES

Trump aide drew plan on napkin to partition Libya into three — The Guardian

So You Want to Partition Libya … — Politico

Libyan intervention based on erroneous assumptions; David Cameron ultimately responsible

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Trump ‘Special Envoy’ plans to partition Libya into three