Noman Benotman

Last updated August 02, 2020

Noman M. Benotman (born 1967) is a former fighter of the Libyan militant organization known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Benotman has been active in reforming his former terrorist comrades in prison, attempting to persuade them to renounce violence. He wrote an open letter to Osama bin Laden in 2010 repudiating al-Qaeda's use of violence, and calling on bin Laden to unilaterally halt all attacks.^[1] He is also a Senior Analyst (Strategic Communications) at Quilliam.

Childhood

Noman comes from a wealthy Tripolitania family that suffered under the Qaddafi government, during which Qaddafi confiscated many properties like land, houses, factories and buildings belonging to Noman's father and many other well known Libyan families that also lived a harsh life under the Qaddafi government.

Afghanistan

Benotman^[2] has lived a hard life living in exile overseas during the Qaddafi's government of 42 years of power hold on Libya. During the '80s the beginning of Gaddafi's oppression on many Libyans, Noman fled Libya and decided to join the Jihad call to take up arms during the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, he fought for an Islamic cause and made many friends in his teenaged life. After several years of fighting Communists Russia that invaded Afghanistan the Jihad was a victory to all Muslims, Russia withdraws its troops from Afghanistan.

Anti-Qaddafi armed opposition

Noman then realized with the knowledge gained fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan using guerilla combat tactics that his country was also occupied and needed to do the same in Libya, establishing a network of Libyans to fight Qaddafi and to overthrow the government from power establishment of the (LIFG) the Libyan Islamic fighting group came to birth in the late '80s early '90s their mission target was Qaddafi. The LIFG was the most feared by from Qaddafi they have taken the war to his door using all tactics to combat Qaddafi and his forces in Libya.

Many attempts on Qaddafi's life were made during the government's 42 years of power but none were successful enough to end his life. Qaddafi used Libya's Oil reserves and all assets he could to stay in power to fight the LIFG Islamists and other Libyan organizations. Qaddafi was successful crushing the Revolt in the '90s and many LIFG members were caught captured and killed some served in Libya's Notorious famous Prison named Abou Sleem and awaiting death sentence. The LIFG kept fighting until the September 11th attacks on the United States soil. It was a blow to the organization leaving America and the United Kingdom only to label the LIFG as a terrorist organization bringing all operation to overthrow Qaddafi from power to a full stop, reports showed that Bin Laden had funded the LIFG baking the group with funds and helping them obtain weapons.

Mediation with Qaddafi

In the beginning of 2007 with pressure from Libya by Qaddafi requesting the British government to hand over people Like Noman to Libyan Authorities labeling them terrorists, Noman was forced to fight for his life in London obtaining a UK citizenship helping Noman not to be extradited to Libya he was active in Politics and was chosen to mediate the release of his former comrades in arms, He had the support of the British government and was backed by the new slogan (de-radicalization of Hardcore Islamists) Qaddafi was shocked and frustrated by the UK and had no choice but to accept the British government proposal if he ever wanted back in the world international community.

Noman was very successful in mediating the release of his former comrades. Many regarded Noman as a traitor for dealing with the Qaddafi government during 2007/2010 mediation but he had no choice, in the end Noman saw his fellow Comrades as brothers and had to do something to save their lives.

Quillam Foundation and media profile

e is the president of Quillam Foundation in London. He has appeared on many TV channels as an expert in Terrorism and the Middle east, more recently as the expert on the Arab Spring and its effects; despite working with Saif ul Islam Gaddafi to free his comrades from the notorious prison named Abousleem. At the time of the start of the Libyan uprising, he was in Tripoli meeting with Saif Gaddafi with the supervision of the British government, calling some of the rebels 'Al Qaeda' operatives pointing to Mokhtar Belmokhtar as he had information during the Libyan uprising that some Islamic hardcore militant had entered Libya.

The Washington Post quoted Benotman in 2006 in a profile of Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, another Libyan exile who was to rise to a senior membership of Al Qaeda's leadership.^[3] Benotman said that Atiyah had been taken captive by the Armed Islamic Group, in Algeria, in the mid 1990s.

Related Research Articles

Al-Qaeda is a transnational extremist Salafist militant organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers during the Soviet–Afghan War.

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, also rendered Usama bin Ladin, was a founder of the pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and various countries.

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), also known as Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya, was an armed Islamist group. Militants participated in the 2011 Libyan Civil War as the Libyan Islamic Movement, and are involved in the Libyan Civil War as members of the Libya Shield Force. Alleged militants include alleged Al Qaeda organizer Abd al-Muhsin Al-Libi who now holds a key command position in the Libya Shield Force.

Saif al-Adel is an Egyptian former military colonel, explosives expert, and a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda who is still at large. Adel is under indictment by the United States for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya.

Omar Deghayes is a Libyan citizen who had legal residency status with surviving members of his family in the United Kingdom since childhood. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He was held by the United States as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2002 until December 18, 2007. He was released without charges and returned to Britain, where he lives. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 727. Deghayes says he was blinded permanently in one eye, after a guard at Guantanamo gouged his eyes with his fingers. Deghayes was never charged with any crime at Guantanamo.

Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed, is a double agent who worked for both the CIA and Egyptian Islamic Jihad simultaneously, reporting on the workings of each for the benefit of the other.

Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, born Jamal Ibrahim Ashtiwi al Misrati, was reported by the US State Department to be a senior member of al-Qaeda and a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and Ansar al-Sunna. His name may be rendered in English as Atiyah Abdur-rahman or Atiyah Abdul-Rahman or in other ways. After his death he was described in Foreign Policy as a renaissance man for "combining both strategic and ideological savvy".

There have been several video and audio recordings released by Ayman al-Zawahiri. Many of the al-Zawahiri tapes have been released directly to Arabic language satellite television networks, like al Jazeera.

Osama bin Laden, a militant Islamist and reported founder al-Qaeda, in conjunction with several other Islamic militant leaders, issued two fatawa — in 1996 and then again in 1998—that military personnel from the United States and allied countries until they withdraw support for Israel and withdraw military forces from Islamic countries. He was indicted in United States federal court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, and was on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list until his death.

Ali Ammar Ashur al-Rufayi, known as Abu Laith al-Libi, was a senior leader of the al-Qaeda movement in Afghanistan who appeared in several al-Qaeda videos. He was believed to have been active in the tribal regions of Waziristan. He also served as an al Qaeda spokesman. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, he was an "expert in guerilla warfare."

Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, kunya Abu Hafs al-Mauritani, is a Mauritanian Islamic scholar and poet previously associated with al-Qaeda. A veteran of the Soviet–Afghan War, he served on al-Qaeda's Shura Council and ran a religious school called the Institute of Islamic Studies in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from the late 1990s until the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Al-Qaeda has conducted operations and recruited members in Africa. It has included a number of bombing attacks in North Africa and supporting parties in civil wars in Eritrea and Somalia. From 1991 to 1996, Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders were based in Sudan.

Abdelhakim Belhaj is a Libyan politician and military leader. He is the leader of the conservative Islamist al-Watan Party and former head of Tripoli Military Council. He was the emir of the defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an anti-Gaddafi guerrilla group.

Dr. Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi, or al-Salabi is a Muslim historian, religious scholar and Islamist politician from Libya. He was arrested by the Gaddafi regime, then left Libya and studied Islam in Saudi Arabia and Sudan during the 1990s. He then studied in Qatar under Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual head of the international Muslim Brotherhood and returned to Libya during the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi and distributed weapons, money and aid to Islamist groups in the country. His actions were criticized by members of the internationally recognized Libyan government under the National Transitional Council who he in turn criticized as being secular.

Since the late 1990s, several members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group had decided to leave the band, most of them joining other armed organizations.

Mohammed Atef was the military chief of al-Qaeda, and was considered one of Osama bin Laden's two deputies, the other being Ayman Al Zawahiri, although Atef's role in the organization was not well known by intelligence agencies for years. He was killed in a US airstrike in November 2001.

Gaddafi loyalism refers to sympathetic sentiment towards the overthrown government of Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed in October 2011. It has been responsible for some of the ongoing violence in Libya, though the degree of its involvement has been disputed in a number of instances.

The Arab country of Qatar, bordered by Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, has been accused of allowing terror financiers to operate within its borders. The country has been called "the Club Med for Terrorists" by Ron Prosor, an Israeli diplomat and "most two-faced nation in the world, backing the U.S.-led coalition against the militants of the Islamic State while providing a permissive environment", in the words of one top American official, "for terrorist financiers to operate with impunity". Accusations come from a wide variety of sources including intelligence reports, government officials, and journalists.

Ismail al-Salabi is a Libyan citizen and Islamist militant leader who has deep rooted ties to the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood. He was the commander of the rebel forces in Benghazi under the 17 February Brigade.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Libya is a Gaddafi loyalist militia and political party which was formed on 26 December 2016.

References

↑ Benotman, Noman. "An Open Letter to Osama bin Laden". Foreign Policy.
↑ "Noman Benotman". Palatinate.org.uk.
↑ "Al-Qaeda's New Leadership". The Washington Post . 2006. Archived from the original on 27 August 2011. Retrieved 27 August 2011. He had a very bad experience, and I think is still having nightmares about it.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Benotman, Noman. "An Open Letter to Osama bin Laden". Foreign Policy.

[2] "Noman Benotman". Palatinate.org.uk.

[Wapo2006-3] "Al-Qaeda's New Leadership". The Washington Post . 2006. Archived from the original on 27 August 2011. Retrieved 27 August 2011. He had a very bad experience, and I think is still having nightmares about it.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)