Madhi Al-Harati Irish Rebel

Brown Bomber

New footage has emerged of Mahdi Al-Hariti a Libyan-born Irish leader of the Libyan rebel/terrorist group The Tripoli Brigade. According to Syrian reports Al-Hariti is reprising his role as a military trainer/coordinator on the Syrian-Turkish border setting up an anti-Assad brigade for combat.


The footage linked to below claims to show Al Hariti in a militant camp with Syrian rebels:

http://middle-east-revolutions.prochan.com/Libya/t/471_1340746949

This is consistent with earlier reports from Spanish journalist who was embedded with the Syrian rebels-in-waiting on the Syrian/Turkish border. Daniel Iriarte interviewed Al-Hariti from there for Spain’s ABC in December 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lckWl9vwIjQ

VIDEO: Al Hariti training in Libya


So who Is Mahdi Al-Hariti?

There is scant verifiable information available on this supposed military novice that has now reportedly been training anti-government militias in two states in as many years. According to the Irish Times Al Hariti, now 39, was tortured by the Libyan regime as a youth , smuggled out of Libya by his family at the age of 19 and then spent a decade in “no-man’s-land” in Malta and Egypt, the home of The Muslim Brotherhood. It was from this “no-man’s-land” at the age of 29/30 that he made his way to Ireland seeking asylum, eventually gaining Irish citizenship. He first found employment as a Halal butcher and subsequently became a tutor of the Koran and Arabic. At some point in this period he met and married an Irish woman whom he’s had children with and they have settled in Firhouse, Dublin,


The Irish Independent offers a similar brief history of Al-Harati but with a glaring discrepancy.

“Soon afterwards, Husam was joined in Libya by Mahdi, who left Eftaima and their kids — two boys aged 11 and 10 and two girls aged seven and two — back in Firhouse so that he too could fight.
Mahdi had moved to Ireland 20 years ago having suffered under Gaddafi’s oppressive regime as a teenager. He was tortured at the age of 14, because of his family’s anti-Gaddafi sympathies. Mahdi and Eftaima met and married in Dublin.”

Both The Irish Times and Irish Independent articles are based on an interview carried out by Al-Harit’s wife, Eftaima yet they are highly conflicting accounts. The Irish Times mentions Al Hariti’s “decade in no man’s land” in Egypt and Malta and therefore entering Ireland in 2001 whereas the Independent’s account puts Al-Hariti in Ireland during this whole decade and the proceeding ten years; entering Ireland in 1991. On the face of it the Independent’s account (20 years in Ireland vs 10 years in the Times) is more plausible – due to the age of Al-Hariti’s eldest child being 11-years-old in 2011. If it is to be believed that Al-Hariti met his wife in Dublin as claimed then the absolute latest the pair could have met is 1999/2000.

The unexplained, meteoric rise of a Dublin teacher to Deputy Head of The Tripoli Military Council

Al Hariti’s wife’s vacuous reasons, which all effectively boil down to his personality, doesn’t begin to explain how an exile of twenty years can trek across the desert from Sudan one day and suddenly find himself commander of the Libyan Rebel’s elite brigade.


From the Irish Times:

“Alharati said once her husband had received basic weapons training at a rebel camp, his rise to lead the Tripoli brigade seemed to occur very quickly.
“He is a very charismatic person, he is a born leader. When he found himself in a situation where people basically wanted to make him in charge . . . the first thing he did was to set up a small group in a training camp.
“He got somebody to teach them how to use the basic weapons. And then from there more people added and added to the core group and then they led the fighting.”

And from the Irish independent:

“Once in Libya, Mahdi and Husam hatched a plan to set up their own Tripoli Brigade with the aim of liberating the capital. It started with just 15 volunteers, but quickly swelled to almost 600, mostly native Libyans.
Eftaima said: “Those who joined are not military men. They were people like businessmen, shopkeepers and doctors.”
The born-again rebels had to take a crash course in military skills. They learnt how to fight mostly in the heat of battle.
Eftaima said she was not surprised that her husband took command. “He is very much loved and liked by people who meet him. He is a born leader.”

Al-Harati The Hero?

So far, so good for Al-Harati. Ostensibly he is an idealistic and patriotic activist almost destined to liberate Libya – a 2010 Gaza Flotilla passenger no less – who selflessly risked his own life for peace and justice in Libya, his motherland and reluctantly forged alliances with the enemies of his enemy for the greater good. This narrative remains a distinct possibility. However, it does get a little more complicated…


Al Harati The CIA Puppet?

A 7th November 2011 article in The Sunday World claims that 200,000 Euros, in 500 Euro bills were stolen from the Al-Harati family home in Dublin. The article implied Irish police sources though hasn’t named them.
According to The Sunday World Al-Harati was formally interviewed by police and informed them “the cash was a gift from US secret agents to aid the war effort in Libya” and also that “he had travelled to France, the United States and Qatar the previous month and that representatives of an American intelligence agency had given him a significant amount of money to help in the efforts to defeat Gaddafi.”


The theft of the 200,000 Euros was somewhat substantiated by 9th November 2011 e-mail sent by private intelligence outfit Stratfor’s Vice President Fred Burton to a colleague. The hacked e-mail was published in 2012 by Wikileaks offers an alternative and perhaps more plausible source of the money however.


“From: “Fred Burton”
To: “korena zucha” , “Anya Alfano”
Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 2:46:05 PM
Subject: Fwd: Time for a quick call? 757-478-7383 (libyan intel)

Smith’s source is Yousef Haddad. Haddad called Smith to report he has stepped down. Haddad is also close to Mehdi.
Long story short, the top two of the Tripoli Revolutionary Council have stepped down.
Mehdi has also stepped down from the Tripoli Revolutionary Brigade and has been paid off to leave by the NTC, receiving 200,000 Euros. However, the Euros were stolen from his house in Dublin.
Hashim (?) has taken over for Mehdi. Hashim was Mehdi’s Deputy. “

Smith believes the bar has swung to Bel-Hadj and he is trying to consolidate power. Not good for the U.S…..

Stratfor’s source in Libya is James F. Smith who had “been there since the no-fly” A “US Govt security contractor on US Govt assignment in Libya” . Smith is a former director of the infamous Blackwater group and is a former CIA Officer
Al-Hariti was a contact of Smith’s in Libya according to Smith himself.

“IMPORTANT CONNECTION:
“1. The man that I made a contact with (Mehdi al-Harati, commander of the Tripoli Revolutionary Brigade) was appointed as the deputy commander of the Tripoli Military Council. He is a strong confederate of Belhaj and I’ve tried to get someone in the current administration to consider that he could be used to get close to / establish relationship with Belhaj and perhaps upwards thru to Abdul-Jalil”

According to Stratfor V.P. Fred Burton who was Smith’s handler, Smith is carrying out a covert “regime change” mission in Syria under the protection of the Zionist US Congresswoman Sue Myrick.

** Source and Dr. Walid Phares are getting air cover from Congresswoman Myrick to engage Syrian opposition in Turkey (non-MB and non-Qatari) on a fact finding mission for Congress.
** The true mission is how they can help in regime change.
** Source intends to offer his services to help protect the opposition members, like he had underway in Libya.

Which if the reports of Al-Hariti in Syria are true puts him intertwines him him with ex-CIA man Smith yet again.


Al-Harati The “Close Confederate” of Extremists?

Further revelations from the Stratfor hack reveal Al-Hariti as a “close confederate” of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj. Belhaj is a veteran mujahadeen from the jihad in Afghanistan in the 80’s. Belhaj was given as a gift to Gadaffi in 2004 (whose regime tortured him) when he was a victim of British extraordinary rendition.



Spains Prime Minister at the time of the Madrid Train bombingsJose Maria Aznar revealed in December 2011 on CNBC that Belhadj was a “well known jihadist” and “was one of the suspects involved in the Madrid train bombing of March 2004.”


In November 2007 Al-Qaeda’s then number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the formal alliance/assimilation between Belhaj’s LIGF and Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.

DUBAI (AFP) — Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri said that a Libyan Islamist group had joined the network in an audiotape posted on the internet on Saturday.
“The esteemed leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group have announced their allegiance to the Al-Qaeda network,”

According to US contractor James F. Smith LIGF have contacts with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan Pakistan and Sudan. Al-Hariti according to reports entered Libya via Sudan. According to a 2007 Westpoint Study (page 10) claims that the “LIFG has long had ties with Egyptian Islamist groups. Al-Harati reportedly spent at least part of his “decade in no-man’s-land” in Egypt.
Will The Real Madhi Al-Harati Please Stand Up?

Heroic freedom fighter, militant extremist or intelligence asset? Or none/some/all of the above? There are more questions than answers regarding Madhi Al-Harati.

Stingerbar

Yes there was a thread on politics about this. Here he is in action leading a brigade of rebels taking on the way into Tripoli (edit warning, some graphic footage) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d22_1314916981 That's one brave camera crew