A video recording in which General Khalifa Hifter, once a commander of Libyan land forces, announced that he had taken control over the collapsed institutions of the state, suspended the constitutional declaration of the Libyan revolution of 2011 and frozen the activities of the interim government and the General National Congress (GNC), and then proclaimed that “the national command for the Libyan army has declared a movement for a new roadmap” precipitated tremors domestically, regionally and internationally. While only Al-Arabiya news channel aired the video clip and built from it a huge scenario of a coup-in-the-making in Libya, realities on the ground told a different story. Traffic in the streets of Tripoli was normal on the Friday morning in which Al-Arabiya interviewed the retired general by phone. That evening, peaceful demonstrations resumed, entering their second week, in protest against the GNC's decision to extend its term, which was supposed to end on 7 February in accordance with the constitutional declaration issued in August 2011. The irony is that Hifter's claim to have seized control of the institutions of the state was particularly difficult to believe, given the situation of the country these days. Three years down the line from the revolution of 17 February 2011, the institutions of the Libyan state remain in total collapse and the current interim authorities are fighting a number of uphill battles to build new ones. In addition, in the absence of a strong national army, it is hard to speak of a “military coup” let alone the reestablishment of security and the reassertion of the prestige and control of the state. Libya, today, is sharply divided at all levels and between all components of society, in large measure because of the militarised nature of the revolution that descended into civil war until it succeeded, with Western assistance, in overthrowing the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Although a former military commander under the Gaddafi regime, General Hifter defected in the 1980s and moved to the US where he resided until the revolution erupted in February 2011. He then returned in order to join the revolutionary forces fighting to overthrow the Gaddafi regime. After the fall of that regime, he retired and currently has no official standing in government or even in the nascent military establishment which Libya's new rulers have been trying to build. Hifter denied, on Libyan television, that he had taken part in meetings of a number of military commanders in Tripoli who were alleged to have been plotting a coup. Sources from Tripoli speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly by phone said that the meetings were held to prepare a military coup, along the lines of what occurred in Egypt, in order to rectify the course of the revolution that had been diverted from its aims when Islamists used it to take control over government. In spite of the general's denials, video clips that have been circulating over Libyan social networking websites show Hifter in attendance at three meetings in Tripoli and Sebha and speaking of the need to bring the revolution back on course and to revive the authority and prestige of the state, which had been gravely diminished due to the repeated mistakes of the GNC and interim government. Following the former general's televised “coup declaration”, interim Prime Minister Ali Zeidan came on air to deny the claim, stating that the situation in the country was “under control”. Similar reassurances were issued by the head of the GNC, Nouri Abu Sahmein, Minister of Defence Abdullah Al-Thani and Chief of General Staffs General Jadallah Al-Obeidi. Abu Sahmein, in his capacity as supreme commander of the Libyan armed forces, issued instructions to the minister of defence and chief of general staffs to have Hifter arrested and brought in for interrogation with respect to his alleged coup attempt. In the days before Hifter's video recording went viral, Al-Thani had revealed a foiled conspiracy that had been planned by a group of military officers and civilians. Sources in Libya told the Weekly that a meeting had been held on Tuesday morning, 11 February, in Tripoli, in which a number of former and current army officers and civilians discussed plans for seizing power and proclaiming the creation of a Supreme Council to Protect the Revolution. The sources said that military movements had been observed near Tripoli on Wednesday and Thursday, prompting revolutionary brigades to rush to the capital to protect it and forestall a possible coup attempt. Also, according to these sources, the Libyan intelligence agency had notified the GNC of the need to take security precautions. This, they said, is why the GNC meeting of Thursday morning was held several hours later than its scheduled time. Apparently, the GNC had been notified that “forces” were attempting to enter the capital city from the west, but it had not been informed of the identity of those forces. The Hifter videotape reminded Libyans of the one military coup to have ever succeeded in their country. Since the mid-1940s, before Libya's independence from Italy in 1951, Libya had experienced a number of coup attempts. The first and only successful one that took place in September 1969 and that was led by then First-Lieutenant Muammar Gaddafi who went on to build a totalitarian regime that lasted 42 years. General Khalifa Hifter was among the young officers who took part in that coup. During the Gaddafi era there were several coup attempts. The most famous was that led by Major Adam Hawaz, a former minister of defence, and Major Mousa Al-Hassi, a former minister of interior, on 7 December 1969, which is to say three months after Gaddafi attained power. These two officers, who had also taken part in the Gaddafi-led coup but who opposed Gaddafi's authoritarianism and lust for power, began their campaign with a bid to take control over some important military camps in the east. On the same day, Gaddafi proclaimed that he had “thwarted the coup”. Hawaz and Al-Hassi were arrested. The former soon died in prison and the latter was released 20 years later. A second coup attempt occurred in May 1970. This was led by Abdullah Abed Al-Senussi, cousin of King Idriss El-Senussi who had governed Libya before the Gaddafi coup and a key figure in the Idrissi ruling house. The coup was allegedly plotted in Rome together with a number of officers from tribes based in the southern city of Sebha and known to have close ties with the Senussi clan. Once again, Gaddafi pre-empted the coup, this time with sweeping arrests of pro-Senussi supporters in Sebha who would only be released from prison many years later. Abdullah Abed, himself, remained in exile following his aborted coup attempt. Five years later, on 13 August 1975, Major Omar Al-Mahishi, another officer who had accompanied Gaddafi in his 1969 coup, attempted another coup with the aid of 21 officers. Among these were Bashir Hawadi and Abdel Moneim Al-Houni who, like Al-Mahishi, had been among Gaddafi's key companions in 1969. As was the case with Hawaz and Al-Hassi, these officers were opposed to Gaddafi's increasingly pronounced tyrannical tendencies — their action was triggered by Gaddafi's suspension of the constitution in 1975. Before they could act, however, Gaddafi arrested Hawadi and Al-Houni. Al-Mahishi managed to escape and to resume opposition activity firstly from Egypt and then from Morocco until Rabat turned him over to the Libyan authorities in 1983. There are conflicting reports as to whether Al-Mahishi was imprisoned or assassinated immediately upon his return to Libya. Just under a decade later came the first coup attempt of the Libyan National Salvation Front, which was led by the current speaker of the GNC, Mohammed Al-Magariaf. Launched on 8 May 1984, it stands out among the coup attempts for having taken place within Gaddafi's bastion, the Bab Al-Aziziya camp. Gaddafi's forces defeated the insurgents within hours, killing many and imprisoning many others. One of the architects of the coup attempt was Ahmed Hawas who had been arrested shortly after re-entering Libya, leading to the revelation of the plot and its easy demise. The National Salvation Front consisted of many key members of the Gaddafi regime who moved abroad in order to regroup and reorganise themselves beneath the banner of the National Front that led the anti-Gaddafi opposition for more than 15 years. The front established training camps in Sudan before launching its coup attempt. In addition to Maqariaf, Ali Zeidan, current interim prime minister, had also been a leader of the front. The next coup attempt in the Gaddafi era has become known as the Warfala coup attempt, as many of the officers that planned it were from the Warfala tribe, the largest tribe in Libya. Taking place in October 1993, the plans were new in the fact that they relied on officers in the ranks of Gaddafi's army. Foremost among these was Miftah Qaroum, the leader of the coup. Little information is known about the incident apart from the regime's reaction. Gaddafi's forces attacked and bombarded a camp in the city of Beni Walid, and arrested a number of the officers, most notably Qaroum who, together with his colleagues, was executed after having been found guilty of grand treason. Because of Gaddafi's notorious security apparatus, the next coup that took place in 2008 was also thwarted. Because of his iron grip over the media, there is little confirmed information about it. However, it is widely believed to have been led by one of Gaddafi's sons, Mutassim, who at the times served as national security advisor and commanded one of the key security brigades. Mutassim, Gaddafi's fourth son, was noted for his sternness and irascibility and it has been suggested that his coup attempt, using the regiment under his control, was motivated by his anger at his father's decision to arrange for his elder brother, Seif Al-Islam, to succeed him. Although Gaddafi curtailed that wayward son's powers and kept him out of public view for a while, Mutassim resumed command of the brigade at the onset of the revolution in 2011 and fought to defend his father's regime. He was executed together with his father on 20 October 2011. The last and most recent coup attempt in Libya — if it can be called that at all — was retired General Hifter's virtual coup. Hifter, who had been captured by Chadian forces during the Libyan-Chad war in the late 1980s, defected shortly after that war. After taking up residence in the US, he joined the ranks of the Libyan National Salvation Front and returned to Libya following the revolution to fight alongside the revolutionaries against the Gaddafi regime. Appointed commander of land forces in the Transitional National Council, he was pensioned off along with a number of other officers who had reached the age of retirement after the overthrow of the regime. Little if anything had been heard of him since, until his video recording surfaced Friday. As there is no trace of this alleged coup attempt beyond the television screen, it is difficult to regard it as anything more than a feeble scratch on the wall of anarchy that is Libya these days. This did not prevent the Chamber of the Revolutionaries of Libya from pointing accusing fingers at foreign powers for promoting the idea of a military coup as a means to remedy the deteriorating state of security in the country. Be that as it may, if such an idea exists somewhere it has little solid ground to stand on in the absence of a body that can reasonably be called an army. It is also difficult to imagine one in the near future. In a country that is teeming with militias and that is deeply torn along every political, regional and tribal fault line, building a cohesive national army capable of asserting itself over the chaos is nothing less than a herculean task. Meanwhile, in a separate and surprising development, sources from the GNC told the Weekly that GNC chief Nouri Abu Sahmein is planning a visit to Tehran. The sources did not clarify whether or not this would be an official visit. Sahmein, who took over as GNC speaker following the resignation of Al-Magariaf, is of Libyan Amazigh origin and an affiliate of the Ibadi sect.
