Buying blow Libya

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Buying blow Libya

I n , Erik Prince, the founder of the notorious mercenary firm Blackwater and a prominent Donald Trump supporter, aided a plot to move U. A team of mercenaries planned to use the aircraft to help the commander, Khalifa Hifter, a U. While the U. The mission to back Hifter ultimately failed, but a confidential U. For more than a year, The Intercept has been investigating the failed mercenary effort, dubbed Project Opus. This account is based on dozens of interviews, including with people involved in the ill-fated mission, as well as the U. The upside, Durrant told the official, was that the U. The official, who asked not to be named because he feared professional reprisals for being publicly associated with Prince, balked. It is also unclear what happened to that money after the mission failed, and whether its architects had help from other governments such as the United Arab Emirates, which has long supported Hifter. The U. If the U. At least four countries have opened criminal probes into the alleged Libya plot as a result of the U. The report, authored by an independent group of investigators who monitor sanction violations, known as the Panel of Experts, includes a PowerPoint presentation that outlines detailed plans for the mission. The PowerPoint describes a so-called termination team, a hit squad composed of foreign mercenaries who would jump out of the helicopters to chase and kill their targets; it appears to be modeled on the secretive, elite U. Joint Special Operations Command. The PowerPoint lists 10 individuals as assassination targets, including commanders aligned with the U. Libyan militia leader Khalifa Hifter attends a military parade in the eastern city of Benghazi on May 7, He later moved to the UAE and helped build a presidential guard for the royal family before being pushed out amid negative media exposure and questions about missing money. He established a small investment fund called Frontier Resource Group that was financed by his personal wealth and focused on natural resources in Africa. Simultaneously, he set up a Hong Kong-based logistics and security company, Frontier Services Group, whose largest investor is a powerful Chinese government-owned investment bank. That year, the report notes, Prince supplied Hifter with a private jet. On the day Hifter returned from his tour, the eastern Libyan government nominated him as the leader of its military. Shortly afterward, Prince began offering plans to use a mercenary force in eastern Libya under the guise of stopping the flow of migrants to Europe. The plans went nowhere. When Trump won the White House, Prince wasted no time in inserting himself into what would emerge as a new Middle Eastern coalition under a new president. The meeting with Dmitriev was initially suspected to be a backchannel effort by Putin and Trump to lift U. Prince in no way served as an advisor to Mr. Kushner in any capacity. At the same time, Prince was acting as an unofficial adviser to MBZ. A leading buyer of U. Within a year of Trump taking office, the Gulf nation had taken the lead in supporting Hifter as the figure most likely to defeat the U. The Abraham Accords , which the Trump administration touted as its signature foreign policy achievement, involved normalizing relations between Israel and a handful of Arab nations, including the UAE. Kushner has no knowledge of Mr. Kushner has not even spoken or communicated with Mr. Prince since , and any assertion otherwise is complete nonsense. Muammar Gaddafi, the U. The following three years, the country was largely stable, though political and geographic fissures and rivalries percolated. But when violent conflict between the U. At least five countries began to provide military support to the warring parties, in violation of the U. Since civil war broke out in Libya, the U. Official U. The UAE has backed Hifter because it wants to quash any remnants of popular uprising and return the country to military dictatorship. This alleged meeting is fiction and never took place. Among the allegations made by the Intelligence Committee was that Prince tried to conceal from Congress the second meeting he had with Dmitriev in Seychelles about Libya. The elaborate plan involved buying at least nine disused, U. On paper, the plan provided Hifter with a special operations force that could fly and kill at night in a bid to help the Libyan commander topple the GNA in Tripoli. Failing that, the paramilitary force could help Hifter resuscitate his military operation, which had stalled on the outskirts of the capital. Durrant claimed that he could conceal the identities of parties involved in the proposed transfer of weapons and other gear to Libya. Moments later, the adviser received a message on Signal from Durrant, a former Australian military pilot who had a long association with Prince. Durrant was using the screen name Gene Rynack, an alias that the U. Durrant, in the statement his lawyer provided, does not deny that he contacted Jordanian officials. Those texts made it clear to the adviser that this was no humanitarian aid mission. Durrant briefly explained the situation: Nine U. Durrant estimated that it would require 10 round-trip flights using a Jordanian military C cargo plane to deliver everything, including the helicopters. Durrant then tried to coax the adviser to help by describing how beneficial the arms shipment would be for the kingdom. Durrant said that although the Trump White House supported the mission and the CIA was aware of it, only Durrant and Prince knew all the details, according to the adviser. The next day, Durrant sent a memo to the adviser outlining the status of the arms shipment as well as the planned military operation in Libya. Littered with military jargon, the memo, which was obtained by The Intercept and described in the U. The helicopter gunships and weapons had been selected and inspected, the memo stated, and were ready to be packed up and sent across the Mediterranean into eastern Libya. The shipment would include surveillance airplanes that could be used to target people and enemy supply ships, as well as a drone. It also featured a unit to track and seize weapons smuggled via the Mediterranean by allies of the GNA, a cyber unit, and a medical evacuation plane. And it anticipated providing at least a dozen helicopters, including nine that Durrant intended to purchase from the Jordanian government. Now, with some of the shipment ready to move, Durrant and his team needed export licenses. It shows the purported assassination unit with seven helicopters Erik Prince tried to help move to eastern Libya. Images: Obtained by The Intercept. Macintosh had formerly served with the British SAS, an elite commando unit, and the king respected his judgment. He met with Durrant, who was using a transparently fake alias and staying in an Amman hotel with what Macintosh later described as a motley-looking crew of Western mercenaries. Durrant told him he was buying nine helicopters from the Jordanian government — six MD Little Birds and three AH-1 Cobras — plus heavy weapons and ammunition. This was the heart of the problem. With a U. And because the aircraft were U. The British general asked Durrant which country the end user certificates would list as the destination for the shipment. Macintosh declined to comment. In a response provided by the Jordanian Embassy, Feisal said he had no involvement in the attempted weapons shipment nor any relationship with Prince. Lloyd Austin, the current U. The weapons sale had a certain logic. The Jordanian military had a stockpile of old U. But the helicopters were old and expensive to maintain, and Jordan ultimately had little use for them. The king was told that Prince and Feisal were involved in the proposed weapons shipment, according to his adviser. The king agreed to shut it down. The mercenaries, led by a South African helicopter pilot, flew to Benghazi on June 25 or 26, according to the U. But the helicopters were old and unarmed, unlike the ones the contract had promised. When Hifter learned that the Jordanian deal had failed and Durrant and his team had instead shipped six substandard helicopters, he flew into a rage and threatened the mercenaries, according to the U. Hifter sent the pilots back to their safe house under guard, according to a person with knowledge of the operation. On June 29, , the team abandoned the six South African helicopters and escaped from a Benghazi harbor. They left for Malta on the same two rigid hull boats that Durrant had outlined in his memo, according to the U. The boats were supplied by another Prince business partner, a Maltese arms dealer. The trip took 36 hours after one of the two boats malfunctioned and had to be left behind. When they reached Malta, the mercenaries paid a fine for arriving without an entry visa and were released. Local media reported that they claimed to be civilian contractors who had fled Libya because the security situation on the ground was untenable. Durrant claimed that the men were not mercenaries, instead portraying them as unarmed logistical personnel being sent in to support oil and gas companies. Within 48 hours they left due to security concerns. Instead, they shifted their efforts to Washington. It was no secret that Prince advocated using mercenaries to support Hifter. From the early days of the Trump administration, he had pushed for a U. After the operation fell apart in June, Durrant continued to lobby members of the administration to revive the mission. Prince then reached out to yet another Trump administration official. The official spoke to The Intercept on the condition that they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Durrant told the official that he was part of a military group working in Libya that included Americans and wanted CIA support. Soldiers from the self-styled army of Libyan militia leader Khalifa Hifter take part in a military parade in the eastern city of Benghazi on May 7, Its findings represent something akin to a grand jury indictment. Sanctions Committee, which will decide whether or not to approve its findings and designate Prince, Durrant, and others named in the report as weapons smugglers. Like the lobbying documents filed by Federal Advocates, Gordon claimed that Opus was an oil and gas logistics company; Gordon said that company personnel went to Libya for a commercial job, only to flee when it became too dangerous. Investigators were able to slowly piece together the alleged mercenary plot after an African intelligence service tipped them off to fake export documents used to ship some of the replacement helicopters that were sent to Libya, according to a Western official familiar with the investigation. The contract was based on a real proposal from a geological survey company, Bridgeporth, whose logo adorns the bottom of each page of the document. After the U. It was not the first time Bridgeporth had been implicated in mercenary force proposals. The planes, all three of which were owned or controlled by Prince, were hastily sold to Durrant within days of their intended arrival in Benghazi. The scheme involved two prototypes, manufactured by a U. Prince and his partners utilized a front company, called LASA, to help market the converted crop dusters; the name stood for Light Attack Surveillance Aircraft. It was the very type of modified crop duster Prince was discussing with MBZ on his private plane after the Seychelles meetings. It was one of two planes that never made it to Libya, after being grounded in Jordan. The assassination unit PowerPoint that the U. It is shown in various illustrations flying over a map of northern Libya: gathering digital signals, supporting the assassination and strike teams, hunting some enemy — real or imagined. Israel and the United States are already speaking about a Lebanon post-Hezbollah. But what does it mean? Search for:. Support Us. Matthew Cole. Join Our Newsletter Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. I'm in. Contact the author: Matthew Cole matthew. Sam Biddle - pm. Matt Sledge - am.

Libya to investigate claims oil smuggling is fuelling Sudan civil war

Buying blow Libya

Oversupply remains a key driver of price in the European cobalt metal market, with a continued The landscape of Ukraine's grain exports has been dynamic over the last three months, with prices Fresh blow for Libya's oil revival, as militia threatens to stop crude exports at three ports. London — Libya's resurgent crude exports could face a massive blow, as a militia controlling three key eastern terminals is threatening to shut down shipments in a long-festering salary dispute. The Petroleum Facilities Guard militia group has begun a strike at the Ras Lanuf, Marsa el-Hariga and Es Sider terminals, demanding the immediate 'disbursement of all salaries, health insurance payments, and other oilfield-related payments,' it said in a Jan. The PFG has been complaining of a delay in salary payments for several months. The dispute comes as Libyan crude and condensate output surged to around 1. The revival of Libya's critical oil sector has already taken a recent blow with several buyers canceling purchases of Amna, Abu Attifel and Zueitina grades after high mercury levels were detected in the cargoes, Platts reported on Jan. High levels of mercury can be very toxic, posing concerns for refiners due to potential damage to refining units. The port closures, however, would be catastrophic for Libya and are symptomatic of the challenges the country faces in uniting its various tribes and factions to rebuild the country after years of civil war. The feud between the state-owned National Oil Corporation and the Central Bank of Libya on the distribution of oil revenues has resulted in a delay of oil payments. NOC has refused to release its oil revenues to the Central Bank, which are currently deposited with a foreign bank, until a unity government is formed. In a recent research note, Platts Analytics said Libya will remain the largest near-term political risk to oil supply due to recent events. Under the recently agreed ceasefire, the GNA and the LNA have committed to establish a unity government and hold elections within 18 months. The LNA continues to control the bulk of Libya's oil infrastructure and talks between the two factions in the past few months have failed to deliver a breakthrough on some of the key issues. Libya holds Africa's largest proven reserves of oil, and its main light sweet Es Sider and Sharara export crudes yield a large proportion of gasoline and middle distillates, making them popular with refineries in Europe and China. Please use the button below and we will bring you back here when complete. FEATURE: Ukraine grain exports soar amid price shifts and supply cuts The landscape of Ukraine's grain exports has been dynamic over the last three months, with prices Latest Release Notes. Data and Distribution. Latest in Market Insights. In this list Oil Metals Fresh blow for Libya's oil revival, as militia threatens to stop crude exports at three ports. Crude Oil Upstream Commodity Tracker: 5 charts to watch this week. Make Decisions With Conviction For full access to real-time updates, breaking news, analysis, pricing and data visualization subscribe today. Subscribe Now. Not registered? Register Now. To continue reading you must login or register with us. You exceeded the limit of bookmarked content only 15 bookmarks are allowed. Please remove one of the bookmarks. Manage Bookmarks.

Buying blow Libya