Basit Igtet’s security adviser, Bashir Garira, died in a shooting incident just hours after he was with Mr. Igtet for a rally to overthrow the government of Libya on Monday.
Mr. Garira was found shot to death outside his home on Tuesday morning in Suq Al-Juma. His family said he shot himself accidentally with a gun. Libyans know such family announcements can be a euphemism for assassination.
The low turnout of supporters at Igtet’s rally in Tripoli may have put Mr. Garira in fatal jeopardy.
On Monday, Mr. Garira was part of a small group of Libyans who served as domestic advisers for Mr. Igtet. Mr. Garira was photographed with Mr. Igtet, who waited until the day of the rally to appear in the nation he wants to lead.
When Mr. Igtet arrived at Mitiga airport from Tunis on the day of his planned rally to overthrow the UN-backed Libyan government, Mr. Garira was there to meet him.
Mr. Igtet, who is not accustomed to rugged conditions experienced by the majority of Libyans in this poverty stricken Muslim nation, flew in by private jet. Mr. Igtet is supported by his Jewish wife, whiskey baroness Sara Bronfman. Neither live in Libya.
Ms. Bronfman’s main work over the past 15 years has been to finance a for-profit sex cult headquartered in New York State and led by Keith Raniere whose followers call him Vanguard. Both Mr. Igtet and his wife live near the sex cult leader who personally mentors Ms. Bronfman.
Mr. Igtet’s plan for the takeover of Libya was to use Facebook and social media to rally tens of thousands of the poor of Tripoli to take to the streets and eventually join with radical Muslim militants outside the city. Once the forces converged and vanquished the UN-backed Libyan government, Mr. Igtet had stated, he wanted to be installed as president.
The plan failed when no one appeared at the rally point at Martyrs Square in Tripoli until after the Libyan government provided ample security for the safety of Mr. Igtet and his supporters.
About 1,000 Libyan bystanders turned out to see the event, many of them straggling in, staying for a time, then going home. About 1,000 anti-Igtet Libyans came and called for Mr. Igtet to be thrown out of Libya.
Once Mr. Igtet was safely behind the protective cordon of Libyan government security forces, his supporters were safe to come out for their “protest”. An estimated 700 supporters appeared.
Mr. Igtet did not make a speech and stood in Martyrs Square with prominent Muslim Libyans, like the late Mr. Garira, who put their reputations on the line to give Mr. Igtet an imprimatur that he represented Libyan and Muslim values.
Libya is a poor country. Its people are suffering from strife and conflict between radically different views on how religion should be practiced and power should be tyrannized or democratized.
Mr. Igtet never planned to live in this poor land of extremes unless and until he is installed as president. Mr. Igtet’s father had embezzled millions of Libyan taxpayers’ money and was put in jail where he died under the Qaddai regime.
Mr. Iget’s chief adviser is Keith Raniere, of Albany, New York. He reportedly helped devise the Facebook plan to rouse the nation and make Mr. Igtet the next Libyan president.
Mr. Igtet’s Jewish wife, Sara Bronfman, funded the plan. She inherited an estimated $500 million from her late father, Edgar Bronfman Sr., of the Seagram’s Liquor fortune. Her father had been president of the World Jewish Congress. Ms. Bronfman lost a substantial part of her inheritance in investments guided by Mr. Raniere, who she refers to as her mentor.
Mr. Igtet, because he spends no time in Libya, needed point persons there who were deemed prominent and judged as reliable Muslims. The late Mr. Garira served in that capacity. How much money from Sara Bronfman went to Mr. Garira is not presently known.
It is strongly suspected that Muslim extremists, holed up in desert hideouts outside Tripoli, had been promised by Mr. Garira and others that Mr. Igtet was an honorable man and would keep his promise to marshal a huge force of insurgents to his rally in Tripoli.
The radical groups expended scant resources to mobilize but were ready to merge with the alleged “tens of thousands” of Igtet-supporters.
When nobody showed up in Tripoli, the Muslim radicals had to retreat to secure hideouts. UN-backed Libyan forces beefed up armed militias and gained a tactical advantage by uncovering possible locations from where radical Muslims retreated, thus potentially compromising their safety and future Islamic missions.
Whether Mr. Garira’s “accidental death” was a reprisal for his role in the Igtet fiasco may never be known. Maybe he did shoot himself accidentally with a gun.
Here is what we do know:
Basit Igtet attempted to overthrow the UN-backed government of Libya via a rally at Martyrs Square in Tripoli on Monday, September 25, 2017.
The UN government allowed him to enter the country and mandated the protest be peaceful and ensured it was by providing ample armed security.
The exaggerated claims of tens of thousands of Igtet-followers who were supposed to come out to rally may have seduced the extremist Muslim enemies of the UN-backed Libyan government to reveal tactical strategies and desert locations they would not have done otherwise had they known the true support for Mr. Igtet would be less than 1000.
It was first reported that no one died in what initially was feared would be a bloody “hurricane of violence.”
The Libyan government – the one he wanted to overthrow – protected Mr. Igtet from being the victim of violence. The opposition to Mr. Igtet was as great or greater than those who support him.
In trying to put together this scheme, some of Mt. Igtet’s advisers may have made promises they were unable to keep to extremely brash, ideologically severe Muslim groups.
It might be compared to telling the heads of the Mafia to set up an orchestrated multiple hit – andthen you fail to show up with your promised men.
Mr Igtet departed from Libya right after the rally.
Mr. Garira did not fare quite so well.
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