Friday, June 19, 2015

A modern day Blackbeard the Pirate

If the definition of a pirate is an arrogant swashbuckler who rages across the civilized world, stealing, whoring and slitting throats, then Algerian badman Mokhtar Belmokhtar is exactly that.

Labeled a terrorist, and rightly so, by all civilized nations, rumors of his demise and resurrection are frequent.  Indeed, just recently he was said to be blasted to hell by an American drone strike, but now his piratical terrorist organization denies he is dead.

However, Belmokhtar is so difficult to corral that the French, who have spent so much fruitless time trying to get him, label him as "The Uncatchable."

The pirate in his misspent, angry youth in Algeria, when he was still able to enjoy binocular vision. A nice, clean cut boy, but you can tell from his expression that he wanted to break free from society's restrictions and pillage a village or two.


Born in 1972 in northern Algeria, Belmokhtar traveled to Afghanistan in 1991 to fight with the mujahadeen against the pro-Soviet government following the withdrawal of Soviet Union troops. There he lost his left eye while mishandling explosives (Oops!). He later joined the Islamist GIA fighting in the Algerian Civil War and following that became a commander in the Mali-based Islamist Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Currently, he has been the leader of the group Al-Murabitoun, former military commander of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and a kidnapper, smuggler and weapons dealer. He was twice convicted and sentenced to death in absentia under separate charges in Algerian courts: in 2007 for terrorism and in 2008 for murder; in 2004 he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Algeria for terrorist activities.
 While this litigation was going on, he distracted himself, in pirate fashion, by marrying four local Northern Malian Arab and Tuareg women from prominent families, cementing his ties in the region.  He named a son Osama, naturally, after Bin Laden.  Multiple wives from different tribes, a crowd of spawn, and a price on his head: pirate success! 

Mokhtar Belmokhtar has also been known, as any decent pirate would be, by multiple nicknames: Abu Khaled, Bal'ur, al-Aouer, Khalid Abu al-Abbas, The One-Eyed, The Prince, Laaouar, The Uncatchable, Mr. Marlboro, and MBM



 He fought in the long and bloody Algerian Civil War to overthrow the Algerian government. Belmokhtar reputedly employed a 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m)-tall axe-wielding dwarf named "Mohamed the Dwarf" to slit the throats of 31 men, women, and children and behead them with an axe in public, as part of his effort to impose a strict Islamic government in Algeria.

 To raise money for jihad., Belmokhtar gradually established an elaborate smuggling network in the ninth region, covering southern Algeria where many of the most profitable smuggling routes exist.
He smuggled cigarettes, drugs, stolen cars, diamonds, and people, using the money to buy weapons to supply insurgent groups. His cigarette smuggling was so profitable it gained him the nickname "Mr. Marlboro" among the locals who his dwarf Mohamed hadn't already killed. He also kidnapped for ransom dozens of Westerners, including diplomats, aid workers, doctors, and tourists from France, Germany, Austria, England, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Canada. The kidnappings are believed to have netted him what the US State Department estimated as $50 million in ransoms for the Europeans.The global intelligence company Stratfor reported that Belmokhtar commanded an estimated $3 million per European captive.

In 2003, the U.S. military had Belmokhtar under surveillance in the desert in northern Mali. Military commanders suggested launching a missile airstrike against him. But gutless bint Vicki Huddleston, the U.S. Ambassador to Mali at the time, vetoed the operation, arguing that a strike was too risky and that Belmokhtar was not important enough to risk the possible repercussions. Something scary might happen! *shiver* 
 General Charles Wald wanted to share intelligence and gear with Algeria and Mali, so they could arrest or kill Belmokhtar, but said that he was over-ruled by civilian U.S. leaders.  Too bad these civilian retards don't ever have to worry about a meet up with Belmokhtar's throat slicing dwarf, as they would then get their just reward for letting this evil man get away.


Like any good rebel, Belmokhtar is so contrary that he couldn't even get along with Al Qaeda.  
According to the Associated Press, a letter addressed to Belmokhtar ("Abu Khaled"), signed by the 14-member Shura Council of AQIM and dated October 3, details "in page after scathing page" complaints that he "didn't answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in his expense reports, ignored meetings and refused time and again to carry out orders. Most of all, they claimed he had failed to carry out a single spectacular operation, despite the resources at his disposal."[45] The letter describes a delegation sent to contact Belmokhtar that spent three years lost in the desert and then disintegrated without having reached him.  If only they had hired Lawrence of Arabia to guide them!
It criticizes his plan to resign and start a separate organization taking orders from al-Qaida central headquarters not AQIM.
Your letter ... contained some amount of backbiting, name-calling and sneering, ... We refrained from wading into this battle in the past out of a hope that the crooked could be straightened by the easiest and softest means. ... But the wound continued to bleed, and in fact increasingly bled, until your last letter arrived, ending any hope of stanching the wound and healing it."[45]
“Why do the successive emirs of the region only have difficulties with you? You in particular every time? Or are all of them wrong and brother Khaled is right?”
Yes, Mokey, it's "you in particular" that causes problems!  Khaled is indeed right.

Just in the last week he was reputedly zapped by a drone strike, but now his organization is denying that he is dead.  If is has transitioned to a new job as the Devil's right hand man, then a life both revolting and amazing will have come to a sudden, bloody end.

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