Libya Uprising Raises Crucial Questions on Rebels BENGHAZI, LibyaThe Libyan revolution that began as a spontaneous uprising a month ago is posing crucial questions for the U.S. and allies: Who, if anyone, is in charge, and what does the disparate rebel coalition want to achieve beyond ousting Col. Moammar Gadhafi?
The nature of the Libyan revolution has become an especially critical issue now that the U.S., European nations and Canada have unleashed a wide-scale air and missile campaign against Col. Gadhafi's regime, throwing the West's firepower behind the rebels' faltering forces.
On Sunday, the rebels' capital, Benghazi, remained in their hands, thanks to airstrikes that hit an advancing armored regime column.
U.S. and Western officials disagree with Col. Gadhafi's portrayal of the Libyan rebels as al Qaeda affiliates working at the behest of Osama bin Laden. But their support for the rebel cause is tempered by concerns over what role the country's deep-rooted Islamist militant networks will end up playing should Col. Gadhafi be ousted.
For now, the Libyan Islamists work shoulder to shoulder with defectors from the regime, secular intellectuals, tribal chiefs and youth campaigners, all of them united by hatred of Col. Gadhafiand by fear of merciless reprisals should he succeed in reconquering eastern Libya.
Prominent revolutionaries at the rebel headquarters in the Benghazi courthouse include a veteran of the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, an unveiled female professor who sports black leather jackets, and a Libyan-American who likes to discuss French wines.
"Everything is still fresh. What we want is democracy, and once we have parties, everyone could express themselves," says Salwa Bugaigis, a lawyer who has become a spokeswoman for the rebels. As for the Islamist component of the uprising, she adds: "As you can see, I'm unveiled, I'm modern, and they respect me. If they were al Qaeda, they wouldn't even look at me."
The Libyan revolution's slogan is "freedom," not an Islamic state, and for its banner it adopted the red-black-and-green flag of the pro-American Libyan kingdom Col. Gadhafi overthrew in 1969. The bearded face of Omar Mukhtar, the hero of Libya's 1930s struggle against Italian colonialism, and his slogan, "We shall win or we shall die," beams from thousands of Benghazi car stickers and storefronts.
Islamist and secular alike, Libyan rebels express their gratitude for the Western airstrikes, drawing a sharp distinction between the air campaign against Col. Gadhafi and the American entanglements in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts in which a handful of today's Libyan revolutionaries fought American troops.
"When America occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, it spread corruption and killed innocents," said Rafat Bakar, a thick-bearded revolutionary activist in the city of Baida. "A Western intervention in Libya would help us get rid of the tyrant and of injustice."
The roots of the uprising lie in the 1996 massacre of some 1,200 mostly Islamist prisoners by Col. Gadhafi's regime in Benghazi: The revolution began with the Feb. 15 detention of Fathi Terbil, a young human-rights lawyer who represented the killed prisoners' relatives.
"I want a civil government, separation for powers, a free media, and a modern state of institutions," Mr. Terbil, a member of the rebels' new provisional government, said at a recent news conference.
The rebel government's head is Col. Gadhafi's former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel Jalilalthough he is rarely seen in public, in part because of the bounty offered on him by the regime.
While the revolutionary cause as such enjoys widespread across eastern Libya, it isn't clear how much authority the inexperienced rebel leadership exercisesespecially since Col. Gadhafi cut off most cellphone connections in the rebel areas last week, making it almost impossible for rebel officials and ordinary citizens to communicate with each other.
"Wherever you go, it's just volunteers, and there is no managementall the managers were with Gadhafi and have now fled," said Khalifa Hassan, a fourth-year medical student who stepped in to treat the victims of Col. Gadhafi's assault in the city of Ajdabiya. "There is no coordination."
The grass-roots nature of the uprising was evident this weekend, as residents clogged the roads leading out of Benghazi, offering shelter and food to refugees fleeing Saturday's shelling and tank assault on the rebel capital.
Men at intersections thrust bottles of water and juice into passing cars; one even handed out wads of cash to every Benghazi family passing by.
Yet, it is this kind of spontaneous activism that prompted the ragtag revolutionary fighters to overextend their lines with an unprepared push into the oil town of Ras Lanuf two weeks ago, prompting Col. Gadhafi's devastating counteroffensive that ended up bringing regime troops back into Benghazi this weekend.
"The youths are enthusiastic and they do not accept any fixed military plans," complained the rebels' military chief of staff, Gen. Abdel Fattah Younis, until recently Col. Gadhafi's minister of interior. "They rushed ahead, and there are consequences for that."
The cross section of young fighters who answered that call to battle could be seen at the front lines.
Mohammed al-Duraif, a self-proclaimed follower of the fundamentalist Salafi brand of Islam, unloaded boxes of ammunition from a pickup truck. "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," he proclaimed with each new box.
He handed them off to Ali Yussuf, who sported Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses and slim-fit Levis. Mr. Yussuf's inspirations in life, he said: reggae legend Bob Marley and the professional wrestler Randy Orton