“The enemy of yesterday is the friend of today … it was a real war, but those brothers are free men now.” By these words, presidential scion Seif al-Islam Gadhafi referred to the leadership of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in a new conference on March 23, 2010, attended by Western ambassadors and guests to mark the release of LIFG leaders and discuss the major transformation of Libya’s largest Jihadist movement. Established in 1990, the LIFG was modeled along the lines of the Egyptian Al-Jihad organization: secretive, elitist, paramilitary, and aiming for a decisive action to topple the regime. A brutal crackdown followed and the LIFG led a three-year insurgency mainly based in eastern Libya. This included three attempts to assassinate Colonel Moammar Gadhafi in 1995 and 1996. The confrontations left 165 Libyan officials dead and 159 injured. The LIFG lost 177 members, including its top commander in Libya and four of its Consultative Council members. By 1998, the Consultative Council of the LIFG decided to impose a three-year ceasefire in Libya that was to have been reviewed in 2001. However, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks changed all the calculations.
