America's Libya and ISIS Policy

America's Libya and ISIS Policy




The Tripoli and the Enterprise

By William E. Kelly, Jr.

America's Libya and ISIS policy, the subject of much confusion and debate in Washington, was set over 200 years ago when the radical Islamist and Basha of Tripoli Yusuf Karamanli was the first to declare war against the United States by chopping down the American flag pole outside the residence of the American ambassador.

Rather than pay him tribute to stop pirating American merchant ships, Americans took up the slogan "Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute," and President Madison said, "If we are to fight them now we better be prepared to fight them forever."

Using the same tactics they use today - pirating ships, enslaving women, beheading Christians infidels and imposing Shara law wherever they conquer, the Barbary pirates were the ISIS terrorists of their day.

They were the ones to pick a fight with us and we responded by sending over a fleet of warships, the schooner Enterprise the first to arrive in Mediterranean waters, under the command of Lt. Andrew Sterett.

It didn't take long for the Enterprise to encounter the latine rigged pirate ship Tripoli, a captured American merchant ship in tow, its crew having been killed and thrown overboard.

The Enterprise carried the baton of what would become the Sixth Fleet, and had orders to intercept pirates, and that she did, with a well trained crew and tenacious skipper, the Enterprise raked the Tripoli with multiple broadsides, and the Tripoli's treacherous captain feigned surrender twice before pushing his first officer overboard. Sterett didn't take the Tripoli as a prize because Congress had yet to declare war, and left the pirates one sail to return home and tell the basha what America's policy was. The captain of the Tripoli was striped naked and placed backwards on a donkey and paraded through the streets of Tripoli.

The Enterprise was then transferred to Lt. Stephen Decatur, who captured the pirate ship Moscato, renamed the USS Intrepid, and used in daring raids against the pirates.

On the downside, the frigate USS Philadelphia ran aground chasing a pirate ship outside the Tripoli harbor, its guns facing into the sand and sky, so it's captain William Bainbridge surrendered without a fight, its 300 officers and men held for ransom.

Renaming the Philadelphia "Gift of Allah," the basha offered to free any of the American sailors who would convert to Islam, take muslim wives and teach them how to sail the square rigged frigat, and five of them did.

Decatur then used the Intrepid to sink the Philadelphia and Richard Somers died in the explosion of the Intrepid in Tripoli harbor, both early special ops missions that would today be undertaken by Navy Seals.

Shortly thereafter Sgt. Presley O'Bannon and eight US Marines lead an army of Arabs and Greek Christians across the desert to attack and take the coastal city of Derna, the first time the stars and stripes would fly above a captured foreign city. But before they could march on Tripoli, the basha sued for peace.

The Libyan city of Derna is now a hotbed of radical extremists and was the first Libyan city to fall to ISIS and have Islamist Shara law installed, enslaving women and beheading infidels.

The aircraft carriers Intrepid and Enterprise were named after the original ships, and Sterrett, Decatur, Somers and Bainbridge have all had ships named after them.

It was from the fantail of the USS Bainbridge that three US Navy SEALs simultaneously shot and killed three north African pirates who were holding the captain of an American ship hostage, continuing American policy in the finest traditions of Sterett, Decatur and Somers.

The first cruse missile fired by American forces during the NATO intervention in the Libyan revolution against Gadafi was fired from the USS Steritt.

American ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, before he was killed by radical Islamists, saw his entrance into Libya aboard a cargo supply ship as a continuation of the Barbary Wars of 200 years ago.

More recently an American navy vessel broke down in Islamic Iranian waters and was captured, its ill-trained crew humiliated.

Will American policy towards Islamic extremists in Libya and elsewhere be one of broken down, untrained surrender and humiliation or will it be a continuation of the spirit and determination of Sterett, Decatur and Somers?

And the first continuation of this policy should be to bring home Richard Somers and the men of the Intrepid from Tripoli, where today they are surrounded by the same radical Islamists who they died fighting and would desecrate their Graves and remains if they only knew they were there for the taking. On the Shores of Tripoli.

The Intrepid Story from an Arab Perspective

- This is an English Translation of the Arabic text of the Libyan book “Secrets of Old Protestant Cemetery” – marked as the grave site of men from the USS Intrepid, that exploded in Tripoli Harbor in September 1804. Many thanks to Asmae, a Moroccan widow of an American serviceman, who is enamored with the story and thinks it should be made into a movie. 

Editors Note: this is a work in progress and subject to corrections and revisions. - BK

BEGIN TRANSLATION:: Secrets of Old Protestant Cemetery - Tripoli 

A lot of sources speak about the political crisis between the United States and Tripoli leaders since the diplomatic relations between them has ceased on 05/14/1801, on the era of Yousef, the fifth president of Karmadian dynasty in Libya and the third president of United States Thomas Jefferson.

One of these crises seasons was on 10/31/1803 when the Libyan Marine surrounded the entire American Naval Unit and captured the captain of the ship, the officers, and the crew members without causing any harm to any member of the unit. That was the capture of Philadelphia, the biggest American catastrophe after Pearl Harbor of the World War Two.

On 12/23/1803 and as a massive retaliation, the American Naval succeeded to capture one of the Lybian ships, Mastico, using the Enterprise, one of the American schooners. The Mastico was under the command of captain Mustapha who was the first one that jumped on Philadelphia upon its capture by The Libyans. After captain Mustapha and his crew members were captured by the Americans, the Mastico became one of the American Naval Corp that Brigadier Edward Preble named the Intrepid.

Its name was small then but nobody would believe that Preble didn't only participate to protect the reputation of the American Navy but their entire history and honor.

However, it was no way to save Philadelphia from its capture in Tripoli. Instead the commander of the American Unit sent an order to burn the ship down when it settled down in the port of Tripoli.

The reason why the Enterprise (Sic Intreid) was chosen for this mission is because of its friendly looking design. When the Enterprise (Sic Intreid) enters the port of Tripoli at night everybody would think that it just a friendly commercial ship that was trying to lay in the port for commercial reasons. 

That was on 02/16/1804 under the command of Captain Stephen Decatur. The mission was a success that only one man was lightly wounded. As a result of this victory Decatur was immediately promoted to a naval commander and he was only 25 years old. This even made Tripoli witnessing the promotion of the youngest commander in the hall American Naval Corp.

After six months and half of trying to surround the city of Tripoli didn't succeeded, Preble the captain of the American Navy Troops went for his plan to destroy the rest of the Libyan Naval ships and one or more of its ports in one strike. He decided to send a marine bomb to the port to destroy it.

The truth is that wasn't his idea, it was the idea of a man who used to live in the Red Castle in Tripoli and close to its main port.  His name was Brigadier William Bainbridge. He was the prisoner of Tripoli governor. The governor kept Bainbridge in an abandoned American Embassy building that was close to the port. That's how he got his best chance to see some details that were never mentioned in the American Navy maps.

He also earned the trust of Nicolasi Nissen, the ambassador of Denmark, and he used this trust to escape a number of secret letters to the American Navy Units that surrounded the port. The letters were common and innocents letters that were written with common ink but underlined with secrets letters that were written with Lemon juice and you can only read them if you light matches underneath the paper.

One of those letters was sent to captain Preble, in person, advising the need of sending a fighter ship to the port. And the volunteer unit that would sale in the ship had to flee in small boat just before they set the explosion. The truth is Preble tried this type of strategy of strikes in the past. That was when a group of volunteers under the leadership of Stephen Decatur sneaked to the port then to Philadelphia and burned it down.  As a result it been discovered that The Interbred (the ship that was used for this mission) was the perfect ship for the mission because it matches the Libyans ships and makes them believe that it was one of theirs, especially at night time.

After the burning of Philadelphia the Intrepid was used as the first American Naval hospital that is settled on the water.

After Preble’s decision, Nautilus captain of the schooner, and lieutenant colonel Richard Somers turned the Naval hospital to a floating bomb. As soon as they got their orders they started to prepare for this mission that took a few days with the help of Master Henry Wadsworth and master sergeant Joseph Israel.

They put 100 Barrels continued approximately 700 kilograms of explosives in the cabin storage. On the top of this deadly load they place 100 of 9 and13 inch guns loaded and provided with filament and are ready to work. Then they extended a tub from the front storage to the rear cabin that it also was allied with explosives that suppose to burn for 15 minutes; enough for the crew to get away from the ship.

Israel and Wadsworth picked the fastest boat in the naval unit to use it to come back after they deliver the ship of hell to its destination into the port. The crew was supposed to light the flame and start the burning from the back of the ship that would burn the gunpowder line that would connect the fire with the front compartment in 15 minutes when everybody should get away from the ship.

When Nautilus men knew that their captain was in charge of the mission they ask to accompany him but he only picked four men, Thomas Topline, James Harris, William Keith, and James Simms. In the other hand, Henry Wadsworth choose six of his  men, William Harrison, Robert Clark, Hugh McCormick, Jacob Williams, Peter Penner and Isaak Downes.

End of Part I – Part II of relevant chapters currently being translated. Many thanks to Asmae for her patient diligence – BK 

US Special Forces Left Behind in Tripoli

US SPECIAL FORCES LEFT BEHIND IN TRIPOLI 



                                                    

Thirteen U.S. special forces sailors left behind in Tripoli are surrounded and threatened by radical Islamic terroritss  - but the U.S. military refuses to bring them home.

The three officers and ten men of the U.S.S. Intrepid died in 1804 fighting the same radical Islamists we fight today, then known as Barbary pirates. They captured ships and held their crews for ransome, enslaved and killed Christians and imposed Sharia law where ever they laid claim to the territory, that now includes Tripoli.

One of the ideals that defines the differences between us and radical Islamists is the veneration of the dead and making monuments of the graves of our saints and heroes. That's something the radical Islamists don’t do - and don’t allow anyone else to do either. The Islamists don’t believe in honoring their dead, only Allah and his prophet Mohammid.

As U.S. Navy personnel who died on one of the first special ops missions of the U.S. military, these men should be afforded the same rights and honors as the Americans who die fighting on foreign soil today. And our clearly stated policy of leaving no one behind should be enforced across the board and not selectively to those who died most recently.

Instead of repatriating these men when they could, the military used the graves of the American heroes a means of dealing with the Gadhafi government. So the cemetery was restored and the graves and crypts refurbished. A history of the cemetery was written and the State Department requested the United Nations add the  cemetery to the list of World Heritage sites ostensibly protected by the UN. But that hasn’t been the case with other World Heritage sites under control of the radical islamists, including the twin Buddas in Afghanistan, the ancient Sufi archivs in Timbukto,  mosques in Iraq and Syira and other World Heritage sites that have been totally destroyed by ISIS. You can imagine what they would do to desecrate the clearly marked graves of US sailors and destroy whatever remains are entombed, as they did with the revered Sufi saints in nearby mosques.

Rather than just bring them home the DOD spent twice as much money on a study of the feasibility of repatriating them and decided it wasn’t worth it.

The DOD POW/MP office, riddled with scandal, refused to bring the remains of the men of the Intrepid home when they had the opportunity, despite the repeated requests of the families of two off the officers and the support of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Am-Vets and the New Jersey State Legislature.

As soon as the security situation permits the remains of these men should be retrieved and returned home and reburied with full military honors in a secure place where people can visit and learn the lessons of history and take inspiration from the gallant actions of these brave men.

Now it is just a matter of who will get there first, the radical islmasits who will undoubtedly videotape their desecreation and destruction of the graves, or Americans who save Captain Somers and the remains of his brave crew?