Libya Insights@libyainsights

Discover how **SS7 and Diameter protocols**—the backbone of global telecom—are exploited by surveillance vendors and governments to **track, spy, and intercept** communications undetected. From **Circles’ spy tech** to **Ofcom’s bans**, learn why SMS authentication fails and how encryption could save privacy. A deep dive into invisible threats.

In this exposé, we uncover Libya’s massive identity forgery scandal—more than 3,500 people and 300,000 files tied to fraudulent citizenship. From hacked registries to ISIS operatives with legitimate papers, the investigation reveals tech vulnerabilities, deadly stakes for whistleblowers, and the erosion of Libya’s passport and democracy.

Libya Crimes Watch’s 2025 report reveals a sharp rise in human rights abuses by both the Government of National Unity and the Libyan Arab Armed Forces. It verified 859 cases of arbitrary detention, disappearances, and killings. The report links these crimes to political and military fragmentation and calls for international accountability as national courts fail to protect migrants, activists, and journalists.

In this episode, we unpack Access Now’s latest report revealing a hack-for-hire espionage campaign that operated across the Middle East between 2023 and 2025. From fake Apple and Google login pages to malicious Android apps, the findings expose a coordinated effort targeting politicians and journalists in Egypt and Lebanon. Tune in as we break down how digital forensics helped trace this cross-border repression network.

This episode uncovers The Sentry’s investigation into Ahmed Gadalla—the financier behind Haftar’s war economy. Using UAE firms and al-Masraf bank, Gadalla allegedly funneled $300 million into the 2019 offensive and aided the Wagner Group. After its failure, he became an economic “fixer,” linked to arms smuggling, money laundering, and counterfeit currency. We explore how his network reveals Libya’s entrenched kleptocracy and the global call for sanctions.

The Sentry report exposes Libya’s growing kleptocracy, where elites and armed groups loot state wealth through a fragmented banking system and black markets. Rooted in Qadhafi-era corruption, it has worsened as rival factions evade oversight. The report warns that international inaction and weak institutions, including the National Oil Corporation, risk total collapse and renewed civil war without swift reforms for transparency and accountability.

Almabrok Alakhal’s 2024 PhD thesis examines how globalization, migration, and cultural shifts reshape Tripoli’s Arabic-Islamic urban identity. Through legal, economic, and social analysis, it traces causes of urban decay and heritage loss. The study offers a framework for planners to balance modernization with cultural preservation, adding a distinct non-Western lens to urban transformation research.

The 2026 UN report shows Libya’s shift from transit point to key hub for cocaine, cannabis, and synthetic drug trafficking across North Africa. Weak institutions, corruption, and armed groups fuel this trade, using profits for power. Economic hardship and marginalization drive local drug use and dependence. The report urges international cooperation to curb trafficking and stabilize the Mediterranean corridor.

The report exposes widespread citizenship forgery in Libya, where corrupt officials and criminal networks issued thousands of fake IDs to foreigners. This fraud threatens national security, enables terrorist movement, and collapses passport credibility—causing strict travel bans and visa rejections. It concludes that only deep institutional reform and biometric modernization can restore trust in Libya’s identity system.

The Sentry’s 2026 report exposes deep corruption in the Libyan Investment Authority, which still controls about half of its $62.85 billion despite UN freezes. Assets in the UK, South Africa, and Liberia were mismanaged or looted by political elites—such as a London property left idle, losing $79 million. The report warns against lifting sanctions, calling LIA’s reform image an illusion hiding systemic governance failure.

UN report reveals Libyan armed groups have infiltrated state institutions through violence and coercion, gaining impunity to control the oil sector and divert billions. Despite an arms embargo, rival forces enable illegal arms imports and foreign fighters. A criminal ecosystem fuels terrorism, smuggling, and human rights abuses, crippling accountability and turning Libya into a hub of regional instability.