William Tucker combs through them in Libya:
The probability that an al-Qaeda presence would be seen among Libya's rebels was a problem discussed early on in the anti-Qaddafi uprising, and for good reason. During the height of the Iraqi insurgency, U.S. military and intelligence officials went to great pains in discerning the native country of many of the captured foreign fighters in Iraq. The largest presence of foreign fighters per capita were from Libya, while the majority overall came from Algeria. This occurred for several reasons, but chief among them was the al-Qaeda affiliate in Libya, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was waging a losing campaign against Qaddafi. Many of the fighters read the writing on the wall and left the country for other theaters to wage war.
(Photo: A general view of Libya's sun-bleached town of Derna, nestled at the foot of hills overlooking the Mediterranean, where rebels are frustrated by their new-found notoriety as an alleged Al-Qaeda emirate. By Alessio Romenzi/AFP/Getty Images)