Food for thought from Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Most al Qaeda fighters in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia and Libya and many are university-aged students, said a study released on Wednesday by researchers at the U.S. Army’s West Point military academy.

The study was based on 606 personnel records collected by al Qaeda in Iraq and captured by coalition troops in October. It includes data on fighters who entered Iraq, largely through Syria, between August 2006 and August 2007.

The researchers at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center found that 41 percent of the fighters were Saudi nationals.

Libyan nationals accounted for the second largest group entering Iraq in that time period with about 19 percent of the total, followed by Syrians and Yemenis each at 8 percent, Algerians with 7 percent and Moroccans at 6 percent.

On a per capita basis, Libyans accounted for the greatest share of foreign fighters entering Iraq.

Previous studies found Libyans accounted for a far smaller percentage of foreign fighters in Iraq, the West Point researchers said. They concluded the U.S. military either underestimated the Libyan contribution of fighters or that the pattern has shifted since a Libyan Islamic militant group strengthened ties with al Qaeda.

“The apparent surge in Libyan recruits traveling to Iraq may be linked (to) the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group’s increasingly cooperative relationship with al-Qa’ida, which culminated in the LIFG officially joining al-Qa’ida on November 3, 2007,” wrote authors Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman.

With Al-Qaeda making inroads into Libya and their support staying strong on the Saudi street, it may be time for America to take a hard line with our “friends” the Saudis and put some more pressure on Libya to clean up it’s underground.

h/t JamieWearingFool