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(TALKZIMBABWE) Secret documents show Libya, CIA, MI6 links

Secret documents show Libya, CIA, MI6 links
Posted by By Our reporter at 4 September, at 03 : 22 AM

VERY embarrassing documents have been discovered by Human Rights Watch and the British Independent newspaper’s journalists that reveal close intelligence relationship between the United States, the UK and Libya during the so-called War on Terror.

The secret files reveal that the secret services of the UK, MI6 and the United States, the CIA had a regular dialogue with their counterparts in Libyan Intelligence, in particular with the former Libyan foreign minister and head of Libya’s intelligence service, Mussa Kussa who defected days after the outbreak of the uprising that ousted the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi from power.

Mussa Kussa, who have long been accused by Rights groups of involvement in atrocities, had called on the UK to arrest him at the time, but after first defecting to the UK, he later flew on to Qatar.

The papers were discovered in Mussa Kussa’s private offices in Tripoli, with one file reportedly detailing the UK’s help in drafting a speech for Colonel Gaddafi to make.

Also among the files is evidence that the US used Libya as a base for its rendition programme.

According to the documents just discovered, US and UK spy agencies built close ties with their Libyan counterparts, and also suggest that the US Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 and handed them to Tripoli.

On the other hand, the UK’s MI6 also apparently gave the Gaddafi regime details of dissidents.

Human Rights Watch accused the CIA of condoning torture with the group’s Peter Bouckaert reportedly saying by the BBC that “ (the CIA) wasn’t just abducting suspected Islamic militants and handing them over to the Libyan intelligence, but also sent the questions they wanted Libyan intelligence to ask.”

He went on to say that from the files, it is very clear that the CIA were themselves even present in some of the interrogations.

Also among the files is evidence that the US used Libya as a base for its controversial rendition programme., a practice that involved transporting prisoners it believed to be a threat to its national security for further interrogation on foreign soil.

Human rights organisations claim that the real purpose was to torture these prisoners outside of US jurisdiction.

In its report about the Human Rights Watch’s discovery, the BBC goes on to say that the papers outline the rendition of several suspects, including one that Human Rights Watch has identified as Abdel Hakim Belhaj, known in the documents as Abdullah al-Sadiq, who is now the military commander of the rebel forces in Tripoli.

The documents also reveal details about the UK’s relationship with the former regime of the Libyan dictator, and the country’s intelligence agency is said to have helped to write a speech for Gaddafi in 2004, when the government of the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was encouraging Gaddafi to give up his WMD programme.

According to the UK’s Independent newspaper, British officials also insisted that Mr Blair’s famous 2004 meeting with Gaddafi should be in his Bedouin tent.

The paper quotes a memo from an MI6 agent as saying: “(The prime minister’s office is) keen that the prime minister meet the leader in his tent. I don’t know why the English are fascinated by tents. The plain fact is the journalists would love it.”

In another memo, also seen by the Independent, UK intelligence appeared to give Tripoli details of a Libyan dissident who had been freed from jail in Britain.

The documents belong to a period in time when Britain’s Tony Blair and US President George W Bush lobbied hard to bring Gaddafi out of international isolation in the years after the 9/11 attacks, as Libya moved to normalise relations with former enemies in the West.

The CIA would not comment on the specifics of the allegations, with spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood telling BBC: “It can’t come as a surprise that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats.”

For his part, the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague played down the revelations, telling Sky News that they “relate to a period under the previous government so I have no knowledge of those, of what was happening behind the scenes at that time”.

The UK foreign office has said it does not comment on matters of intelligence and national security.


Text of Alleged CIA letter Reproduced by News Agencies

“Dear Musa

I am glad to propose that our services take an additional step in cooperation with the establishment of a permanent CIA presence in Libya. We have talked about this move for quite some time and Libya’s cooperation on WMD and other issues, as well as our recent intelligence cooperation, mean that now is the right moment to move ahead.

I am prepared to send [XXX] to Libya to introduce two of my officers to you and your service, arriving in Tripoli on 20 March. These two officers, both of whom are experienced and can speak Arabic, will initially staff our station in Libya. [XXX] will communicate the details via fax. I will call to confirm this with you.

We are also eager to work with you in the questioning of the terrorist we recently rendered to your country. I would like to send to Libya an additional two officers and I would appreciate if they could have direct access to question this individual. Should you agree I would like to send these two officers to Libya on 25 March. Again [XXX] will communicate the details to you.

Steve”

Labels: CIA, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, LIBYA, TORTURE

posted by MrK @ 8:12 PM