Secret Libyan files claim MI6 and the CIA aided human rights violations

[Formaldehyde]

Newly released documents claim that both the MI6 and the CIA worked closely with Libya. The CIA turned over extraordinary rendition victims to Libya to be tortured and questioned. The new head of the Libyan rebel army in Tripoli was one of the CIA rendition victims who was tortured and finally released because he was the head of a miitant group with ties to the al Qaeda. Libya even warned Britain that if Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was not handed over before he died there would be "dire consequences" in their new relationship.

Guardian:Secret Libyan files claim MI6 and the CIA aided human rights violations

British and US intelligence agencies built up close links with Muammar Gaddafi and handed over detailed information to assist his regime, according to secret files found in Libyan government offices.

The documents claim that MI6 supplied its counterparts in Libya with details on exiled opponents living in the UK, and chart how the CIA abducted several suspected militants before handing them over to Tripoli.

They also contain communications between British and Libyan security officials ahead of Tony Blair's visit in 2004, and show that British officials helped write a draft speech for Gaddafi when he was being encouraged to give up his weapons programme.

The discovery was made by reporters and members of Human Rights Watch in the private offices of Moussa Koussa, the former foreign minister and head of Libyan intelligence, who defected to Britain in February. He is now believed to be in Qatar.

According to the documents, Libya's relationship with MI6 and the CIA was especially close between 2002 and 2004, at the height of the war on terror. The papers give details of how No 10 insisted that the 2004 meeting between Blair and Gaddafi took place in his bedouin tent, with a letter from an MI6 official saying: "I don't know why the English are fascinated by tents. The plain fact is that the journalists would love it."

Other letters seem to reveal that British intelligence gave Tripoli details of a Libyan dissident who had been freed from jail in Britain. One US document stated the CIA was in a position to deliver a prisoner into the custody of Libyan authorities.

The papers, which have not been independently verified, also suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 who were subsequently handed over to Tripoli. Human Rights Watch has accused the CIA of condoning torture.

"It wasn't just abducting suspected Islamic militants and handing them over to the Libyan intelligence," said Peter Bouckaert, director of Human Rights Watch's emergencies division. "The CIA also sent the questions they wanted Libyan intelligence to ask and, from the files, it's very clear they were present in some of the interrogations themselves."

Foreign secretary, William Hague, said he could not comment on security matters. Further documents found at the British ambassador's residence in Tripoli, and obtained by a Sunday newspaper, concerned the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. A memo written in January 2009 by Robert Dixon, head of the North Africa team at the Foreign Office, and sent to then foreign secretary David Miliband, warned that Gaddafi's ministers said there would be "dire consequences" for the UK-Libya relationship in the event of Megrahi's death in custody.

CBS News: Libyan intel docs show ties to CIA renditions

(CBS/AP) TRIPOLI, Libya — The Bush administrations sent terror suspects to Libya for interrogation, despite that country's reputation for torture, according to documents found in the abandoned office of Libya's spy chief.
The intelligence documents were left behind when Tripoli fell to the rebels. They show a close working relationship between the Central Intelligence Agency and Muammar Qaddafi's intelligence service.

The CIA declined to comment on the documents. But it did say the U.S. works with foreign governments in an effort to fight terrorism.

"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," CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood told the Associated Press. "That is exactly what we are expected to do."

The CIA was among a number of foreign intelligence services that worked with Libya's agencies. Reports of such cooperation have surfaced before, but the documents provide new details on the ties between Western countries and Qaddafi's regime.

Many of those same countries backed the NATO attacks that helped Libya's rebels force Qaddafi from power.

One notable case is that of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, commander of the anti-Qaddafi rebel force that now controls Tripoli. Belhaj is the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a now-dissolved militant group with links to al Qaeda. Belhaj says he was tortured by CIA agents at a secret prison, then returned to Libya.

Two documents from March 2004 appear to be American correspondence to Libyan officials to arrange Belhaj's rendition.

Do you think the latest disclosures are true?

If they are true, should the CIA have been turning over terrorism suspects to be tortured? Are any of them surprising? Or was it obvious that there must have been reasons why the US and British governments abruptly changed relations with Libya? Do you think there is a problem with high-level Libyan rebels to have known associations with the al Qaeda and have even been a victim of CIA-ordered torture? Might these revelations cause future problems with our relations with the new leaders? Do you think Libya's threats regarding al-Megrahi had anything to do with his release?

If they are not true, why do you think these documents were fabricated? Could they cause problems with the new government?

 

[Silurian]

RR already has a thread on this

 

[Formaldehyde]

Oops. Mods plz delete or merge...