[News] CIA, MI6 under scrutiny after secret files reveal Gadhafi rendition deals

[Anti-Imperialist News]

CIA, MI6 under scrutiny after secret files reveal Gadhafi rendition deals

<http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_lupe/0,,15365413,00.html>The CIA 
struck rendition deals with Libya as early as 2002
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15365413,00.html


With the Gadhafi regime in tatters and the Libyan leader on the run, 
secret files in Tripoli have come to light which detail the depth of 
cooperation between the US and UK with Libya on the rendition of 
terror suspects.

The United States and Britain face embarrassing questions after reams 
of confidential documents discovered in Libya's External Security 
agency headquarters exposed the depth of cooperation between the 
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the UK's foreign intelligence 
service MI6 and fugitive dictator Moammar Gadhafi's secret service.

The documents, uncovered by officials from the Libyan transitional 
authority and researchers from Human Rights Watch during a sweep of 
government buildings, show that both the US and British intelligence 
services developed very close relations with Gadhafi. This 
cooperation took place even before the former Libyan leader was 
rehabillitated in the wake of his pledge to help in the war on terror 
and his renouncing of nuclear-weapons in 2004.

Documents recovered from the offices also show that the CIA was using 
Libya as a location for its "special renditions," the US policy of 
sending terror suspects to third countries for interrogation, from as 
early as 2002. The files show that the CIA flew terror suspects to 
Libya for questioning by Gadhafi's secret police and even provided 
the Libyans with the questions that should be asked.

"After 9/11 the CIA seemed to be involved in various North African 
countries; training forces and supplying small arms in the name of 
stopping al Qaeda and the spread of terrorism," Patricia DeGennaro, 
professor of international security at New York University's 
Department of Politics, told Deutsche Welle.

"It is well known that there were rendition camps in several 
countries including Morocco. Since Libya is so isolated and got so 
little international attention, it was easy for the CIA to use this 
location and be in essence under the radar."

"No one on the international stage ever took Gadhafi seriously so it 
was unlikely that anyone would question him about rendition 
facilities," she added.

Cooperation was so deep that the George W. Bush administration 
considered establishing "a permanent presence" in Libya, possibly a 
CIA-run secret prison or a covert CIA field office, where terror 
suspects could be incarcerated and interrogated. Documents show that 
this "presence" was set up in 2004 after Gadhafi had come in from the 
diplomatic cold.

CIA renditions

One letter sent from the CIA to Libyan intelligence, dated April 15, 
2004, cited "recently developed agreements" between the US and Libya 
and asked the Libyans to "agree to take our requirements for 
debriefings" into consideration in regard to an unnamed terror 
suspect. The letter also asks that the Libyans to "guarantee that 
[the suspect's] human rights will be protected" while in custody.

The documents indicate that eight prisoners in total were captured 
and put on CIA "rendition" flights back to Libya between 2004 and 
2007, although US cooperation with Libya continued until at least 
2009 - according to embassy cables released by WikiLeaks - with 
senior senators such as John McCain and Joe Liebermann meeting with 
Gadhafi to assure the dictator that "the United States wanted to 
provide Libya with the equipment it needs for its security."

"The US stepped back from its relationship with Gadhafi when 
President Obama took office," said DeGennaro. "At that time Obama was 
against this idea of rendition and intended to close Guantanamo and 
end the reputation for torture that the US had gained through these 
clandestine places of illegal incarceration."

Before that change in administration, however, the CIA had 
consolidated its presence and expanded its activities in Libya. In 
another of the Libyan documents from 2004, the CIA asks Libyan 
intelligence to let its agents interview several Iraqi scientists who 
were living in Libya in a bid to determine the fate of Iraq's alleged 
weapons of mass destruction. Another document details growing US 
concern over a suspected "operational" terror cell in Libya, 
suspected of being in contact with al Qaeda operatives in Iraq.

The main contact between the CIA and Libya throughout this period of 
intense cooperation appears to be Moussa Koussa, Libya's 
then-intelligence chief and the man suspected on coordinating 
Libya-backed terror activities in the 1980s.

Koussa, who defected from Gadhafi's government in March, is shown in 
the documents as being on first name terms with Stephen Kappes, 
second-in command at the CIA's clandestine service and a key 
negotiator in the 2004 nuclear deal with Libya. He is also shown to 
have cultivated significant ties with some British intelligence officials.

MI5 deal

A number of documents show that the British domestic security service 
MI5 traded information on British-based anti-Gadhafi Libyans in 
exchange for updates on the disclosures made by suspected terrorists 
being questioned in Libya under "extraordinary rendition."

The British were acutely aware of Libya's reputation for torturing 
prisoners and appear to have been unconcerned by the practices 
employed to extract the information they received, suggesting the 
UK's complicity in and knowledge of torture.

MI6, the foreign intelligence service, is also revealed to have 
worked with the CIA on renditions of terror suspects to Libya, 
including the Libyan rebel's security commander in Tripoli, Abdul 
Hakim Belhaj. Belhaj, who is considering suing the US and UK 
governments over his allegedly brutal treatment, was a leading 
dissident member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an 
organization listed as a terror group by the US because of its 
suspected links to al Qaeda.

One document records an exchange between a senior MI6 officer and a 
Libyan counterpart in which the MI6 operative boasts about how 
British spies provided Belhaj's French and Moroccan aliases and his 
location to US and Libyan intelligence, eventually leading to his 
capture in Bangkok on March 6, 2004.

Belhaj alleges that the CIA tortured him and injected him with truth 
serum before flying him back to Tripoli for interrogation where he 
claims he was first interrogated by MI6 officers and then transferred 
into Libyan custody.

"MI6 would have been seeking to gain access to detainees associated 
with the jihadi movement in Libya, in order to obtain information 
about, firstly, known and suspected Libyan terrorists and, secondly, 
known and suspected terrorists of other nationalities who the Libyan 
jihadists may have come into contact with in Sudan, Algeria and 
Afghanistan," Alia Brahimi, a Middle East expert and author, told 
Deutsche Welle.

In another damaging revelation for the British, one document reveals 
that Saadi and Khamis Gadhafi, two of the dictator's sons, were 
invited to visit the headquarters of the Special Air Service (SAS), 
Britain's top Special Forces regiment, and its navy counterpart, the 
Special Boat Service (SBS) in July 2006, although the visit never went ahead.

Both Gadhafi sons would have met with high-ranking British military 
officials during the visit and were scheduled to hold talks with 
representatives of Britain's largest arms manufacturers while in the UK.

UK torture inquiry

The revealing documents have come to light at a time when the British 
security services are under increased scrutiny ahead of an inquiry 
into the UK's role in rendition and the security services' knowledge 
of the torture and mistreatment of terrorist suspects.

The Gibson Inquiry has announced that it will "be considering 
allegations of UK involvement in rendition to Libya as part of our 
work" and has been backed by British Prime Minister David Cameron who 
welcomed a wider investigation into the "significant" accusations 
that that MI6 and MI5 became "too close" to Libya.

"What these intelligent organizations did was illegal and inhumane," 
said DeGennaro. "David Cameron is right to start an investigation and 
the Obama Administration and Congress should not hesitate to follow suit."

"Unfortunately that would probably implicate members of Congress and 
the former administration. Powerful senators like John McCain, who 
probably knew very well what was happening, won't ever allow this."


Author: Nick Amies
Editor: Rob Mudge




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