|
Secret documents have revealed that Britain has been a complicit in the US rendition plot that successfully delivered a leader of Libya´s revolutionary forces to Gaddafi.
The US´s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detained Abdul Hakim Belhadj (also known as Abdullah al-Sadiq) in Malaysia and transferred him to Thailand for interrogation. After the American forces found no connection between Belhadj and al-Qaeda, they rendered him back to the Gaddafi´s regime.
Belhadj was, once, the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that opposed Gaddafi. When Gaddafi forces killed the leader of the group in 1995 in a conflict, Belhadj left Libya.
Nevertheless, the American intelligence agents delivered him to Gaddafi in 2004. The military commander, who had led the revolutionary forces into the Libyan capital Tripoli, ended up in the Gaddafi regime´s notorious Abu Salim prison.
The Western intelligence services willingly delivered Libyans that had abducted from around the world to Gaddafi so as to receive information from the dictator´s forces.
The leaked documents revealed that after Belhadj was detained in Malaysia, Britain sent an intelligence agent to Tripoli in order to gather information about the “urgent importance” about him.
The secret documents show that an MI6 officer has thanked Libya´s former head of external security, Musa Kusa, for “helping the officer we sent out last week” as he called information obtained about Belhadj of urgent importance to Britain.
The documents were found by Emergencies Director for Human Rights Watch, Peter Bouckaert in an office used by Kusa. Bouckaert described the revelations as “hugely embarrassing to the CIA and MI6.”
In a memo entitled “for the urgent personal attention of Musa Kusa,” dating back to March 18, 2004 and with the address being “London SE1,” the MI6 officer had gone even further to describe Belhadj´s rendition “the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.”
The suspected author of the memo, Sir Mark Allen, is MI6´s former counter-terrorism director, who had close links with the Gaddafi regime. The author has even congratulated the Libyan regime on “the arrival of Abu ´Abd Allah Sadiq.”
Claiming that the “the intelligence about Abu ´Abd Allah was British,” the British government has refused to provide the CIA with information about Belhadj. In this regard, the MI6 officer wrote in the momo, “I know I did not pay for the air cargo. But I feel I have the right to deal with you direct on this and am very grateful to you for the help you are giving us.”
Interestingly, while Britain´s Foreign Office refused to comment on the leaked memo that was found among the overthrown Libyan dictator Gaddafi regime´s files, it condemned the “extraordinary rendition” of terror suspects.
The revelations indicate prospective tensions between the British government and Libya´s new leadership as the country´s National Transitional Council has refused to extradite any Libyan citizens to Britain, turning down British officials´ calls for the extradition of the Lockerbie bomber and the suspect for the murder of police officer Yvonne Fletcher.
End.
Last Updated: 6 September 2011
|
Press Releases
Interviews and Articles
Iran regrets some ...