Britain
helped to capture one of the leading opponents of the Gaddafi regime
before he was sent back to be tortured in Libya, according to a secret
document discovered by The Independent on Sunday in the offices of
Moussa Koussa, then Muammar Gaddafi's spymaster.
London's
involvement in the rendition of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, currently the
military commander of rebel forces in Tripoli, is revealed in the letter
from an MI6 officer. In it, he reminds Mr Koussa that it was British
intelligence which led to the capture of Mr Belhaj, then leader of the
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, before he was sent to Libya in the
rendition process by the Americans.
The senior UK intelligence
official, whose identity is not being revealed by The Independent on
Sunday for security reasons, then sought information obtained from the
Islamist leader by "enhanced interrogation technique". Mr Belhaj had
revealed that he was tortured during questioning.
The letter
refers to Mr Belhaj by his nom de guerre, Abu 'Abd Allah Sadiq, and
reads in part: "The intelligence about Abu 'Abd Allah was British. I
know I did not pay for the air cargo [Mr Belhaj]. 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."
The senior UK intelligence official
wrote: "This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to
demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent
years... I was grateful to you for helping the officer we sent out last
week. Abu 'Abd Allah's information on the situation in this country is
of urgent importance to us."
So close had the relationship become
that several Western European intelligence agencies were using the
services of MI6 to approach the Libyans for help with their own
terrorist suspects. The Swedish, Italian and Dutch services sought the
help of the UK agency in liaising with Tripoli. A sign of the warmth of
the relationship between British intelligence and their Libyan
counterparts is shown in the stream of letters from London to Tripoli,
headed "Greetings from MI6" and "Greetings from SIS".
Although the
documents, which we have not been able to independently verify, relate
to the years when Tony Blair's government was in power, they threaten to
undermine the UK's relations with the new Libyan administration, the
Transitional National Council (TNC). Last night one Conservative MP
accused Blair's government of "aiding and abetting" the Gaddafi regime.
Most
of the papers were found at the private offices of Moussa Koussa, the
foreign minister, regime security chief and one of Gaddafi's chief
lieutenants, on Friday afternoon. Rebel fighters had been inside the
building and paperwork was strewn on desks and the floor amid broken
glass. The building was locked up on the orders of the TNC yesterday
morning.
Mr Koussa, who defected after the February revolution and
spent time in the UK, left to take up residence in the Gulf after
demands that he face police questioning over the murder of Libyan
opposition figures in exile, the Lockerbie bombing and the killing of
the policewoman Yvonne Fletcher. In a sign of the importance of the
British connection, MI6 merited two files in Mr Koussa's office, while
the CIA had only one. UK intelligence agencies had played a leading role
in bringing Gaddafi's regime in from the cold.
The documents
reveal that British security agencies provided details about exiled
opposition figures to the Libyans, including phone numbers. Among those
targeted were Ismail Kamoka, freed by British judges in 2004 because he
was not regarded as a threat to the UK's national security. MI6 even
drafted a speech for Gaddafi when he was seeking rapprochement with the
outside world with a covering note stressing that UK and Libyan
officials must use "the same script".
The Libyan government sought
the services of British intelligence in attempting to block asylum
applications by opponents of the regime. One document, regarding an
application for refuge by a man with the initials SRA-Z (name withheld
by The IoS for security reasons), led to a response from British
officials. "It is not the practice of the UK government to comment on
possible asylum cases."
However, the intelligence agency then
sought to gain information about the applicant. The letter, addressed to
"Dear Friends", said: "We are sorry we can't be more helpful in this
case but we must comply with this practice. We... would welcome hearing
from your service why you are interested in Mr A-Z so we could consider
what action we might wish to take should we become aware of him."
Other
documents show urgent requests for information about Abu Hamza al-Libi,
said to be a senior al-Qa'ida operative who had travelled to the UK
from Italy and the Netherlands to collect forged UK passports destined
for Iran. Al-Libi was suspected of being involved in a plot to carry out
a cyanide attack in Rome in 2002. He was detained in Britain, but freed
in January 2010. He is believed to have died in a motorbike crash in
London eight months later.
Ben Wallace, a Conservative MP, said
the last government should be made to answer publicly for "conspiring"
with Gaddafi's regime. The former military intelligence officer said:
"Giving countries like this information they can use to oppress their
people and break international law amounts to aiding and abetting the
Gaddafi regime. We need to get to the bottom of how far British
officials and ministers went to assist the Libyans to do their job of
suppressing their own people. We might hand information like this over
to our allies, but we would be confident they would use it lawfully. You
can't have that confidence with Gaddafi."
Britain's extraordinary
rekindling of relations with Libya did not start as Mr Blair sipped tea
in a Bedouin tent with Gaddafi, nor within the walls of the Travellers
Club in Pall Mall – although this "summit of spies" in 2003 played a
major role. It can be traced back to a 1999 meeting Mr Blair held with
the man hailed as one of the greatest to have ever lived: Nelson
Mandela, in South Africa.
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