Libya : A no lie zone

[Peter Lemkin]

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.