24-01-2015, 02:41 PM
The case for a judicial inquiry into Libyan rendition is now undeniable
Richard Norton-Taylor The evidence is clear that MI5 and MI6 were involved in the abduction and torture of Gaddafi's opponents someone must be held to account
Evidence emerged that Libyan dissidents Abdel Hakim Belhaj (above) and Sami al-Saadi had been abducted and rendered to Tripoli in a joint MI6-CIA operation.' Photograph: Francois Mori/AP Saturday 24 January 2015 05.15 AEST
On 16 December 2003, in a private room in the Travellers Club on Pall Mall, a group of MI6, CIA and Libyan intelligence officials had a very long lunch. They were waiting for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to abandon his nuclear weapons programme.
[URL="http://www.theguardian.com/world/muammar-gaddafi"]
[/URL]By the evening Gaddafi finally sent a message that he agreed, giving the green light to an astonishing turnaround in relations between Britain and the Libyan dictator. From being a villain the man who supplied arms to the IRA, the man responsible for the Lockerbie disaster, one of whose agents had killed the police officer Yvonne Fletcher in London's St James Square in 1984 Gaddafi immediately became a useful, and profitable, friend.
The door was opened to huge and lucrative British deals with Libya: Shell signed a large gas exploration contract; and BP signed a £15bn oil drilling contract with Libya which became known as "the deal in the desert".
"Dear Muammar," Blair wrote to Gaddafi in June 2007, "you have led a genuine transformation in relations between our two countries in recent years, from which both our peoples stand to benefit."
But Gaddafi's welcome in from the cold was not limited to commerce, and not everyone was to benefit. As Ian Cobain describes in detail in the Guardian, it led to MI6 and MI5's close involvement in the secret abduction of Gaddafi's opponents, connivance (wittingly or not) in their subsequent torture, an active role in their interrogation, and in the intimidation of Libyan dissidents in Britain.
Such actions fly in the face of repeated denials and assurances by ministers to parliament and the public. They would probably have never come to light had they not been revealed in the files of Gaddafi's intelligence chief Moussa Koussa (who became a close colleague of Sir Mark Allen, head of counter terrorism at MI6, later appointed a BP director) that were blown open by Nato-led air strikes in Tripoli in 2011.
The files show that Gaddafi's agents recorded MI5 warning in September 2006 that the two countries' intelligence agencies should take steps to ensure that their joint operations would never be "discovered by lawyers or human rights organisations and the media". Their attempt to keep these activities secret has been shattered, and a bid by UK government lawyers to have claims for damages by 12 Gaddafi opponents (who were allegedly kidnapped and tortured) struck out was dismissed on Thursday by Mr Justice Irwin, who described the allegations as "of real potential public concern".
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Sami al-Saadi was also abducted by MI6 and CIA operatives. Photograph: MARCO LONGARI/AFP In 2010 David Cameron promised a judge-led inquiry into evidence that had emerged in court that MI5 and MI6 were involved in the secret rendition, abuse and torture of UK citizens and residents accused of planning terror plots. An inquiry by former judge Sir Peter Gibson was abandoned after evidence emerged that Libyan dissidents Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Sami al-Saadi had been abducted and rendered to Tripoli in a joint MI6-CIA operation.
Despite Cameron's promise, he dumped a new inquiry into the hands of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, the very body that previously wrongly concluded that there was "no evidence that the UK agencies were complicit" in such operations.
Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, told MPs in December 2005: "There is simply no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition full stop." After the Libyan renditions came to light, he said: "No foreign secretary can know all the details of what its intelligence agencies are doing at any one time." Government officials, insisting on anonymity, say MI6 was following "ministerially authorised government policy". Blair said he didn't have "any recollection at all" of the Belhaj-Saadi renditions.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...are_btn_tw
Richard Norton-Taylor The evidence is clear that MI5 and MI6 were involved in the abduction and torture of Gaddafi's opponents someone must be held to account
Evidence emerged that Libyan dissidents Abdel Hakim Belhaj (above) and Sami al-Saadi had been abducted and rendered to Tripoli in a joint MI6-CIA operation.' Photograph: Francois Mori/AP Saturday 24 January 2015 05.15 AEST
On 16 December 2003, in a private room in the Travellers Club on Pall Mall, a group of MI6, CIA and Libyan intelligence officials had a very long lunch. They were waiting for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to abandon his nuclear weapons programme.
[URL="http://www.theguardian.com/world/muammar-gaddafi"]
[/URL]By the evening Gaddafi finally sent a message that he agreed, giving the green light to an astonishing turnaround in relations between Britain and the Libyan dictator. From being a villain the man who supplied arms to the IRA, the man responsible for the Lockerbie disaster, one of whose agents had killed the police officer Yvonne Fletcher in London's St James Square in 1984 Gaddafi immediately became a useful, and profitable, friend.
The door was opened to huge and lucrative British deals with Libya: Shell signed a large gas exploration contract; and BP signed a £15bn oil drilling contract with Libya which became known as "the deal in the desert".
"Dear Muammar," Blair wrote to Gaddafi in June 2007, "you have led a genuine transformation in relations between our two countries in recent years, from which both our peoples stand to benefit."
But Gaddafi's welcome in from the cold was not limited to commerce, and not everyone was to benefit. As Ian Cobain describes in detail in the Guardian, it led to MI6 and MI5's close involvement in the secret abduction of Gaddafi's opponents, connivance (wittingly or not) in their subsequent torture, an active role in their interrogation, and in the intimidation of Libyan dissidents in Britain.
Such actions fly in the face of repeated denials and assurances by ministers to parliament and the public. They would probably have never come to light had they not been revealed in the files of Gaddafi's intelligence chief Moussa Koussa (who became a close colleague of Sir Mark Allen, head of counter terrorism at MI6, later appointed a BP director) that were blown open by Nato-led air strikes in Tripoli in 2011.
The files show that Gaddafi's agents recorded MI5 warning in September 2006 that the two countries' intelligence agencies should take steps to ensure that their joint operations would never be "discovered by lawyers or human rights organisations and the media". Their attempt to keep these activities secret has been shattered, and a bid by UK government lawyers to have claims for damages by 12 Gaddafi opponents (who were allegedly kidnapped and tortured) struck out was dismissed on Thursday by Mr Justice Irwin, who described the allegations as "of real potential public concern".
Sami al-Saadi was also abducted by MI6 and CIA operatives. Photograph: MARCO LONGARI/AFP In 2010 David Cameron promised a judge-led inquiry into evidence that had emerged in court that MI5 and MI6 were involved in the secret rendition, abuse and torture of UK citizens and residents accused of planning terror plots. An inquiry by former judge Sir Peter Gibson was abandoned after evidence emerged that Libyan dissidents Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Sami al-Saadi had been abducted and rendered to Tripoli in a joint MI6-CIA operation.
Despite Cameron's promise, he dumped a new inquiry into the hands of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, the very body that previously wrongly concluded that there was "no evidence that the UK agencies were complicit" in such operations.
Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, told MPs in December 2005: "There is simply no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition full stop." After the Libyan renditions came to light, he said: "No foreign secretary can know all the details of what its intelligence agencies are doing at any one time." Government officials, insisting on anonymity, say MI6 was following "ministerially authorised government policy". Blair said he didn't have "any recollection at all" of the Belhaj-Saadi renditions.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...are_btn_tw
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"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.