(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The UK provided intelligence on Abdul Hakim Belhadj and then dispatched an officer to Tripoli to obtain information of “urgent importance” to Britain from him after he was captured, papers found among Gaddafi regime files suggested,
The apparent British role in the delivery of Belhadj into the hands of Col Gaddafi's repressive regime raises questions about whether London facilitated torture and highlights potential tensions with Libya's emerging new leadership.
Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director for Human Rights Watch , who found the documents among of stash of paper in an office used by Moussa Koussa, Libya's former head of external security, said: “It's hugely embarrassing to the CIA and MI6 to have these documents out in public.”
The key British paper in the Belhadj case is a memo dated March 18, 2004: “for the urgent personal attention of Musa Kusa”, with no letterhead and the address “London SE1”. While its authenticity could not be independently verified, the circumstances of its discovery and the consistency of the information in it with other sources give it credibility.
The document is headed “following message to Musa in Tripoli from Mark in London”.
Sir Mark Allen was MI6's counter-terrorism chief at the time and was closely involved in dealing with Libya.
Britain's Foreign Office declined to discuss the memo and Sir Mark could not be reached.
The memo's author congratulates Koussa on “the arrival of Abu 'Abd Allah Sadiq”, a nom de guerre for Belhadj, according to Human Rights Watch.
Another document Bouckaert discovered, apparently authored by a CIA agent in early March, describes a plan to “take control” of Belhadj and his pregnant wife in Bangkok and deliver them to Libya.
The rendition that took place shortly afterwards was “the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years”, the MI6 officer tells Koussa.
He goes on to express gratitude to Mr Koussa for “helping the officer we sent out last week,” adding: “Abu Abd 'Allah's information on the situation in this country is of urgent importance to us.”
The document says Britain will ignore a request from Washington that all information from the suspect should be channeled through the US. The MI6 officer asserts: “the intelligence about Abu 'Abd Allah was British”.
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