CIA Close Ties with Gaddafi’s Regime
US Central Intelligence Agency and Libyan intelligence services developed such a tight relationship during Bush administration that the US shipped terror suspects to Libya for interrogation and suggested the questions they should be asked, according to documents found in Libya's External Security agency headquarters.
A note from Stephen Kappes, at the time the No. 2 in the CIA's clandestine service, to Libya's then-intelligence chief, Moussa Koussa revealed that "the relationship was close enough that the CIA moved to establish a permanent presence in Libya in 2004."
The memo began "Dear Moussa," and was signed by hand, "Steve."
Kappes was a critical player in the secret negotiations that led to Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi's 2003 decision to give up his nuclear program.
The files documenting the renewal of ties between the CIA and Libyan intelligence were reviewed and copied by researchers from Human Rights Watch during a tour of Libya's External Security agency headquarters in downtown Tripoli.
Emergencies Director Peter Bouckaert said he was touring the building on Friday as part of the group's effort to help the Libyan transitional authority secure sensitive documents left by the Gaddafi regime, which collapsed in August after a five-month rebellion.
Bouckaert uncovered that he discovered the files inside the complex in a room that guards described as the former office of Koussa, who became foreign minister in 2009.
Bouckaert photographed the documents, leaving the originals in their place, and gave copies to The Wall Street Journal.
The files also show the close relationship that some British intelligence officials had with Koussa.
The files provide an extraordinary window into the highly secretive and controversial practice of rendition, whereby the agency would send detainees to other countries for interrogation, including ones known for harsh treatment of detainees. The program was ramped up for terror detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks.
When taking over the CIA at the outset of the Obama administration, then-director Leon Panetta said the agency would continue to use rendition.
"We are eager to work with you in the questioning of the terrorist we recently rendered to your country," Kappes wrote in the memo, adding that he would like to send two more officers to Libya to question a suspect directly.
In some of the documents, CIA provided Libyan intelligence with a long list of questions it wanted to have posed to one suspect in Tripoli's custody, a Libyan-Canadian who Western intelligence agencies accused of being a leader of the Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group, a now-defunct group the US suspected of links to al Qaeda. The Americans wanted to know, among other things, whether the man had relationships with named individuals in Cincinnati, Seattle and Los Angeles or with companies across the U.S. from a Colorado auto-sales firm to a global shipping company in California.
Many of the questions US intelligence officials wanted posed to the suspect were about other alleged members of the organization.
Another document said the CIA was aware that Libyan intelligence was cooperating with the British to bring to Tripoli a suspected militant leader who was being held in detention in Hong Kong for immigration violations.
An April 6, 2004 memo titled "Iraqi Scientists," the CIA asked Libyan intelligence to let US agents interview several Iraqi scientists who were living in Libya.
In one memo with the subject line "ALLEGED TERRORIST CELL WITHIN LIBYA PLANNING FOR ATTACKS AGAINST U.S. INTERESTS," the CIA asked for help tracking down a suspected "operational cell" in Libya suspected of being in contact with al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq. The CIA said it feared U.S. government officials and commercial interests in Libya would be attacked.
"Thank you very much for your speedy assistance," the memo concluded.
Source : News Agencies
