CIA, MI-6 helped Gadhafi, group says - Ottawa Citizen

Documents found in the abandoned Tripoli office of Moammar Gadhafi's intelligence chief indicate the U.S. and British spy agencies helped the fallen strongman persecute Libyan dissidents, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.

The documents were uncovered by the human rights activist group in the abandoned offices of Libya's former spy chief and foreign minister, Moussa Koussa.

The group said it uncovered hundreds of letters between the CIA, MI-6 and Koussa, who is now in exile in London. Letters from the CIA began, "Dear Moussa," and were signed informally with first names only by CIA officials, Human Rights Watch said.

The current military commander for Tripoli of Libya's provisional government, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, was among those captured and sent to Libya by the CIA, Human Rights Watch said.

"Among the files we discovered at Moussa Koussa's office is a fax from the CIA dated 2004 in which the CIA informs the Libyan government that they are in a position to capture and render Belhadj," Human Rights Watch's Peter Bouckaert, who was part of the group that found the stash, told Reuters.

"That operation actually took place. He was captured by the CIA in Asia and put on a secret flight back to Libya where he was interrogated and tortured by the Libyan security services."

The files shed new light on the practice known as rendition, used by the United States under former president George W. Bush, in which the terrorism suspects were handed over to other countries for interrogation. Rights groups have criticized the U.S. for sending these suspects to countries where they were likely to be tortured.

Belhadj has said that he was tortured by CIA agents before being transferred to Libya, where he says he was then tortured at Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison.

Western intelligence services began co-operating with Libya after Gadhafi abandoned his program to build unconventional weapons in 2004.

But the files show his cooperation with the CIA and MI-6 may have been more extensive than previously thought, analysts say.

The depth of the ties could anger officials in Libya's provisional government - many of whom are long-term opponents of Gadhafi and are now responsible for charting a new path for Libya's foreign relations.

Bouckaert showed Reuters photos of several documents on his computer and also photos of letters he said were from the CIA to Koussa and were signed, "Steve."

He also displayed photographs he said were of letters from MI6 giving Libyan intelligence information on Libyan dissidents in Britain.

"Our concern is that when these people were handed over to the Libyan security, they were tortured and the CIA knew what would happen when they sent people like Abdel Hakim into the hands of the Libyan security services," Bouckaert said.

In Washington, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood, without commenting on any specific allegation or document, said: "It can't come as a surprise that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats.