ANOTHER TYRANT – GADDAFI FALLS IX

( MAKE MORE ENEMIES?

IN A RELATIVELY WEAK POSITION, THERE IS NO NEED TO MAKE MORE ENEMIES.

EVEN IN A STRONGER POSITION, THERE IS ALSO NO NEED TO MAKE MORE ENEMIES.

THE STRATEGY: ORGANIZE – MAKE OTHERS AND EVEN YOUR ENEMIES, YOUR FRIENDS)

In Libya, Former Enemy Is Recast in Role of Ally

In Libya, Former Enemy Is Recast in Role of Ally – NYTimes.com

In Libya, Former Enemy Is Recast in Role of Ally – NYTimes.com

TRIPOLI, Libya — Abdel Hakim Belhaj had a wry smile about the oddity of his situation.Yes, he said, he was detained by Malaysian officials in 2004 on arrival at the Kuala Lumpur airport, where he was subjected to extraordinary rendition on behalf of the United States, and sent to Thailand. His pregnant wife, traveling with him, was taken away, and his child would be 6 before he saw him.

In Bangkok, Mr. Belhaj said, he was tortured for a few days by two people he said were C.I.A. agents, and then, worse, they repatriated him to Libya, where he was thrown into solitary confinement for six years, three of them without a shower, one without a glimpse of the sun.

Now this man is in charge of the military committee responsible for keeping order in Tripoli, and, he says, is a grateful ally of the United States and NATO.

And while Mr. Belhaj concedes that he was the emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was deemed by the United States to be a terrorist group allied with Al Qaeda, he says he has no Islamic agenda. He says he will disband the fighters under his command, merging them into the formal military or police, once the Libyan revolution is over.

He says there are no hard feelings over his past treatment by the United States.

“Definitely it was very hard, very difficult,” he said. “Now we are in Libya, and we want to look forward to a peaceful future. I do not want revenge.”

As the United States and other Western powers embrace and help finance the new government taking shape in Libya, they could face a particularly awkward relationship with Islamists like Mr. Belhaj. Once considered enemies in the war on terror, they suddenly have been thrust into positions of authority — with American and NATO blessing.

In Washington, the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment on Mr. Belhaj or his new role. A State Department official said the Obama administration was aware of Islamist backgrounds among the rebel fighters in Libya and had expressed concern to the Transitional National Council, the new rebel government, and that it had received assurances.

“The last few months, we’ve had the T.N.C. saying all the right things, and making the right moves,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the matter’s delicacy.

Mr. Belhaj, 45, a short and serious man with a close-cropped beard, burst onto the scene in the mountains west of Tripoli only in the last few weeks before the fall of the capital, as the leader of a brigade of rebel fighters.

“He wasn’t even in the military council in the western mountains,” said Othman Ben Sassi, a member of the Transitional National Council from Zuwarah in the west. “He was nothing, nothing. He arrived at the last moment, organized some people but was not responsible for the military council in the mountains.”

Then came the push on Tripoli, which fell with unexpected speed, and Mr. Belhaj and his fighters focused on the fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, where they distinguished themselves as relatively disciplined fighters.

A veteran of the war in Afghanistan against the Soviets, Mr. Belhaj has what most rebel fighters have lacked — actual military experience. Yet he has still not adopted a military rank (unlike many rebels who quickly became self-appointed colonels and generals), which he said should go only to members of the army.

Dressed in new military fatigues, with a pistol strapped backward to his belt, Mr. Belhaj was interviewed at his offices in the Mitiga Military Airbase in Tripoli, the site of what had been the United States Air Force’s Wheelus Air Base until 1970.

 Last weekend, Mr. Belhaj was voted commander of the Tripoli Military Council, a grouping of several brigades of rebels involved in taking the capital, by the other brigades, a move that aroused some criticism among liberal members of the council.

However, his appointment was strongly supported by Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the chairman of the council, who said that as Colonel Qaddafi’s former minister of justice he got to know Mr. Belhaj well during negotiations leading to his release from prison in 2010. Mr. Belhaj and other Islamist radicals made a historic compromise with the Qaddafi government, one that was brokered by Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the Qaddafi son seen then as a moderating influence.

Tripoli Files Show CIA Working With Libya

Tripoli Files Show CIA Working With Libya – WSJ.com

The Central Intelligence Agency and Libyan intelligence services developed such a tight relationship during the George W. Bush administration that the U.S. 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.

The relationship was close enough that the CIA moved to establish “a permanent presence” in Libya in 2004, according to 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.

The memo began “Dear Musa,” and was signed by hand, “Steve.” …

 

  

BBC News – Rendition apology demanded from MI6 and CIA by Libyan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14784365

The commander of anti-government forces in Tripoli says he wants an apology from Britain and America for his transfer to a prison in Libya in 2004.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, then a terror suspect, says he was tortured after being arrested in Bangkok.

He says he was taken to Libya by a CIA and MI6 operation, allegedly confirmed by documents sent to Gaddafi’s regime.

The Foreign Office said the government had a “long-standing policy” not to comment on intelligence matters.

Mr Belhaj told the BBC: “What happened to me and my family is illegal. It deserves an apology. And for what happened to me when I was captured and tortured.

“For all these illegal things, starting with the information given to Libyan security, the interrogation in Bangkok.”

According to the Guardian, these documents were discovered in an abandoned office building in Tripoli by staff from Human Rights Watch.

Mr Belhaj said that MI6 and the CIA did not witness his torture at the hands of the former Libyan regime, but did interview him afterwards.

Letter of thanks

Sir Mark Allen, formerly MI6’s director of counter-terrorism, has been reported to be the author of a letter to Moussa Koussa, thanking him for a “delicious” gift of dates and oranges, which was found among the recovered documents.

Mr Koussa served for years as Col Gaddafi’s spy chief before becoming foreign minister. He defected in the early part of the rebellion, flying to the UK and then on to Qatar.

Rights groups have long accused him of involvement in atrocities, and had called on the UK to arrest him at the time.

 

BBC News – Libya: Gaddafi regime’s US-UK spy links revealed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14774533

US and UK spy agencies built close ties with their Libyan counterparts during the so-called War on Terror, according to documents discovered at the office of Col Gaddafi’s former spy chief.

The papers suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 and handed them to Tripoli.

The UK’s MI6 also apparently gave the Gaddafi regime details of dissidents.

The documents, found by Human Rights Watch workers, have not been seen by the BBC or independently verified.

Meanwhile, the head of Libya’s interim governing body, the National Transitional Council, said its soldiers were laying siege to towns still held by Col Gaddafi’s forces.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Sirte, Bani Walid, Jufra and Sabha were being given humanitarian aid, but had one week to surrender.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne in Benghazi says there have been unconfirmed reports that Bani Walid has now been taken by anti-Gaddafi forces.

But witnesses on the edge of Bani Walid say the opposition fighters are still on the outskirts although our correspondent adds that it appears as if Gaddafi loyalists have abandoned many of their outlying positions.

‘Protecting Americans’

Thousands of pieces of correspondence from US and UK officials were uncovered by reporters and activists in an office apparently used by Moussa Koussa, who served for years as Col Gaddafi’s spy chief before becoming foreign minister.

VIDEOS INSIDE

UK envoy ‘declines apology over Libya rendition claims’

BBC News – UK envoy ‘declines apology over Libya rendition claims’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14842631

Britain’s senior diplomat in Tripoli declined to offer an apology during a meeting on Thursday with the man at the centre of allegations of rendition, torture, and collusion between the former government of Col Gaddafi, London and Washington.

I understand from a Libyan source at Thursday’s meeting between Dominic Asquith and Abdel Hakim Belhaj, now in charge of Tripoli’s military council, that Mr Belhaj raised the issue of an apology directly with the British envoy but was politely turned down.

BBC News – Torture inquiry to examine UK-Libya intelligence links

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14786924

Allegations that MI6 was involved in the rendition of Libyan terror suspects will be examined by an existing inquiry, David Cameron has said.

It comes after papers suggesting close ties between MI6, the CIA and the Gaddafi regime were found in Tripoli.

Sir Peter Gibson’s inquiry into alleged involvement in torture by UK security agencies has said it will investigate.

A former Libyan foreign minister has claimed MI6 was co-operating with the old regime until about six months ago.

Meanwhile UK officials, including staff from the Foreign Office and Department for International Development, have arrived in Tripoli to re-establish a diplomatic presence in Libya.

Making a statement on Libya in the Commons earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “We’ve asked the retired judge, Sir Peter Gibson, to examine issues around the detention and treatment of terrorist suspects overseas and this inquiry has already said it will look at these latest accusations very carefully.

“My concern throughout has been not only to remove any stain on Britain’s reputation but also to deal with these accusations of malpractice so as to enable our security services to get on with the vital work that they do.”

Opposition leader Ed Miliband said he agreed with the prime minister “that the Gibson inquiry must get to the bottom of the allegations”.

 

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Battle for Tripoli – Framework – Photos and Video – Visual Storytelling from the Los Angeles Times

http://framework.latimes.com/2011/08/25/libya-2/#/0

Battle for Tripoli

1. Posted By: Marc Martin

1. Posted On: 12:19 p.m. | August 25, 2011

Fighting continues in the Libyan capital as rebel forces search for the country’s longtime ruler, Moammar Kadafi, who was dislodged from his command and control center this week and remains in hiding.