Files Note Close C.I.A. Ties to Qaddafi Spy Unit

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

TRIPOLI, Libya — Documents found at the abandoned office of Libya’s former spymaster appear to provide new details of the close relations the Central Intelligence Agency shared with the Libyan intelligence service — most notably suggesting that the Americans sent terrorism suspects at least eight times for questioning in Libya despite that country’s reputation for torture.

Although it has been known that Western intelligence services began cooperating with Libya after it abandoned its program to build unconventional weapons in 2004, the files left behind as Tripoli fell to rebels show that the cooperation was much more extensive than generally known with both the C.I.A. and its British equivalent, MI-6.

Some documents indicate that the British agency was even willing to trace phone numbers for the Libyans, and another appears to be a proposed speech written by the Americans for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi about renouncing unconventional weapons.

The documents were discovered Friday by journalists and Human Rights Watch. There were at least three binders of English-language documents, one marked C.I.A. and the other two marked MI-6, among a larger stash of documents in Arabic.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/world/africa/03libya.html?pagewanted=all

[MADem]

1. I'd be surprised if the CIA wasn't in there. Or most other substantial nations.

Same with the Chinese, the Russians, the Israelis, the Iranians, etc.

It's what intelligence agencies do.

[Arctic Dave]

2. I wonder if this will get as many post as the condi album?

Doubt it. Not shiny enough.

[joshcryer]

7. Shows that Gaddafi was an imperialist lackey.

So yeah, it'll sink like a rock.

[defendandprotect]

3. k/r ---

[Downwinder]

4. Organized crime knows no political borders.

[global1]

5. This Was Under BushCo?.......nt

[jwirr]

6. We should stop kidding ourselves. Our CIA not only installed these

assholes but we taught them how to violate their citizens right and how to torture them. I want them out but I think we should stop acting like we are some kind of hero. We have done this world over and are still doing it.

[dorkulon]

8. "despite"? Come on.

We sent those suspects there precisely because of their reputation for torture.

[joshcryer]

9. I sense intentional irony there, showing the double standard.

8th Amendment forbids torture but we do it clandestinely (and in Bush's case, even openly admitting to it).

[OnyxCollie]

10. Bush openly admitted it and post-partisan Obama excused it.

Isn't that nice? That makes him complicit.

CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html

Article 3

No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.
For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.

Article 4

Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.
Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.

Obama called on the former general chairman of the RNC to stop Spain's investigation of US torture crimes.

WikiLeaks: How U.S. tried to stop Spain's torture probe
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/25/105786/wikileaks-how-us-tried-to-stop.html

MIAMI — It was three months into Barack Obama's presidency, and the administration -- under pressure to do something about alleged abuses in Bush-era interrogation policies -- turned to a Florida senator to deliver a sensitive message to Spain:

Don't indict former President George W. Bush's legal brain trust for alleged torture in the treatment of war on terror detainees, warned Mel Martinez on one of his frequent trips to Madrid. Doing so would chill U.S.-Spanish relations.

US embassy cables: Don't pursue Guantánamo criminal case, says Spanish attorney general
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/202776?INTCMP=SRCH

6. (C) As reported in SEPTEL, Senator Mel Martinez, accompanied by the Charge d'Affaires, met Acting FM Angel Lossada during a visit to the Spanish MFA on April 15. Martinez and the Charge underscored that the prosecutions would not be understood or accepted in the U.S. and would have an enormous impact on the bilateral relationship. The Senator also asked if the GOS had thoroughly considered the source of the material on which the allegations were based to ensure the charges were not based on misinformation or factually wrong statements. Lossada responded that the GOS recognized all of the complications presented by universal jurisdiction, but that the independence of the judiciary and the process must be respected. The GOS would use all appropriate legal tools in the matter. While it did not have much margin to operate, the GOS would advise Conde Pumpido that the official administration position was that the GOS was "not in accord with the National Court." Lossada reiterated to Martinez that the executive branch of government could not close any judicial investigation and urged that this case not affect the overall relationship, adding that our interests were much broader, and that the universal jurisdiction case should not be viewed as a reflection of the GOS position.

Judd Gregg, Obama's Republican nominee for Commerce secretary, didn't like the investigations either.

US embassy cables: Don't pursue Guantánamo criminal case, says Spanish attorney general
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/202776?INTCMP=SRCH

4. (C) As reported in REF A, Senator Judd Gregg, accompanied by the Charge d'Affaires, raised the issue with Luis Felipe Fernandez de la Pena, Director General Policy Director for North America and Europe during a visit to the Spanish MFA on April 13. Senator Gregg expressed his concern about the case. Fernandez de la Pena lamented this development, adding that judicial independence notwithstanding, the MFA disagreed with efforts to apply universal jurisdiction in such cases.

Why the aversion? To protect Bushco, of course!

US embassy cables: Spanish prosecutor weighs Guantánamo criminal case against US officials
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/200177

The fact that this complaint targets former Administration legal officials may reflect a "stepping-stone" strategy designed to pave the way for complaints against even more senior officials.

Eric Holder got the message.

Holder Says He Will Not Permit the Criminalization of Policy Differences
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7410267&page=1

As lawmakers call for hearings and debate brews over forming commissions to examine the Bush administration's policies on harsh interrogation techniques, Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed to a House panel that intelligence officials who relied on legal advice from the Bush-era Justice Department would not be prosecuted.

"Those intelligence community officials who acted reasonably and in good faith and in reliance on Department of Justice opinions are not going to be prosecuted," he told members of a House Appropriations Subcommittee, reaffirming the White House sentiment. "It would not be fair, in my view, to bring such prosecutions."

CIA Exhales: 99 Out of 101 Torture Cases Dropped
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/cia-exhales-99-out-of-101-torture-cases-dropped/

This is how one of the darkest chapters in U.S. counterterrorism ends: with practically every instance of suspected CIA torture dodging criminal scrutiny. It’s one of the greatest gifts the Justice Department could have given the CIA as David Petraeus takes over the agency.

Over two years after Attorney General Eric Holder instructed a special prosecutor, John Durham, to “preliminar review” whether CIA interrogators unlawfully tortured detainees in their custody, Holder announced on Thursday afternoon that he’ll pursue criminal investigations in precisely two out of 101 cases of suspected detainee abuse. Some of them turned out not to have involved CIA officials after all. Both of the cases that move on to a criminal phase involved the “death in custody” of detainees, Holder said.

But just because there’s a further criminal inquiry doesn’t necessarily mean there will be any charges brought against CIA officials involved in those deaths. If Holder’s decision on Thursday doesn’t actually end the Justice Department’s review of torture in CIA facilities, it brings it awfully close, as outgoing CIA Director Leon Panetta noted.

“On this, my last day as Director, I welcome the news that the broader inquiries are behind us,” Panetta wrote to the CIA staff on Thursday. “We are now finally about to close this chapter of our Agency’s history.”

[No Elephants]

11. Project Runway Foreign Relations

One day, you're in and the next, you're out.

[IamK]

12. The CIA has been and is heavily involved with Israeli & Saudi Intelligence and they

are not known for playing nice...You could probably list 20 more.. no surprise...

[Hissyspit]

13. Documents Show Links Between CIA, Libya Spy Unit (Rendition Despite Torture Reputation)

Source: Reuters

Documents show links between CIA, Libya spy unit
WASHINGTON | Sat Sep 3, 2011 9:47am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Documents found in Tripoli detail close ties between the CIA and Libya's intelligence service and suggest the United States sent terrorism suspects for questioning in Libya despite that country's reputation for torture, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The Times reported that the files cover the time from 2002 to 2007, when Moussa Koussa headed Libya's External Security Organization. Koussa most recently had been Libya's foreign minister but defected from now-fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi's government and flew to Britain on March 30 amid this year's rebel uprising.

The newspaper reported that the documents -- including some English-language files concerning the CIA and Britain's MI-6 intelligence agency -- were found on Friday at the abandoned office of Libya's former spy chief by journalists and the group Human Rights Watch.

The Times said it was impossible to verify the authenticity of the documents but that their content appears to be consistent with facts known about the U.S. transfer of terrorism suspects abroad for interrogation -- a practice known as rendition -- and other known CIA practices. Renditions occurred under former President George W. Bush's administration.

Read more: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE78213Y20110903?irpc=932

[SpiralHawk]

14. The Repubbies (R) were (and are) sooo deeply in bed with Eeevil Doers (R)

[cstanleytech]

15. The problem is like most people who commit or support such atrocities they see

nothing wrong their actions.

[Solly Mack]

16. Shakes head

Damn it all.

[Turborama]

17. Secret Libyan files claim MI6 and the CIA aided human rights violations

Intelligence helped Gaddafi regime track and apprehend dissidents, according to files seized from Tripoli offices

Cherry Wilson | Saturday September 03 2011 23.42 BST

=snip=

The documents claim that MI6 supplied its counterparts in Libya with details on exiled opponents living in the UK, and chart how the CIA abducted several suspected militants before handing them over to Tripoli.

They also contain communications between British and Libyan security officials ahead of Tony Blair's visit in 2004, and show that British officials helped write a draft speech for Gaddafi when he was being encouraged to give up his weapons programme.

The discovery was made by reporters and members of Human Rights Watch in the private offices of Moussa Koussa, the former foreign minister and head of Libyan intelligence, who defected to Britain in February. He is now believed to be in Qatar.

According to the documents, Libya's relationship with MI6 and the CIA was especially close between 2002 and 2004, at the height of the war on terror. The papers give details of how No 10 insisted that the 2004 meeting between Blair and Gaddafi took place in his bedouin tent, with a letter from an MI6 official saying: "I don't know why the English are fascinated by tents. The plain fact is that the journalists would love it."

They also show how a statement made by Gaddafi during the time in which he pledged to give up his nuclear programme and destroy his stock of chemical and biological weapons was put together with the help of British officials. A covering letter states: "For the sake of clarity, please find attached a tidied-up version of the language we agreed on Tuesday. I wanted to ensure that you had the same script."

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/03/secret-libyan-files-mi6-cia

:kick: