How MI6 Deal Sent Family To Gaddafi's Jail

Exclusive: Libyan Islamist reveals how wife and children were 'rendered' before Tony Blair visit.












Sami al-Saadi is considering whether to sue the British government after he and his family were 'rendered' in an operation between MI6 and Gaddafi's intelligence services.

A Libyan Islamist has told how he and his family were imprisoned after being "rendered" in an operation MI6 hatched in co-operation with Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence services. The rendition occurred shortly before Tony Blair paid his first visit to the dictator.

Sami al-Saadi, his wife and four children, the youngest a girl aged six, were flown from Hong Kong to Tripoli, where they were taken straight to prison. Saadi was interrogated under torture while his family were held in a nearby cell.

"They handcuffed me and my wife on the plane, my kids and wife were crying all the way," he told the Guardian. "It was a very bad situation. My wife and children were held for two months, and psychologically punished. The Libyans told me that the British were very happy."

Saadi says he is now considering whether to sue the British government, making him the second Libyan rendition victim to threaten legal proceedings in less than a week.

The evidence that the family were victims of a British-led rendition operation is contained in a secret CIA document found in the abandoned office of Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi's former intelligence chief, in Tripoli last week.

In London, meanwhile, an official inquiry into Britain's role in torture and rendition since 9/11 says the government has provided information about the UK's role in the affair, and Whitehall sources defended intelligence agencies' actions by saying they were following "ministerially authorised government policy".

It is the first time evidence has emerged that the British intelligence agencies ran their own rendition operation, as opposed to co-operating with those that were mounted by the CIA.

Saadi was held for more than six years, during which time he says he was regularly beaten and subjected to electric shocks. Shortly after his arrival in Tripoli, he says, Moussa Koussa visited in person to explain how Gaddafi's new friends in the west were helping him track down the regime's opponents around the world. "He told me: 'You've been running from us, but since 9/11 I can pick up the phone and call MI6 or the CIA and they give us all the information we want on you. You've nowhere to hide.'"

Saadi, a leading member of a Libyan mujahideen group who was known by the nom de guerre Abu Munthir, was interrogated on one occasion by British intelligence officers, who he alleges did nothing to try to protect him after he told them he was being tortured.

The Foreign Office has declined to say whether it knew what became of Abu Munthir's family as a result of the rendition operation, describing this information as an "intelligence matter". A spokesman said: "Our position is that it is the government's longstanding policy not to comment on intelligence matters."

Saadi says he was tricked by the British authorities into travelling to Hong Kong. While in exile in China in March 2004 he approached British intelligence officers via an intermediary in the UK, he says, and was told that he would be permitted to return to London, where he had lived for three years after seeking asylum in 1993. First, however, he would have to be interviewed at the British consulate in Hong Kong, and would be met by British diplomats on his arrival.

Saadi flew to Hong Kong with his wife, two sons aged 12 and nine, and two daughters aged 14 and six. They were not met by any British officials but were detained by Chinese border guards over alleged passport irregularities, held for a week and then despatched to Tripoli.

Saadi says he always assumed the British were behind his rendition, "working behind the curtain". Confirmation came when Human Rights Watch, the New York-based NGO, discovered a cache of papers in Moussa Koussa's abandoned office.

Among the documents was a fax that the CIA sent to Tripoli on 23 March 2004. Marked SECRET/US ONLY/EXCEPT LIBYA, it concerns the forthcoming rendition of Saadi and his family. The wording suggests the CIA took no part in the planning of the operation, but was eager to become involved.

It says: "Our service has become aware that last weekend LIFG [Libyan Islamic Fighting Group] deputy Emir Abu Munthir and his spouse and children were being held in Hong Kong detention for immigration/passport violations. We are also aware that your service had been co-operating with the British to effect Abu Munthir's removal to Tripoli, and that you had an aircraft available for this purpose in the Maldives."

It goes on to explain that although Hong Kong had no wish to see a Libyan aircraft land on its territory, "to enable you to assume control of Abu Munthir and his family", the operation would work if the Libyans were to charter an aircraft registered in a third country, and that the US would assist with the cost.

The operation coincided exactly with Tony Blair's first visit to Libya. Two days after the fax was sent, Blair arrived to shake hands with Gaddafi, and said the two nations wanted to make "common cause" in counter-terrorism operations. It was also announced that Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell had signed a £550m gas exploration deal. Three days later Saadi and his family were put aboard a private Egyptian-registered jet and flown to Tripoli.

Associates of Saadi cannot understand why his capture and interrogation would hold any great intelligence value for the British authorities, and are speculating that he may have been a "gift" from the British to the Gaddafi regime.

"On the plane I was told I was going to be electrocuted, hanged," Saadi said. "When we got to Tripoli my wife and I were in handcuffs, and our legs were tied together using wire and we were hooded. My wife recalls that she thought we were going to be hanged."

Saadi and his family were held initially at a jail in the Tajoura district, which he describes as "Mousa Koussa's family jail", and then at Abu Salim jail, a location where prisoners have been murdered and tortured for decades, according to human rights organisations. He says he spent the first 14 months in complete isolation in a cell measuring 6ft by 7ft.

"Whenever they felt I was withholding information they would beat me and subject me to electric shocks," he said.

As well as being tortured, he was repeatedly told that his family would be harmed and that he would be killed.

The UK was involved in the rendition of another Libyan Islamist earlier the same month. Other papers found among the Tripoli cache show that an MI6 tip-off allowed the CIA to abduct Abdul Hakin Belhaj in Bangkok. Belhaj, who later became a leading figure in the rebel forces that toppled Gaddafi, says he was tortured first by the CIA and then flown to Libya where he suffered severe abuse for several years, being hung from walls and immersed in ice baths. Belhaj says he too was interrogated by MI6 officers, who indicated they knew he was being tortured, but did nothing to help him.

On Thursday Belhaj met with British government representatives, who declined to make any apology. He too is considering whether to bring a claim for damages in the UK courts.

A number of Whitehall sources have said MI6 was complying with "ministerially authorised government policy" when Saadi and his family and Belhaj were rendered to Libya. However, the Foreign Office, Cabinet Office and Downing Street are all declining to say which department's ministers authorised the operations. A spokesman for Tony Blair said he knew nothing about the matter.

Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary at the time, said he welcomed the fact that an inquiry headed by Sir Peter Gibson would be examining the matter but did not answer questions about whether he had authorised the operation.

The inquiry headed by Gibson, a retired judge, that has been established to examine Britain's role in the mistreatment of terrorism suspects since 9/11, says that it was informed about the UK's involvement in the removal of Saadi from Hong Kong before the discovery of the Libyan government documents last weekend. It is unclear how much detail has been passed over to the inquiry staff.

It may be difficult for former ministers and intelligence officers to tell Gibson that they could not have expected Belhaj and Saadi and his family to be mistreated after they were handed over to Gaddafi's government. The use of torture had been well-documented by human rights groups, while the Foreign Office's human rights report for 2004 (pdf) states: "The UK remains seriously concerned by the human rights situation in Libya, including restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, political prisoners, arbitrary detention and conditions in Libyan prisons." It added that the British were very keen to see Libya sign international agreements against torture.

Libya: September 5 As It Happened

Minute by minute coverage from Libya as secret documents disclosed MI6's alleged involvement in the "rendition" of the leader of an opposition group.












Rebel reinforcements from Tripoli go through a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani Walid.












Rebels reinforcements from Tripoli celebrate as they arrive at a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani.












Abdelhakim Belhadj head of the Tripoli Military Council in the post revolutionary Libyan government.












A rebel fighter, left, checks a car at a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani Walid, Libya.












Rebel fighter Abdul Multab practices shooting at a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani Walid.












Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the son of Col Gaddafi.

Latest

23.45 That's all for tonight. For the latest Libya live updates see our Libya page.

23.42 A few more details on the remarks by Colonel Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, who said the ousted dictator was in good health and in good spirits somewhere in Libya. Mr Ibrahim told Syrian-owned Arrai TV:

He is in a place that will not be reached by those fractious groups, and he is in Libya.

He said Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, was also in Libya, moving around from one place to another.

22.53 Libyan rebel leader Abdul Hakim Belhaj claims British intelligence officers knew he was being tortured but did nothing to help him, the Guardian reported.

I couldn’t believe they could let this go on. What has happened deserves a full inquiry.

He said that the British visited in Tripoli after he was captured by CIA officers.

They came about a month after I was returned to Libya and they were very well briefed about LIFG [Libyan Islamic Fighting Group] members in the UK. They knew everything, even their code names. They wanted to know more details about the LIFG and also about the general environment elsewhere, al-Qaeda, that sort of thing.

22.42 Colonel Gaddafi is in Libya, in good health and in high spirits, his spokesman tells Arrai TV.

22.25 Libya's ruling National Transitional Council will not move from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to the capital Tripoli until the whole of the country - including the Gaddafi bastions of Sebha, Sirte and Bani Walid - has been freed from the control of Gaddafi forces, the council's vice president Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told AFP.

20.05 Britain has re-opened its diplomatic mission in Tripoli after a team led by UK special representative Dominic Asquith arrived in the Libyan capital on an RAF flight - six months after closing its embassy at the start of the revolt against Colonel Gaddafi.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said:

The arrival of this team marks another significant step in the UK's relations with the new Libya, and reflects the progress the National Transitional Council has made in improving security and stability on the ground.












19.27 The UN Security Council is on Friday to discuss the launch of a wide-ranging mission to Libya to help tackle police reform, justice and election preparations.

The secretary general's special envoy, Ian Martin, is to report to members of the body on his visit to Libya, asking them to authorise an initial three-month mission, spokesman Ahmed Fawzi said.

But with leaders in Tripoli and Benghazi deeply reluctant to allow foreign troops onto Libyan soil, any proposal for a fully blown UN peacekeeping mission has been taken off the table, AFP reports.

18.44 The detention of thousands of suspected mercenaries and enemy fighters has left Libya's new government facing crowded prisons and concerns from rights groups that inmates may suffer unfair trials and mistreatment, writes Al Jazeera's Evan Hill.

18.25 Video: David Cameron tells MPs that Colonel Gaddafi "must face the law"



18.12 Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - the terror group's north African branch - has acquired a stockpile of weapons during the turmoil in Libya, including surface-to-air missiles that are threatening air travel, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove says.

Speaking at a Brussels news conference, de Kerchove said members of AQIP had "gained access to weapons, either small arms or machine-guns, or certain surface-to-air missiles which are extremely dangerous because they pose a risk to flights over the territory".

18.07 The deputy mayor of Tripoli says tap water is flowing again in most parts of the capital after a two-week outage that disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands people, AP reports.

17.56 Frederik Pleitgen posts this picture on Twitter from the entrance to the besieged town of Bani Walid. Fighters surrounding the town are worried that Gaddafi loyalists will use its inhabitants as human shields.












17.36 Mary Fitzgerald tweets on body found buried in grounds of Tripoli factory.

17.17 Labour leader Ed Miliband praised the Government for pressing for UN action.

"If we had not acted, we would have been spending recent months not talking about the progress of our action in Libya but wringing our hands over slaughter in Benghazi, as we did after Bosnia."












Mr Miliband also backed plans for the Gibson inquiry to investigate claims that MI6 was involved in the rendition of Libyan terror suspects.

No part of the British state should ever be complicit in torture.

16.40 Mr Cameron said the key needs for Libya at the moment were temporary classrooms and housing.

16.05 His full statement can be viewed on the No 10 website.

16.00 Mr Cameron said it was the "Libyan people who have liberated Libya". He said removing Col Gaddafi from power "was a major achievement".

Many cynics proclaimed stalemate and asserted that Gaddafi would never be defeated.

The Libyan people proved them wrong. It was a unique set of circumstances and not something that we can or wish to repeat all over the world.

But I have never accepted the argument that because you can’t do everything, you shouldn’t do anything. Although the work is not yet done, the Libyan people can be proud of what they have achieved and we can be proud of what we have done to help them.

15.55 Libya is fully capable of "paying for its own reconstruction", he told Parliament.

Of course there is a role for foreign advice, help and support but we don’t want to see an army of foreign consultants driving around in four by fours giving the impression this is something being done to the Libyans, rather than done by them.

15.50 He said it had been shown that the British and Libyan security services had "became too close" particularly in 2003 after revelations were aired over the weekend about Britain's involvement with the regime.

He said the official inquiry led by Sir Peter Gibson will look at claims British security services had been complicit in forms of Torture "including rendition".

15.45 Mr Cameron said Britain's "special representative" John Jenkins was flying to Libya to "re-establish" full diplomatic relationships with the new government.

15.40 The Prime Minister said the new Libyan PM "has assured me" that Libyan authorities will "cooperate fully" on justice for WPC Yvonne Fletcher.

"I want to see justice for her fanily," he said.

"There is an ongoing police investigation, and the House will wish to know Prime Minister Jabril has assured me of the new Libyan authority’s intention to co-operate fully."

15.35 He said Britain would help in the task as Libyan "build that future". the long work of building a new Libya is just beginning.

We will not let up until the job is done. Those thinking NATO will somehow pull out or pull back must think again. We are ready to extend the NATO mandate for as long as is necessary.












David Cameron addresses Parliament.

15.33 Mr Cameron said Britain could not stand by and “watch a pariah state” continues. He paid tribute to the Libyans who had "taken their country back".

Britain could not stand by as Gaddafi slaughtered his people. Nor could we allow a failed pariah state festering on Europe’s southern border, with the potential to threaten our own security.

Mr Cameron said Britain would support the Libyan people in bringing Gaddafi to justice.

This is a man whose crimes are becoming ever more apparent every day and who is wanted by the International Criminal Court. There must be no bolt-hole; no pampered hiding place from justice.
He must face the consequences of his actions, under international and Libyan law.

15.30 David Cameron is about to address the House of Commons.

14.25 Members of Col Gaddafi's entourage, including his internal security chief Mansour Daw, have crossed the border into Niger, a Tuareg source has said.

The identity of the other individuals, believed to number around ten, who arrived in the northern Niger city of Agadez, escorted by a top Tuareg rebel leader, was not immediately known, AFP reports.

14.00 Despite the Libyan economy being ravaged by war, it is stable, with inflation under control and no insurmountable problems, the country's interim economics minister has claimed.

Despite severe shortages of fuel, water and labour, Abdullah Shamia said the inflation rate remained under double digits, with no sign of price increases that could decimate household finances and cripple the country's economic recovery.

According to AFP (Via the Egyptian Gazette) he told reporters in Tripoli.

"The general economy is relatively stable. Prices are generally stable, there is no hyper-inflation although there are price increases for some goods."












David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris last week for the conference on Libya. On Monday the PM's spokeman said the Gibon's inquiry was "well placed" to look at new torture allegations.

13.45 Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at the time of some of the events discussed in the documents.

Asked about the torture claims, told BBC Radio 4's World at One:

These allegations must be examined in very great detail by the inquiry under Sir Peter Gibson. It is very important that they should be.

The position of successive British governments, not least when I was Foreign Secretary, was very clear and that was that we were opposed to unlawful rendition, we were opposed to any use of torture or similar methods. Not only did we not agree with it, we were not complicit in it and nor did we turn a blind eye to it."

Mr Straw said that a report by the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee concluded in 2007 that Britain was not involved in unlawful rendition of terror suspects.

But he added: "No Foreign Secretary can know all the details of what intelligence agencies are doing at any one time.

That is why it is important that these allegations are thoroughly examined by Sir Peter Gibson's inquiry."

13.30 Ukraine has said that Libya's new rulers detained 23 of its citizens who had been working in the oil sector, reportedly on suspicion they were snipers for fallen leader Moamer Kadhafi.

Foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Voloshyn, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, described those detained as "civilian specialists" working in the oil sector.

Unfortunately, we must confirm that 23 Ukrainian citizens have been detained in Libya.

13.35 Following on from Chris Hope and Mary Riddell's scoop this morning, quoting DPP Kei Starmer as saying he wants the Yvonne Fletcher suspect tried at the Old Bailey, Paul Waugh, editor of Politicshome.com, tweets:

"Ex-DPP Lord MacDonald says Yvonne Fletcher killer shd be tried at OldBailey. Adds "it could happen'."

13.30 Tripoli rebels sport Hollywood looks despite the chaos, as fighters enjoy their moment in the limelight while not forgetting to look good for the cameras, reports the BBC, in an interesting feature.

13.20 Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan President, has said the best thing for Col Gaddafi would be for him to die fighting after he was asked if he would give asylum to the Libyan leader.

Chavez, speaking on state television, said he thought Qaddafi is “probably” still in Libya and that he will “resist until the end", according to Bloomberg.

13.15 NATO's mission in Libya has moved significantly closer to success and will end soon, the military alliance's secretary general said on Monday.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference in Brussels that while he could not give a precise date for the mission's end, "I believe it will come soon".

Our operation to protect civilians has moved significantly closer to success, but we are not there yet.

13.00 Further to Rob Crilly's analysis earlier (0955), Col Ahmed Omar Bani now says he believes Gaddafi has fled the country. It comes as rebel reinforcements arrived outside one of Col Gaddafi's last strongholds in Libya, even as the forces arrayed against the toppled dictator gave the town a chance to surrender and avoid a fight.

Thousands of rebels have converged on the desert town of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli as the dictator remains on the run.












Anti-Gaddafi fighters stand on an SA-5 SAM missile in Burkan air defence military base, 70 kms from Bani Walid.

12.40 The United Nations is ready to assist Libya's new authorities in their preparations for elections, UN envoy Ian Martin told reporters in Tripoli on Monday.

The special adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Tripoli on Saturday for talks with the local authorities on how the United Nations can help them in the months ahead.

He landed at a military airbase in the capital, after the UN chief said the world body was ready to assist in re-establishing security following the nearly seven-month uprising that ousted Col Gaddafi.

He said it was "too soon for details" on how the transition would unfold as decisions regarding the electoral system, the establishment of an electoral commission and other technical details have yet to be determined, AFP reports (Via Bangkok Post).

Meanwhile the country faces a key challenge in establishing a law and order system that respects human rights, the UN envoy said.

"One of the most important challenges is the full restoration of public security in the hands of a police force which in future will respect human rights rather than be part of a system that violates human rights," he said.

Another priority, he said, would be the reform of the prison system in order to avoid "arbitrary" detentions and ensure those who have committed a crime are prosecuted within a "legal system that protects their rights".

12.30 Jihadists among the Libyan rebels revealed plans last week on the Internet to subvert the post-Moammar Gaddafi government and create an Islamist state, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

U.S. officials said spy agencies are stepping up surveillance of Islamist-oriented elements among Libyan rebels.

The Washington Times reported that a government report, circulated last week, said extremists were observed “strategising” on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col Gaddafi is defeated. The unclassified report stated:

Several forum participants have suggested that, following a transitional stage, the battle should turn against secularist rebels and members of the [rebels’] Transitional National Council.












12.06 An inquiry looking into allegations of UK complicity in the mistreatment of terror suspects today announced it will consider fresh claims relating to links between Britain's intelligence and security services and Libya.

Documents discovered in Tripoli following the fall of Col Muammar Gaddafi's dictatorial regime appear to suggest that the UK traded information with Libya in return for intelligence extracted from terror suspects under interrogation in Libyan prisons.

Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman this morning said that Sir Peter Gibson's inquiry was "well-placed" to look into the new allegations.

And the Gibson Inquiry - initially set up to look at cases of British nationals held at Guantanamo Bay - released a statement to say that it will "be considering allegations of UK involvement in rendition to Libya as part of our work".

Mr Cameron is expected to be questioned about the links of MI5 and MI6 with the Gaddafi regime when he addresses the House of Commons on Libya this afternoon.

12.05 Major General Nick Pope, the Chief of the Defence Staff’s Communications Officer, said in an emailed statement:

British aircraft were again in action yesterday over Libya, as part of NATO’s Operation Unified Protector, mounting a long range mission against Sebha and conducting strikes on Qadhafi’s troops at Sirte.

A formation of Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s took off from RAF Marham in Norfolk on Sunday, and, flying south to the Mediterranean, rendezvoused with allied aircraft to lead a long range strike mission against a group of military communications installations that form a key part of the former regime’s major headquarters complex at Sebha, in the Sahara.

The RAF aircraft launched a large salvo of highly accurate Storm Shadow stand-off missiles against their targets. Meanwhile, RAF Tornados and Typhoons based in Italy at Gioia del Colle helped NATO maintain armed reconnaissance patrols over Sirte, and during the evening our aircraft successfully attacked an ammunition depot nearby, as well as a self-propelled artillery piece and an armed pick-up truck, using Paveway and Brimstone guided weapons.

11.20 The Gaddafi regime warned of 'holy war' if Lockerbie bomber died in Scottish jail, reports Thomas Harding. The dictator warned Whitehall officials that Britain would face the retribution of "holy war" if the Lockerbie bomber died in prison.

Other documents found in the abandoned British embassy in Tripoli show concerns that there would be "dire consequences" for relations if Abdelbaset al–Megrahi died in his Scottish jail cell. He was released in August 2009.












Rebel reinforcements from Tripoli go through a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani Walid (Picture: AP)

11.15 Ukraine said it is checking reports that the newly-empowered rebels in Libya have arrested 19 Ukrainians on suspicion of acting as mercenary snipers for Col Gaddafi's regime.

The group, who are being held in Tripoli, have strongly denied the allegations. They insist they were simply expatriates working in the Libyan energy sector before the fall of Kadhafi's regime.

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Voloshyn told the AFP news agency:

We are checking this information. The Ukrainian embassy in Tripoli is in contact with the local authorities.

11.10 Many in Manchester's community of about 5,000 Libya exiles now now making plans to go back and help directly in what may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reverse decades of decay in their oil-rich, underdeveloped homeland.

Hundreds have also sent aid, or seen their husbands and brothers go back to join the uprising as Libyan exiles expect better days, the AP reports (Via Yahoo!).

These are some of the high hopes held by Libyan exiles and their supporters in Manchester, home of Britain's largest Libyan community, and in other English cities now that Col Gaddafi is on the run and his power gone.

11.00 Col Gaddafi's dictatorship likely wouldn't have survived for more than four decades without the sea of dictators all around, protecting one another and working together to silence dissident voices, the AP say in a feature (Via MSNBC) about how he "leaned on Arab allies to stay in power".

10.55 A pragmatic Rob Crilly, usually based in Pakistan tweets: "Getting to the stage where I might have to start looking into where I can watch the rugby world cup in Benghazi."

10.45 Libyan forces are awaiting orders to storm a desert town held by pro-Gaddafi fighters after negotiations failed to dislodge them from one of the deposed leader's remaining bastions.

Military units under Libya's interim council are trying to winkle out of Bani Walid as well as the coastal city of Sirte and a swathe of territory stretching far into the desert interior, Reuters reports.

Mohammed al-Fassi, a field commander for the National Transitional Council (NTC), said outside the town.

The door is still open for negotiations. Our offer still stands.

The offer is that people who committed crimes in Gaddafi's name will be put under house arrest until the new government is formed. Some of them have accepted this but others said no.












Rebel fighter Abdul Multab practices shooting at a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani Walid.

10.40 Rebel reinforcements are arriving outside one of Col Gaddafi's last strongholds in Libya, even as the forces arrayed against the toppled dictator give the town a chance to surrender and avoid a fight.

Thousands of rebels surround Bani Walid, a desert town southeast of the capital, AP reports.

A small rebel convoy arrived Monday at a checkpoint about 40 miles from Bani Walid. Ismail al-Gitani says the fighters were part of a larger force he commands and that he was ordered to reinforce the northern approaches to Bani Walid.

He refused to say how many fighters he had brought. Another rebel commander, Mohammed al-Fassi, says the door is still open for negotiations over the town's surrender

10.30 The BBC's Nick Lawrence Tweets that there are "no plans for any official comment from #MI6 regarding their collusion with the #Gaddafi regime. #libya"

10.20 Further to our post at 9.25 Prof Philippe Sands QC, director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London, said the veracity of the information in the papers remained to be determined.

But it was "an indication of high-level British involvement in the transportation of an individual from one area, Hong Kong, to Libya, directly or indirectly, and that plainly raises the most serious concerns about compatibility with English law".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:

The real heart of this issue is the question of who knew what when and who signed off when. And when we get intelligence sources saying there was high ministerial sign off as early as March 2003, the question really arises: who signed off?

On the legislation that applied at that point, this would have to have been signed off either by the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary or Number 10. The inquiry that has been set up under Sir Peter Gibson is really going to have to get to grips with this.












Abdelhakim Belhadj head of the Tripoli Military Council in the post revolutionary Libyan government was claimed to have been tortured.

Kim Howells, a former chairman of the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, said officials had been satisfied, after its own extensive inquiries, that there had been no illegal activity by UK intelligence services.

He also told the programme:

When we looked very, very hard at these allegations of rendition we did not find that the intelligence services were guilty,.
We were absolutely satisfied that there had been no involvement in illegal rendition of detainees by the British intelligence services and I don't believe that they did that.












Thousands of abandoned anti-personnel mines, loose and in crates, lie in a disused industrial area close to the Khamis Brigade Barracks on the outskirts of Tripoli (Picture: HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY)

10.05 China has offered huge stockpiles of weapons to Col Moamer Gaddafi during the final months of his regime and held secret talks on shipping them through Algeria and South Africa, it was claimed.

State-controlled Chinese arms companies were ready to sell weapons and ammunition worth at least $200 million (£124.02 million) to him in late July, despite UN sanctions.

The claims were made in secret documents obtained by Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.

Omar Hariri, chief of the transitional council's military committee, reviewed the documents and concluded they explained the presence of new weapons on the battlefield.

Beijing later denied it provided the Gaddafi regime with weapons in its final days, but said Libyan officials had visited China in July for talks with "interested companies".

10.10 Following on from that story Richard Spencer has discovered a huge Gaddafi weapons dump left unguarded in the capital, Tripoli.












Khamis Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's most feared son, has been confirmed dead, according to the NTC.

10.00 Libya's rebel leaders say they were certain that Khamis Gaddafi, the youngest son of the vanquished dictator, was dead after a week of rumours that he had been killed in a heavily armed convoy close to the town of Tarhouna, south-east of Tripoli.

If true, his death would be the highest-profile casualty among regime loyalists and a bitter blow to the besieged Gaddafi strongholds of Sirte and Bani Walid.

Rebel leaders had avoided publicly confirming the death of Khamis for fear of repeating their humiliation when they claimed to have captured another son, Saif al-Islam, before he re-emerged barely 24 hours late.

09.55 Here is some interesting analysis from Rob Crilly, our man in Benghazi.

If you wanted to give Colonel Gaddafi every chance to escape, here's what you would do:

Sweep into Tripoli in a disordered rabble, failing to secure entry and exit points, charging straight for his fortified compound, then - with the enemy on the run - stop, hold your positions and negotiate for each further loyalist stronghold in a stop-start process that is still under way a fortnight later.

That is pretty much where we are today. If you wanted me to place a bet, I'd put money on Gaddafi already having left the country.












Tony Blair meets Libyan leader Col Gaddafi at his desert base outside Sirte south of Tripoli in 2007.

09.50 Chief negotiator Abdullah Kanshil says talks between Bani Walid's tribal elders and representatives from Libya's interim government have ended without agreement.

Forces of Libya's interim ruling council are poised for an assault on the desert town of Bani Walid, after negotiators failed to persuade Muammar Gaddafi loyalists to abandon one of their last remaining bastions.

The town is one of just a handful of areas in Libya still under the control of Gaddafi loyalists after a six-month rebellion ousted the leader from Tripoli last month. Outside the town, a negotiator for the National Transitional Council forces now in control of the country said talks with tribal leaders were over, adding that it would be up to the NTC to decide what to do next.

There has been speculation from NTC officials that members of Gaddafi's family, perhaps even the former Libyan leader himself, may be hiding there. No comment was available from the other side.

09.45 Chief negotiator Abdullah Kanshil says talks between Bani Walid's tribal elders and representatives from Libya's interim government have ended without agreement.



09.35 As his morning briefing returns, Benedict Brogan, our Deputy Editor, notes that one question David Cameron might want to address with his statement on Libya is what the Government is doing to investigate the links between MI6, the British Government and Colonel Gaddafi's regime in Libya.

This Government obviously cannot be blamed for these queasy links, but the depth of cooperation might make it hard to ignore the issue, especially as more documents emerge from Gaddafi's still-smouldering palaces.

09.32 David Cameron, the Prime Minister, will update MPs on the situation in Libya in an oral statement to the House of Commons at 3.30pm today.

09.30 Britain's top prosecutor has said he wants the chief suspect in the WPc Yvonne Fletcher murder case to be tried in the Old Bailey. Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said that in his view "the case should be tried here in London".

However, Mr Starmer, who heads up the Crown Prosecution Service, said that more evidence was needed before any charges could be made in the case.












Yvonne Fletcher and Matouk Mohammed Matouk.

09.25 MI6 rewarded Libyan intelligence for their co-operation after ties between the countries were restored with the "rendition" of the leader of an opposition group who later claimed he was tortured in custody, documents found in Tripoli show.

A senior officer in MI6 wrote a congratulatory letter to Moussa Koussa, then head of Libyan foreign intelligence and later foreign minister, on the safe arrival from Malaysia thanks to British and American intelligence of a man known as Abu Abdallah Sadiq.

That is the nom de guerre of the leader of the then banned Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Abdelhakim Belhadj, who is now head of the Tripoli Military Council in the post-revolutionary Libyan government and a key western ally.

The letter, from Mark Allen, head of counter-terrorism at MI6, said:

This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.

I am so glad. I was grateful to you for helping the officer we sent out last week.

09.20 Tony Blair's close relationship with one of Col Muammar Gaddafi's sons - Saif al–Islam - who is now being hunted for possible war crimes, is highlighted in previously secret documents discovered in Libya.

Thomas Harding, our defence correspondent, writes that the new evidence, which will further tarnish the former prime minister's image following his dealings with Libya, shows that he helped Saif al–Islam Gaddafi on his allegedly plagiarised PhD thesis.












09.15 Our main Libya story this morning is one from Richard Spencer, our man in Tripoli.

He writes that secret files found in a Tripoli intelligence service building have disclosed an Alleged Libyan extremist who sought political asylum in Britain regularly travelled to Iran from 2002 to provide forged documents to extremists linked to al-Qaeda.

The documents, seen by The Daily Telegraph, unearth British intelligence suspicions about links between Iran and al-Qaeda dating back almost a decade.

Other details to come out of the documents, sent by MI6 and found in the office of the former head of foreign intelligence and later foreign minister Moussa Koussa, who defected in March, include the revelation that Britain had begun co-operating with the Chinese security services on Islamic extremists.

09.10 Good morning all. Welcome to our live coverage of Libya on Monday, September 5.