The enemy of my enemy is my friend?
CLIVE WILLIAMS
Current developments in Libya, linking the CIA and MI6 with torture and disappearances under the Gaddafi regime, show how easy it is for external intelligence agencies to be caught out by the ebb and flow of international politics.
Abdelhakim Belhaj, now commander of the Tripoli Military Council was formerly emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). He was detained in Bangkok in 2004 following a tip-off from MI6, and subjected to CIA extraordinary rendition to Libya, where he was tortured at the notorious Abu Salim jail until released last year. He is now demanding an apology from the US and UK for his rendition and torture.
While this is not likely any time soon, British prime minister David Cameron has ordered an inquiry by retired judge Peter Gibson into claims that MI6 was involved in the transfer and torture of terrorism suspects in Libya. In the past, Britain has always denied initiating or being complicit in rendition operations. It was not in a position to make an outright denial this time because of compromising documentation implicating MI6 and the CIA recovered by journalists from abandoned intelligence offices in Tripoli.
Turning to another issue, what is the evidence for the LIFG being a terrorist group to justify the rendition of its senior members?
After the war in Afghanistan against the Russian occupiers ended in 1988, some of the international Mujahideen fighters became members of Al Qaeda, others returned to regional groups, and others probably retired. The LIFG was formed in 1995 by Libyans who had been part of the US-backed Mujahideen to establish an Islamic state in Libya.
Most of the fighters who had come from Libya transferred their attention to the Gaddafi regime and focused on trying to remove him from power. In that endeavour they apparently had some support from Western intelligence agencies that had concerns about the Libyan regime and its WMD program. For example, a failed LIFG assassination attempt against Gaddafi in February 1996 was part-funded by MI6, according to David Shayler, a former MI5 officer. The LIFG continued to mount attacks against the regime into the late 1990s, by which time most of its operatives in Libya had been rounded up by the Gaddafi regime.
After 9/11 the LIFG became a proscribed terrorist group because of its alleged ongoing links to Al Qaeda. One of Al Qaeda's senior members, Atiyah Abdul-Rahman, was said to be a member of the LIFG, and the same claim was made about some other Al Qaeda members. As a result the LIFG was categorised by the US and UN 1267 Committee as a terrorist group. This was despite its decision not to join Osama bin Laden's Global Islamic Front against the Jews and Crusaders, formed in 1998.
In March 2004, following British prime minister Tony Blair's much publicised meeting with Colonel Gaddafi in his tent in the Libyan desert, Tony Blair noted "… the world is changing and we have got to do everything we possibly can to tackle the security threat that faces us." That meant not only pursuing terror groups but also offering partnership to states renouncing terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Tony Blair said he had been struck by how Colonel Gaddafi wanted to make "common cause with us against Al Qaeda, extremists and terrorism".
By now the LIFG was no longer useful to the US or UK, and because of its supposed Al Qaeda links, its senior members had become targets for rendition to the now helpful Gaddafi regime. Hence Mr Belhaj's extraordinary rendition from Bangkok to Libya in 2004. Mr Belhaj claimed that MI6 officers were present at some of his interrogations in Tripoli and ignored his requests to have the torture stopped.
In October 2005, the UK Home Office banned the LIFG from operating in the UK and, under the UK Terrorism Act 2000, being a member of the LIFG became punishable with a 10-year prison term. The Financial Sanctions Unit of the Bank of England, acting on behalf of HM Treasury, issued orders to freeze all their assets.
Fast forward to March 2011 and the LIFG has once again become useful to the West as part of the rebel coalition fighting against Gaddafi. The LIFG renamed itself the Libyan Islamic Movement and allied itself with the National Transitional Council. It had probably 600 fighters in the rebel movement, provided some of the command element, and is said to have played an important role in the fighting.
Aside from the issue of the exposed intelligence relationship, and MI6's alleged involvement in illegal activities, an additional problem faced by the British government is the status of prominent regime figure Moussa Koussa, who defected to the UK in March 2011. Koussa previously headed the Libyan intelligence agency from 1994 to 2009, and was considered one of the country's most powerful figures. He was Gaddafi's appointed interlocutor with the CIA and MI6, and is likely to have been responsible for at least some of the torture and disappearances during the period 1994-2011. Documents recovered in Tripoli suggest he had a close working relationship with MI6, but he would seem to be a good candidate for the international criminal court.
Post 9/11 excesses will continue to be exposed, sometimes in unusual ways - as in this case. There will be suspicions that the Blair government chose not to inquire too deeply into what MI6 was doing in the war on terror. The inquiry seems likely to lead to increased political controls over MI6, and to emphasise the importance of having moral standards that are upheld if we are to maintain the moral high ground. Because of Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition and the use of torture it is clearly difficult now for the US to lecture China and others about human rights abuses, and the UK could find itself in the same situation.
Clive Williams is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, and an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie University's Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism.
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What do you think ?
Các anh chị nghĩ thế nào, có ý kiến, phê bình gì qua bài viết "The enemy of my enemy is my friend?" của Clive Williams ?
Đây là câu nói mà nhiều người thường đưa ra trong khi bàn cãi, tranh luận về vấn đề liên quan nào đó, và "Ý Kiến" này không bao giờ có thể chấp nhận "đúng" trong mọi trường hợp nếu "nó" được đưa ra trong thể xác định .
Trong bài viết trên có nhiều vấn đề rất hay, rất đáng quan tâm để chúng ta có thể cùng chia sẻ, học hỏi, đặc biệt ở phần kết luận của bài viết .
Dưới ánh sáng mặt trời, có những SỰ THẬT khi được vạch trần thì nó trở thành trơ trẽn, bỉ ổi, đáng phỉ nhổ nhưng lại vô cùng có giá trị không những cho những người biết tôn trọng, yêu chuộng SỰ THẬT mà còn cho những kẻ muốn bưng bít, che dấu SỰ THẬT .
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