The Central Intelligence Agency rendered terrorism suspects to Muammar Gadhafi’s Libya, knowing they would be tortured, according to documents uncovered in Tripoli.
The documents were found by the Human Rights Watch in the abandoned offices of Libya’s former spy chief and foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, a notorious figure known for repressing Libyan dissidents.
One of those rendered and tortured, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, is now the military commander in Tripoli for the rebels’ Transitional National Council. “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,” Human Rights Watch’s Peter Bouckaert told Reuters.
Belhadji claims he was tortured by the CIA, and then tortured again at Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim prison after rendition. He is also reportedly a former member of al Qaeda. That he is now part of a provisional government supported by the US indicates a stark inconsistency in American foreign policy.
The documents reveal a close and friendly rapport between the CIA and Gadhafi’s strong man Moussa Koussa, indicating a level of cooperation deeper than previously thought. They also reveal that the British intelligence agency gave Libyan intelligence information on Libyan dissidents in Britain.
CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood saw nothing wrong with the revelations. Failing to comment on any specific allegation or document, she 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. That is exactly what we are expected to do.”
Wow I bet this will be all over the news! Anderson Cooper and Bill O'Reilly and whoever does the evening news on ABC or CBS and even Jon Stewart will be all over this. Their collective outrage will completely dwarf the outrage that they displayed when Casey Anthony was acquitted. I bet congress will demand an end to the out of control and lawless CIA and the president will reign them in.
Hahahahaha…nah, not really, I'm just joking. It will pretty much be ignored.
The worst revelation isn't the torture of terror suspects (as bad as that is). Far worse is the Western collaboration in the suppression of internal Libyan opposition, some Islamist, some not.
Ironic that the rebels we now support include some of the people we helped to hunt down.
We're quite stupid, aren't we? " Oh, HRW just found these documents lying around. "
That's nice.
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So, the USG's repeated insistence that they could not leave countries like Afghanistan because they didn't want them to revert back to the Taliban or fall into the hand of al-Qaeda is subverted by…themselves. Imagine their consternation when they realized that one of their rendered ones is now a bigwig in a country with oil and cash for the really big toys that make lots of noise and cause lots of damage.
Can they really be this stupid? Rhetorical, of course.
This is why Saddam Hussein had to dance at the end of a rope so damn quick. Had he the opportunity to let all the skeletons loose ole Uncle Scam would have some 'splainin to do.
The same goes for bin Laden.
Leaders of the Transitional National Council being handpicked by Western powers, I seriously question that the new military commander in Tripoli was ever tortured. For the CIA created al-Qaeda by handpicking its leaders including Ben Laden, and only a fool would argue that the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster was not executed to perfection by the CIA, to the power, profit and glory of the multinational corporate rich.
And what about the rebel’s announcement last week that a defected general from Gaddafi’s army was the new military commander in Tripoli? What is going on?
If Heinrich Himmler's GESTAPO were functioning today, the CIA would be using his torture chambers and paying him with American dollars. If you find this shocking remember that in the 19th century the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs passed out blankets infected with smallpox to Native Americans.
As I understand it our glorious legions used methods straight out of the Nazi play book. No six degrees of separation about it.
Can't let those darned compliant dictators tell our secrets, can we? I agree with MoT- Gadhafi cannot be allowed to live any more than Hussein was. Try him in the ICC? That's a dog that won't hunt- you can bet he will be shot on sight or killed as 'collateral damage' (by the 'Rebels', of course) since, after all, we're not in the business of hunting him down and killing him or anything like that.
Damn straight. US doesn't count bodies or keep track of its tsunami of lies. That's left for us in the "reality based community" while they go hunting for fresh devils to distract us.
“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. That is exactly what we are expected to do.”
It comes as no surpize that the CIA is a threat to our nation and that they don't care one bit about the rule of law. They are above the law and they know it. It's also no surprize that every President in my lifetime has supported these thugs.
Sane. (definition)
"mentally sound; especially : able to anticipate and appraise the effect of one's actions".
People think Ron Paul is a nut for wanting to shut down these thugs, but in reality he is the only sane one of the bunch. Is it sane to think that murder and torture are ok? Is it sane to believe that our actions have no consequences? Even the CIA admits that blowback is the real cause of our problems, yet they continue to make us more enemies. Is that sane?