ID :
205353
Mon, 09/05/2011 - 15:40
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/205353
The shortlink copeid
More Documents Surface about Qaddafi's Secret Links with MI6, CIA
TEHRAN (FNA)- The key figure behind secret cooperation between western spy agencies and the Qaddafi regime - and the only British intelligence officer so far identified in the documents discovered in Tripoli - is said to be Sir Mark Allen, formerly MI6 's director of counter-terrorism.
A Middle East expert - he wrote a book entitled Falconry In Arabia - Allen left MI6 in 2004 in the wake of the row over the Iraq weapons dossier to join BP, for which he later helped arrange lucrative oil and gas contracts in Libya.
Allen was the driving force behind the secret and delicate negotiations which allegedly led Qaddafi to abandon his chemical and nuclear weapons program. The talks, which started around the same time as the Iraq invasion, culminated in a celebratory lunch presided over by Allen in the Travelers Club in Pall Mall, London, in December 2003. The leader of the Libyan delegation was Moussa Koussa, head of Qaddafi's foreign intelligence agency. Koussa, who later became Libya's foreign minister, defected with MI6's help soon after the anti-Qaddafi movement erupted this spring.
Allen also developed a close relationship with Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, who was Qaddafi's initial personal envoy to MI6 and later studied at the London School of Economics.
Along with then justice secretary Jack Straw, Allen was instrumental in arranging a prison transfer agreement with Libya which facilitated the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
Straw backed Allen to take over as chief of MI6 when the post fell vacant in 2004. Instead Blair appointed Sir John Scarlett, head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, who played a leading role in drawing up the Iraq weapons dossier. It has emerged since, mainly through his evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, that Allen was strongly against the invasion of Iraq.
Allen was knighted in 2005 and became a senior advisor to the Monitor Group, a private consultancy used by Saif Qaddafi in researching his PhD thesis at LSE - help Saif openly acknowledged. The Monitor Group was paid large sums by Qaddafi to boost his image around the world.
He close to both the CIA and the Qaddafi regime as they pursued a counter-terrorism policy which included "enhanced interrogation techniques", the exchange of information and the secret transfers of dissidents and terror suspects, including individuals who had sought refuge in Britain. Allen is expected to be questioned, in secret, by the forthcoming Gibson inquiry into allegations of collusion in torture and inhumane practices used by MI5 and MI6.
A Middle East expert - he wrote a book entitled Falconry In Arabia - Allen left MI6 in 2004 in the wake of the row over the Iraq weapons dossier to join BP, for which he later helped arrange lucrative oil and gas contracts in Libya.
Allen was the driving force behind the secret and delicate negotiations which allegedly led Qaddafi to abandon his chemical and nuclear weapons program. The talks, which started around the same time as the Iraq invasion, culminated in a celebratory lunch presided over by Allen in the Travelers Club in Pall Mall, London, in December 2003. The leader of the Libyan delegation was Moussa Koussa, head of Qaddafi's foreign intelligence agency. Koussa, who later became Libya's foreign minister, defected with MI6's help soon after the anti-Qaddafi movement erupted this spring.
Allen also developed a close relationship with Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, who was Qaddafi's initial personal envoy to MI6 and later studied at the London School of Economics.
Along with then justice secretary Jack Straw, Allen was instrumental in arranging a prison transfer agreement with Libya which facilitated the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
Straw backed Allen to take over as chief of MI6 when the post fell vacant in 2004. Instead Blair appointed Sir John Scarlett, head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, who played a leading role in drawing up the Iraq weapons dossier. It has emerged since, mainly through his evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, that Allen was strongly against the invasion of Iraq.
Allen was knighted in 2005 and became a senior advisor to the Monitor Group, a private consultancy used by Saif Qaddafi in researching his PhD thesis at LSE - help Saif openly acknowledged. The Monitor Group was paid large sums by Qaddafi to boost his image around the world.
He close to both the CIA and the Qaddafi regime as they pursued a counter-terrorism policy which included "enhanced interrogation techniques", the exchange of information and the secret transfers of dissidents and terror suspects, including individuals who had sought refuge in Britain. Allen is expected to be questioned, in secret, by the forthcoming Gibson inquiry into allegations of collusion in torture and inhumane practices used by MI5 and MI6.
