CIA and Libya oh and Torture.

[TerranceL]

Wow where to start on this one?

Documents shed light on CIA, Gadhafi spy ties - CNN.com

And CNN saw a March 6, 2004, CIA letter to Libyan officials about Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a former jihadist with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and now a senior commander in the anti-Gadhafi forces.
It concerned the Malaysian government's arrest of Abdullah al-Sadiq, Belhaj's nom de guerre for his rendition. A CIA officer said the man and his pregnant wife were being placed on a commercial flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to London via Bangkok and then onto Libya.
"We are planning to arrange to take control of the pair in Bangkok and place them on our aircraft for a flight to your country," the officer wrote.
CNN's Nic Robertson recently profiled Belhaj. As a young man in the late 1980s, Belhaj was one of scores of jihadists in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who went to fight in Afghanistan. His military prowess soon made him a commander among his fellow fighters.
After the fall of the Taliban, Belhaj left Afghanistan and was arrested in Malaysia in 2004. After some questioning by the CIA, he was sent back to Libya and jailed.
Belhaj was released from Moammar Gadhafi's notorious Abu Salim jail last year. He and dozens of others of LIFG fighters negotiated with the Gadhafi regime for their freedom -- in return for denouncing al Qaeda and its philosophy of jihad.

Well looks like one of our new friends was an old enemy!

Gosh knowing that the same government that kidnapped him and tortured him is now helping him must really warm his heart.

Fran Townsend, CNN counterterror analyst who worked as President George W. Bush's homeland security adviser, said that when suspects were transferred to any country, not just Libya, U.S. officials asked the government for assurances that they wouldn't violate human rights of the person in question.

Riiiight, which is why instead of bringing them to American soil we sent them off to our friends, third world tyrants.



Now my biggest question about all of this is when the imperials succeed and libya is "freed" will this gentleman have a hand in it's governance?

And if so will he remember just how fickle Western friendship is? One second we are friends with the dictator whose torturing you and when it becomes convenient for us to take out that same dictator there's not even a thought about it.


On a side note: Gosh those people who are all for non-interventionism sure are wacko aren't they? Golly.

 

[Umaro]

America does seem to have a terrible habit of making deals with terrible people if there's short term gain to be had. Unfortunately I don't see her kicking it any time soon.