In public, senior Ministers from the last Labour Government and the Scottish First Minister have repeatedly insisted that terminally ill Abdelbaset Al Megrahi was freed on compassionate grounds in a decision taken by Scottish Ministers alone.
But the confidential papers show that Westminster buckled under pressure from Colonel Gaddafi, who threatened to ignite a 'holy war' if Megrahi died in his Scottish cell.
Friendship: Letters from Gordon Brown to Gaddafi sent in July 2007 (left) and September 2007 (right)
And despite repeated denials, the Labour Government worked frantically behind the scenes to appease Gaddafi's 'unpredictable nature'.
As recently as last month, a spokesman for Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond was insisting: 'The decision was taken on the basis of Scots law and was not influenced by economic, political or diplomatic factors.' via dailymail.co.uk
Equally damaging, the documents
also suggest that as well as sharing intelligence-gathering techniques,
Britain gave Libya hundreds of suggested questions for Islamic
militants detained in Libya in 2004.
This will inevitably cause widespread dismay because of the regime’s systematic use of torture during interrogation. Friends: Former Prime MinisterTony Blair greets Muammar Gaddafi at his desert base outside Tripoli in 2007
Education: A letter from Downing Street reveals
how Tony Blair was 'stimulated' by Said Gaddafi's PHD (left), while a
second document reveals Tony Blair's New Year wishes to Gaddafi and his
family (right)
The
revelations come in documents – some marked ‘UK secret: UK/Libya Eyes
Only’ – found strewn on the floor of the British Ambassador’s abandoned
residence in Tripoli.
Many
of the papers demonstrate the warmth of the relationship between Britain
and Libya and, in particular, the extraordinarily close links between
the Blair Government and the Gaddafi regime.
The notes show how:
- Tony Blair helped Colonel Gaddafi’s playboy son Saif with his ‘dodgy’ PhD thesis while he was Prime Minister.
- British Special Forces were offered to train the Khamis Brigade, Gaddafi’s most vicious military unit.
- MI6 was apparently willing to trace phone numbers for Libyan intelligence.
- Gordon
Brown wrote warmly to Gaddafi in 2007 expressing the hope that the
dictator would be able to meet Prince Andrew when he visited Tripoli.
- MI6’s
budget (£150 million in 2002) was readily disclosed to Libyan
officials, along with details of how Britain’s Downing Street emergency
committee Cobra operates.
- Britain’s intelligence services forged close links with Gaddafi’s brutal security units.
Megrahi
was released two years ago and transferred back to Libya, where he
received a hero’s welcome from Gaddafi. Last week, it emerged he is
still alive – although very ill – after he was tracked down to his home
in Tripoli.
A series of documents marked
‘confidential’ and ‘restricted’ reveal that Gaddafi threatened Britain
with ‘dire consequences’ if Megrahi died in Scotland.
Diplomats
feared the harassment – ‘or worse’ – of British nationals; the
cancellation of lucrative contracts with firms such as BP, Shell and BG;
and the end of defence deals and counter-terrorism co-operation.
Devastating: The stash of documents were left in the British Ambassador's residence
As
a result, the British Government ignored the anger of both America and
the families of victims of Britain’s biggest terrorist outrage to push
for the fastest release through the signing of a Prisoner Transfer
Agreement with Libya.
Set
against Britain’s role in the military intervention in Libya, and David
Cameron’s description of Gaddafi last week as a ‘monster’, the
revelations in the papers are bitterly ironic.
Yet during the concerted appeasement
campaign, Britain was under no illusion about the nature of Gaddafi’s
security forces or of what they were capable.
Another
thick briefing paper points out that their primary objective was the
protection of the Libyan leader, his family and their friends and to
‘defend the regime’s repressive politics inside and outside the
country’.
Despite this,
Simon McDonald, Gordon Brown’s foreign policy adviser, told the
dictator’s son Saif in June 2008 how glad he was to hear of the first
meeting between MI6’s head of station and the feared Libyan Internal
Security Organisation.
‘I understand that this preliminary meeting focused on training,’ he wrote. ‘I look forward to hearing of progress.’
From
the police to prisons, from the health service to the high court, the
documents detail links and co-operation between the two countries at
every level.
What
appears to underpin them all is Tony Blair’s plan to bring Gaddafi in
from the cold while winning rich contracts for British businesses.
Even the Department for International Development got in on the act, drawing up plans to work with Libya in Africa.
Among
the most enthusiastic participants were the police, despite the shadow
cast by the shooting in London of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in 1984.
In
November 2005 the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke met the Libyan
security minister in London to agree a series of ‘security and
co-operation talks’.
Six
months later, at a meeting in Tripoli, Libyan officials asked for
assistance on riot control, which they stressed was one of their
‘priorities’.
Despite the horrific reputation of Gaddafi’s jails, there was also collaboration with Libya’s prison services.
This
included a trip to Libya by the former chief inspector of prisons Lord
Ramsbotham, another in July 2009 by a team of British prison officials
and the funding of visits to Libya by academics from King’s College,
London, who were each paid £630 a day to run a two-week course in
Tripoli.
Libya was
notorious for corruption under the Gaddafi regime, with the dictator’s
family dominating commerce and demanding a cut of most big deals.
Rivals who crossed them could have their businesses – or lives – destroyed.
But
the Law Society spent 18 months working with Libyan officials to review
laws on banking and the creation of a more ‘enabling’ business
environment.
There were
also exchange visits between British and Libyan health ministers and
proposals for joint work from the Health Protection Agency.
Even former Labour leader Neil Kinnock became involved, holding discussions on education with Saif Gaddafi.
‘I
am pleased that you had a successful meeting with Lord Kinnock,’ Tony
Blair’s then foreign policy adviser, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, told the
dictator’s son in an April 2007 letter.
The letter, updating Gaddafi on progress on several fronts, ran to four pages.
It concluded with the Prime Minister sending ‘his warm wishes to the Leader and to yourself’.
A
separate cache of secret files found in Tripoli show that MI6 gave the
Gaddafi regime information on Libyan dissidents living in the UK.
The
documents, discovered in the Tripoli offices of former Libyan
intelligence chief Musa Kusa, include a personal Christmas greeting
signed by a senior spy as ‘your friend’.
They
also reveal that MI6 and the CIA had a regular contact with their
counterparts in Libya, in particular Mr Kusa, who became foreign
minister and earlier this year defected to the UK.
HEADER HERE
British
Special Forces have warned Libyan commanders hunting Colonel Gaddafi
that he could be wearing a suicide vest – choosing to kill himself
rather than be captured.
A
senior security source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The intelligence
suggests it will be packed with enough explosives to take out anyone
around him.’
The
incriminating documents were found in the wreckage of the British
ambassador’s home in Tripoli, a three-storey house vandalised in April
by Gaddafi loyalists.
There
were several booklets filled with the faces of suspected terrorists,
scores of personally signed letters sent from Downing Street and
detailed intelligence data on the Gaddafi regime.
Incredibly, all this had lain amid the debris for four months, with no attempt made to secure the papers even in
the week after the rebels ousted the dictator from the city.
Mountains of shredded paper showed British diplomats tried to destroy many documents before fleeing.
One
of the more intriguing proposals in the papers is the idea of founding a
Centre for the Study of Meteors and Shooting Stars in the middle of the
Saharan desert.
Hundreds of meteorites have been found in the Libyan desert, including rocks from the Moon and Mars.
BLAIR HELPED PLAYBOY SAIF WITH HIS DODGY PhD THESIS:
Tony Blair helped Colonel Gaddafi’s playboy son Saif with his ‘dodgy’ philosophy PhD thesis while he was Prime Minister.
The
extraordinary revelation, confirmed by a leaked letter sent by Mr Blair
to the tyrant’s son, demonstrates just how close the links were between
the Blair Government and the Gaddafi regime.
Saif,
39, has called Mr Blair ‘a close, personal friend’ of his family. Mr
Blair also had a close personal relationship with dictator Muammar,
exchanging friendly notes even after he left No 10.
Typical
was one sent from Downing Street on December 28, 2006. ‘Eid Mubarak!’
it begins, acknowledging a Muslim festival. ‘At this sacred time of
harmony and reconciliation, recalling how our passionate God has mercy
on mankind, I would like to express my personal wishes to you, to your
family and to the Libyan people.’
The
documents show Mr Blair’s surprising level of involvement with Saif’s
2008 London School of Economics thesis. Mr Blair sent Saif a personally
signed letter on No 10 paper, addressing him as ‘Engineer Saif’ and
thanking him for sending the 429-page thesis for him to read.
The
PM also offered three examples of co-operation between governments,
people and business ‘that might help with your studies’, including Make
Poverty History, which he said worked because ‘it bought together an
unusual coalition of players from Bono to the Pope . with a simple
but inspiring message of hope.’
Mr
Blair then discusses how to prevent corruption in oil-rich nations –
even though the Gaddafis were notorious for stealing billions – and his
‘personal interest and commitment’ to the topics Saif studied.
He
signed off: ‘I wish you well for your PhD and send my warm good
wishes.’ Saif – who donated £1.5 million to the LSE – is said to have
plagiarised much of his thesis.
A
spokesman for Mr Blair said: ‘Neither Tony Blair or Downing Street
officials saw Saif Gaddafi’s thesis in advance. A letter was drafted by
officials giving examples of good practice which was sent in the Prime
Minister’s name. It was perfectly proper to do so.’
Incriminating: The documents reveal the close
ties between Gordon Brown and Gaddafi (pictured toegether on the left in
2009), and how the Libyan leader warned of a holy war if Megrahi
(right) was not released
WE HELPED TRAIN BRIGADE BEHIND REGIME'S WORST ATROCITIES
Who Dares Wins: The SAS spent six months training Libyan elite troops two years ago
Britain developed astonishingly close
ties with the Libyan military following Tony Blair’s 2007 deal in the
desert with Colonel Gaddafi, despite its history of brutal internal
repression and bloody foreign adventurism.
Among
the deals revealed this weekend are the use of UK Special Forces to
train the feared Khamis Brigade, run by one of Gaddafi’s sons and
thought to have been behind some of the worst atrocities in the recent
conflict.
The SAS spent
six months training Libyan elite troops two years ago as part of what
was described by the Foreign Office as ‘ongoing co-operation in the
field of defence’ between the two countries. A troop of four to 14 SAS
men are understood to have trained the Libyans in counter-terrorism
techniques, including covert surveillance.
The
training was agreed under Tony Blair in 2004 but ‘signed off’ by Gordon
Brown in 2009. British officials also proposed further military
collaborations including:
- Training Libyan officers at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
- Dispatching a Royal Navy vessel to visit Tripoli.
- Paying for high-ranking Libyans to visit the European Union and Nato headquarters in Brussels.
- Sending 100 officers a year on English language courses.
- The sale of naval ships to Libya.
It
is now clear that British support for Gaddafi’s military machine went
considerably further than training – and that much of it was based on
ideas proposed by the deposed Libyan regime.
In
April 2007, a month before the desert accord was signed, Mr Blair’s
foreign policy adviser Sir Nigel Sheinwald told Saif Gaddafi that
Britain was ready to develop a partnership with Libya ‘starting with
some of the ideas you set out’.
Sir
Nigel said he was ‘extremely pleased’ agreement had been reached on the
sale of the Iskander missile system – although it was delayed by
international pressure.
In
February 2008, Gordon Brown wrote to the Libyan leader: ‘I am confident
that our defence co-operation can grow, building on the accord signed
in Sirte last May.’
Mr
Brown hoped they could conclude negotiations on two arms deals: a £147
million anti-tank missile system and related £112 million communication
system, plus an £85 million deal to supply radios.
In
a letter to Saif in June 2008, Mr McDonald outlined the deal to train
up to 90 members of the Khamis Brigade by Arturus, a UK-based private
military security company. He added: ‘The MoD would then be willing to
have serving personnel from UK SF [Special Forces] visit and provide
quality assurance.’
Last night, Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army commander, said: ‘Today’s friends are tomorrow’s enemies as these deals show.’