Blair’s ‘wrong judgment’ on Gaddafi, by former law chief

By
Deputy Political Editor

17:23 EST, 22 April 2012

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17:23 EST, 22 April 2012


'Judgment': Lord Goldsmith spoke out after allegations that UK intelligence agencies betrayed opponents of the Libyan dictator¿s brutal regime

‘Judgment’: Lord Goldsmith spoke out after allegations that UK intelligence agencies betrayed opponents of the Libyan dictator¿s brutal regime

Tony Blair made the ‘wrong judgment’ when he cosied up to Colonel Gaddafi, his former attorney general said yesterday.

Lord Goldsmith spoke out after allegations that the UK’s intelligence agencies betrayed opponents of the dictator’s brutal regime to Libyan spies under the Labour government.

Documents found in Tripoli show that MI5 launched a covert operation on British soil to target Libyan exiles who had been granted asylum in the UK. They were threatened with deportation unless they collaborated with the Gaddafi regime.

The papers, obtained by the Mail on
Sunday, revealed that international rules guaranteeing confidentiality
to refugees were betrayed between 2004 and 2006, after Mr Blair sealed
his ‘deal in the desert’ with Colonel Gaddafi.

Lord
Goldsmith, who was attorney general between 2001 and 2007, said the
dissidents’ betrayal was a ‘serious issue’ and called for a full
investigation. He told Sky News: ‘I didn’t know anything about this
particular case. I’m very troubled by these allegations. We’ve obviously
got to see what comes out.’

He said questions must now be asked
about ‘the issue of what was going on with Libya’.

The Blair government
re-established diplomatic ties with Gaddafi after he agreed to abandon
his nuclear and chemical weapons programmes in 2004.

‘Given
what we subsequently know about Gaddafi, that’s a fair thing to be
looking into and I think we do need to look into it further,’ Lord
Goldsmith said.

‘I think the problem was that Gaddafi did do something
which was important in this period, which was accepting that he would
get rid of his weapons of mass destruction.

‘We thought – the world
thought – he had turned for the good, but he hadn’t. That was, it turns
out, a wrong judgment.’

Cosy: Tony Blair shakes hands with former Libyan despot Colonel Muammar Gaddafi at his desert base outside Sirte, south of Tripoli, in May 2007

Cosy: Tony Blair shakes hands with former Libyan despot Colonel Muammar Gaddafi at his desert base outside Sirte, south of Tripoli, in May 2007

The MI5 revelations come after another Libyan opposition leader, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, announced he was suing former foreign secretary Jack Straw, MI6 and the Government over his rendition to Libya for torture in 2004. His lawyers are also preparing a case against Mr Blair.

Mr Straw has recently refused to comment on his role in such decisions, while Mr Blair has repeatedly said he does not recall the Belhadj case.

Yesterday, the former prime minister’s spokesman said he has ‘no recollection’ of MI5’s role operating alongside Libyan intelligence.

Scotland Yard is already investigating whether MI6 officers and ministers were complicit in Mr Belhadj’s torture.

Security sources said it was ‘difficult to imagine’ that joint operations were not sanctioned by senior politicians.

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