[This is the headline over a report published this evening on The Guardian website. It reads in part:]
Scottish prosecutors who want to interview the dissident Libyan minister Moussa Koussa about the Lockerbie bombing have failed to meet him four days after they flew to London. [RB: According to Kenny MacAskill, they have been in London since Friday, 1 April.] (...)
In a carefully worded statement released on Monday evening Crown Office officials said they had met with the Foreign Office. "It was a very positive meeting and steps are being taken with a view to arranging a meeting with Mr Moussa Koussa at the earliest opportunity in the next few days."
There were press reports that prosecutors believed they would meet Koussa on Monday but sources close to the investigation have confirmed no interview has yet taken place. The Crown Office and police refused to comment. (...)
The Foreign Office confirmed Koussa had not been offered immunity but nor had he been arrested. He was not under any obligation to meet prosecutors, police or other officials. "Moussa Koussa is not detained by us and has taken part in discussions with officials since his arrival, of his own free will," a spokeswoman said.
"As the Crown Office statement on Monday evening indicated, Crown Office and FCO officials had a very positive meeting to address these matters on Monday with a view to arranging a meeting with Moussa Koussa at the earliest opportunity. It is not appropriate for us to say anything more at this stage."
The Times reported on Monday that the prosecutors were "fully expecting the interview to take place" that day. David Cameron, the prime minister, and William Hague, the foreign secretary, said they would encourage Koussa to talk to the Scottish team. But they played down speculation that he would agree.
[The BBC News website later published a report headed Moussa Koussa interviewed over Lockerbie. It reads in part:]
The former Libyan foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, has been interviewed by Scottish police investigating the Lockerbie bombing, the BBC has learned. (...)
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said: "We can confirm that officers of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, supported by COPFS, today met....[Mr Moussa Koussa].....in relation to the ongoing investigation into the Lockerbie bombing."
BBC Scotland correspondent Glenn Campbell said: "It's not clear how productive the interview was.
"The Scottish authorities hope that Moussa Koussa and other senior figures who have deserted Col Gaddafi's regime can help them close in on those who ordered the attack."
Our correspondent said the questioning was led by Det Supt Michael Dalgliesh, of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, who is continuing the Lockerbie investigation.
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Thursday, 7 April 2011
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Hands up, all who remember Moussa Koussa!
Three years ago the news media were full of reports and speculation about the defection and arrival in the United Kingdom of Moussa Koussa, then Foreign Minister in the Gaddafi regime. Here is an excerpt from a post on this blog dated 1 April 2011:
Scottish police and prosecutors are seeking to interview Moussa Koussa, the defecting Libyan Foreign Minister, raising the prospect of resolving once and for all the truth about the Lockerbie bombing.
Officials at the Crown Office, Scotland’s prosecuting authority, last night contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office saying they wished to speak to Mr Koussa in connection with the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988, which led to the death of 270 people.
Meanwhile Patrick Shearer, the chief constable of Dumfries and Galloway Police, the force which is still investigating the atrocity, said it would be unusual if they did not seek the opportunity to speak to “a senior member of the Government in Libya”.
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, in response to the Scottish authorities, gave a strong indication that Scottish detectives would be allowed to question him. He told a news conference: “The investigation is still open. They should follow their investigation wherever it leads and we will respond to any request they make.”
However, in an unusual intervention, Whitehall officials insisted that Mr Koussa was not the “prime suspect” over Lockerbie. The Government also failed to rule out the possibility that he might leave the country before lengthy investigations by the International Criminal Court are complete. [RB: surprise, surprise!] (...)
Moussa Koussa visited Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in Greenock Prison where he was serving his life sentence, it emerged yesterday.
Official documents reveal that, at a meeting with Scottish officials in Glasgow in January 2009, he warned that al-Megrahi had only a few months to live, and said that if he were to die in a Scottish prison it “would not be viewed well by the Muslims or the Arabs”. The minute indicates that Mr Koussa also made it clear that it would “not be good for relations” between the UK and Libya. That such a senior figure in the Libyan administration should have had access to al-Megrahi, and have exerted pressure on Scottish officials, will further convince those who opposed the Libyan’s return, that there was more to his release than compassion.
Mr Koussa, it has emerged, met Scottish Government officials twice — in late 2008 and again in early 2009 — after al-Megrahi had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Curiously, in the minutes of the first meeting on October 27, 2008, which included Foreign Office and Scottish Government officials as well as three Libyans, Mr Koussa is referred to as an “interpreter”. At a meeting in Glasgow on January 22, 2009, attended by six Libyans and four Scottish government officials, Mr Koussa is referred to as “Minister for Security” and the minutes shows that he intervened to draw attending to al-Megrahi’s illness. The minute goes on: “He (Koussa) spoke of al-Megrahi’s medical condition and that he feels that he only has a few months left.”
It was made clear by the Scottish Government last night that although officials had met him, Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Minister who in August 2009 released al-Megrahi, had had no direct contact with Mr Koussa.
Scottish campaigners who met Mr Koussa during their decades spent fighting for the truth about the Lockerbie bombing have told The Times that they found him more frightening than Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. And they said that they gleaned from encounters with the former Libyan foreign minister that, if the country were responsible for the explosion of Pan Am flight 103, then “his fingerprints will be all over it”.
Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, was one of the 270 people killed, said he met Mr Koussa in 1991. “I realised straight away that he was a central figure who had everything at his fingertips and was a chief executive in deciding what would happen in the country.”
Two years later, Robert Black, the Scottish QC who was the architect of the trial at Camp Zeist, went to meet Mr Koussa — the first of about nine encounters over 16 years. “The Libyans were very frightened of him. That was transparently obvious. Moussa would come into the hotel where I was staying and I could see everyone else, all the Libyans ... it was as if a shiver was going down their spines.”
“Certainly if Libya was involved in Lockerbie in any capacity then I have no doubt at all that Moussa Koussa knows about it,” said the lawyer. “If Libya was involved then it will have Moussa Koussa’s fingerprints all over it.”
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Lockerbie families attack UK over Moussa Koussa travel plans
[This is the headline over a report just published on The Guardian website. It reads in part:]
Families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing have accused the British government of "betrayal" after it allowed Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister, to leave the UK to attend an international conference.
Koussa, who defected to Britain at the end of last month, was en route to Doha in Qatar on Tuesday, where an international conference on the future of Libya is to be held with representatives from the Benghazi-based opposition.
He is expected to return to the UK after the conference, but is free to travel as he pleases.
Brian Flynn, the brother of JP Flynn, who died in the 1988 attack and now organises the Victims of Pan Am 103 Incorporated campaign group in New York, said the UK authorities had "crossed a line" by allowing Koussa to attend the conference and thereby suggest he is a peace negotiator rather than, as they believe, a key instigator of the bombing.
"I think the British are being played by him … he has convinced them he can be valuable in this process, but he is not the suave diplomat in the suit sitting on the sidelines, he is one of the key guys who mastermined [the bombing of] Pan Am flight 103," Flynn said.
"He is a stated enemy of the British government. Our feeling is that the British government gave a nod to Lockerbie by questioning him two days before this conference, but that feels disingenuous. The Scottish and American prosecutors on Lockerbie are being betrayed by the politicians and the diplomats. Cameron has been good on Libya, but this sounds an awful lot like Tony Blair is back in charge."
Flynn's organisation, the largest victims' group in the US, seeks to discover the truth behind the bombing and win justice for those who died. He said the families believed the decision to allow Koussa to travel to the meeting in Qatar was part of a British strategy to encourage other defectors to flee to Britain from Gaddafi's regime, as there was no way either the rebels or the regime would trust him as an intermediary.
"He blatantly betrayed the Libyan regime and for more than 25 years he betrayed the Libyan people, so why is this the guy we are sending [to the talks]?" said Flynn.
Koussa is said to be travelling to Doha in order to establish whether he has a role to play in the rebel movement along with other senior defectors from the Gaddafi regime – perhaps by brokering a deal between Tripoli and Benghazi. (...)
Jean Berkley, co-ordinator of the UK Families Flight 103 group, who lost her 29-year old son Alistair when the Pan Am flight was blown up in mid-air, said she was mystified by the decision to let Koussa travel.
"It is very unexpected," she said. "Is he the basis of a new Libyan opposition, or what? He doesn't seem a very suitable person. Our aim is always to get more of the truth and we want a full public inquiry. Koussa must have some interesting knowledge. It is hard to know what to make of it. We will wait and see and watch with interest."
[A report on the CBS News website reads in part:]
Libya's former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is traveling to Qatar to share his insight on the workings of Muammar Qaddafi's inner circle, a British government official said Tuesday.
Koussa has been asked to attend the conference on Libya being held in Doha as a valuable Qaddafi insider, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
MI6 agents stopped questioning Koussa last week, according to the official. Koussa had been staying in a safehouse until late Monday night, according to Norman Benotman, an ex-member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and relative of Koussa who has been in regular contact with the former foreign minister since he fled to Britain.
Although Koussa was provided with legal advice, Benotman said he believed he had "cleared most of the legal hurdles in the UK" surrounding his alleged involvement in the Lockerbie bombing and arming the IRA.
Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the trip in a statement Tuesday, saying that Koussa was "traveling today to Doha to meet with the Qatari government and a range of other Libyan representatives."
The statement added that Koussa was "a free individual, who can travel to and from the UK as he wishes."
[A report on The Independent website reads in part:]
The coalition was accused of turning Britain into a "transit lounge for alleged war criminals" today after it was disclosed that Libyan defector Moussa Koussa had been allowed to leave the country.
Muammar Gaddafi's former right-hand man is travelling to Qatar ahead of a meeting of the international alliance's Contact Group tomorrow. (...)
But Tory MP Robert Halfon, whose family fled Libya when Gaddafi took power, insisted the coalition was repeating mistakes made with Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
"Many people will be very anxious that Britain is being used as a transit lounge for alleged war criminals," Mr Halfon said.
"We should learn from the release of Megrahi that we should not release those people associated with Gaddafi or let them out of the UK until they have faced the full course of the law, whether in British courts or international courts." (...)
Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, said: "Mr Moussa Koussa was interviewed by Scottish police last Thursday as a potential witness in the Lockerbie investigation.
"He has not been under Scottish jurisdiction, and therefore the Crown Office has no power over his movements.
"However, we have every reason to believe that the Scottish authorities will be able to interview him again if required."
Susan Cohen, who lost her 20 year-old daughter Theodora in the Lockerbie bombing, said the British Government had now "lost all credibility".
Speaking from her home in New Jersey, she said she was "concerned" about the actions of the UK Government and called for the US to intervene.
She said: "I was hoping that the CIA would be able to speak with Moussa Koussa.
"After what happened with the release of Megrahi I no longer trust the British - the English or the Scots - on this.
"I want the US involved in this. After they let Megrahi out, why should we trust the Scots or the English to handle this?
"To me Moussa Koussa is nowhere near as important as Gaddafi, but he is helpful to us in terms of information he has on Lockerbie. That is very, very important.
"My concerns are how long he is going for, and whether he will come back.
"I am mostly worried about how much access the Americans will have to him and how much he will share with us, and when this information about Lockerbie will become public.
"How can we trust the British anymore? I think they have lost all credibility."
Families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing have accused the British government of "betrayal" after it allowed Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister, to leave the UK to attend an international conference.
Koussa, who defected to Britain at the end of last month, was en route to Doha in Qatar on Tuesday, where an international conference on the future of Libya is to be held with representatives from the Benghazi-based opposition.
He is expected to return to the UK after the conference, but is free to travel as he pleases.
Brian Flynn, the brother of JP Flynn, who died in the 1988 attack and now organises the Victims of Pan Am 103 Incorporated campaign group in New York, said the UK authorities had "crossed a line" by allowing Koussa to attend the conference and thereby suggest he is a peace negotiator rather than, as they believe, a key instigator of the bombing.
"I think the British are being played by him … he has convinced them he can be valuable in this process, but he is not the suave diplomat in the suit sitting on the sidelines, he is one of the key guys who mastermined [the bombing of] Pan Am flight 103," Flynn said.
"He is a stated enemy of the British government. Our feeling is that the British government gave a nod to Lockerbie by questioning him two days before this conference, but that feels disingenuous. The Scottish and American prosecutors on Lockerbie are being betrayed by the politicians and the diplomats. Cameron has been good on Libya, but this sounds an awful lot like Tony Blair is back in charge."
Flynn's organisation, the largest victims' group in the US, seeks to discover the truth behind the bombing and win justice for those who died. He said the families believed the decision to allow Koussa to travel to the meeting in Qatar was part of a British strategy to encourage other defectors to flee to Britain from Gaddafi's regime, as there was no way either the rebels or the regime would trust him as an intermediary.
"He blatantly betrayed the Libyan regime and for more than 25 years he betrayed the Libyan people, so why is this the guy we are sending [to the talks]?" said Flynn.
Koussa is said to be travelling to Doha in order to establish whether he has a role to play in the rebel movement along with other senior defectors from the Gaddafi regime – perhaps by brokering a deal between Tripoli and Benghazi. (...)
Jean Berkley, co-ordinator of the UK Families Flight 103 group, who lost her 29-year old son Alistair when the Pan Am flight was blown up in mid-air, said she was mystified by the decision to let Koussa travel.
"It is very unexpected," she said. "Is he the basis of a new Libyan opposition, or what? He doesn't seem a very suitable person. Our aim is always to get more of the truth and we want a full public inquiry. Koussa must have some interesting knowledge. It is hard to know what to make of it. We will wait and see and watch with interest."
[A report on the CBS News website reads in part:]
Libya's former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is traveling to Qatar to share his insight on the workings of Muammar Qaddafi's inner circle, a British government official said Tuesday.
Koussa has been asked to attend the conference on Libya being held in Doha as a valuable Qaddafi insider, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
MI6 agents stopped questioning Koussa last week, according to the official. Koussa had been staying in a safehouse until late Monday night, according to Norman Benotman, an ex-member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and relative of Koussa who has been in regular contact with the former foreign minister since he fled to Britain.
Although Koussa was provided with legal advice, Benotman said he believed he had "cleared most of the legal hurdles in the UK" surrounding his alleged involvement in the Lockerbie bombing and arming the IRA.
Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the trip in a statement Tuesday, saying that Koussa was "traveling today to Doha to meet with the Qatari government and a range of other Libyan representatives."
The statement added that Koussa was "a free individual, who can travel to and from the UK as he wishes."
[A report on The Independent website reads in part:]
The coalition was accused of turning Britain into a "transit lounge for alleged war criminals" today after it was disclosed that Libyan defector Moussa Koussa had been allowed to leave the country.
Muammar Gaddafi's former right-hand man is travelling to Qatar ahead of a meeting of the international alliance's Contact Group tomorrow. (...)
But Tory MP Robert Halfon, whose family fled Libya when Gaddafi took power, insisted the coalition was repeating mistakes made with Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
"Many people will be very anxious that Britain is being used as a transit lounge for alleged war criminals," Mr Halfon said.
"We should learn from the release of Megrahi that we should not release those people associated with Gaddafi or let them out of the UK until they have faced the full course of the law, whether in British courts or international courts." (...)
Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, said: "Mr Moussa Koussa was interviewed by Scottish police last Thursday as a potential witness in the Lockerbie investigation.
"He has not been under Scottish jurisdiction, and therefore the Crown Office has no power over his movements.
"However, we have every reason to believe that the Scottish authorities will be able to interview him again if required."
Susan Cohen, who lost her 20 year-old daughter Theodora in the Lockerbie bombing, said the British Government had now "lost all credibility".
Speaking from her home in New Jersey, she said she was "concerned" about the actions of the UK Government and called for the US to intervene.
She said: "I was hoping that the CIA would be able to speak with Moussa Koussa.
"After what happened with the release of Megrahi I no longer trust the British - the English or the Scots - on this.
"I want the US involved in this. After they let Megrahi out, why should we trust the Scots or the English to handle this?
"To me Moussa Koussa is nowhere near as important as Gaddafi, but he is helpful to us in terms of information he has on Lockerbie. That is very, very important.
"My concerns are how long he is going for, and whether he will come back.
"I am mostly worried about how much access the Americans will have to him and how much he will share with us, and when this information about Lockerbie will become public.
"How can we trust the British anymore? I think they have lost all credibility."
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Lockerbie bombing prosecutors target Libyan defector Moussa Koussa
[This is the headline over a report just published on the website of The Guardian. It reads in part:]
Scottish prosecutors have asked to interview Moussa Koussa about the Lockerbie bombing after the Libyan foreign minister and spy chief defected to Britain.
The request from the Crown Office in Scotland follows demands from Libya's rebel leadership for Koussa to be returned to Libya for trial for murder and crimes against humanity after Muammar Gaddafi is toppled from power.
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, has said the UK is not offering Koussa immunity from prosecution.
The Crown Office in Edinburgh has said it is formally asking for its prosecutors and detectives from Dumfries and Galloway police to question Koussa about the 1988 bombing. "We have notified the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that the Scottish prosecuting and investigating authorities wish to interview Mr Koussa in connection with the Lockerbie bombing," it said.
"The investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and we will pursue all relevant lines of inquiry."
Dumfries and Galloway police, which investigated the Lockerbie case, has confirmed its detectives are keen to interview Koussa.
It remains unclear what role Koussa played when Pan Am flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 passengers, crew and townspeople. He later emerged as head of Libyan intelligence services. (...)
Senior figures in the Lockerbie case – including Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the attack, and Professor Robert Black, a lawyer and architect of the trial of two Libyans accused of the atrocity – have said they believe Koussa might have significant information about Libya's role.
Koussa was pivotal in the negotiations to hand over the two suspects – Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah – for trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001. He oversaw Libya's negotiations to pay billion of pounds in reparations for the attack.
The Libyans' consistent denial of responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing has been repeatedly rejected by the UK and US governments, and Scottish prosecutors.
Swire, from UK Families of Pan Am Flight 103, and Black, emeritus professor of Scots law at Edinburgh University, have said they believe Megrahi is innocent. He remains the only man convicted of the bombing.
As Libyan foreign minister, Koussa met Foreign Office and Scottish government officials at least twice in 2008 and 2009 to negotiate Megrahi's release from Greenock prison. Koussa visited Megrahi in jail. Megrahi's lawyer, Tony Scott [RB: now corrected to Tony Kelly], has declined to comment on the latest developments.
Swire said the weight of evidence pointed to Syria as the main culprit but "within the Libyan regime [Koussa] is in the best position of anyone other than Gaddafi himself to tell us what the regime knows or did. He would be a peerless source of information".
Detective Superintendent Mickey Dalgliesh, who is in charge of the Lockerbie case at Dumfries and Galloway police, said the Crown Office request to interview Koussa was "in line with our position that the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and we are determined to pursue all relevant lines of inquiry".
[A column by former UK ambassador to Libya Oliver Miles has just been published on the Comment is free website of The Guardian. It is headed "Moussa Koussa's defection should be exploited: Denying Moussa Koussa immunity from prosecution in Britain does nothing to encourage others to desert Gaddafi".
A further Guardian report headlined "Moussa Koussa's defection surprises Libya – and maybe Britain too" can be read here.
The report on this issue on the BBC News website quotes extensively from this blog.]
Scottish prosecutors have asked to interview Moussa Koussa about the Lockerbie bombing after the Libyan foreign minister and spy chief defected to Britain.
The request from the Crown Office in Scotland follows demands from Libya's rebel leadership for Koussa to be returned to Libya for trial for murder and crimes against humanity after Muammar Gaddafi is toppled from power.
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, has said the UK is not offering Koussa immunity from prosecution.
The Crown Office in Edinburgh has said it is formally asking for its prosecutors and detectives from Dumfries and Galloway police to question Koussa about the 1988 bombing. "We have notified the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that the Scottish prosecuting and investigating authorities wish to interview Mr Koussa in connection with the Lockerbie bombing," it said.
"The investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and we will pursue all relevant lines of inquiry."
Dumfries and Galloway police, which investigated the Lockerbie case, has confirmed its detectives are keen to interview Koussa.
It remains unclear what role Koussa played when Pan Am flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 passengers, crew and townspeople. He later emerged as head of Libyan intelligence services. (...)
Senior figures in the Lockerbie case – including Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the attack, and Professor Robert Black, a lawyer and architect of the trial of two Libyans accused of the atrocity – have said they believe Koussa might have significant information about Libya's role.
Koussa was pivotal in the negotiations to hand over the two suspects – Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah – for trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001. He oversaw Libya's negotiations to pay billion of pounds in reparations for the attack.
The Libyans' consistent denial of responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing has been repeatedly rejected by the UK and US governments, and Scottish prosecutors.
Swire, from UK Families of Pan Am Flight 103, and Black, emeritus professor of Scots law at Edinburgh University, have said they believe Megrahi is innocent. He remains the only man convicted of the bombing.
As Libyan foreign minister, Koussa met Foreign Office and Scottish government officials at least twice in 2008 and 2009 to negotiate Megrahi's release from Greenock prison. Koussa visited Megrahi in jail. Megrahi's lawyer, Tony Scott [RB: now corrected to Tony Kelly], has declined to comment on the latest developments.
Swire said the weight of evidence pointed to Syria as the main culprit but "within the Libyan regime [Koussa] is in the best position of anyone other than Gaddafi himself to tell us what the regime knows or did. He would be a peerless source of information".
Detective Superintendent Mickey Dalgliesh, who is in charge of the Lockerbie case at Dumfries and Galloway police, said the Crown Office request to interview Koussa was "in line with our position that the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and we are determined to pursue all relevant lines of inquiry".
[A column by former UK ambassador to Libya Oliver Miles has just been published on the Comment is free website of The Guardian. It is headed "Moussa Koussa's defection should be exploited: Denying Moussa Koussa immunity from prosecution in Britain does nothing to encourage others to desert Gaddafi".
A further Guardian report headlined "Moussa Koussa's defection surprises Libya – and maybe Britain too" can be read here.
The report on this issue on the BBC News website quotes extensively from this blog.]
Sunday, 12 April 2015
Allowing Moussa Koussa to leave UK "betrayal" by Government
Lockerbie families attack UK over Moussa Koussa travel plans
Families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing have accused the British government of "betrayal" after it allowed Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister, to leave the UK to attend an international conference.
Koussa, who defected to Britain at the end of last month, was en route to Doha in Qatar on Tuesday, where an international conference on the future of Libya is to be held with representatives from the Benghazi-based opposition.
He is expected to return to the UK after the conference, but is free to travel as he pleases.
Brian Flynn, the brother of JP Flynn, who died in the 1988 attack and now organises the Victims of Pan Am 103 Incorporated campaign group in New York, said the UK authorities had "crossed a line" by allowing Koussa to attend the conference and thereby suggest he is a peace negotiator rather than, as they believe, a key instigator of the bombing.
"I think the British are being played by him … he has convinced them he can be valuable in this process, but he is not the suave diplomat in the suit sitting on the sidelines, he is one of the key guys who masterminded [the bombing of] Pan Am flight 103," Flynn said.
"He is a stated enemy of the British government. Our feeling is that the British government gave a nod to Lockerbie by questioning him two days before this conference, but that feels disingenuous. The Scottish and American prosecutors on Lockerbie are being betrayed by the politicians and the diplomats. Cameron has been good on Libya, but this sounds an awful lot like Tony Blair is back in charge."
Flynn's organisation, the largest victims' group in the US, seeks to discover the truth behind the bombing and win justice for those who died. He said the families believed the decision to allow Koussa to travel to the meeting in Qatar was part of a British strategy to encourage other defectors to flee to Britain from Gaddafi's regime, as there was no way either the rebels or the regime would trust him as an intermediary.
"He blatantly betrayed the Libyan regime and for more than 25 years he betrayed the Libyan people, so why is this the guy we are sending [to the talks]?" said Flynn.
Koussa is said to be travelling to Doha in order to establish whether he has a role to play in the rebel movement along with other senior defectors from the Gaddafi regime – perhaps by brokering a deal between Tripoli and Benghazi. (...)
Jean Berkley, co-ordinator of the UK Families Flight 103 group, who lost her 29-year old son Alistair when the Pan Am flight was blown up in mid-air, said she was mystified by the decision to let Koussa travel.
"It is very unexpected," she said. "Is he the basis of a new Libyan opposition, or what? He doesn't seem a very suitable person. Our aim is always to get more of the truth and we want a full public inquiry. Koussa must have some interesting knowledge. It is hard to know what to make of it. We will wait and see and watch with interest."
Libya's former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is traveling to Qatar to share his insight on the workings of Muammar Qaddafi's inner circle, a British government official said Tuesday.
Koussa has been asked to attend the conference on Libya being held in Doha as a valuable Qaddafi insider, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
MI6 agents stopped questioning Koussa last week, according to the official. Koussa had been staying in a safehouse until late Monday night, according to Noman Benotman, an ex-member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and relative of Koussa who has been in regular contact with the former foreign minister since he fled to Britain.
Although Koussa was provided with legal advice, Benotman said he believed he had "cleared most of the legal hurdles in the UK" surrounding his alleged involvement in the Lockerbie bombing and arming the IRA.
Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the trip in a statement Tuesday, saying that Koussa was "traveling today to Doha to meet with the Qatari government and a range of other Libyan representatives."
The statement added that Koussa was "a free individual, who can travel to and from the UK as he wishes."
Friday, 1 April 2011
Relatives of Lockerbie victims split over defector
[This is the headline over a report by Carolyn Churchill in today's edition of The Herald, whose coverage of the Mouusa Koussa story seems to me to be the best to be found in the Scottish dailies. It reads as follows:]
Former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa’s defection has provoked a further split in opinion among relatives of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing.
Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died when Pan Am flight 103 blew up in December 1988, said it should be seen as a moment for rejoicing as it offered a chance to shed light on the truth behind the atrocity.
But on the other side of the Atlantic, family members in America said they were horrified that Koussa had not been charged with mass murder as soon as he stepped on to British soil.
Despite assurances from Prime Minister David Cameron that the Libyan is not being granted immunity from prosecution, several relatives in the US expressed doubts that this would be guaranteed in the long-term.
Others voiced concern that there was no defection and he may, in fact, have travelled to England under a diplomatic mission.
Their concerns were fuelled by Professor Robert Black, QC, one of the architects of the Lockerbie trial at Camp Zeist, who said there was a “strong indication” that Koussa’s arrival was a diplomatic manoeuvre.
Speaking from her home on the east coast of America, Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband Michael died in the atrocity, told The Herald: “I’m very nervous about what this deal contains – there clearly is a deal or he would not have come.
“This man was the main architect for the Lockerbie bombing. He has a tremendous amount of blood on his hands and it is absolutely critical that Scottish and US law enforcement are able to question him.”
Rosemary Wolfe, whose step-daughter Miriam was also on the flight, said she did not believe Mr Cameron’s statement that Koussa was not being given immunity. She said: “That doesn’t mean that he won’t be [given immunity].
“I’m absolutely nauseated and disgusted. He should have been put in handcuffs as soon as he got off the plane.
“I am sure he wouldn’t have arrived on British soil without some sort of pre-arrangement or discussion. That he should be exchanging his own freedom for any information that he could provide is absolutely horrendous.”
Some of the UK relatives have expressed doubts about the conviction of the Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who was found guilty of the murder of 270 people, and they said Koussa’s defection could lead to the truth being uncovered.
Dr Swire, who has met Koussa previously, said the Libyan was “extremely frightening, more frightening than Gaddafi himself”.
He said: “He was clearly running things. If Libya was involved in Lockerbie, he can tell us how they carried out the atrocity and why.”
Reverend John Mosey, whose 19-year-old daughter died in the bombing, said he was “95% convinced” that Libya was not responsible for the atrocity.
But he said that since Megrahi had been found guilty in a court of law, Koussa should also have been taken into custody when he arrived on British soil.
He said: “[Megrahi] is the only one found guilty by a Scottish court, therefore Megrahi is guilty of mass murder. If he is guilty this man was his boss so if Megrahi is guilty this man is surely guilty.
“He ought to be in custody being closely questioned or at some point or other brought to court or trial. That would be the just thing if Megrahi is guilty. Even if Libya were not guilty I would think if anybody knows, Mr Koussa will know who did it.”
Professor Black, meanwhile, said: “If he were defecting he would not defect to a country that was going to put him on trial for murder. He would seek immunity from prosecution. The fact that he hasn’t would lead me to believe that he has not defected.
“If he has defected then he could be a source of informa-tion about any involvement Libya may have had in Lockerbie. My position is that the Libyan who was convicted ought not to have been because the evidence simply did not warrant it.
“It is perfectly possible that Libya was involved in someway, whether supplying personnel or materials or logistic support.
“If anybody would know about that it would be Mr Koussa, because if he was involved his fingerprints would be all over it.
“Given his position and the positions he held at the time there is no way that if Libya was involved it could have happened without his participation.”
[Michael Settle, the paper's UK political editor, contributes a report headlined Tell us the secrets of Lockerbie. It reads in part:]
Scottish detectives and prosecutors are to interview Libyan defector Moussa Koussa about his involvement in the Lockerbie bombing. (...)
“This could be all the evidence that we wanted given to us on a silver platter,” declared Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am 103 group in the US.
“Koussa was at the centre of Gaddafi’s inner circle. This is a guy who knows everything,” said Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the atrocity. He added: “This is a fantastic day for those who seek the truth about Lockerbie. He could tell us everything the Gaddafi regime knows.”
Last night, there were reports that other senior figures were preparing to follow Koussa’s lead.
Al Jazeera broadcast that “a number of figures” close to Gaddafi were leaving the country for neighbouring Tunisia.
Earlier reports claimed the Foreign Office was in secret talks with six more of the dictator’s aides about defecting, but this was played down by Downing Street. (...)
A Whitehall source explained British officials “need to tread carefully” and take their time talking to [Koussa]. “It’s a delicate situation and we need to take a measured approach. It’s early days,” he told The Herald.
However, apart from any historical evidence the defector might have on Lockerbie, MI6 will be hoping for as much intelligence as possible on Gaddafi’s current strategy.
It is believed he may also know the identity of the killer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.
And as head of the Libyan intelligence agency from 1994 to 2009, he is likely to be able to provide details of Libya’s support for the IRA.
It is thought the debriefing could take some time, so any questioning by the Crown Office and Dumfries and Galloway Police might not take place for several days, if not weeks [RB: if at all]. (...)
Gaddafi’s spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Koussa had been given permission to go to Tunisia for health treatment. He added: “His heart and body cannot take the pressures. If someone wants to step down, that’s his decision,” he added.
Tory backencher Robert Halfon compared the defection to that of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s disillusioned lieutenant, who crash-landed near Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire in 1941.
He said Koussa “should be put in front of a British or international court for war crimes, if it is true that he was behind the Lockerbie bombing”.
Last night, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said America should not pursue nation building or seek to direct the future of a post-Gaddafi Libya. It follows claims President Barack Obama had signed secret orders allowing intelligence operatives to provide support for rebels.
“I think that the last thing this country needs is another enterprise in nation building,” Gates told a Senate hearing.
[A further report by Carolyn Churchill in The Herald reads as follows:]
One of five Libyan diplomats expelled from the UK is understood to be the country’s former consul-general in Scotland.
Abdulrahman Swessi was based in Glasgow while the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, was behind bars in Barlinnie and then Greenock prisons.
Mr Swessi is thought to have been working in the Libyan embassy in London since Megrahi returned to Tripoli and is believed to be among five people given until April 6 to leave the country.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office would not confirm the identity of the diplomats yesterday, but reiterated William Hague’s comments to Parliament on Wednesday when he said they were asked to leave because of concerns they could pose a risk to national security.
Professor Robert Black QC, Professor Emeritus of Scots Law at Edinburgh University, questioned the reasoning behind Mr Swessi’s expulsion from the UK and said it was more likely to be because his name is forever linked with the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
He said: “He was never a high policymaker in any way. He was appointed simply to safeguard Megrahi’s interests while Megrahi’s family had their house in Glasgow. He was a social worker, if anything.”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “They are five members of the Libyan embassy, including the military attache, who we believe are the strongest Gaddafi supporters. We believe they have been putting pressure on opposition and student groups in the UK.”
[Reports in today's edition of The Times (accessible only by subscribers) contain the following:]
Scottish police and prosecutors are seeking to interview Moussa Koussa, the defecting Libyan Foreign Minister, raising the prospect of resolving once and for all the truth about the Lockerbie bombing.
Officials at the Crown Office, Scotland’s prosecuting authority, last night contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office saying they wished to speak to Mr Koussa in connection with the attack on PanAm Flight 103 in December 1988, which led to the death of 270 people.
Meanwhile Patrick Shearer, the chief constable of Dumfries and Galloway Police, the force which is still investigating the atrocity, said it would be unusual if they did not seek the opportunity to speak to “a senior member of the Government in Libya”.
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, in response to the Scottish authorities, gave a strong indication that Scottish detectives would be allowed to question him. He told a news conference: “The investigation is still open. They should follow their investigation wherever it leads and we will respond to any request they make.”
However, in an unusual intervention, Whitehall officials insisted that Mr Koussa was not the “prime suspect” over Lockerbie. The Government also failed to rule out the possibility that he might leave the country before lengthy investigations by the International Criminal Court are complete. [RB: surprise, surprise!] (...)
Moussa Koussa visited Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in Greenock Prison where he was serving his life sentence, it emerged yesterday.
Official documents reveal that, at a meeting with Scottish officials in Glasgow in January 2009, he warned that al-Megrahi had only a few months to live, and said that if he were to die in a Scottish prison it “would not be viewed well by the Muslims or the Arabs”. The minute indicates that Mr Koussa also made it clear that it would “not be good for relations” between the UK and Libya. That such a senior figure in the Libyan administration should have had access to al-Megrahi, and have exerted pressure on Scottish officials, will further convince those who opposed the Libyan’s return, that there was more to his release than compassion.
Mr Koussa, it has emerged, met Scottish Government officials twice — in late 2008 and again in early 2009 — after al-Megrahi had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Curiously, in the minutes of the first meeting on October 27, 2008, which included Foreign Office and Scottish Government officials as well as three Libyans, Mr Koussa is referred to as an “interpreter”. At a meeting in Glasgow on January 22, 2009, attended by six Libyans and four Scottish government officials, Mr Koussa is referred to as “Minister for Security” and the minutes shows that he intervened to draw attending to al-Megrahi’s illness. The minute goes on: “He (Koussa) spoke of al-Megrahi’s medical condition and that he feels that he only has a few months left.”
It was made clear by the Scottish Government last night that although officials had met him, Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Minister who in August 2009 released al-Megrahi, had had no direct contact with Mr Koussa.
Scottish campaigners who met Mr Koussa during their decades spent fighting for the truth about the Lockerbie bombing have told The Times that they found him more frightening than Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. And they said that they gleaned from encounters with the former Libyan foreign minister that, if the country were responsible for the explosion of Pan Am flight 103, then “his fingerprints will be all over it”.
Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, was one of the 270 people killed, said he met Mr Koussa in 1991. “I realised straight away that he was a central figure who had everything at his fingertips and was a chief executive in deciding what would happen in the country.”
Two years later, Robert Black, the Scottish QC who was the architect of the trial at Camp Zeist, went to meet Mr Koussa — the first of about nine encounters over 16 years. “The Libyans were very frightened of him. That was transparently obvious. Moussa would come into the hotel where I was staying and I could see everyone else, all the Libyans ... it was as if a shiver was going down their spines.”
“Certainly if Libya was involved in Lockerbie in any capacity then I have no doubt at all that Moussa Koussa knows about it,” said the lawyer. “If Libya was involved then it will have Moussa Koussa’s fingerprints all over it.”
[The Daily Telegraph runs a breathless story headlined Libya: dilemma over defector's 'electrifying' Lockerbie information. The text in no way supports the headline.
Dr Jim Swire and Steven Raeburn, editor of The Firm, appeared last night on the BBC's Newsnight Scotland. The programme can be viewed here.]
Former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa’s defection has provoked a further split in opinion among relatives of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing.
Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died when Pan Am flight 103 blew up in December 1988, said it should be seen as a moment for rejoicing as it offered a chance to shed light on the truth behind the atrocity.
But on the other side of the Atlantic, family members in America said they were horrified that Koussa had not been charged with mass murder as soon as he stepped on to British soil.
Despite assurances from Prime Minister David Cameron that the Libyan is not being granted immunity from prosecution, several relatives in the US expressed doubts that this would be guaranteed in the long-term.
Others voiced concern that there was no defection and he may, in fact, have travelled to England under a diplomatic mission.
Their concerns were fuelled by Professor Robert Black, QC, one of the architects of the Lockerbie trial at Camp Zeist, who said there was a “strong indication” that Koussa’s arrival was a diplomatic manoeuvre.
Speaking from her home on the east coast of America, Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband Michael died in the atrocity, told The Herald: “I’m very nervous about what this deal contains – there clearly is a deal or he would not have come.
“This man was the main architect for the Lockerbie bombing. He has a tremendous amount of blood on his hands and it is absolutely critical that Scottish and US law enforcement are able to question him.”
Rosemary Wolfe, whose step-daughter Miriam was also on the flight, said she did not believe Mr Cameron’s statement that Koussa was not being given immunity. She said: “That doesn’t mean that he won’t be [given immunity].
“I’m absolutely nauseated and disgusted. He should have been put in handcuffs as soon as he got off the plane.
“I am sure he wouldn’t have arrived on British soil without some sort of pre-arrangement or discussion. That he should be exchanging his own freedom for any information that he could provide is absolutely horrendous.”
Some of the UK relatives have expressed doubts about the conviction of the Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who was found guilty of the murder of 270 people, and they said Koussa’s defection could lead to the truth being uncovered.
Dr Swire, who has met Koussa previously, said the Libyan was “extremely frightening, more frightening than Gaddafi himself”.
He said: “He was clearly running things. If Libya was involved in Lockerbie, he can tell us how they carried out the atrocity and why.”
Reverend John Mosey, whose 19-year-old daughter died in the bombing, said he was “95% convinced” that Libya was not responsible for the atrocity.
But he said that since Megrahi had been found guilty in a court of law, Koussa should also have been taken into custody when he arrived on British soil.
He said: “[Megrahi] is the only one found guilty by a Scottish court, therefore Megrahi is guilty of mass murder. If he is guilty this man was his boss so if Megrahi is guilty this man is surely guilty.
“He ought to be in custody being closely questioned or at some point or other brought to court or trial. That would be the just thing if Megrahi is guilty. Even if Libya were not guilty I would think if anybody knows, Mr Koussa will know who did it.”
Professor Black, meanwhile, said: “If he were defecting he would not defect to a country that was going to put him on trial for murder. He would seek immunity from prosecution. The fact that he hasn’t would lead me to believe that he has not defected.
“If he has defected then he could be a source of informa-tion about any involvement Libya may have had in Lockerbie. My position is that the Libyan who was convicted ought not to have been because the evidence simply did not warrant it.
“It is perfectly possible that Libya was involved in someway, whether supplying personnel or materials or logistic support.
“If anybody would know about that it would be Mr Koussa, because if he was involved his fingerprints would be all over it.
“Given his position and the positions he held at the time there is no way that if Libya was involved it could have happened without his participation.”
[Michael Settle, the paper's UK political editor, contributes a report headlined Tell us the secrets of Lockerbie. It reads in part:]
Scottish detectives and prosecutors are to interview Libyan defector Moussa Koussa about his involvement in the Lockerbie bombing. (...)
“This could be all the evidence that we wanted given to us on a silver platter,” declared Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am 103 group in the US.
“Koussa was at the centre of Gaddafi’s inner circle. This is a guy who knows everything,” said Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the atrocity. He added: “This is a fantastic day for those who seek the truth about Lockerbie. He could tell us everything the Gaddafi regime knows.”
Last night, there were reports that other senior figures were preparing to follow Koussa’s lead.
Al Jazeera broadcast that “a number of figures” close to Gaddafi were leaving the country for neighbouring Tunisia.
Earlier reports claimed the Foreign Office was in secret talks with six more of the dictator’s aides about defecting, but this was played down by Downing Street. (...)
A Whitehall source explained British officials “need to tread carefully” and take their time talking to [Koussa]. “It’s a delicate situation and we need to take a measured approach. It’s early days,” he told The Herald.
However, apart from any historical evidence the defector might have on Lockerbie, MI6 will be hoping for as much intelligence as possible on Gaddafi’s current strategy.
It is believed he may also know the identity of the killer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.
And as head of the Libyan intelligence agency from 1994 to 2009, he is likely to be able to provide details of Libya’s support for the IRA.
It is thought the debriefing could take some time, so any questioning by the Crown Office and Dumfries and Galloway Police might not take place for several days, if not weeks [RB: if at all]. (...)
Gaddafi’s spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Koussa had been given permission to go to Tunisia for health treatment. He added: “His heart and body cannot take the pressures. If someone wants to step down, that’s his decision,” he added.
Tory backencher Robert Halfon compared the defection to that of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s disillusioned lieutenant, who crash-landed near Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire in 1941.
He said Koussa “should be put in front of a British or international court for war crimes, if it is true that he was behind the Lockerbie bombing”.
Last night, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said America should not pursue nation building or seek to direct the future of a post-Gaddafi Libya. It follows claims President Barack Obama had signed secret orders allowing intelligence operatives to provide support for rebels.
“I think that the last thing this country needs is another enterprise in nation building,” Gates told a Senate hearing.
[A further report by Carolyn Churchill in The Herald reads as follows:]
One of five Libyan diplomats expelled from the UK is understood to be the country’s former consul-general in Scotland.
Abdulrahman Swessi was based in Glasgow while the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, was behind bars in Barlinnie and then Greenock prisons.
Mr Swessi is thought to have been working in the Libyan embassy in London since Megrahi returned to Tripoli and is believed to be among five people given until April 6 to leave the country.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office would not confirm the identity of the diplomats yesterday, but reiterated William Hague’s comments to Parliament on Wednesday when he said they were asked to leave because of concerns they could pose a risk to national security.
Professor Robert Black QC, Professor Emeritus of Scots Law at Edinburgh University, questioned the reasoning behind Mr Swessi’s expulsion from the UK and said it was more likely to be because his name is forever linked with the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
He said: “He was never a high policymaker in any way. He was appointed simply to safeguard Megrahi’s interests while Megrahi’s family had their house in Glasgow. He was a social worker, if anything.”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “They are five members of the Libyan embassy, including the military attache, who we believe are the strongest Gaddafi supporters. We believe they have been putting pressure on opposition and student groups in the UK.”
[Reports in today's edition of The Times (accessible only by subscribers) contain the following:]
Scottish police and prosecutors are seeking to interview Moussa Koussa, the defecting Libyan Foreign Minister, raising the prospect of resolving once and for all the truth about the Lockerbie bombing.
Officials at the Crown Office, Scotland’s prosecuting authority, last night contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office saying they wished to speak to Mr Koussa in connection with the attack on PanAm Flight 103 in December 1988, which led to the death of 270 people.
Meanwhile Patrick Shearer, the chief constable of Dumfries and Galloway Police, the force which is still investigating the atrocity, said it would be unusual if they did not seek the opportunity to speak to “a senior member of the Government in Libya”.
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, in response to the Scottish authorities, gave a strong indication that Scottish detectives would be allowed to question him. He told a news conference: “The investigation is still open. They should follow their investigation wherever it leads and we will respond to any request they make.”
However, in an unusual intervention, Whitehall officials insisted that Mr Koussa was not the “prime suspect” over Lockerbie. The Government also failed to rule out the possibility that he might leave the country before lengthy investigations by the International Criminal Court are complete. [RB: surprise, surprise!] (...)
Moussa Koussa visited Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in Greenock Prison where he was serving his life sentence, it emerged yesterday.
Official documents reveal that, at a meeting with Scottish officials in Glasgow in January 2009, he warned that al-Megrahi had only a few months to live, and said that if he were to die in a Scottish prison it “would not be viewed well by the Muslims or the Arabs”. The minute indicates that Mr Koussa also made it clear that it would “not be good for relations” between the UK and Libya. That such a senior figure in the Libyan administration should have had access to al-Megrahi, and have exerted pressure on Scottish officials, will further convince those who opposed the Libyan’s return, that there was more to his release than compassion.
Mr Koussa, it has emerged, met Scottish Government officials twice — in late 2008 and again in early 2009 — after al-Megrahi had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Curiously, in the minutes of the first meeting on October 27, 2008, which included Foreign Office and Scottish Government officials as well as three Libyans, Mr Koussa is referred to as an “interpreter”. At a meeting in Glasgow on January 22, 2009, attended by six Libyans and four Scottish government officials, Mr Koussa is referred to as “Minister for Security” and the minutes shows that he intervened to draw attending to al-Megrahi’s illness. The minute goes on: “He (Koussa) spoke of al-Megrahi’s medical condition and that he feels that he only has a few months left.”
It was made clear by the Scottish Government last night that although officials had met him, Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Minister who in August 2009 released al-Megrahi, had had no direct contact with Mr Koussa.
Scottish campaigners who met Mr Koussa during their decades spent fighting for the truth about the Lockerbie bombing have told The Times that they found him more frightening than Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. And they said that they gleaned from encounters with the former Libyan foreign minister that, if the country were responsible for the explosion of Pan Am flight 103, then “his fingerprints will be all over it”.
Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, was one of the 270 people killed, said he met Mr Koussa in 1991. “I realised straight away that he was a central figure who had everything at his fingertips and was a chief executive in deciding what would happen in the country.”
Two years later, Robert Black, the Scottish QC who was the architect of the trial at Camp Zeist, went to meet Mr Koussa — the first of about nine encounters over 16 years. “The Libyans were very frightened of him. That was transparently obvious. Moussa would come into the hotel where I was staying and I could see everyone else, all the Libyans ... it was as if a shiver was going down their spines.”
“Certainly if Libya was involved in Lockerbie in any capacity then I have no doubt at all that Moussa Koussa knows about it,” said the lawyer. “If Libya was involved then it will have Moussa Koussa’s fingerprints all over it.”
[The Daily Telegraph runs a breathless story headlined Libya: dilemma over defector's 'electrifying' Lockerbie information. The text in no way supports the headline.
Dr Jim Swire and Steven Raeburn, editor of The Firm, appeared last night on the BBC's Newsnight Scotland. The programme can be viewed here.]
Monday, 30 March 2015
Memories of Moussa Koussa
[On this date in 2011, Moussa Koussa arrived in Britain. The following are excerpts from his Wikipedia entry (footnotes omitted):]
Moussa Muhammad Koussa (Arabic: موسى كوسا, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈmusaˌkosa]; born c. 1947) is a Libyan political figure and diplomat, who served in the Libyan government as Minister of Foreign Affairs from March 2009, into the Libyan Civil War, when he resigned his position from the Gaddafi regime on 30 March 2011.
Koussa previously headed the Libyan intelligence agency from 1994 to 2009, and was considered one of the country's most powerful figures. He arrived in the United Kingdom on 30 March 2011. Later the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office released an official statement saying that Koussa no longer wished to represent the Libyan government and intended to resign. He now lives in a small house in a suburb of Doha, Qatar, after being asked to leave his suite in Doha's luxurious Four Seasons hotel. He was a member of Gaddafi's inner circle. (...)
After departing Tripoli by car and arriving in Tunis, Tunisia, on 28 March 2011, via the Ras Ajdir border crossing, a Tunisian Government spokesman stated via Tunis Afrique Presse that Koussa had arrived on a "private visit." On 30 March 2011, he departed from Djerba on a Swiss-registered private jet, arriving at Farnborough Airfield, England, according to Libyan sources on a diplomatic mission. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office later released an official press statement, stating that Koussa no longer wished to represent the Libyan government and intended to resign, unhappy with Libyan Army attacks on civilians.
Scottish prosecutors interviewed Koussa about the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people. At the time, Koussa was a leading member of al Mathaba.
Koussa left the United Kingdom and moved to Qatar following a European Union decision to lift sanctions against him, meaning he no longer faces travel restrictions or an asset freeze.
Moussa Koussa's role in the torture and deaths of Libyan people was alleged by the BBC television Panorama programme (broadcast on 24/10/2011). Koussa issued a statement to the press through his lawyer, strongly refuting the allegations.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
'Koussa told me Lockerbie wasn't Libya's fault' – Dalyell
[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Scotsman. It reads in part:]
Former MP and veteran campaigner Tam Dalyell says the high-level Libyan defector who arrived in the UK this week told him the Gaddafi regime had not been responsible for the Lockerbie bomb and pointed the finger at Palestinian terrorists.
Mr Dalyell also claimed that Scottish authorities could not be trusted to question former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa, who has been a key figure in the Gaddafi regime for most of its 42 years. (...)
He is being kept in a safe house and has been questioned by MI6 officers and diplomats, but the Crown Office in Scotland is still pressing its claim to interview him about Lockerbie.
Mr Dalyell, who has long campaigned to find the truth behind the murder of 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie on 21 December, 1988, held a one-and-a-half-hour meeting Mr Koussa at an Inter Parliamentary Union conference in Syria in March 2001.
The former MP said: "He asked to see me and we met along with John Cummings, who was then the MP for Easington. He wanted to discuss how to bring Libya back into the international community.
Obviously, Lockerbie played a large part in our discussions, but when I asked him about it, he said ‘that was none of my doing'."
Mr Dalyell maintains the real perpetrator of the crime was the Iranian-funded Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, headed by Ahmed Jibril, although the main suspect, Abu Nidal, was probably tortured to death by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 2002.
The organisation has been linked in a conspiracy theory involving a tacit agreement between the US authorities and the Iranian regime to allow a tit-for-tat revenge attack following the shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane in July 1988 by the USS Vincennes, with the loss of 290 lives .
Mr Dalyell told The Scotsman: "When I asked him [Koussa] about Nidal and Jabril, he said ‘you may not be wrong'.
"I do believe he knew a lot more about what happened than he was willing to tell me."
Despite the former spymaster's formidable reputation, Mr Dalyell said he found him "extremely friendly and frank".
"Other people have described him as scary, but I saw none of that," he said. (...)
But Mr Dalyell did not believe the Scottish authorities should be allowed to speak to Koussa. He said: "I think that two generations on, the officers at Dumfries and Galloway police force will be under terrible pressure to justify the investigation carried out by their predecessors."
He was more scathing about the Crown Office, which he has criticised for its handling of the case of Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi, the only man found guilty of the attack, a conviction Mr Dalyell has claimed was wrong. "As I have said before, I believe that at times the Crown Office has been duplicitous about this," he said. "So they would be the wrong people to question him."
He said British diplomat Sir Richard Dalton was best-qualified to lead the questioning of Gaddafi's former close aide.
The Crown Office said it did not wish to comment on an "individual's comments" but that it was still in discussions with the Foreign Office regarding interviewing Mr Koussa over the Lockerbie bombing.
A spokesman said: "We are liaising with the Foreign Office regarding an interview with Mr Koussa. As with any ongoing investigation, we will not go into the details of our inquiries which includes the dates of interviews with any individuals."
[This story has now been picked up by the Libyan Enlish-language newspaper The Tripoli Post.
Moussa Koussa has also in conversation with me denied that Libya was responsible for Lockerbie. The response to this from those still blindly convinced of the truth of the official version of events will, of course, be "He would say that, wouldn't he?"
The following are excerpts from a report in today's edition of The Herald:]
A friend of Moussa Koussa, who claims he helped to co-ordinate his defection to the UK, has said the former Libyan foreign minister will be very co-operative in giving key evidence about the Lockerbie bombing.
Noman Benotman, who now works as an analyst with the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-terrorism think-tank, made it clear that Koussa would be willing to open up to the British authorities about Libya’s past involvement in international terrorism, including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which claimed 270 lives. (...)
Mr Benotman, who said he helped Koussa escape from Tripoli, said it would “not be an issue” for the UK Government to get information about Libyan-sponsored terrorism, including the bombing of a UTA flight in Niger in 1989.
He said: “It’s going to be very easy to handle all these issues regarding Lockerbie, UTA and the IRA as well. It’s not a problem, I’m sure about this.”
He said Koussa “is the regime – everybody knows that” and that he was one of only five people during the last 30 years who was close to Gaddafi.
“I want to emphasise ... why he chose London. It’s very important. He believes in the system of justice regardless of the outcomes. He is very co-operative regarding crucial intelligence,” added Mr Benotman, who was the leader of the jihadist and anti-Gaddafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group before he worked for the Quilliam Foundation.
First Minister Alex Salmond said police want to talk to Koussa “on the basis of information that might be provided” and that there was no suggestion at this stage that he was being treated as a suspect.
“Nonetheless, there is every reason to believe that this individual can shed light on the Lockerbie atrocity and the circumstances that led up to it,” Mr Salmond said.
[The Herald has an editorial on the Moussa Koussa "defection" issue which can be read here.
I find it more than a little surprising that a person who was "the leader of the jihadist and anti-Gaddafi Islamic Fighting Group" should be a friend of decades-long Gaddafi loyalist and henchman Moussa Koussa. As for helping him "to escape from Tripoli", Moussa travelled to Djerba in Tunisia in an official Libyan Government car, accompanied by Abdel Ati al-Obeidi, one of Gaddafi's most trusted counsellors.]
Former MP and veteran campaigner Tam Dalyell says the high-level Libyan defector who arrived in the UK this week told him the Gaddafi regime had not been responsible for the Lockerbie bomb and pointed the finger at Palestinian terrorists.
Mr Dalyell also claimed that Scottish authorities could not be trusted to question former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa, who has been a key figure in the Gaddafi regime for most of its 42 years. (...)
He is being kept in a safe house and has been questioned by MI6 officers and diplomats, but the Crown Office in Scotland is still pressing its claim to interview him about Lockerbie.
Mr Dalyell, who has long campaigned to find the truth behind the murder of 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie on 21 December, 1988, held a one-and-a-half-hour meeting Mr Koussa at an Inter Parliamentary Union conference in Syria in March 2001.
The former MP said: "He asked to see me and we met along with John Cummings, who was then the MP for Easington. He wanted to discuss how to bring Libya back into the international community.
Obviously, Lockerbie played a large part in our discussions, but when I asked him about it, he said ‘that was none of my doing'."
Mr Dalyell maintains the real perpetrator of the crime was the Iranian-funded Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, headed by Ahmed Jibril, although the main suspect, Abu Nidal, was probably tortured to death by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 2002.
The organisation has been linked in a conspiracy theory involving a tacit agreement between the US authorities and the Iranian regime to allow a tit-for-tat revenge attack following the shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane in July 1988 by the USS Vincennes, with the loss of 290 lives .
Mr Dalyell told The Scotsman: "When I asked him [Koussa] about Nidal and Jabril, he said ‘you may not be wrong'.
"I do believe he knew a lot more about what happened than he was willing to tell me."
Despite the former spymaster's formidable reputation, Mr Dalyell said he found him "extremely friendly and frank".
"Other people have described him as scary, but I saw none of that," he said. (...)
But Mr Dalyell did not believe the Scottish authorities should be allowed to speak to Koussa. He said: "I think that two generations on, the officers at Dumfries and Galloway police force will be under terrible pressure to justify the investigation carried out by their predecessors."
He was more scathing about the Crown Office, which he has criticised for its handling of the case of Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi, the only man found guilty of the attack, a conviction Mr Dalyell has claimed was wrong. "As I have said before, I believe that at times the Crown Office has been duplicitous about this," he said. "So they would be the wrong people to question him."
He said British diplomat Sir Richard Dalton was best-qualified to lead the questioning of Gaddafi's former close aide.
The Crown Office said it did not wish to comment on an "individual's comments" but that it was still in discussions with the Foreign Office regarding interviewing Mr Koussa over the Lockerbie bombing.
A spokesman said: "We are liaising with the Foreign Office regarding an interview with Mr Koussa. As with any ongoing investigation, we will not go into the details of our inquiries which includes the dates of interviews with any individuals."
[This story has now been picked up by the Libyan Enlish-language newspaper The Tripoli Post.
Moussa Koussa has also in conversation with me denied that Libya was responsible for Lockerbie. The response to this from those still blindly convinced of the truth of the official version of events will, of course, be "He would say that, wouldn't he?"
The following are excerpts from a report in today's edition of The Herald:]
A friend of Moussa Koussa, who claims he helped to co-ordinate his defection to the UK, has said the former Libyan foreign minister will be very co-operative in giving key evidence about the Lockerbie bombing.
Noman Benotman, who now works as an analyst with the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-terrorism think-tank, made it clear that Koussa would be willing to open up to the British authorities about Libya’s past involvement in international terrorism, including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which claimed 270 lives. (...)
Mr Benotman, who said he helped Koussa escape from Tripoli, said it would “not be an issue” for the UK Government to get information about Libyan-sponsored terrorism, including the bombing of a UTA flight in Niger in 1989.
He said: “It’s going to be very easy to handle all these issues regarding Lockerbie, UTA and the IRA as well. It’s not a problem, I’m sure about this.”
He said Koussa “is the regime – everybody knows that” and that he was one of only five people during the last 30 years who was close to Gaddafi.
“I want to emphasise ... why he chose London. It’s very important. He believes in the system of justice regardless of the outcomes. He is very co-operative regarding crucial intelligence,” added Mr Benotman, who was the leader of the jihadist and anti-Gaddafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group before he worked for the Quilliam Foundation.
First Minister Alex Salmond said police want to talk to Koussa “on the basis of information that might be provided” and that there was no suggestion at this stage that he was being treated as a suspect.
“Nonetheless, there is every reason to believe that this individual can shed light on the Lockerbie atrocity and the circumstances that led up to it,” Mr Salmond said.
[The Herald has an editorial on the Moussa Koussa "defection" issue which can be read here.
I find it more than a little surprising that a person who was "the leader of the jihadist and anti-Gaddafi Islamic Fighting Group" should be a friend of decades-long Gaddafi loyalist and henchman Moussa Koussa. As for helping him "to escape from Tripoli", Moussa travelled to Djerba in Tunisia in an official Libyan Government car, accompanied by Abdel Ati al-Obeidi, one of Gaddafi's most trusted counsellors.]
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Gaddafi's spy chief 'personally tortured' prisoners
[This is the headline over a report published today on the BBC News website. It reads in part:]
Muammar Gaddafi's former
spy chief who fled to Britain in March personally tortured political
prisoners in Libya, the BBC's Panorama has been told.
Moussa Koussa was the slain ex-leader's right hand man and
the key liaison with British intelligence in the aftermath of 9/11 when
Libya sought new allies.
He has also been accused of involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
The BBC traced Koussa to a luxury hotel in Qatar but he refused to respond to the new allegations of torture.
In Libya, Muftah Al Thawadi told the programme that he was
personally tortured by Koussa in 1996 in Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim
prison.
"While I was being questioned Moussa Koussa was electrocuting
me in my neck with the electric rod," he said of the interrogation.
In subsequent years, Moussa Koussa played a lead role in negotiations
with British and American intelligence services over Libya's move to
denounce terrorism and give up its weapons of mass destruction.
After the fall of Tripoli in
early September, workers from Human Rights Watch uncovered documentation
in Moussa Koussa's former office that revealed the extent of his ties
to western intelligence services relating to the War on Terror.
The documentation revealed details of the kidnapping and rendition of suspected terrorists. (...)
Mr Thawadi said that, in the case of Moussa Koussa, it was time
Western governments acknowledged who they were doing business with and
forced him to face justice.
"He is a murderer and a criminal and his only concern was
that this corrupt regime which ruled Libya with iron and fire should
remain in power. Moussa Koussa practised torture.
"It is imperative that the West, whether it is government or
people, must hand over this criminal to justice and he must receive his
punishment," he added. (...)
Panorama: "Britain, Gaddafi and the Torture Trail", BBC One, Monday, 24 October at 2030BST and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.
Friday, 1 April 2011
What is the deal with this ruthless, calculating shark?
[This is the headline over an article in today's edition of The Herald by David Pratt, foreign editor of the Sunday Herald. It reads in part:]
Over the years, our dealings with Libya have never been known for their transparency.
At Colonel Gaddafi’s big tent meetings all kinds of deals in the desert were done. (...)
Two questions immediately spring to mind about which Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague need to come clean. The first is what is the nature of our relationship with the Libyan rebels? Just who, if anyone, are we cosying up to in Benghazi, and to what ends militarily and politically?
The second question to concerns the truth about Libya and the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Part emissary, part defector [RB: see yesterday's blog post], the arrival in Britain over the last few days of Libyan Foreign Minister, Moussa Koussa, like some latter-day Rudolph Hess, is the perfect opportunity to glean information from the inside track of Gaddafi’s dictatorship. Like Hess in May 1941, Koussa in March 2011 came to the UK of his own volition. Unlike Hess, he didn’t crash land in an Eaglesham field, but touched down in a British military transport plane at Farnborough airport in an operation conducted by British MI6 intelligence officials.
At the risk of drawing too many parallels with his historical Nazi predecessor, it’s still fair to say that Koussa, like Hess, knows where the skeletons are buried. Tall, silver-haired and imposing, Koussa has the physical presence and demeanour of a great white shark. Koussa, too, has a reputation for calculated ruthlessness. Let’s not forget that this is the man who advocated killing Libyan dissidents on British soil and expressed his admiration for the IRA. In the 1980s when Lockerbie horrified us all, Koussa was a leading member of the Libyan Bureau for External Security (the Mathaba). Later in 1995 a British intelligence dossier described him as the chief of the “principal intelligence institution in Libya, which has been responsible for supporting terrorist organisations and for perpetrating state-sponsored acts of terrorism”.
Few are in any doubt that Koussa knows as much as there is to know about Libya’s regime, its links to terrorists worldwide and the Lockerbie bombing. Political shark as he is, clearly the Tripoli pond was getting a tad uncomfortable – hence his move to British shores. Yesterday, William Hague was at pains to point out that there will be no immunity from justice for Koussa, should he be found – as many claim – to have helped plan the Lockerbie atrocity.
Call me cynical, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a deal of dubious sorts has been done between the British Government and officials from the Libyan regime. By the very nature of his work Koussa for years has been in close contact with British intelligence, and in the seclusion of some safehouse during his debriefing, who can say what kind of you-scratch-my-back-deal might be struck, allowing him to slip the net of prosecution, despite what Mr Hague says?
What if, for example, Koussa simply offered up some tasty morsel of intelligence that would help put the final nail in Gaddafi’s coffin in exchange for some quiet, discreet retirement opportunity in a post-regime Libya. (...)
The only problem in the Libyan context is that any new government in Tripoli comprising leaders from the country’s rebel movement might have something to say about Koussa’s continued presence in the country. If there was one thing that struck me while in the uprising’s stronghold of Benghazi recently, it was the rebels’ complete determination to make sure that should their revolution be victorious, they would hold Gaddafi’s henchmen fully to account. One can only hope that the British Government remains as true to its word in Koussa’s case. (...)
Yesterday, Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the Lockerbie atrocity, described Moussa Koussa’s recent defection as a “great day” for families of the bombing’s victims. Dr Swire is right when he says: “This is a guy who knows everything”. And for that very reason it’s now up to the British Government to make sure a crucial opportunity is not squandered, and that if Mr Moussa Koussa really wants the benefit of sanctuary in the UK then he must once and for all put the record straight on any role Libya may have had in Lockerbie.
For too long now British policy regarding Libya has been shrouded in half-truths and riddled with hypocrisy. Now is the moment when that must change.If deals are being done over Libya, just for once I’d like to know what they consist of, in whose name they are being pursued, and to what ends.
Over the years, our dealings with Libya have never been known for their transparency.
At Colonel Gaddafi’s big tent meetings all kinds of deals in the desert were done. (...)
Two questions immediately spring to mind about which Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague need to come clean. The first is what is the nature of our relationship with the Libyan rebels? Just who, if anyone, are we cosying up to in Benghazi, and to what ends militarily and politically?
The second question to concerns the truth about Libya and the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Part emissary, part defector [RB: see yesterday's blog post], the arrival in Britain over the last few days of Libyan Foreign Minister, Moussa Koussa, like some latter-day Rudolph Hess, is the perfect opportunity to glean information from the inside track of Gaddafi’s dictatorship. Like Hess in May 1941, Koussa in March 2011 came to the UK of his own volition. Unlike Hess, he didn’t crash land in an Eaglesham field, but touched down in a British military transport plane at Farnborough airport in an operation conducted by British MI6 intelligence officials.
At the risk of drawing too many parallels with his historical Nazi predecessor, it’s still fair to say that Koussa, like Hess, knows where the skeletons are buried. Tall, silver-haired and imposing, Koussa has the physical presence and demeanour of a great white shark. Koussa, too, has a reputation for calculated ruthlessness. Let’s not forget that this is the man who advocated killing Libyan dissidents on British soil and expressed his admiration for the IRA. In the 1980s when Lockerbie horrified us all, Koussa was a leading member of the Libyan Bureau for External Security (the Mathaba). Later in 1995 a British intelligence dossier described him as the chief of the “principal intelligence institution in Libya, which has been responsible for supporting terrorist organisations and for perpetrating state-sponsored acts of terrorism”.
Few are in any doubt that Koussa knows as much as there is to know about Libya’s regime, its links to terrorists worldwide and the Lockerbie bombing. Political shark as he is, clearly the Tripoli pond was getting a tad uncomfortable – hence his move to British shores. Yesterday, William Hague was at pains to point out that there will be no immunity from justice for Koussa, should he be found – as many claim – to have helped plan the Lockerbie atrocity.
Call me cynical, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a deal of dubious sorts has been done between the British Government and officials from the Libyan regime. By the very nature of his work Koussa for years has been in close contact with British intelligence, and in the seclusion of some safehouse during his debriefing, who can say what kind of you-scratch-my-back-deal might be struck, allowing him to slip the net of prosecution, despite what Mr Hague says?
What if, for example, Koussa simply offered up some tasty morsel of intelligence that would help put the final nail in Gaddafi’s coffin in exchange for some quiet, discreet retirement opportunity in a post-regime Libya. (...)
The only problem in the Libyan context is that any new government in Tripoli comprising leaders from the country’s rebel movement might have something to say about Koussa’s continued presence in the country. If there was one thing that struck me while in the uprising’s stronghold of Benghazi recently, it was the rebels’ complete determination to make sure that should their revolution be victorious, they would hold Gaddafi’s henchmen fully to account. One can only hope that the British Government remains as true to its word in Koussa’s case. (...)
Yesterday, Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the Lockerbie atrocity, described Moussa Koussa’s recent defection as a “great day” for families of the bombing’s victims. Dr Swire is right when he says: “This is a guy who knows everything”. And for that very reason it’s now up to the British Government to make sure a crucial opportunity is not squandered, and that if Mr Moussa Koussa really wants the benefit of sanctuary in the UK then he must once and for all put the record straight on any role Libya may have had in Lockerbie.
For too long now British policy regarding Libya has been shrouded in half-truths and riddled with hypocrisy. Now is the moment when that must change.If deals are being done over Libya, just for once I’d like to know what they consist of, in whose name they are being pursued, and to what ends.
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