'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.]

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.

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.

Moussa Koussa could know truth about Lockerbie bombing, say campaigners

[This is the headline over a report just published on the website of The Guardian by Severin Carrell, the paper's Scotland correspondent. It reads in part:]

Crucial questions about Libya's role in the Lockerbie bombing could finally be answered after the defection of the country's foreign minister, say campaigners.

Professor Robert Black and Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, was killed in the attack, said Moussa Koussa had been a pivotal figure in the Gaddafi regime and his defection was a "fantastic day" for the victims' families.

Scottish prosecution authorities plan to interview Koussa about the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people on 21 December 1988. The Crown Office has been "liaising closely with other justice authorities", while Dumfries and Galloway police, which has kept open its files on the bombing, said it was waiting for direction from the Crown Office before asking permission to interview Koussa.

Swire and Black say they have spoken to Koussa, formerly Muammar Gaddafi's head of intelligence, on numerous occasions and describe him as "the scariest man" they have met. He even terrified other Libyan government officials, they said. They said Koussa had stuck rigidly to the official position that Libya was not responsible for the bombing.

Both men believe Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, jailed in 2001 for the bombing, is innocent, but questions remain on whether Libya was actually involved in the attack.

Swire claims the evidence points to Syria, not Libya. "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 said. "He would be a peerless source of information."

Black, emeritus professor of Scots law at the University of Edinburgh, was the architect of the unique trial of Megrahi and his co-accused, Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah, at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001.

Koussa signed the papers agreeing to the trial on behalf of the regime in July 1994, Black said, and was also involved in negotiating a multibillion-pound Lockerbie compensation deal with UK and US authorities.

The former spy chief played a key role in Libya's efforts to get Megrahi released from Greenock prison, meeting Scottish government and Foreign Office officials and visiting the bomber in jail.

"On a personal level, I always found [Koussa] extremely scary," Black said. "I never felt fear in the presence of any other Libyan official over the years, including Gaddafi, but Koussa was a frightening guy. It was the way everyone in Libya that I met was terrified of him."

Black said he had never formed a firm view on whether Libya was involved in the bombing, but had long suspected Megrahi had been wrongly convicted. "As far as the Libyans supplying components or logistical support for the bombing, I don't know," he added.

Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Tripoli, said he knew Koussa well when he was head of the Libyan "people's bureau" or UK embassy before he was expelled in 1980 for openly supporting Irish republicans and terrorism.

Miles – a former president of the Society for Libyan Studies – found him a "straightforward and reliable" diplomat to deal with, despite his fierce loyalty to Muammar Gaddafi and his reputation amongst his Libyan friends of being "a terror".

Miles, who was then head of the Foreign Office's north Africa department before becoming Libyan ambassador until diplomatic relations broke off in 1984, said: "I found him a perfectly reasonable person to deal with; he struck me first of all as being a committed revolutionary. His record shows he is or was a devout admirer of Gaddafi." (...)

Miles said it was difficult to assess how useful Koussa could be on the Lockerbie affair. "There are two parts to this question: the first question is that given the situation he's in, is his personality and professional training conducive to him spilling the beans? And I think yes, with some reservations. But the real question is: does he have those beans to spill?"

He added that immediately detaining and threatening to prosecute Koussa would be very damaging to the UK's main interest: destabilising and toppling Gaddafi. "I very much hope that the government puts the questions of possible court action and criminal proceedings as a second priority, behind using this incident to unsettle Gaddafi. If Moussa Koussa is in jail, that's hardly going to encourage more defectors."

Koussa has "no secrets" over Pan Am 103

[This is the headline over an article on the website of Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm. It reads in part:]

Saif al-Islam Gadaffi, heir apparent to Colonel Gadaffi, has said that former intelligence chief Moussa Koussa has “no secrets” to tell over the Pan Am 103 event and says that both the British and the American Governments are already aware of the full circumstances surrounding the destruction of the Boeing airliner over Lockerbie.

Saif Gadaffi, who met with Peter Mandelson to facilitate Abdelbaset Al Megrahi’s repatriation to Libya, has spoken before on the geopolitical aspects of the Megrahi case, denying that Libya had any involvement in the event, but accepted responsibility in order to allow the UN sanctions regime to be lifted.

“The British and the Americans, they know about Lockerbie. They know everything about Lockerbie. There are no secrets anymore,” Gadaffi told the BBC’s John Simpson.

The claim mirrors an earlier revelation made to Dr Jim Swire of UK Families Flight 103.

“One of our number was told by an official on the US Commission of Inquiry, in an aside that: 'Your government and mine know exactly what happened, but they're never going to tell'", Swire says.

Gadaffi added that Koussa is likely to “invent stories” for the British authorities in order to secure his immunity.

“If you press him and say “You have to invent stories in order [for us] to give you immunity, what can he do?. The British Government said he had no immunity unless he cooperated. So of course he will come out with funny stories,” said Gadaffi.

[The BBC interview with Saif Gaddafi and a related report can be accessed here.

A report in today's edition of The New York Times contains the following:]

The Obama administration dropped financial sanctions on Monday against the top Libyan official who fled to Britain last week, saying it hoped the move would encourage other senior aides to abandon Col Muammar el-Qaddafi, the country’s embattled leader.

But the decision to unfreeze bank accounts and permit business dealings with the official, Moussa Koussa, underscored the predicament his defection poses for American and British authorities, who said on Tuesday that Scottish police and prosecutors planned to interview Mr Koussa about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and other issues “in the next few days.”

Mr Koussa’s close knowledge of the ruling circle, which he is believed to be sharing inside a British safe house, could be invaluable in trying to strip Colonel Qaddafi of support.

But as the longtime Libyan intelligence chief and foreign minister, Mr Koussa is widely believed to be implicated in acts of terrorism and murder over the last three decades, including the assassination of dissidents, the training of international terrorists and the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. (...)

On Tuesday, Scotland’s Crown Office prosecutors said they had met with Foreign Office officials to discuss access to Mr Koussa. “Steps are being taken with a view to arranging a meeting with Mr Moussa Koussa at the earliest opportunity in the next few days,” the prosecutors said in a statement.

The British foreign secretary, William Hague, told Parliament on Monday that officials would “encourage” Mr Koussa “to co-operate fully with all requests for interviews with law enforcement and investigation authorities in relation both to Lockerbie as well as other issues stemming from Libya’s past sponsorship of terrorism and to seek legal representation where appropriate.”

In a BBC interview in Tripoli broadcast on Tuesday, one of Colonel Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, charged that the British government had coerced Mr Koussa into speaking against the Qaddafi government.

“The British government said this: you have no immunity unless you cooperate,” Mr Qaddafi said. “He is sick, he is sick and old so if you put it this way — no immunity — of course I will come out with the funny stories.”

Brian P Flynn, a New Yorker whose brother, J P Flynn, died in the Lockerbie bombing, said the lifting of sanctions on Mr Koussa distressed him and other family members of the 270 victims. They have long believed that Mr Koussa had a role in ordering the bombing, and Scottish prosecutors have requested access to him.

“It’s all logical in the diplomatic game they need to play,” said Mr Flynn, vice president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103. “But at what cost to our system of justice? He’s a mass-murder suspect.”

Administration officials hastened to say that dropping the sanctions, which were imposed on March 15, had no bearing on the investigation of any crimes that Mr Koussa might have committed in office. The American Lockerbie investigation has never been closed, and law enforcement officials said the FBI would like to talk with Mr Koussa.

[Because of duties at Gannaga Lodge (a virtually telecommunications-free area) it is unlikely that I shall be in a position to make further posts to this blog before Friday.]

Where is Libya’s Moussa Koussa?

[This is the headline over a report published today on the Al Arabiya News website. It reads in part:]

Former Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shalgam has said that his successor Moussa Koussa, who resigned last month in protest against the brutalities committed by Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, would not be returning to London, and was likely to seek asylum in Qatar.

Mr Shalgam, who was Libya’s foreign minister from 2000 till 2009, told Al Arabiya that civil society representatives in London had been vehemently objecting to hosting dissident Mr Koussa, who stayed in office from March 2009 till March 2011. He said that they objected to “his involvement in several crimes condemned by the international community.”

“Koussa took part in the Lockerbie bombing, funding the Irish Republican Army, and liquidating several opponents to the Libyan regime,” Mr Shalgam told Al Arabiya.

On March 28, 2011, Koussa left Libya for Tunisia and from there flew to the United Kingdom where he issued a statement. That statement said that he no longer wanted to be a representative of the Libyan government in light of brutal attacks on civilians by Mr Qaddafi’s forces.

Mr Koussa subsequently left London for the Qatari capital Doha to attend a conference on the future of Libya and to meet with members of the National Transitional Council.

“He will most likely stay in Doha and will not go back to London,” Mr Shalgam said of Mr Koussa.

The British government of Prime Minister David Cameron was faced with harsh criticism both for hosting Mr Koussa and for allowing him to leave. While civil society slammed granting asylum to someone accused of crimes against humanity, especially that it took place on British soil, relatives of Lockerbie victims consider allowing Mr Koussa to depart without taking the necessary measures against him a kind of “treason” on the part of the government.

Mr Shalgam described Mr Koussa as the “black box” of the Libyan regime, especially that he spent around 16 years as head of Libyan intelligence.

“The fact that he knows that much about the intricacies of the Libyan regime makes him very valuable for the interim council and necessitates staying in touch with him and making use of the information he possesses.”

When asked if Mr Koussa’s decision to defect from Colonel Qaddafi’s ranks meant he would join the revolutionaries, Mr Shalgam replied that Koussa has not so far asked for this.

“However, his dissidence in itself is a patriotic action,” Mr Shalgam said.

[Of the officials of the Gaddafi regime that I met over the years from 1993 to 2009 in connection with Lockerbie, Moussa Koussa was the scariest and Shalgam was the slipperiest.

James Kirkup of The Telegraph has now picked up this story, without acknowledgment, of course.]

Richard Marquise on Moussa Koussa

[Today's edition of the Sunday Express has a report headlined Lockerbie: you must charge them all which quotes extensively from the FBI's head of the Lockerbie investigation, Richard Marquise. It reads in part:]

The US special agent who led the Lockerbie probe yesterday demanded Scottish authorities prosecute every Libyan official connected to the bombing – and not offer any deals just to capture Colonel Gaddafi.

Former FBI investigator Richard Marquise appealed to the Crown Office not to allow any high-ranking member of the regime to escape justice as a compromise for ensuring a conviction against the dictator.

While Prime Minster David Cameron has insisted Libyans defecting to Britain will not be granted diplomatic immunity, Mr Marquise said he fears charges could be waved if they help secure a showpiece trial. (...)

Speaking to the Sunday Express from Arlington, Virginia, Mr Marquise said: “In terms of Lockerbie, we know who was involved at the lower levels, but I’d like to know who was involved in the higher levels, how high up it went.

“We know there are more people who should be brought to justice. If Moussa Koussa, or anyone else with these facts, is going to come forward with documentary evidence so that we could make a case, then certainly all lower level officials should be prosecuted as well.

“Gaddafi has a lot to answer for which is one of the reasons he is staying put. He does not want to answer anything.

“Even if he was killed there are others in his administration that should be brought to justice.”

Mr Marquise said he believes the bombing was in retaliation for a 1986 US raid in Tripoli, which killed Gaddafi’s daughter.

He added: “Let’s say Gaddafi told Koussa, ‘I’d like something to happen,’ and Koussa orchestrated it. We can speculate and believe that it probably went to the highest level, but there is no evidence that I know of that could be brought to court.

“If I was in Moussa Koussa’s shoes I would want to say, ‘This was ordered by Gaddafi, I have proof and I can help. But Gaddafi’s got to be the only person who ends up being prosecuted.’

“It’s one of those catch-22 situations for him because I understand he’s not been granted immunity. So in his shoes, I wouldn’t say anything because I would be implicating myself.” (...)

[Attorney] Frank Duggan, president of the [US relatives' group] Victims of Pan Am 103, yesterday warned UK officials from striking any deals with defectors, particularly given the controversy still lingering over Megrahi’s release.

He said: “I think this is a golden opportunity. Moussa Koussa knows who ordered the bombing of that plane. He knows who made the bomb, he knows who paid for the bomb, he knows how it was transported to Malta, he knows how it was placed in the plane.

“It wasn’t just Megrahi – obviously other people were involved. Everybody has to account for their role. Now they could have proof. Now they could have that proof on a silver platter.”

[More from Mr Marquise can found in this report in Scotland on Sunday. A leader in the same newspaper headed "Moral maze" contains the following:]

One can only assume that the Lockerbie bombing is one of the issues being discussed. And from a Scottish point of view there is a sense of deja vu here. This is not the first time a British prime minister may have been tempted to use Scottish justice as a bargaining chip in his handling of Libya. Tony Blair's infamous "deal in the desert" raised the prospect of release for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi in exchange for Gaddafi's assistance in the war against terror, plus some lucrative oil deals.

Now Cameron may be considering what price he is willing to pay - perhaps in immunity from prosecution - for useful information. This is a genuine moral dilemma. Yes, Koussa may well have had a role in the commission of a number of terrorist acts, from the arming of the IRA to Lockerbie in 1988 and the downing of a French airliner in 1989. (...)

An inconvenient truth needs to be mentioned here. The prime minister should be reminded that in the conduct of the criminal investigation into the Lockerbie bombing - the largest criminal act committed on British soil - he has no jurisdiction. All such decisions rest with the Crown Office, headed by the Lord Advocate, who as Scotland's senior prosecutor is appointed by the First Minister. That is not to say the relentless pursuit of every scrap of evidence on Lockerbie must take precedence over all other concerns, including the saving of lives in Libya and the future of the so-called Arab Spring in the Middle East.

But deals cannot be brokered behind closed doors in an MI6 safe house.

The strict rules surrounding our judicial system exist for a reason, and the Government has been quick to point out that as yet no evidence implicating Koussa in mass murder or terrorism exists. But the government has to position itself now to be ready to act correctly if such evidence emerges. If the Tripoli regime collapses, with many of its senior figures switching to the rebels' side, it is conceivable that an enormous amount of new evidence could become available.

Yes, there is such a thing as realpolitik and there is a difficlut balance between saving lives now and addressing issues in the past. But should evidence against Koussa emerge it would be outrageous if he should escape prosecution. No deals should be done with this man.

[The same newspaper also features a long article by Dani Garavelli entitled Moussa Koussa's defection: Dancing with the devil?]

Abdullah al-Senussi extradition unites Lockerbie relatives

[This is the headline over a report published this evening on the website of The Guardian.  It reads in part:]

The extradition to Libya of Muammar Gaddafi's spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi brought a rare moment of unity among Lockerbie relatives and campaigners normally deeply split on Libya's role in the bombing.

They agreed that Scottish police and prosecutors should make strenuous efforts to question Senussi about his links to or knowledge of the atrocity, which killed 270 people in December 1988. But they disagreed about why.

Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, 20, was one of 35 Syracuse University students killed in the bombing, said it would be "excellent" if Scottish investigators succeeded in meeting Senussi. "I would thoroughly urge them to do so," she said.

In particular, Cohen said, Senussi could confirm the guilt of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the sole person convicted of the bombing, who died of cancer this summer. He could also implicate senior figures in the Gaddafi regime.

She said claims by Megrahi's supporters and other Lockerbie relatives that he was innocent and that the atrocity was committed by another state such as Syria or Iran were "goofball theories" without any evidence.

"My fear is that everybody would have put Lockerbie on the backburner and not pursue the case," she said. "I don't suspect there's some vast conspiracy and they're afraid of what might come out, but Gaddafi is dead and Megrahi is dead – it's easier to deal with the present and easier things, so they don't really want to do this.

"It's vital to interview Senussi. I would hope they will be interviewing others. I think it's extremely important that we know. We should know as much as we can and there may be other people [in Libya] who can be indicted – and if that is the case, we need to do that."

However, Jim Swire, a senior figure among the British bereaved families, is adamant that Megrahi was innocent. A leading member of the Justice for Megrahi campaign, which is discussing reopening Megrahi's appeal against his conviction with his surviving sons, Swire said there had been theories for some years linking Senussi to Lockerbie.

One allegation was that Senussi and Moussa Koussa, the Libyan former foreign minister, who fled Tripoli with the help of western agencies before Gaddafi's death, had taken control of several bombs built by a Palestinian terrorist group, PFLP-GC, that were missed in raids by German police.

Moussa Koussa agreed to be interviewed by Dumfries and Galloway police and Crown Office prosecutors early last year, but is thought to have offered very little new information about Lockerbie or Megrahi. Swire said he was sceptical about the theory, but added: "It's quite possible that Libya played a part in Lockerbie. It's very clear that Megrahi didn't.

"The two people from Gaddafi's regime who seem to be in the frame are Senussi and Moussa Koussa. Moussa Koussa clearly had a relationship with western intelligence because he was allowed to fly to Britain and then the Middle East, where he now lives the life of Reilly. [The] suspicion is that Senussi and Moussa Koussa may have set up the use of those devices for Lockerbie."

John Ashton, author of Megrahi's authorised biography, [Megrahi:] You are my Jury, said other sources believed Senussi was simply a security "enforcer" rather than a spymaster of Moussa Koussa's rank. "Megrahi never hid the fact that he was related to Senussi," Ashton said. "Although he never discussed Sennusi's alleged role in the bombing, he was convinced that Libya – and therefore Sennusi – was not responsible for it.

"Western intelligence sources and the US state department always claimed that Senussi was Megrahi's boss. If that's the case then the Scottish police should be moving heaven and earth to get to him. However, I take those claims with a huge pinch of salt, as the evidence against Megrahi is highly flawed. If the police do get to Senussi, they may well be very disappointed."

Encouraging Moussa Koussa

[The following is an extract from a report on the BBC News website on UK Foreign Secretary William Hague's statement in the House of Commons today:]

Libyan politicians fleeing to the UK who break "definitively" from the Gaddafi regime could have restrictions on them lifted, William Hague has said.

The foreign secretary promised to treat those abandoning Libya with respect but said they would not receive immunity.

He said last week's departure of ex-Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa to the UK "weakened" the regime. (...)

Mr Koussa was refused formal leave to enter the UK but granted temporary admission when he flew in on Wednesday, Mr Hague said.

Mr Hague said Moussa Koussa, who fled to the UK last week, had not been granted any immunity.

The foreign secretary said the government would encourage him to co-operate fully with all requests made by the police and other investigating authorities, stemming from Libya's past sponsorship of terrorism.

[A further BBC News report contains the following:]

William Hague has urged Libya's former foreign minister to co-operate fully with Scottish prosecutors over the Lockerbie bombing. (...)

He was a Libyan intelligence head at the time of the bombing in 1988.

In a statement, Mr Hague said Moussa Koussa was not being detained by UK authorities.

Mr Koussa has been giving information to British officials about the current Libyan situation after saying he was no longer prepared to represent the Libyan regime.

[So there we have it. It is up to Moussa Koussa whether he will speak to Scottish police and prosecutors. But the UK Government will encourage him to do so. Was the Scots' trip to London really worth it?]

Libya contact group meets in Qatar

[This is the headline over a report published today on the Aljazeera English language website. It reads in part:]

Libyan rebels seeking international recognition are to tell world powers at a meeting in the Qatari capital Doha that Muammar Gaddafi's removal from power is the only way out of their country's deepening crisis.

Wednesday's conference of the "International Contact Group on Libya" is expected to focus on the future of Libya after an African Union attempt to broker a peace deal between rebel groups and Gaddafi collapsed.

On the eve of the meeting, a spokesman for the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) said it will accept nothing short of the removal of Gaddafi and his sons from the country.

Mahmud Shammam, whose group seeks international recognition as the legitimate government of Libya, also stressed: "We want to move from the de facto recognition of the council to an internationally-recognised legitimacy."

Shammam said the contact group is comprised of high-level international diplomats, and was set up at a conference in London last month.

The Libyan government has dismissed the talks and Qatar's role in the ongoing conflict.

"We are very hopeful that the American people and the American government will not buy into the Qatari lies and Qatari schemes," a spokesman of the Libyan regime told reporters in Tripoli on Tuesday.

"Qatar is hardly a partner of any kind. It's more of an oil corporation than a true nation," the spokesman said.

Among those expected to come to the Doha talks is Moussa Koussa, Libya's former foreign minister, who fled to Britain last month after he defected. He has reportedly arrived in Qatar to meet Libyan rebels.

Koussa, a long-time top aide to Gaddafi, will not formally participate in the meeting but is expected to hold talks on the sidelines, British sources said.

"He's not connected to (the rebel) Transitional National Council in any way or shape," Mustafa Gheriani, a media liaison official of the rebels, said.

Gheriani added that he was personally surprised to learn that Koussa was leaving Britain to attend the Qatar talks, and suggested that British officials should explain why he was going and in what capacity.

Koussa, the most prominent Libyan government defector, sought refuge in Britain on March 30. A friend said he quit in protest at attacks on civilians by Gaddafi's forces.

The former spy chief was questioned by Scottish police over the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, which killed 270 people, but the British government said he was now free to travel.

"We understand he is travelling today to Doha to meet with the Qatar government and a range of Libyan representatives to offer insight in advance of the contact group meeting," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

No Gaddafi representatives are expected to attend.

"Moussa Koussa is a free individual who can travel to and from the United Kingdom as he wishes," the spokesman said.

British government sources said they expected Koussa to return to Britain after his talks, although others questioned the wisdom of letting him leave. (...)

Scottish police interviewed him last week but do not have power over his movements.

"We have every reason to believe that the Scottish authorities will be able to interview him again if required," Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, said.

US and Scottish authorities had hoped Koussa would provide intelligence on Lockerbie which could lead to more convictions.

Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter was killed in the bombing, said she could not understand why Koussa had been allowed to leave Britain. "I'm astonished that he is apparently free to come and go in this way," she told Reuters news agency.

"This current government has been very quick to condemn the previous one over Lockerbie, but they too have been very hands off. This demonstrates their continuing lack of interest in solving the biggest mass murder we have seen in this country."

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan agent, was sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for his alleged part in blowing up the US airliner but was released by the Scottish government in 2009 when he was judged to be terminally ill with cancer.

Koussa played a key role in the release of Megrahi, who is still alive. Britain's Conservative-led coalition government, which came to power in May 2010, has heavily criticised the decision to let Megrahi go.

Koussa is believed to be no longer under the supervision of British security agencies who had questioned him at a secret location after his defection to Britain.

[The Scotsman's long report on reaction to Moussa Koussa's departure can be read here.]

Questioning Moussa Koussa

[The following are excerpts from a report published this afternoon on the Channel 4 News website:]

The father of a victim of the Lockerbie bombing has told Channel 4 News that he has approached Scottish police with a list of questions about Moussa Koussa s involvement in the atrocity.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was among the 270 killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in 1988, does not believe that the one man convicted over the bombing – Abdelbaset al-Megrahi– was involved.

However, he does think that Moussa Koussa - who defected last week from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime - knows crucial details about the event and he has a number of questions to put to him; preferably in person or through theCrown Office in Scotland. Dumfries and Galloway police have also asked to interview Koussa.

Koussa was head of Gaddafi's intelligence agency from 1994 and was a senior intelligence agent at the time of the Lockerbie bombing. He later went on to become Foreign Minister by the time of his defection.

"I have three main questions to put to Mr Koussa," Dr Swire told Channel 4 News.

"One: was he and the Libyan Government intimately involved in the atrocity. Two: if not, why did Megrahi submit himself for trial. And three: if Libya was involved, why was it involved?"

Dr Swire had long believed that Libya’s only role in the bombing was to supply Semtex, the plastic explosive used in the attack, to the perpetrators. Instead, he thinks that Iran and Syria masterminded the actrocity. Dr Swire hopes that if Mr Koussa is forthcoming with further details about Libya's involvement, or lack thereof, it could lead to Megrahi's exoneration. (...)

"I'm not vengeful, I just want to know the truth," Dr Swire said. "At the very least, Mr Koussa will know if Libya was involved, if it was solely behind the attack. If he can offer or point to a way of proving that Libya was, in fact, not involved, the investigation into Lockerbie would take a very dramatic turn.

"But I accect that if Mr Koussa does supply any information it will have to be considered in the context that it is presented: he'll be talking in a situation where he'll be trying to save his own skin because he's reneged on Gaddafi and thrown himself on the mercy of the West; and so what he will say, no doubt will be likely to blacken the regime he's just left and I think anything he says should be taken with great caution."

Lockerbie and Libya: hide & seek

[This is the heading over another article from Ian Bell on his Prospero blog. It reads as follows:]

Alex Salmond says that Moussa Koussa, formerly Gaddafi’s head of intelligence, is merely a “potential witness” in the (still live) Lockerbie investigation, but not a suspect. Dear me, no.

As the First Minister explains it, had Moussa Koussa been a suspect, he would have been arrested. Since he has not been arrested...

This is almost as good, if you are in the mood, as William Hague’s assurance that at no time was the non-suspect offered immunity from prosecution after his defection. After all, if there was never any real intention to prosecute, why bother to talk about immunity?

Better still is the decision, at Britain’s prodding, to remove the non-immune non-suspect from the so-called EU watch list. This means he will henceforth be free to travel as his pleases, and that his assets will no longer be frozen.

Since Moussa Koussa is not suspected of anything, we can therefore conclude that assets lodged in Europe or the US were in no sense stolen from the Libyan people. Since he is free as a bird, it must also follow (forgetting Lockerbie) that he had no hand in arming the IRA, or in endorsing threats against the lives of exiled Libyans, or in the commission of a single crime during decades in Gaddafi’s service.

Brilliant. The Colonel is promised the International Criminal Court for numberless heinous acts, but his most notable henchman, a man with various bloodcurdling nicknames, did nothing at all.

For his reward, he gets to lay hands on enough money to enjoy his retirement in the pleasant climes of his choice, no questions – none whatsoever – asked.

Those climes will not include Britain, if reports (the Telegraph and others) are to be believed. As a British “official” has explained, since Moussa Koussa was never detained – no suspicion, no immunity, ergo no crimes – “It’s up to him”. There goes Salmond’s “potential witness”, delighted to have been of service.

Think of it this way. Let’s say a Mr X turns up in London. “Oh, yes,” he admits. “Member of al Qaeda I was, man and boy. Quite important I was, too, though I do say so myself. Some said I was bin Laden’s right-hand man. Not that I killed anyone, you understand, not personally. Now, are you sure there’s nothing you’d like to ask me?”

Meanwhile, our old friend Mustafa Abdul Jalil is back in business with a “sworn statement” – worth all the paper it was written on – to (oddly) the English Bar’s Human Rights Committee. Once again he offers to prove that, as to Lockerbie, Gaddafi did it, with Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi as his one and only instrument.

No proof as yet – yet again – however. Instead, the assertion, hardly a secret in any case, that the Colonel recompensed al-Megrahi with quantities of money. In Jalil’s previous version, as I recall, this was “a slush fund”, offered up not for lawyers and such, but under the threat that the lone agent would spill the beans.

If I follow Magnus Linklater in The Times, the unwitting folk from the Bar of England and Wales did not ask Libya’s former justice minister to reconcile his claims with problems – six of them – encountered by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review (SCCRC) Commission. Strange how that slips everyone’s mind.

But then, if the First Minister of Scotland hasn’t wondered why Moussa Koussa is not being detained for a view on the discrepancy, and if Hague is happy for the non-suspect to keep his memories of events and files to himself, the rest of us can only guess what the SCCRC was on about.

That seems to be the general idea.

[I wonder why it is that Ian Bell so often gets to the heart of an issue (not just Lockerbie and Megrahi) when other commentators are floundering or simply parroting the received wisdom or whatever it is that the establishment wants us to believe.]

Koussa Lockerbie meeting 'within days'

[An Agence France Presse news agency report published earlier this morning contains the following:]

Scottish officials investigating the Lockerbie bombing will interview defected Libyan foreign minister Mussa Kussa within "the next few days", the country's Crown Office confirmed Monday.

Scottish detectives and prosecutors met with officials from the Foreign Office (FCO) officials earlier Monday after making a formal request to speak to Kussa about the 1988 incident last week.

"We can confirm that representatives of the Crown Office and Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary met with FCO officials this afternoon to discuss the situation concerning Kussa and specifically to discuss access to Kussa," a spokesman for the Scottish government department said.

"It was a very positive meeting and steps are being taken with a view to arranging a meeting with Kussa at the earliest opportunity in the next few days," added the spokesman.

[A report in today's edition of The Scotsman reads in part:]

Libyan defector and former secret service chief Moussa Koussa will be "encouraged" to speak to Scottish police and prosecutors about the Lockerbie bombing, William Hague has said. (...)

They met Foreign and Commonwealth officials yesterday and have been given assurances he will be encouraged to assist them.

However, speaking in the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary Mr Hague made is clear that Mr Koussa would not be detained or forced by the UK government to talk to investigators against his will.

"Moussa Koussa is not being offered any immunity from British or international justice," he said. "He is not detained by us and has taken part in discussions with officials since his arrival, of his own free will.

"We will encourage Moussa Koussa to co-operate fully with all requests for interviews with law enforcement and investigation authorities, in relation both to Lockerbie, as well as other issues stemming from Libya's past sponsorship of terrorism, and to seek legal representation where appropriate." He went on to say there was "insufficient evidence to produce further prosecutions, but that may change in future".

Dumfries and Galloway Police and the Crown Office were unable to comment last night, as talks were still on going.

The former Libyan foreign secretary is thought to have taken over the ESO, his country's security service, at least two years after the explosion which brought down the Pan Am Flight 103, killing 270 people, on 21 December, 1988.

[The Herald's report can be read here. A letter from Iain Stuart in today's edition of the same newspaper reads as follows:]

Moussa Koussa may, in time, prove to be a source of reliable and truthful evidence in relation to Libya’s involvement in the Lockerbie bombing.

Mrs J Greenhorn (Letters, April 4) does right to bring attention back to the report of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), the suppression of which is an affront to justice. The public is entitled to know why the SCCRC concluded the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi may have been unsafe – and why key players seem not to want its report published.

An informative, independent report already exists. Compiled by the late investigative journalist Paul Foot, Lockerbie – The flight from justice sets out the unsatisfactory nature of much of the investigation and criminal trial, and points almost inescapably to the injustice of Megrahi’s conviction.

"The perpetrators of this crime are still free after committing mass murder"

[What follows is an article from the website of Channel 4 News published on this date four years ago:]

Former foreign minister Moussa Koussa, who arrived in the UK from Libya last week, is believed to have been an intelligence officer at the time of the 1988 Lockerbie atrocity.

Scottish police and prosecutors requested an interview with him at a meeting with Foreign Office officials on Monday.

A statement issued by 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."

No details of the meeting were released "in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation", a spokesman said.

Mr Koussa was head of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence agency from 1994 and a senior intelligence agent when PanAm flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie.

Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was jailed for mass murder in 2001 but was returned to Tripoli in 2009 on compassionate grounds after doctors treating him for prostate cancer gave him an estimated three months to live.

The Boeing 747 jumbo jet was en route from London to New York when it exploded over Lockerbie.

Canon Patrick Keegans's house was hit by the falling debris which killed several of his neighbours.

Canon Keegans told Channel 4 News he was "surprised but pleased" by the development: "A lot of things have been held back from us regarding Megrahi and Lockerbie.

"He (Moussa Koussa) is bound to know something.

"I'm very doubtful about Megrahi's conviction and think the perpetrators of this crime are still free after committing mass murder."

But Canon Keegans told Channel 4 News he had doubts that the whole truth would come out.

"I think it's strange that the authorities have waited for a Libyan to come forward.

"Two years ago Hillary Clinton said the perpetrators would be pursued with vigour but as far as I see there has been no real attempt."

He continued: "I'm concerned that the authorities will find out new information but not tell the public because it would expose a flawed trial." (...)

Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Commons earlier this week that officials would encourage Mr Koussa to co-operate fully with all requests for interviews with investigating authorities.

He said on Monday: "We will encourage Moussa Koussa to co-operate fully with all requests for interviews with law enforcement and investigation authorities in relation both to Lockerbie as well as other issues stemming from Libya's past sponsorship of terrorism and to seek legal representation where appropriate."

Families of Lockerbie victims make plea to talk to Koussa

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Herald. It reads in part:]

Lawyers acting for the British relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing will approach officials to ask for a meeting with former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa.

Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died when Pan Am flight 103 blew up in December 1988, told The Herald he had asked their legal team to request a meeting with Mr Koussa, who defected to the UK last week.

The Libyan was interviewed by Scottish prosecutors and police investigating the Lockerbie bombing on Thursday although the Crown Office has said that to preserve the integrity of the inquiry it could not give any more details. But officials have stressed that Mr Koussa has not been offered diplomatic immunity.

Dr Swire, who has met Mr Koussa and described him as “more frightening than Gaddafi himself”, said he had asked lawyers acting for the British relatives to request a meeting with Mr Koussa, although he urged caution in relying on any information given by the Libyan.

He said: “Anyone who has dealings with Moussa Koussa or people in Benghazi should take what they hear with a huge pinch of salt.”

Dr Swire has written to other British families after it emerged that a group of relatives are setting up the Gaddafi Terror Victims’ Initiative, calling for an investigation by US authorities into Libya’s role in the Lockerbie bombing.

In the letter, reproduced on a blog written by Professor Robert Black, Dr Swire said he feared it was unwise and may lead to unnecessary grief for relatives of those killed in the atrocity.

He said: “So far as Lockerbie is concerned, this initiative is, I believe, based on profoundly insecure foundations. Its title presupposes the guilt of the Gaddafi regime, its content presupposes the guilt of Megrahi.

“The words of defectors to Benghazi, or of Moussa Koussa, should be regarded with the greatest circumspection, taking their present situations into account. War generates fog, and truth is then even harder to come by.

“Without the certainty that Megrahi was guilty, which is implicit in this initiative, there can as yet be no certainty that the Libyan regime itself was involved, at least in the way that most in America believe.”

[The BBC News website now also features a report on this matter.]

Libya: William Hague defends giving asylum to controversial minister

[This is the headline over a report just published on The Telegraph website. It reads in part:]

Foreign Secretary William Hague has defended giving refuge to Libyan henchman Moussa Koussa amid claims that the controversial minister may be linked to the Lockerbie bombing and other terrorist atrocities.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said he had not met Moussa Koussa personally since his defection, but had spoken to him briefly.

"I welcomed the fact that he had left the Gaddafi regime, I thought that was the right thing to do," Mr Hague told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

"I asked him to have discussions with my officials, which is indeed what he is now doing."

Mr Hague admitted allowing Mr Koussa to take refuge in the UK raised "issues", but it had been the "right" thing to do. He stressed the ex-foreign minister would not be offered any immunity from prosecution.

"I think that when someone like that says they want to get out it would be quite wrong to say no, you have got to stay there," he added. (...)

"The Crown Office in Scotland want to talk to him about what has happened in the past, such as Lockerbie," he added. "My officials are discussing with the Crown Office tomorrow how to go about that.

"That is not a bad thing either. We want more information about past events." (...)

Scottish prosecutors said on Friday they wanted to interview Libya's former foreign minister about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Official documents released in February as part of Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell's review of the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi show the pivotal role Koussa played in the Lockerbie bomber's return to Libya. Koussa is described in one Foreign Office email as the man "whom Gaddafi has tasked with securing Megrahi's return".

However, Government sources insist that Moussa Koussa is not being treated as a "defector" and should not be seen as a "suspect" for past Libyan crimes.

Scottish police and prosectutors will meet with Foreign Office officials tomorrow to discuss the situation.

[A report just published on The First Post website contains the following:]

The latest Government utterances on Koussa stress that he has not defected. A government source told the Sunday Telegraph: "He is not a defector, he has not joined the [Libyan] opposition and he has not joined us.

"He is somebody who has left Col Gaddafi's government after a lifetime working for him. It was an enormously life-changing decision for him."

According to many observers, the Government is taking a 'softly, softly' approach. The message that Koussa is "not a defector" and has "not joined us" is aimed squarely at other Libyan officials who might be teetering on the edge of turning their backs on Gaddafi's faltering regime.

Questions for Koussa

[In an article by foreign editor David Pratt in today's edition of the Sunday Herald, Dr Jim Swire talks about what the Scottish police and prosecutors should ask Moussa Koussa (if they ever get access to him). The following are excerpts:]

Scottish prosecutors and police are due to meet Foreign Office officials tomorrow to discuss access to the high-profile Libyan defector and former foreign minister Moussa Koussa. (...)

Speaking to the Sunday Herald, Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, said he was pleased that Koussa had arrived in the UK but warned that difficulties lay ahead.

“He certainly knows a lot. A problem will be interpreting what he says. It will be difficult to accept whatever information he gives. But he is a potential source for vital information,” said Swire. He also confirmed his own lawyers were seeking to question Koussa. Asked about the enquiries Swire’s legal team might put to the Libyan, he said that there were three categories of questions: Why convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi was surrendered in the first place? [Whether] the regime was involved in the Lockerbie plot? How did they carry it out?

Swire said: “He [Koussa] will know the answers to these conundrums. Whether he talks about them, I don’t know. We have to be very careful in interpreting everything he says. He has a lot to lose if he gets it wrong. He will be a target for expatriate Libyans.”

He also emphasised the need for Scottish police and prosecutors to question Koussa, saying it was important if they were to “maintain the appearance of an ongoing investigation”. He added: “The Scots have major problems now. A court found a man guilty when they shouldn’t have done so. That causes problems for a lot of people in the Scottish judicial hierarchy, many of whom have gone from being junior at the time of Lockerbie to being kingpins in the system. So if this case gets blown open by Moussa Koussa, they have careers to lose.”

More defectors 'set to point the finger' over Lockerbie inquiry

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Scotsman. It reads in part:]

Relatives of American victims of the Lockerbie bombing are expecting more Libyan defectors to shed further light on the atrocity that killed 270 people.

Those who lost loved ones in the UK's worst mass-murder claim that they have been told that more defectors are set to follow in the footsteps of Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister who has defected to Britain.

Frank Duggan, the Washington-based lawyer who represents many of the US families, yesterday said he was hopeful that future defectors would provide more evidence, the day after Scottish prosecutors and police officers interviewed Mr Koussa.

"Moussa Koussa is not going to be the only defector," Mr Duggan said. "I have heard that there are other people who are going to be willing to talk. I doubt that any of them will say anything that would incriminate themselves, but they might point the finger at other people who were involved in the bombing.

"Moussa Koussa is a very smooth character, but he is also a very bad man. He has got blood on his hands. I don't know what he is going to say about the bombing of Pan Am 103, but he obviously knows a great deal. Whether that translates into evidence that the prosecution can use in court for future indictments remains to be seen."

Representatives of the Crown Office and Dumfries and Constabulary travelled to London to meet with Mr Koussa on Thursday. Neither organisation would release any details about their inquiries, saying that it was a "live investigation".

A joint statement added: "In order to preserve the integrity of that investigation it would not be appropriate at this time to offer any further details of the meeting or the details of ongoing inquiries."

Mr Duggan added: "We get updates of these meetings, but they don't say much. I understand that because we don't want to jeopardise the prosecution." (...)

From the police side, questioning was led by Det Supt Michael Dalgliesh, of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary. Yesterday, First Minsister Alex Salmond said: "I am pleased that Dumfries and Galloway police have had access to Moussa Koussa as requested, and no doubt officers will question him again if required as part of their ongoing investigation. It is very important for the integrity of the process that the police and Crown authorities are given the freedom to pursue their investigation without unwarranted speculation on the substance of their inquiries." (...)

Megrahi is the only man ever to be convicted of the crime, but it has always been suspected that many more people were behind the crime. A second man, [al-]Amin Khalifa Fhimah, stood trial with Megrahi, but was acquitted.

Yesterday it was suggested that he could face a retrial in the wake of reforms to the double jeopardy law, which will clear the way for an accused person to stand trial more than once.

Is Libya’s star defector actually a fake?

[This is the headline over a report on the Frum Forum website. It reads in part:]

Is Libya’s most important defector to the West really on a deep-cover diplomatic mission? One of the architects of the 2001 prosecution of two Libyans charged with downing the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie thinks it is possible.

One of Qaddafi’s most reliable allies – and most feared enforcers – Moussa Koussa arrived in England on Wednesday from Tunisia. He has reportedly been seeking medical treatment and is now being debriefed. Both the UK and US heralded his defection as a stunning coup since he is the highest-level member of the dictator’s palace guard to abandon him since the popular uprising began in January.

But Robert Black, the Edinburgh University law professor emeritus who engineered the special trial that convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, said Koussa may well be playing a double-game with the full knowledge and encouragement of the US and UK.

“Has Moussa Koussa really defected? There are some indications that this may be a diplomatic mission – negotiating an exit strategy for the Qaddafi regime – rather than a defection,” Black said at his blog, listing some of those indications:

"2. He was accompanied to Tunisia (but not beyond) for his flight from Djerba to Farnborough by Abdel Ati al-Obeidi who remains a trusted counselor of Qaddafi (and a trusted intermediary in the eyes of the UK and US).

"3. If Koussa had defected, he would surely have negotiated immunity from prosecution for any personal involvement in Lockerbie (if Libya was implicated in any capacity, Koussa would inevitably have been personally involved). According to UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, no such immunity has been granted. This suggests that his visit is already covered by diplomatic immunity."

Some intelligence analysts agree. They say a defection story may have been floated for a combination of plausible reasons: as a face-saving maneuver for a proud Qaddafi while Koussa discusses the final terms of his exile; as a morale-booster for rebel forces; and, perhaps most consequentially, as a feint allowing for Anglo-American input into the shape of whatever Libyan government emerges if the strongman exits the stage.

Neither the UK or the US wants to exchange Qaddafi’s regime for an Islamist-dominated one on the Mediterranean. Koussa might be able to play a post-Qaddafi role in shaping that next regime.

According to diplomats, Koussa has come to be viewed as a trusted partner by both the US and the UK as well as a skilled go-between with the sometimes obdurate Qaddafi. But his past is not very clean. (...)

Scottish police have said they would like to interview Koussa concerning the Lockerbie case, but in what The Times called “an unusual intervention”, Foreign Office officials later said Koussa was not the “prime suspect” in the Lockerbie bombing. And they also failed to rule out the possibility Koussa might leave the UK before investigations are completed.

“Surprise, surprise,” commented Robert Black.

[Professor Paul Wilkinson takes a not dissimilar line in an article headed "Why our 'defector' may not be quite what he seems" in today's edition of The Scotsman.]

Reaction to Moussa Koussa Qatar asylum claims

[A report published today on The Telegraph website, following on from yesterday's report on Al Arabiya where Abdul Rahman Shalgam claimed that Moussa Koussa was likely to seek asylum in Qatar, contains the following:]

The prospect of Mr Koussa failing to return to Britain from Qatar caused anger among relatives of Lockerbie bombing victims, who believe he may have valuable information about the 1988 atrocity. (...)

While he was in Britain, Mr Koussa, a former Libyan intelligence official, was questioned by Scottish police about the Lockerbie attack, which was ordered by Col Gaddafi.

Relatives of Lockerbie victims and some MPs say Mr Koussa should face prosecution for his role in Libyan terrorist attacks.

Abdulrahman Shalgam, another former Gaddafi regime minister, said that fear of such legal action will drive Mr Koussa to remain outside the UK. (...)

British officials believe that Mr Koussa could still choose to return to Britain, where some of his children and grandchildren are based. But they admit that the UK has no way of compelling him to do so. (...)

Relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims reacted with dismay and disbelief yesterday to reports that Mr Koussa was unlikely to return to London.

Rosemary Wolfe, from South Carolina, whose stepdaughter Miriam died on Pan Am Flight 103, said Britain and the US had “lost their moral footing” in the world by failing to prosecute the former Libyan minister.

“This is absolutely outrageous,” she said. “Our respective countries seem to be erasing all trace of what Gaddafi did. There were no efforts to detain Koussa or prosecute him.”

She added that American relatives had a conference call with Barack Obama’s National Security Council recently at which they said Koussa should not be allowed to leave the UK and should face trial for his role in a range of atrocities.

Mrs Wolfe said: “The Americans must have known they were going to let him go and yet we made no effort to stop it. We were looking the other way and so were the Scots. First we release his frozen assets, and then he is free to go. It’s frightening.”

Susan Cohen, from New Jersey, whose only child Theodora, 20, died, said the families must be told what information he had provided to the UK Government and to Scottish police continuing to investigate the Lockerbie bombing.

“I have never doubted Koussa’s involvement in Lockerbie. He should have been kept in Britain,” she said.