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.

Moussa Koussa helping NATO?

[Been wondering what Moussa Koussa is up to these days? The Guardian thinks it knows. The following are excerpts from an article on the paper's website headlined Koussa among defectors 'helping Nato bomb secret Gaddafi sites':]

A network of Libyan defectors, including the former regime stalwart Moussa Koussa, are helping Nato to destroy Muammar Gaddafi's military sites, including bunker complexes from which much of the war has been run, according to senior officials in Libya.

Nato planners have stepped up their operations over the capital, Tripoli, and the western mountains in recent days, despite a strike on the eastern city of Brega early on Friday that killed up to 11 people, many of them Islamic clerics. (...)

Despite almost nightly air strikes, and increasing numbers of daylight attacks on the outskirts of Tripoli, the capital remains under regime control. The city is free of checkpoints and any opposition elements are maintaining a low profile. Discontent – for now – seems directed at France, Britain and Italy, whom residents blame for a critical fuel shortage.

But there is growing anger towards former regime loyalists, first among them Koussa, who defected to Britain in early April after more than 30 years as Gaddafi's most trusted henchman.

The former foreign minister and intelligence chief is understood to have passed on "invaluable" details of the dictator's police state, including the precise location of the regime's most sensitive sites.

"He was the 'black box' of the regime," said an unnamed official who worked with Koussa. "I was with him the day before he left and nobody knew that he was going to do that. Why did he do it? I'd say he must have been emotionally weak. Things must have got to him."

After spending a month in Britain, Koussa is now in Qatar, from where he is believed to be helping Nato map targets.

Libya: Gaddafi aide Moussa Koussa faces more questions

[This is the headline over a report published this morning on the BBC News website. It reads in part:]

The UK is still seeking information from ex-Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who fled to London on Thursday, Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said.

Asked what should happen now to Mr Koussa, Dr Fox told the BBC he would not provide daily updates but "clearly we want to get information from him". (...)

Scottish prosecutors have asked to interview Mr Koussa about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which left 270 people dead.

Asked whether Mr Koussa would stand trial if evidence was found linking him to Lockerbie, Dr Fox said: "It's very clear in Britain that our judicial process moves independently from government."

Previously, Prime Minister David Cameron has insisted that Mr Koussa had not been offered immunity from prosecution.

[Slippery customer, Liam Fox. But it is, of course, the case that -- at least with regard to Lockerbie -- any investigation and prosecution of Moussa Koussa would be a matter not for UK Government authorities or institutions, but for the Scottish police and the Scottish Crown Office, both of which are accountable to the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament.]

Moussa Koussa appointed Foreign Minister of Libya

[On this date in 2009 Moussa Koussa was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in a ministerial reshuffle announced by the Libyan parliament. What follows is excerpted from a report published on The Telegraph website in March 2011:]

The former Libyan intelligence chief who has defected to Britain has been implicated in the Lockerbie bombing and a number of other atrocities conducted by the regime of Col Muammar Gaddafi.

However, in recent years he has also become an important contact for both MI6 and the CIA as they attempted to rehabilitate the regime, according to sources and leaked US diplomatic cables.

The Daily Telegraph understands that MI6 had discussed his desire to leave Libya in recent days but was not expecting his escape.

Moussa Muhammad Koussa is the man closest to Col Muammar Gaddafi to have defected, arriving in Britain a week after his 62nd birthday.

Western educated, he attended Michigan State University, earning a degree in sociology in 1978 before working in various Libyan embassies across Europe, probably as an intelligence officer.

He was appointed as Libya's Ambassador to Britain in 1980 but soon afterwards he was expelled from the country after claiming, on the steps of the embassy, that the Gaddafi regime had decided the night before to kill two dissidents in Britain, apparently adding: "I approve of this." (...)

Western intelligence agencies have claimed Mr Koussa was involved in the planning of the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie which killed 270 people. (...)

Western intelligence agencies have claimed Mr Koussa was involved in the planning of the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie which killed 270 people.

He has also been accused of complicity in the destruction of a French airliner over Niger in 1989, the bombing of a disco in Germany, and supplying arms to the IRA as Gaddafi’s regime wreaked havoc across the world.

Always involved in secret intelligence, he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1992 to 1994 and then as the head of the Libyan intelligence agency from 1994 to 2009.

However, a few weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Mr Koussa led a delegation to London for talks with MI6 and CIA officials.

He went on to become a key figure in the normalisation of relations between Libya, Britain and the US as Libya abandoned its chemical weapons and paid compensation to the victims of their attacks. In that role and as head of Libyan intelligence, he also became well-known to his counterparts.

He was also central to securing the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan intelligence officer found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing, after meeting officials from the government and Scottish executive in October 2008 and January 2009.

US diplomatic cables published by the WikiLeaks website and seen by the Daily Telegraph, reveal that Mr Koussa told the British Ambassador Sir Vincent Fean that the bomber of Flight 103 was a “a very ill man, too ill for anything but a quiet return to his family”, days before he was released.

Mr Koussa also promised that the bomber’s reception would be low key – later admitting it was a “big mistake” when he was given a hero’s welcome.

A communiqué sent in late May 2009, relates how Mr Koussa boasted to a visiting US general of his connections with the CIA.

In another cable from May 2009, a US diplomat said: “Kusa [sic] is one of the most influential figures in the regime and has been a proponent of improved ties with the United States…

“Kusa is the rare Libyan official who embodies a combination of intellectual acumen, operational ability and political weight. Promoting specific areas of cooperation with him is an opportunity to have him cast that message in terms palatable to Libya’s leadership.”

Defection of Moussa Koussa can only bring good

[This is the heading over three letters published in today's edition of The Herald. They read as follows:]

The defection of Muammar Gaddafi’s foreign minister (...) may be a case of a rat deserting a sinking ship, prematurely.

When Moussa Koussa baled out, the rebel forces were at the gates of Sirtre, Gaddafi’s home town. Had that fallen it would have been game over for Gaddafi.

We should, though, welcome the junking of Mr Koussa’s loyalty to the colonel for the light he might shed on the Lockerbie bombing for which he was allegedly responsible.If the allegation has merit then the UK and US will have a casus belli against the colonel himself, who must have given the order.

On the other hand, Mr Koussa may share the view of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence bureaux around the globe, that the bombing of Pan Am 103 was ordered by Iran using a Syrian-based proxy, the PFLP-GC. In which case, a can of worms inside a Pandora’s box is opened; not least for Scottish politicians now on the election stump.
Thomas McLaughlin

The French Napoleonic justice system identified Gaddafi’s brother [-in-law] Abdullah Senoussi as the main perpetrator of the UTA aircraft bombing which followed Lockerbie, but Mr Koussa was not found to have been a perpetrator.

The Scottish system of justice had nothing to say in the Lockerbie case about any Libyan other than the two men, indicted by them and presented for trial, Al Amin Khalifa Fhima and Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.

The French reaction underlines the importance of Scottish investigators having access to Mr Koussa to find out whether he can help with their claimed active and ongoing criminal investigation into the Lockerbie tragedy.

If the profound doubts many of us have over the conviction of Megrahi were to be supported by Mr Koussa’s contribution, it might finally galvanise the Scots into examining at last why their Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission, after studying the case for three years, came to the conclusion that the Zeist trial might have been a miscarriage of justice.

At the elections next month, voters might like to consider which candidates are most likely to support sweeping reforms to their criminal justice system, and vote for them.

Meanwhile Mr Koussa has not been accused (except in the US) over either atrocity, and his presence here, if he is treated with courtesy, may encourage others to defect.
Dr Jim Swire

Why do Scottish prosecutors insist on ignoring what is undoubtedly the only independent report on the case against Megrahi, and on taking serious steps to ensure the report is never published? The SCCRC found six grounds to suggest a miscarriage of justice may have occurred at the original trial.

Those findings make up a report which all of us should be free to read, yet we have been denied this right. Politicians do not have the right to interfere with our justice system in order to prevent uncomfortable truths from being exposed about particular cases, and nor does the judiciary have the right to delay the hearing of appeals related to those cases. Yet it has happened in this case.

Consider some of those truths: the US paid two witnesses, the Gauci brothers, $3 million for testimony. In fact, let’s stop right there. Had the US told the Scottish court at Zeist that it intended to pay such vast sums to any witness in that trial, those witnesses would have been rejected immediately. Scots law would have deemed it bribery.

Let us not rely on Mr Koussa. Let us begin with the SCCRC report. That, at least, is independent. It was almost four years in the making and cost a fortune. It should not be wasted.
Mrs J Greenhorn

Moussa Koussa to leave Britain

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

Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister who defected to Britain, is being allowed to leave the country after being questioned by Scottish police about his role in the Lockerbie affair, the Guardian can reveal.

Koussa is expected in the Qatari capital of Doha on Wednesday where an international conference on the future of Libya is being held with representatives from the Benghazi-based opposition.

Koussa is said to be seeking 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.

It is believed he has links with some of the leading rebel figures, including the opposition leader Mahmoud Jibril.

It is understood Koussa spent a week being debriefed by officials from MI6 at a safe house before being allowed to go free. He was questioned by Dumfries and Galloway police about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in which 270 people died, though was he was not a suspect.

William Hague, the foreign secretary, had insisted that Koussa would not be given immunity from prosecution. (...)

It is expected that he will return to the UK in the next few days after the trip to the Middle East.

The hope in Whitehall is that Koussa's lenient treatment by the UK authorities will send a positive signal to other would-be Libyan defectors as part of a broader strategy of eroding Muammar Gaddafi's position. (...)

On Monday Koussa made his first public statement since leaving Libya 12 days ago. (...)

Speaking in Arabic, Koussa made no reference in his statement to questions about his past and any knowledge or involvement in the Lockerbie bombing. It is understood he has a lawyer representing him.

[A report just published on The Scotsman website can be read here.]

Moussa Koussa found in Qatar

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

The pianist a few feet away played “I Just Called to Say I love You". Men in traditional Qatari white kandouras – gowns – and headdresses sat scattered around the nearby café.

Yet, the man’s distinctive features were until recently one of the best-known faces of the regime of Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Moussa Koussa, the Libyan foreign minister who defected to Britain at the end of March, left for Qatar shortly afterwards to take part in a “Gulf contact group” meeting of countries with an interest in resolving the Libya crisis.

He was expected to return to Britain shortly afterwards, where he was facing calls for his prosecution over accusations ranging from the Lockerbie bombing to supplying arms to the IRA.

Ten weeks later, there is little sign of that at the Four Seasons, causing growing anger among Libyan exiles and others who want him to be put on trial at the International Criminal Court.

“I remain firmly of the view that he should face the ICC,” said Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP for Harlow whose family are of Libyan-Italian-Jewish ancestry and fled after suffering during pogroms. “You can’t have people like that being given protection without any recourse to justice.”

Mr Koussa was one of Col Gaddafi’s longest serving aides. He first came to attention in Britain as ambassador in 1980, giving an interview announcing that two Libyan exiles in London were to be killed. He was expelled immediately.

He was deputy head of Libyan intelligence at the time of the Lockerbie bombing, and then head, before becoming foreign minister in 2009. The intelligence agency was responsible for tracking down and killing regime opponents outside the country.

When the uprising against Col Gaddafi’s rule began, he was still very much part of the inner circle. He gave angry press conferences in the Rixos Hotel, where journalists have been lodged in Tripoli, to denounce foreign interference. But just a few days later he negotiated safe passage to London with MI6. The British intelligence services had long regarded Mr Koussa as an “asset”.

Nevertheless, his presence in Britain led to demands for legal action. (...)

He eats regularly from the £35 all-you-can-eat buffet, though he is also said to have a liking for the expensive Il Teatro Italian restaurant. Both have views over the hotel’s swimming pools and private beach, and the yacht marina next door.

It is not clear who is paying. He was originally a guest of the Qatari government, but he also had his private assets unfrozen as a reward for defecting. He occasionally relaxes in the lobby, accompanied always by one of a number of men who are clearly intelligence minders – they are dressed in Western style in jeans and T-shirts, and work on iPads.

When The Daily Telegraph approached to request an interview, a minder snapped his fingers, and within seconds a group of kandoura-wearing Qataris on duty in the lobby formed a protective shield.

“I am a little too busy to talk now,” Mr Koussa said. He had previously been reading a newspaper. Mr Koussa’s life of luxury reflects a dilemma in how to treat renegades from the Gaddafi regime.

Whitehall officials privately express fears that other Libyans would be deterred from defecting if Mr Koussa faced charges for his past role.

Yet, many Libyan exiles and the families of Lockerbie victims are outraged to see corrupt members of the former regime freely taking up senior positions with the opposition.

In Mr Koussa’s case, the situation is complicated because of his relationship with MI6. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said he had not been given immunity from prosecution, yet the Foreign Office said as far as it was concerned Mr Koussa was free to come and go.

Political sources have said that the decision to allow him to leave was made “in the interests of national security”.

Moussa Koussa allowed to leave UK

[What follows is excerpted from a report in The Guardian on this date in 2011:]

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." (...)

It is understood Koussa spent a week being debriefed by MI6 at a safehouse before being allowed to go free. He was questioned by Dumfries and Galloway police about the 1988 bombing, in which 270 people died, though was he was not a suspect.

William Hague, the foreign secretary, had insisted that Koussa would not be given immunity from prosecution.

He was helped to defect by MI6 after leaving Tripoli for Tunisia on what was initially described as a private visit.

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." (...)

Koussa's links to the UK go back to the period when he was deputy foreign minister in the mid-1990s and was involved in talks that revealed the Gaddafi regime's past support for the IRA. He was head of Libya's foreign intelligence service in the 1990s – after the Lockerbie bombing. He was also involved in still inconclusive talks about the 1984 murder of Constable Fletcher.

In 2003 he played a pivotal role in talks about surrendering Libya's programme for weapons of mass destruction – the decision which paved the way for Gaddafi's temporary rehabilitation with the west. In 2009 he took part in negotiations over the controversial return home of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.