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Blair, Qadhafi Pledge to Share al-Qaeda Intelligence
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi agreed yesterday to increase their cooperation in the war on terrorism, including exchanging sensitive information on al-Qaeda (see GSN, March 25; Nicholas Watt, The Guardian, March 26). Speaking after the two leaders met in Tripoli, Blair said the United Kingdom was offering Qadhafi a “new military relationship” and pledged cooperation in the fight “to defeat the common enemy of extremist fanatical terrorism driven by al-Qaeda.” Libyan Foreign Minister Abd al-Rahman Shalgam said al-Qaeda terrorists “are the real obstacle against our progress. They are against our security. They are against women. They are against the new culture. They are against political moderation, against any change in the region” (Los Angeles Times, March 26). British diplomats traveling with Blair said Libya has been providing information about the Libyan Islamic Fighters Group, an organization affiliated with al-Qaeda. “The Libyans obviously have intelligence that we would never be able to lay our hand on,” said a diplomat, indicating that the information would be passed on to U.S. intelligence services. Richard Dearlove, head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency, has met in Tripoli with his Libyan counterpart, Musa Kusa, to discuss the war on terror and Libya’s dismantlement of its banned weapons programs, according to the Guardian. Shalgam said Libyan intelligence had long been aware of the dangers posed by Osama bin Laden, even as western countries supported his forces against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Al-Qaeda attempted to kill Qadhafi in 1998, according to the Guardian. “When we started speaking about terrorism in the 1980s and 1990s some countries in America and Europe were supporting these people,” Shalgam said. “At the time we spoke about bin Laden and others — and we considered them terrorists,” he added (Watt, The Guardian). After the meeting, Blair announced that Shell oil group had won a contract worth up to $1 billion for the exploration of natural gas in Libya, and that the British aerospace firm BAE Systems was approaching a deal on civil aviation services for Libya, the New York Times reported. Meanwhile in London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praised the “high degree of courage” exhibited by Qadhafi in recent months. However, British Conservative Party leader Michael Howard said calling Qadhafi “courageous for giving up murder and terrorism is really extraordinary” (Patrick Tyler, New York Times, March 26).
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