Price of Blair's tawdry deal in the desert

[dipsydoodle]

Price of Blair's tawdry deal in the desert: £2m payout to buy silence of dissident handed over to Gaddafi's torturers

A dissident abducted and handed to Colonel Gaddafi’s torturers with the alleged help of Tony Blair’s government was given £2.2million last night to buy his silence.

Sami al Saadi, 45, was dispatched with his wife and four young children back to his native Libya where he was imprisoned and maltreated.

The ‘rendition’ operation – conducted with apparent MI6 support – took place only three days after Mr Blair visited Libya for the now infamous 2004 ‘deal in the desert’.

Evidence of Britain’s role emerged in documents found after the fall of the Gaddafi regime. For years, Labour ministers denied involvement in rendition.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2247655/Price-Blairs-tawdry-deal-desert--2m-payout-buy-silence-dissident-handed-Gaddafis-torturers.html#ixzz2F1nG2mSq

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. What surprises me is that the CIA and MI6 are able to abduct people from Hong Kong

It seems the Chinese government wasn't that concerned about this:

Hong Kong has been described as the "proverbial scene of the crime" in the case. Stanley Ying Yiu-hong, who was the permanent secretary for security at the time, was listed in top secret documents about the rendition as a key contact to ensure it was carried out quickly.

Ying is on indefinite leave for family reasons and could not be contacted for a comment.

The secret dossier also listed contact details for Madonna Fung from the Hong Kong Business Aviation Centre as an intermediary to help with the logistics of the rendition.

Fung, currently general manager of private jet hub at Chek Lap Kok, was customer services manager of the centre in 2004.

Cori Crider, of charity Reprieve, said this year: "Correspondence from the Gaddafi regime shows Hong Kong officials were heavily involved, advising foreign spies how the kidnap could best be managed with minimum of fuss in Hong Kong".

However, James To Kun-sun, vice-chairman of Legco's security panel, said it would be more difficult to sue the Hong Kong government. "Its role is not a planner, like the UK government. It's only a facilitator."

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1104961/payment-speaks-itself-says-libyan-dissident

[Jeneral2885]

2. it would have happened

Under any govt

[andypandy]

3. two way street...

one of the things that most disappoints me in political discourse is the idea that every start point is a zero sum game.

yes, Tony's deal in the desert meant that some people we'd never heard of, and don't care about, ended up in a dungeon under the tender mercies of a viciously nasty peice of work like Gaddafi - but it also meant that Gaddafi destroyed his Chemical weapons capability, stopped work on a (very) infant nuclear programme, opened his intelligence files on some equally unpleasent individuals who meant us as much harm as they meant him, and he confirmed exactly what ordnance he'd given to PIRA, allowing us to be more certain about PIRA decommissioning - and therefore allowing the various unionist parties to enter into deals they might not otherwise have done.

it probably, in the atmosphere of the time, was a deal that stopped a war.

yes, it was tawdry, but lets not pretend we didn't get somethng out of it - and for most of us, something far more important than the desire to wash our hands...