British spies spy on Scotland Yard in torture scandal

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This video from Britain says about itself:

New evidence of UK complicity in Libya torture

8 February 2013

Exclusive: what was the role of MI6 and Tony Blair’s government in the kidnap of Abdul-Hakim Belhaj from Malaysia in March 2004, which delivered him into the hands of Colonel Gaddafi’s torturers?

Thanks to British human rights organisation Reprieve, I found an article in the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail, as this blog has pointed out, a British newspaper with many objectionable sides in its past and its present.

However, that article once again proves that media which overall are reactionary, may not always be monolithic; sometimes, they may contain individual items interesting enough to blog about. Like in this blog happened before with items from the Saudi royal dictatorship’s official news agency. With items from the Bahraini royal dictatorship’s official news agency. With items from CNN corporation; with its corrupt links to the Bahrain tyranny; but which also, until they sacked her, employed Ms Amber Lyon as their correspondent in Bahrain, reporting honestly on human rights violations. Even in Rupert Murdoch‘s own media, one can sometimes find the truth about Rupert Murdoch … etc.

So, from the Daily Mail, on serious governmental crime and cover-up:

British spies ‘bugged Scotland Yard’: Letter claims conversations with Met over Libyan case intercepted

Detectives were probing alleged malpractice by the intelligence agencies
Scotland Yard confirmed it is investigating claims officers were monitored
Revelation of bugging stems from documents from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ
If claims proved, it will show one security arm of State spied on another
Probe concerns two Libyan dissidents abducted by MI6 and the CIA
Inquiry was set up to find if British officials acted illegally in the snatch

By David Rose for The Mail on Sunday

Published: 22:00 GMT, 29 November 2014 | Updated: 08:40 GMT, 30 November 2014

Britain’s security and intelligence agencies were last night rocked by claims that they bugged Scotland Yard detectives who were investigating the agencies’ own alleged malpractice.

A Yard spokesman yesterday confirmed that police are investigating the allegations – which stem from documents disclosed in court by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

If substantiated, the claims – set out in a letter to Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe from Cori Crider, a director of the human rights charity Reprieve – would mean that one arm of the State supposed to keep the country safe from terrorism spied on another, the Metropolitan Police.

It focuses on the case of two Libyan dissidents, Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Sami al Saadi, who were abducted from China in a joint operation by MI6 and the CIA in 2004, then sent back to Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya.

The Met launched Operation Lydd, an inquiry into their treatment, in 2012, when documents seized from the Libyan security HQ revealed that UK agencies were partly responsible. It is investigating whether British officials involved in the abduction committed crimes under English law.

A preliminary file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service in October. But according to the letter from Ms Crider, Operation Lydd has been spied on. Behind her claims lie documents which emerged in a court hearing last month, at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT).

In these, MI5, MI6 and GCHQ made the disclosure that in cases such as those of the Libyan dissidents, they routinely bug lawyer-client conversations.

Reprieve and solicitors Leigh Day are representing Mr Belhaj, who in addition to making a criminal complaint, is trying to sue the British Government. The lawyers believe their conversations with him have been bugged, Ms Crider said yesterday, which means the agencies will also have picked up crucial details of Operation Lydd.

[I]n her letter, she claims the documents revealed at the IPT show the agencies have apparently felt free to ‘collect communications regarding the evidence that is at the heart of Operation Lydd’. It adds: ‘If MI6 officers (or others) intercepted our contacts with police… we are concerned about the safety of potential witnesses and the risk of improper “tip-offs”.’

Ms Crider said some witnesses had come forward on terms of strict confidentiality. They would ‘fear for their lives’ if it turned out the inquiry had been bugged.

She added: ‘It seems blatantly obvious that those under investigation by the police for serious crimes should not have access to the details of that investigation. Yet that is just what we fear may have happened here.’

Lawyer-client communications have been regarded as immune to official scrutiny for centuries.

Reprieve on this issue: here.

A spat between the police and secret services escalated yesterday as the London Metropolitan Police confirmed it was investigating whether its case on MI6 complicity with torture was itself spied on. The Met was forced to admit that its investigation into British intelligence services’ involvement in the rendition of Libyan rebels could have been compromised: here.

UK government after alleged torture in Pakistan. Salahuddin Amin says he was questioned by MI5 after being tortured by Pakistani intelligence officers: here.

Were we told the whole truth about Lee Rigby’s murder? Doubts cast over report clearing MI5 and MI6. New claims suggest MPs may not have been told the full details of how the security services tried to recruit one of Lee Rigby’s killers as a double agent: here.

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