'Kill Gaddafi plot report' posted on net
Sunday, 13 February 2000
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A top secret report for senior Whitehall officials which linked MI6 to a bomb plot to kill Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi was today believed to have been posted on the Internet.
A top secret report for senior Whitehall officials which linked MI6 to a bomb plot to kill Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi was today believed to have been posted on the Internet.
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook denied two years ago that British secret agents had been involved in the assassination attempt which narrowly failed to kill Gaddafi, but killed a number of bodyguards.
He described the claims as "pure fantasy" and said the secret intelligence services had never had any interest, role or experience in the plot.
However, an intelligence report placed on the world wide web has reportedly disclosed that British intelligence knew at least two months in advance that there would be an attempt to blow up Gaddafi.
The report, coded CX95/53452, detailed when and where the assassination attempt was due to take place and said that 250 British-made weapons were distributed among the plotters.
CX reports reportedly summarise MI6's key intelligence findings and are circulated to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Office and the Joint Intelligence Committee.
Whitehall sources confirmed to The Sunday Times that the four page report - which carried a coded header sheet - was genuine.
It was headed: "Libya: Plans to overthrow Gaddafi in early 1996 are well advanced."
The Government's defence, press and broadcasting advisory committee asked for the address of the website on which the report was published to be withheld from publication.
In a statement, the Foreign Office declined to state that the intelligence report was a fake.
And it conceded that the British Government had known of plots against Gaddafi.
The statement read: "In August 1998, interviewed on Breakfast With Frost, the Foreign Secretary said: '... I am absolutely satisfied that the previous Foreign Secretary did not authorise any such assassination attempt ... nor have I seen anything which would suggest that SIS has any interest, any role, or any experience over the recent decade of any such escapade.'
"The Foreign Secretary went on: '... there was no Government-inspired plot to assassinate Gaddafi, there was no SIS proposal to do it'."
The statement added: "Nothing in the alleged intelligence report posted on the Internet invalidates what the Foreign Secretary said. Nor have we ever denied that we knew of plots against Gaddafi."
However, a storm is likely to engulf the Foreign Secretary over the disclosure that British intelligence apparently knew about the plot in advance.
Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude demanded an immediate inquiry. He told The Sunday Times: "Did Cook conceal the truth? Was it kept from him or did he ignore it?"
Claims of British involvement in a plot to kill Gaddafi first emerged when former MI5 officer David Shayler alleged MI6 paid about £100,000 to help purchase jeeps and weapons.
The intelligence report leaked on the web was said to have been passed to Sir John Coles, the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, and to GCHQ, the Government listening base, MI5, and the Ministry of Defence.
It read: "The coup was scheduled to start at around the time of the next General People's Congress on February 14, 1996.
"Coup will start with unrest in Tripoli, Misratah and Benghazi.
"The source said that the plotters would have cars similar to those in QADHAFI's security entourage with fake security number plates. They would infiltrate themselves in order to kill or arrest QADHAFI."
