Tony Blair met Colonel Gaddafi in Tripoli in 2004 Photo: PA

Source: The Telegraph By Murray Wardrop

The former Prime Minister was fooled into thinking the Libyan dictator had “turned for the good” and should not have met him for their controversial “deal in the desert” in 2004, Lord Goldsmith said.

His comments follow reports yesterday that MI5 helped Libyan spies trace enemies of Gaddafi who had fled to Britain as refugees following the warming of relations between the two countries that year.

Asked about Mr Blair’s dealings with the toppled dictator, Lord Goldsmith said: “We thought, I think the world thought, he had turned for the good and he hadn’t.

“That was as it turned out to be a wrong judgment, whether it was the wrong thing to do at the time, that’s another issue.

“The problem was that Gaddafi did do something that was important in this period of actually accepting that he would get rid of his weapons of mass destruction.”

Lord Goldsmith added that he was “very troubled” over allegations by Abdel Hakim Belhadj, a Libyan military commander, that former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw personally permitted his illegal rendition in 2004.

Mr Belhadj, 45, was detained while en route to seek asylum in the UK and claims Mr Straw was responsible for him being sent back to Libya to face imprisonment and torture in 2004.

Lawyers representing Mr Belhadj announced last week that legal papers had been served on Mr Straw.

“I’m very troubled by these allegations,” Lord Goldsmith told Sky News.

He said he knew nothing about Mr Belhadj’s case at the time but added: “We have obviously got to see what comes out.

“I’m not sure it’s right frankly to be starting to bring private law actions against former ministers, I think it’s another issue but I think the issue of what was going on with Libya at that time, given what we subsequently know about Gaddafi, that’s a fair thing to be looking into and I think we do need to look further into that.

“This is a serious allegation and it obviously needs to be looked at.”

Secret documents unearthed in Libya since the regime was toppled suggest that its spies were supplied by MI5 with intelligence, secure mobile phones and a luxurious London safe house while attempting to find and question Libyans who had fled to Britain, it was reported yesterday.

read more here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/9219790/Lord-Goldsmith-Tony-Blair-made-wrong-judgment-over-Gaddafi.html