In an intriguing Voice of Russia Radio Programme, Brendan Cole points out that Abu Anas al-Libi who was seized in Tripoli on October 5th by US Special Forces agents likely acting in coordination with their Libyan counterparts had been previously granted asylum in the UK even though his terrorist connections were well known.
On the FBI's most wanted list for more than a decade, a British connection to the man whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai has emerged. He is thought to have arrived in Britain after he and other Libyan followers of al-Qaeda, at the request of Colonel Gaddafi, were kicked out of Sudan.
He went to Qatar before coming to Britain in 1995, where he was given asylum after saying that he was persecuted by the Gaddafi regime. Scotland Yard anti-terrorist officers raided his home in 2000, when he was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after the 1998 US embassy bombings. By then al-Liby had fled.
To read the full article click here. To here me and other experts discuss the context and implications of the abduction of al-Libi on Voice of Russia Radio click here.