extraordinary extent of co-operation between MI6, the CIA and Libyan intelligence during the rule of Col Muammar Gaddafi was exposed on Saturday by the release of secret documents found in Tripoli.

cache of papers found at the intelligence headquarters dating from the time it was run by Moussa Koussa, who later became foreign minister and defected in March, showed Libya was handed Islamist opposition members as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" programme.
MI6 also provided extensive information to the Libyan authorities of opponents living in Britain.
The British intelligence services seem to have been more circumspect than their American colleagues, however. Often the files, which were found by Human Rights Watch and shown to The Sunday Telegraph, suggest they restricted themselves to confirming information already known to the Libyans.
It also shows one reason for the co-operation - MI6's belief that Libyan Islamists were playing a central role in funding and supporting al-Qaeda, often via contacts in Iran.
MI6 and the CIA were instrument in the attempts by former Prime Minister Tony Blair to bring Col Gaddafi "in from the cold", started at the time the alleged Lockerbie bombers were handed over for trial in The Hague