By Al Arabiya
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/10/01/241198.html





The Syrian government provided French spies operating in Sirte,
Muammar Qaddafi’s last shelter, with key intelligence information that
led to the operation of hunting the Libyan strongman, a newspaper report
revealed.

A report by the Daily Telegraph said that officials from the Syrian
government had offered the French spies Qaddafi’s satellite telephone
number; thus facilitating the process of trapping and killing him.

The newspaper cited a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli who
confirmed that President Bashar al-Assad had sold out his fellow tyrant
in an act of self-preservation, describing the incident as “an
extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another.”

Rami al-Obeidi, the former head
of foreign intelligence for the movement that overthrew Qaddafi, told
the Daily Telegraph that Assad offered Paris the telephone number in
exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus.

“In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a
grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime –
which is what happened,” Obeidi said.

Obeidi’s claims followed comments by Mahmoud Jibril, who served as prime
minister in the transitional government, who confirmed over the weekend
that a foreign “agent” was involved in the operation that killed
Qaddafi.

Although he did not identify his nationality; the Italian newspaper
Corriere della Sera quoted Western diplomats in Tripoli as saying that
if a foreign agent was involved “he was almost certainly French.”

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy played a leading role in both
the NATO mission to bomb Libya and in bringing international pressure on
the Assad regime.

NATO initially claimed that it did “not target individuals,” according
to the Daily Telegraph, saying that a reconnaissance plane spotted a
large convoy of vehicles trying to flee Sirte on Oct. 20, 2011, two
months after Qaddafi fled Tripoli.

NATO warplanes then bombed the convoy, apparently unaware of who was
travelling in it, before militia fighters later found Qaddafi hiding in a
drainpipe. He is believed to have been killed by his captors en route
to the city of Misrata, west of Sirte.

According to Obeidi, France had essentially masterminded the operation
by directing Libyan militiamen to an ambush spot where they could
intercept Qaddafi’s convoy.

“French intelligence played a direct role in the death of Qaddafi, including his killing,” Obeidi said.

“They gave directions that he was to be apprehended, but they didn’t
care if he was bloodied or beaten up as long as he was delivered alive.”

Obeidi explained that French intelligence began to monitor Qaddafi’s
Iridium satellite telephone and made a vital progress when he rang some
senior loyalists.

As a result, they were able to specify his location and monitor his
movements in what Obeidi described as “an exclusive French operation.”

Qaddafi had openly threatened to reveal details of the large amounts of
money he had donated to Sarkozy for his 2007 election campaign.

“Sarkozy had every reason to want to get rid of the colonel as quickly
as possible,” Western diplomats were quoted as saying by the Corriere
della Sera.