Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 5, 2011

Is there any incumbent dictator who has not allowed his secret police to act as torture subcontractors for the CIA?

Human Rights Watch recently uncovered a trove of documents in the office of Moussa Koussa, former spy chief and foreign minister to Libyan dictator Muamar Qadaffi. The stash includes letters dealing with the capture and ?rendition? of people to Tripoli to be interrogated and tortured by Qadaffi?s secret police.

One document was a propaganda speech drafted for Qadaffi by the CIA and prepared for delivery during the 2003 Christmas season. That oration was intended to depict the dictator as an instrument of international peace: ?At a time when the world is celebrating the birth of Jesus, and as a token of our contributions towards a world full of peace, security, stability and compassion, the [Libyan revolutionary government] presents its honest call for a W.M.D.-free zone in the Middle East.?

Washington opened diplomatic relations with Qadaffi?s junta after the Libyan despot renounced nuclear weapons; a few years later, Washington launched a war to remove him from power. Other dictators examining those developments will now have an increased incentive to develop nuclear weapons.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.