Spies will face criminal inquiry over Libya

LONDON — Britain’s spy agencies will face a criminal investigation into claims that intelligence shared with Moammar Gadhafi’s regime led to the torture or rendition of two Libyan men and their families, authorities announced Thursday.

A criminal inquiry was launched in 2008 when a former Guantanamo Bay detainee alleged that intelligence agencies were complicit in his torture. The inquiry later expanded to include claims by two Libyans who accused intelligence agents of sharing sensitive information with Gadhafi’s regime.

Tripoli’s military council commander, Abdel-hakim Belhaj, a former fighter in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group which had opposed Gadhafi and had asylum in the U.K., claims both British and U.S. intelligence may have played a role in his 2004 detention in Thailand’s capital Bangkok and transfer to Tripoli. the right thing to do.” Arkady Vishnev said “the most useful thing you could do for the country now” would be to withdraw from the race. Svetlana Sorokina suggested he step down so that, as she put it, “you do not turn the situation into a revolution.”

Within a few hours these messages had vanished in a flood of support for Putin, who remains the country’s single dominant political figure and is virtually assured of victory in the election. The new comments were less embarrassing, touching on issues like pet care and agriculture. Many of them just wished him luck.