Western arms firm’s Gaddafi links revealed

A MAJOR western defence firm was upgrading military equipment for an elite Libyan security brigade just before the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi began, documents show, revealing how the West tried to foster ties with Gaddafi during his final years in power.

Less than a month before the start of the revolt, the British arm of US-based General Dynamics was making arrangements to improve communications systems for tanks, artillery and armoured troop carriers for the Khamis Brigade, which played a lead role in cracking down on the revolt, according to documents found by Reuters, the news agency, at a brigade base.

General Dynamics said the upgrade was never completed. But the documents detail for the first time what weapons were involved and that the firm was doing business with Gaddafi’s forces on the eve of the uprising. It said the equipment might have been included in the British subsidiary’s May 2008 contract with Libya — an £85 million (€96.4m) deal to provide a tactical communications and data system as part of what it termed at the time “the United Kingdom’s initiatives to improve economic, educational and defense links with Libya”.