Peter Moore: US 'arranged secret prisoner exchange'
Telegraph.co.uk / Peter Moore: US 'arranged secret prisone
01-Jan-2010


As Mr Moore flew back to Britain to be reunited with his family, Graeme Moore said he received a message four weeks ago from a “reliable source” who said the Americans were holding talks with the kidnappers which centred around the release of the Shia cleric Qais al-Khazali.

He was told the Foreign Office was being kept “out of the loop” about the negotiations to stop them “messing it up”.

  Mr Moore’s claims are the latest in a series of embarrassing allegations about the Foreign Office’s handling of the two-and-a-half year hostage crisis, in which three of Mr Moore’s British bodyguards were murdered and a fourth is presumed dead.

Dennis McMenemy, the father of the fourth bodyguard, Alan McMenemy, has accused the Foreign Office of “deceit, lies and cover-up” over reports that the kidnapping was masterminded from Iran, while Mr Moore’s natural mother has said the Government “never told the truth”.

Al-Khazali, the leader of Asaib al-Haq, or the League of Righteousness, was transferred from US to Iraqi custody shortly before the release of 36-year-old Mr Moore, who had been held since May 2007.

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has vehemently denied suggestions of a prisoner exchange deal, but Graeme Moore said he was in no doubt that his son’s release was secured during meetings between American agents and the kidnappers regardin... >>>

recommended by Monda

Balatarin
Share/Save/Bookmark