Abdul Majid Giaka - Background

Background

In 1984, Giaka joined the Jamahariya Security Organisation (“JSO”), later named the External Security Organisation. His initial employment was in the vehicle maintenance department for about eighteen months. In December 1985 Giaka was appointed as assistant to the station manager of Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA) at Luqa airport in Malta, which he alleged was normally filled by a member of the JSO.

In August 1988 Giaka contacted the US embassy in Malta, and indicated a willingness to provide them with information. He told them that he disapproved of Libyan involvement in terrorism, but the final straw was that he had been summoned back to Tripoli in connection with an incident at the airport involving an Egyptian woman. Giaka said that at that stage he wanted to go to the USA, but he agreed to stay in position at Luqa airport to give information to the Americans about terrorist activities. Thereafter he had regular meetings at about monthly intervals with his CIA handlers. Eventually during 1990 he did return to Libya when the Americans stopped making payments to him. In July 1991 however he finally left Libya for Malta from where he was taken on board a US navy ship. Over a period of about three weeks he was questioned by members of the US Justice Department and provided certain information to them. Since then he has been in America on a witness protection scheme.

Giaka endeavoured from the outset to give a false impression of his importance within the JSO in the hope of persuading the CIA that he was a valuable asset who might in the future be able to provide valuable information. Thus he initially told them that when he joined the JSO he was in the secret files section, when in fact he was in vehicle maintenance; he claimed to be related to King Idris, which he was not. He also claimed that Muammar al-Gaddafi and Guido de Marco, former president of Malta, were in an international Masonic conspiracy. His continued association with the American authorities was largely motivated by financial considerations. In addition to receiving a monthly salary, initially $1000 increasing to $1500, he also persuaded the CIA to pay for sham surgery to his arm with a view to preventing the risk that he would have to do military service in Libya, and tried to persuade them to finance a car rental business which at one stage he said he wanted to set up in Malta.