It also helped foil a plan to attack the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria in 2005, according to U.S. intelligence sources who spoke to The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

“The Gadhafi regime was a productive source for counterterrorism intelligence,” said a former senior intelligence official who was personally familiar with the information-sharing arrangement the U.S. had with Libya. “The relationship was healthy enough that even Mousa Koussa [the head of Libyan intelligence from 1994 to 2009] visited the CIA during the [George W.] Bush administration years.”

The American officials’ accounts were corroborated by former Gadhafi aide Mohammed Ismael, who told The Times that his former boss authorized significant intelligence-sharing with the U.S. during the war on terrorism, especially relating to al Qaeda’s expansion into North Africa.