Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator overthrown in 2011 by NATO-backed rebels, had provided important information that led to the killings of key al-Qaida operatives and disrupted planned terror attacks against U.S. interests, former Gadhafi aide Mohammed Ismael confirmed to The Washington Times.

Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the prime mover in the decision by the Obama administration to back anti-Gadhafi insurgents, The New York Times reported in 2011.

Clinton, along with Samantha Power, then at the National Security Council, and Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador at the time, convinced Obama to back the rebels.

Ismael, thought to have been close to the dictator's son, Saif al-Islam, implied that the loss of intelligence sharing following Gadhafi's overthrow damaged Washington's interests and set the stage for the September 2012 attacks on American facilities in Benghazi that cost the lives of four Americans, including ambassador Christopher Stephens, according to the Times.

Among the contributions Gadhafi's intelligence services made to the war against al-Qaida, according to Ismael, were helping to thwart plans for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria in 2005; aiding the CIA in tracking down Abu Laith al-Libi, who reportedly helped to plan the 2007 Bagram Airfield bombing in Afghanistan (and was thought to have targeted visiting Vice President Dick Cheney); and supplying information that contributed to the capture of senior al-Qaida figure Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, the Times reported.

"The Gadhafi regime was a productive source for counterterrorism intelligence," a former intelligence official familiar with Libya told the newspaper. "The relationship was healthy enough that even Moussa Koussa [the head of Libyan intelligence from 1994 to 2009] visited the CIA during the [George W.] Bush administration years."

Ismael blamed Clinton for misreading the situation in Libya. He said that in contrast to the Gadhafi regime, which helped stop attacks against U.S. facilities, the rebels targeted U.S. interests, according to the Times.

Gadhafi cooperated with the CIA in the war against al-Qaida because many young Libyans had joined the Islamist extremists and because key anti-Gadhafi rebel groups were Islamist in orientation.

Militants loyal to the Islamic State are now a leading source of instability in the civil war-torn North African country, The New York Times reported.

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