University of Tripoli
On 16 April 1984 two students—active opponents of Gaddafi's rule—were executed in public hangings at the University of Tripoli. In response Libyan dissidents in Britain—members of the Libyan National Salvation Front (LNSF)—decided to stage a demonstration outside the People's Bureau on St James's Square. On 16 April a telex was sent from the People's Bureau in London to Tripoli asking for advice on how to deal with the demonstration. They asked which of three options they should follow: do nothing; drag some dissidents into the bureau to physically assault them; or shoot some of the demonstrators. The answer came back from Gaddafi to open fire on the protestors. The message was intercepted and decrypted by the National Security Agency in the US, who passed the information on to Government Communications Headquarters in the UK, from where it was forwarded to MI5, Britain's counter-intelligence and security agency. They failed to pass on the information to the police or the Home Office.