The Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) could have seriously compromised Botswana's national security, allowing for the country to be used by mercenaries in a clandestine operation, The Patriot on Sunday has learned. The DIS is said to have missed an intelligence tip off in 2017, which alerted them to the use of Botswana as a launching pad by private military contractors (PMCs) commonly known as mercenaries, contracted to go and help the Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter in his all-out assault against the Tripoli government. In a clandestine operation that Botswana intelligence agents failed to intercept and expose, three Super Puma helicopters, strapped to vans/ trucks were cleared by authorities to pass through Botswana believed to be headed to Libya, last year. Information gathered and corroborated by highly placed sources has shown that since 2017, the funders of the Libyan project whose interest are in the oil industry took advantage of the lapses in Botswana’s intelligence and financial services sector to transfer huge sums of funds, which were later taken out to be used to purchase military equipment elsewhere. Investigators have traced part of planning the assault on Tripoli by mercenaries hired to support Hifter in 2017, which however…