LIBYA--Another Dividend from the War

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
LIBYA--Another Dividend from the War
7
Sat, 12-20-2003 - 11:55am
ROGUE STATE NO MORE

Libya Seeks Reward for Scrapping Banned Weapons

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GV5YBH5JE2UKICRBAEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=4025947

Libya made clear on Saturday it wanted to come in from the cold after decades as a pariah state and Britain and the United States pledged to reward its decision to abandon its banned weapons programs.

UK Says Libya Was Close to Developing Nuclear Bomb

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20031219/wl_nm/libya_nuclear_dc

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sat, 12-20-2003 - 12:58pm

Of course it's a very


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Mon, 12-22-2003 - 11:53am
<<1) Bush believes Qaddafi.>>

Au contraire. Q had to PROVE he was sincere which is what the Pan Am thing was all about and why he opened WMD facilities and other information that we didn't have a clue about to us.


<<2) Bush now thinks that the UN Weapons Inspectors can handle something like this.>>

They are INSPECTORS not DETECTIVES. They are perfectly capable of inventorying what they are presented with and witnessing it's destruction.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 12-22-2003 - 12:09pm

It still boils down to one thing...does one believe him?


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Mon, 12-22-2003 - 1:17pm
It sounds like Libya is reacting more to years of sanctions than to saber rattling from the U.S. In fact, the path that has led to this important declaration has been decidedly non-military - sanctions, U.N. consenus, and prosecutions in international courts. The UN lifted it's sanctions in 2001 and the US was poised to vote on lifting ours shortly before the Sept. 11th attacks which, of course, changed prioritiies.

The possibility of Libya dismantling it's chemical weapons (which it has used against Chad) and it's nuclear weapons program is a great step towards stopping WMD proliferation. I just think it's important to be clear about the means that brought it about. The appearance that this is purely the result of military pressure is decieving.



from SECRET DIPLOMACY WON LIBYAN PLEDGE ON ARMS

entire article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/international/middleeast/21LIBY.html

"The effort's roots lay in the final phase of the five years of talks over the United Nations sanctions against Libya imposed after the bombing in 1988 of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, British and American officials said. The United Nations lifted its sanctions after Libya acknowledged responsibility for the bombing and offered about $10 million in compensation for each of the 270 victims. But Libya said full payment would come only after all international sanctions were lifted.

Congress and the Bush administration, however, said sanctions would be maintained until Libya gave up its illicit weapons programs and links to terrorist organizations. That position, American and British officials said, forced Libya, economically crippled and desperate for the return of foreign oil companies, to consider the new concessions.

A State Department official said Libya felt an urgency to act because of the American stances on Iran and North Korea and the war in Iraq. An intelligence official said Colonel Qaddafi was also concerned about the threat to his government from militant elements in the country.

British and American officials said Friday that the initial approach was made by Libya in March, just before the war. A spokesman for Mr. Blair said Saturday that Libya's chief of intelligence, Musa Kussa, contacted the British government.

Mr. Kussa has spent several years seeking diplomatic pathways to break the United States economic embargo. He and other Libyan officials carried on secret discussions with British and American intelligence that at times have involved the former South African president Nelson Mandela; Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States; and other Arab diplomats. The negotiations hinged on how strong a commitment to breaking with Libya's past Colonel Qaddafi was willing to make in a public statement, given the criticism it would probably arouse in parts of the Arab world, officials in London said. "

I'd also like to add that yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the tragic bombing of Pan Am flight 103...anyone reading this, please have a moment of remembrance for the victims.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Mon, 12-22-2003 - 2:00pm
Libia has wanted sanctions to be lifted for over a decade, but timing is everything.

This round of negotiations started when we went to war. That's when Qudaffy came clean and opened his still ACTIVE factories & labs to us.

The breakthrough in Libya appears to have been the result of a bad cop, good cop play with us & the UK.

It'll be interesting to see if it works elsewhere.

Uk in secret talks with pariahs

BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR


BRITAIN is in secret negotiations with at least two more ‘pariah states’ believed to harbour weapons of mass destruction, in a bid to encourage them to give up their arsenals peacefully or face the wrath of the international community.

Amid the fallout from the dramatic announcement that Libya is to abandon its illicit weapons programme, it has emerged that British officials are already in ‘back-channel’ negotiations with Syria and Iran, as part of a wider campaign to defuse the tinderbox situation in the Middle East.

Scotland on Sunday has learned that officials have met counterparts in both countries - labelled part of the "Axis of Evil" by President George Bush - for preliminary discussions.

The softly-softly strategy, which produced the developments in Libya after nine months of secret negotiations, was last night backed up by a veiled threat from Bush, who said he hoped other leaders would follow the example of Colonel Gaddafi.

"In terms of other countries, we are engaged in very similar processes to those which have produced progress in Libya," a senior British government source said last night.

"In public, we have been encouraging the Iranians to allow inspections of their armaments and we have had president Assad over here to discuss these things. But there is a lot going on behind the scenes. We are very hopeful that it can produce similar results."

The historic agreement with Libya, only days after the capture of Saddam Hussein, is a huge boost to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s standing after weeks of escalating pressure over his policies at home and abroad.

But while even his opponents hailed the diplomatic coup, critics of the war demanded to know why Saddam was not given the same chance of negotiation as an alternative to war. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw claimed that suggestion was "absurd".

It emerged last night that Gaddafi was capable of firing a missile into the heart of Europe or Israel, according to defence analysts.

British officials confirmed privately that the arsenal included the feared Nodong missiles, capable of firing a devastating warhead up to 1,700 km. Their potential target range is almost 10 times the limit Gaddafi has now agreed to observe under the deal.

Libyan officials last night arrived in Vienna to come clean about Tripoli’s nuclear programme in a meeting with United Nations atomic watchdog the IAEA.

But in the aftermath of the agreement, Straw said the former pariah state had confirmed long-term fears that they had collaborated with the North Koreans in developing a deadly weapons programme that threatened enemies far beyond its borders.

The revelation fuelled long-running speculation that Gaddafi had got hold of at least 50 Nodongs, which can be modified to deliver a variety of payloads ranging from conventional munitions, chemical or biological agents, or even a nuclear device.

British sources said last night that Gaddafi had not acquired a nuclear weapons capability "but he was close to developing one". In America, White House insiders claimed Libya’s nuclear weapons programme was "much further advanced" than US and British intelligence agencies had thought.

It is believed that the British and American officials who were taken around 10 nuclear sites in the country were shown centrifuges and a uranium-enrichment programme, all vital elements in the production of a nuclear bomb.

The arsenal also included 100 tonnes of mustard gas and other nerve agents that could wreak devastation on thousands of people if fired on Europe or Israel, plus bombs designed to be filled with chemical weapons.

British officials were last night remaining tight-lipped about the scale of the secret weaponry displayed by Libya, which had been exiled as a ‘rogue state’ for almost two decades before recent overtures designed to welcome it back into the international fold.

Both Downing Street and the Foreign Office repeated the Prime Minister’s insistence that it was up to the Libyans to detail the extent of their weapons stockpile.

But British sources said: "The Libyans had not acquired a nuclear capability, but they were close to developing one. What they have acknowledged to us is that they were developing a nuclear fuel cycle that was intended to support a weapons programme.

"They have shown us significant quantities of chemical agents and dual-use precursors, and given access to sites where missile research was going on."

Despite lingering concerns about the destructive potential of the regime responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, Britain and America last night maintained that the agreement to disarm represented a massive diplomatic victory.

Straw praised Gaddafi’s "courageous" decision and claimed it could pave the way for the ending of long-running US sanctions against a man once described as a mad dog by former president Ronald Reagan.

United Nations sanctions were removed in September after Gaddafi agreed a cash settlement for the relatives of the 269 victims of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988.

http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/index.cfm?id=1399642003

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2003
Mon, 12-22-2003 - 6:14pm
Im happy Lybia agreed to cooperate out of their own will and Ghadafi are willing to help. Very surprising!!
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 01-09-2004 - 11:08am

I'm happy to hear this.


Libya and relatives sign deal over 1989 bombing.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1119596,00.html



The families of victims of a 1989 French passenger jet bombed by Libyan terrorists are to receive £92m in compensation from the Libyan government in a deal announced today.


Libya today signed the compensation award, which promises to bring relief to the families of the 170 people on board the plane and pave the way to closer links between Tripoli and Paris.

The agreement was signed between a representative of families of victims of the attack, Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, the director of a Libyan foundation, Salah Abdu Slame, a bank handling the transfer of funds and the lawyer for SOS-Attentat, a group which works for terrorism victims' rights.

The bombing of UTA airlines jet flight over the Niger desert in 1989 killed all 170 people aboard the jet.

Victims' families came from 17 countries including several Britons, Italians and Africans, but France, with 54 dead, had the heaviest toll.

"We're happy to have succeeded ... the scar will always remain, but at least it has healed," Mr Saint Marc, who lost his father in the bombing, said before the signing.

The package falls short of the £1.5bn payout agreed by Libya last year for 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

But Mr Saint-Marc defended the French deal, saying the difference between it and the Lockerbie payout was not as large as it seemed.

"This accord shows that Libya is changing, has changed. It is very important for us now that Libya can go ahead and start rebuilding its future," he said.

France convicted six Libyans in absentia for the attack. But Tripoli has always denied responsibility for the bombing and insisted it would not match the amount of the Lockerbie payout.

A special foundation was being set up to distribute funds, which are not expected to start flowing for six months.

The package follows warmer relations between Libya and the UK, after the recent decision by Libya's leader, Muammar Gadafy, to abandon weapons programmes and contribute intelligence to the war on terror.


Lockerbie Links..........


http://www.guardian.co.uk/Lockerbie/0,2759,431005,00.html

cl-Libraone

 


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