Libya agrees to dismantle its weapons programs

By Mark Matthews and David L. Greene
The Baltimore Sun

	Moammar Gadhafi
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In a brief televised speech at the White House after Libya's surprise decision was announced, President Bush said Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan leader, made the pledge after nine months of secret negotiations with U.S. and British diplomats. Bush portrayed Libya's actions as a victory in his hard-line policy toward terrorism and states that seek weapons of mass destruction.

"Our understanding with Libya came about through quiet diplomacy," Bush said. "It is a result, however, of policies and principles declared to all."

He added pointedly, "I hope other leaders will find an example" in his action.

The White House suggested that Libya's decision was driven, in part, by the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. "I can't imagine that Iraq went unnoticed by the Libyan leadership," a senior administration official said.

The U.S. and Libya Major events in relations between Libya and the United States. Sept. 1, 1969: Libyan military officers depose the conservative monarchy of King Idris. Col. Moammar Gadhafi emerges as leader of the revolutionary government and orders the closure of a U.S. Air Force base. The last U.S. servicemen leave in June 1970. Dec. 2, 1979: Some 2,000 Libyans ransack the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, chanting support for the radical Islamic regime that took power in Iran earlier in the year. Aug. 12, 1981: President Reagan, citing alleged Libyan involvement in terrorism, orders U.S. jets to attack targets in Libya. April 14, 1986: Convinced that Libya was responsible for a deadly bombing at a Berlin discotheque frequented by American servicemen, Reagan orders jets to attack five targets in Libya. An estimated 40 Libyans, including Gadhafi's baby daughter, are killed. Dec. 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103, with 259 people aboard, most of them Americans, is bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland. All aboard the U.S.-bound flight perish, along with 11 more on the ground. April 15, 1992: U.N. Security Council imposes sanctions on arms sales and air travel against Libya to prod Gadhafi into surrendering two suspects wanted in the Pan Am bombing. April 14, 1999: Libya surrenders the two Libyans for trial. The U.N. Security Council quickly suspends sanctions but does not lift them — meaning they can be re-imposed. Jan. 31, 2001: Scottish court convicts Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi of the Lockerbie bombing and sentences him to life imprisonment. A second Libyan is acquitted. Aug. 15, 2003: Libya officially accepts responsibility for Lockerbie, agreeing to pay $2.7 billion to relatives of each victim. Washington says it will maintain U.S. sanctions and keep Libya on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, but will not oppose lifting of U.N. sanctions. Sept. 12: U.N. Security Council votes to lift the sanctions. Dec. 19: President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announce that Gadhafi has admitted trying to develop weapons of mass destruction but now, following nine months of talks, plans to dismantle all such programs. — The Associated Press

Prime Minister Tony Blair drew a different lesson from Libya's move, calling it "courageous." Speaking on British television just before Bush appeared, Blair said of Gadhafi's decision, "It shows that problems of proliferation can, with good will, be tackled through discussion and engagement, to be followed up by the responsible international agencies."

Libya's actions, Blair said, "entitle it to rejoin the international community."

Libya's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official news agency that Libya had decided to end its banned-weapons programs "on its free will." It said the decision conformed with Libya's aim to turn the Middle East and Africa into a nuclear-free zone.

For years, Gadhafi has been struggling to break free of his status as a global rogue who supported terrorists. This year, he agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in late 1988. A Gadhafi agent was convicted of planning the attack, which killed 270 people.

Nine months ago, officials said, a Gadhafi envoy approached the United States and Britain with an offer to cooperate in dismantling its weapons programs and allowed American and British experts to examine covert facilities in two visits totaling three weeks.

The examination found that Libya was "close to developing" a nuclear-weapons capability, a British official said.

The experts saw centrifuges as well as "thousands" of centrifuge parts showing that Libya was developing a nuclear-fuel cycle, though Libya had apparently not reached the necessary point of enriching the fuel.

An administration official said the nuclear technology was not acquired from Iraq, but he declined to say whether they were able to determine whether its design was indigenous or acquired from another country.

In addition, Libya possessed "significant quantities" of chemical-weapons agents and precursor materials, and also had bombs designed to hold chemical agents, the official said. Libya also had research centers that could be used for biological weapons, and a missile research-and-development program.

Libyan officials also acknowledged what U.S. officials have long suspected: that the nation was cooperating with North Korea to develop long-range Scud missiles.

Jeffrey Bale, a terrorism expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, said the invasion and destruction of Hussein's regime had shocked Arab leaders and made "everybody aware in the Middle East and North Africa that we have the power to destroy their regimes any time we want to."

Although officials said Libya made its first overtures to U.S. and British leaders in March, just before the invasion of Iraq, Bale noted that the mercurial Libyan leader already had launched a campaign to gain international respectability in a bid to free his country of sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the United States. The sanctions prevented Libya from gaining full benefit from its oil wealth.

In addition to paying damages for the Pan Am 103 bombing, Libya also had sought to show that it was no longer supporting militant groups.

The extent of the nuclear program that U.S. and British officials claimed to have discovered in Libya came as a surprise not only to them but to outside experts. It raised new questions about the ability of Western intelligence agencies to track weapons proliferation.

Bush stopped short of promising to lift the U.S.-imposed sanctions but said: "As the Libyan government takes these essential steps and demonstrates its seriousness, its good faith will be returned. Libya can regain a secure and respected place among the nations, and over time achieve far better relations with the United States."

The announcements from Bush and Blair came as a surprise. A senior administration official said it wasn't until early this month that U.S. and British experts acquired sufficient information to convince them that Libya's pledge would be legitimate.

Asked why the announcement came abruptly on a Friday evening, the official at the White House said: "It just worked out that way."

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, White House strategists have focused their anxieties on the dual threat posed by outlaw regimes and weapons of mass destruction. Libya's decision to, in effect, sue for peace, reduced the Bush administration's list of the world's most threatening countries by one.

"I think this is an intelligence victory, it's a diplomatic victory and it's a victory for allied cooperation," an administration official said. "The president's policies on non- and counter-proliferation have achieved a major victory."

Since the fall of Iraq, U.S. officials name North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria as the four countries they are most worried about, because all four have harbored terrorists and all four have sought to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Bush noted that he has a policy of multilateral diplomacy to address the threat from North Korea. That would leave Iran and Syria as the two remaining targets for the administration's concern.

Syria offers the United States and British governments a promising opportunity to follow Libya's pattern, said Paul Beavor, a weapons expert and editor of the London-based newsletter Homeland Response.

"Syria's next," Beavor said. "We must be sure not to humiliate Gadhafi. But as long as we don't, we may find some other states willing to follow."

Bush made no mention of the Pan Am 103 crash or the families of those who died.

Susan Cohen, whose daughter was killed when a bomb exploded as the jetliner flew above Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, said she was disturbed by Bush's omission and by the agreement.

"It was a total betrayal," Cohen said. Gadhafi "blew up a plane. God knows, if this can happen, Osama bin Laden can come back."

Bob Monetti, who lost his 20-year-old son aboard the flight, said he remains suspicious of Libya's motives but is willing to give Gadhafi a chance.

"Most of us are in a 'Let's-see-what-goes-on attitude.' If, in fact, they have changed their stripes, maybe we should just get on with it," said Monetti, president of Families of Pan Am 103.

Material from The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times is included in this report.

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