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Libya
From AFP at The Sydney Morning Herald: October 8, 2003
Gaddafi announces his separation from the Arabs
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, once a devoted and energetic champion of Arab unity, announced this weekend his definitive separation from the Arabs, whom he heavily criticised. ... "The era of nationalism and of Arab unity is forever gone. These ideas which once mobilised masses no longer have any value," he said. ... "The Arab League is in the middle of giving up the ghost, and Arabs will never be strong even if they unite... They will remain content every night to watch bloody newsreels from Palestine and Iraq." ... "Libya has for too long endured the Arabs, for whom we have paid blood and money," he said, adding that as a result, his country had been "boycotted by the US and demonised by the West." "In return, the Arabs joined forces with the US and Israel against Libya," he continued, as he confirmed his African orientation, viewing the continent as "a source of great force" for his country.
This confession was made by an appeased leader, whose country had its international sanctions lifted after agreeing to pay $US10 million ($14.6 million) to the family of each of the 270 victims killed during the explosion of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, blamed on Libyan bombers. ...
From Malta Media: 28 Nov, 2003
Malta described as gateway to Libyan oil and gas written by MM-News
A leading petrochemical industry magazine has portrayed Malta as the ideal gateway through which the multinational oil companies can tap the wealth of Libya's oil and gas fields. The online edition of the magazine Global Energy Security Analysis said that European and Asian oil companies, such as Shell, Eni, Total, BP or Petronas are flocking the shores of Libya, looking for new elephant fields and rich financial rewards, at a time when prospects in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria are looking bleak. ... Global Energy Security Analysis said that the time to enter Libya is now and that the country could become a new goldmine in the future. It referred in particular to the North African country's massive natural gas reserves which are particularly lucrative for European markets. It added that with Malta joining the EU, the island will be in the ideal position to lead the way for most investors to Tripoli. ...
From Asia Times: Dec 12, 2003 (Korea)
US, Spain caught in Libya missile mixup By Tito Drago
MADRID - The US government needs to explain why the missile shipment on a vessel intercepted a year ago on the high seas by the Spanish navy ended up in Libya, a spokesman from Spain's Defense Ministry said this week. The official was referring to declarations made by sources from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to the Madrid daily El Mundo that claim 15 complete Scud missiles, a set of conventional warheads and 85 containers of chemical products - some 20 holding nitric acid - were ultimately delivered to Libya under a Washington decision. ... The episode began on December 5, 2002, when US intelligence services informed Madrid about the route of a freighter named So San, which they suspected of trafficking weapons ... The weapons and chemicals came from North Korea and did not appear on the ship's manifest, which showed only that the merchant vessel was carrying bags of cement. After intercepting the freighter, Spain then handed the ship over to the US Navy. ... the US administration took Spain by surprise by turning the So San over to Yemen, explaining that the cargo was actually a legal shipment of weapons purchased from North Korea by the Yemini government. The handover was preceded by a telephone conversation between US Vice President Dick Cheney and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. When that conversation was made public, the White House justified the move by calling Yemen a friendly nation. ... "Gaddafi wanted the missiles and Yemen acted as intermediary. In the context of gestures with Libya, it was decided to look the other way, given that there was no international regulation that impeded it," said the newspaper[El Mundo], citing sources from the Pentagon. ... No US company is authorized to sell weapons to Libya directly or indirectly, nor to facilitate the delivery of arms. ...
From AP at Yahoo! News: Dec 19, 7:11 PM (ET)
Libya Agrees to Dismantle WMD Program By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has agreed under pressure to halt his nation's drive to develop chemical and nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday. Bush said pointedly, "I hope other leaders will find an example" in the action. Bush said Libya's decision — which would open the country to international weapons inspectors — would be "of great importance" in stopping weapons of mass destruction in a global fight against terrorism. The president said the United States and Britain would make sure Libya kept its word, given its "troubled history," but he added, "As we have found with other nations, old hostilities do not need to go on forever." The White House suggested that Libya's dramatic decision was influenced by the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the recent capture of Saddam Hussein.
The Libyan news agency Jana Tripoli quoted Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam as saying Libyan experts had shown their U.S. and British counterparts "the substances, equipment and programs that could lead to production of internationally banned weapons." These included a "centrifuging machine and equipment to carry chemical substances." Libya would rid itself of all that "with its own free will," the news agency quoted the foreign minister as saying in a statement monitored by the BBC.
Libya's most significant acknowledgment was that it had a program intended to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons, a senior Bush administration official said, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity. The program involved centrifuges as the means to enrich the uranium. American and British experts who went to Libya in October and again this month visited 10 sites related to Libya's nuclear program, the official said. The experts did not witness a fully operational centrifuge program but only components. Still, the official said the program was more advanced than was previously thought.
Blair said Britain and the United States had been secretly talking with Libya for nine months, after negotiating a settlement in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people. Libya made the overture on weapons, Blair said in Durham, Britain. At the White House, Bush said the U.S. war against Iraq had sent "an unmistakable message to regimes that seek or possess weapons of mass destruction. ... They bring isolation and otherwise unwelcome consequences." But leaders who abandon such programs, he said, "will find an open path to better relations with the United States and other free nations." ...
The U.N. Security Council ended sanctions against Libya on Sept. 12 after Gadhafi's government took responsibility for the Pan Am bombing and agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the victims' families. But the United States has kept its own 17-year embargo in place and has kept Libya on the list of nations that sponsor terrorism. ...
Libyan officials further acknowledged contacts with North Korea, a supplier of long-range ballistic missiles, and provided the U.S.-British team access to missile research and development facilities. According to a recent, unclassified report to Congress, Libya's longest-range missiles were thought to be Scud-B ballistic missiles. These have a range of 186 miles. Libya agreed to destroy missiles with longer ranges, but it was unclear if the country had any. Libya relied heavily on foreign assistance for its weapons programs, but had previously made overtures that it would slow or halt its programs to improve its international standing. ... The U.S. has suggested over the years that military action could be taken against Libya's weapons program.
From Reuters: Dec. 19, 2003 7:16PM ET
Libya to Give Up Banned Weapons, Bush Applauds By Salah Sarrar and Caren Bohan
TRIPOLI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Libya, a pariah state for decades, said on Friday it would abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs and allow unconditional inspections, drawing praise from Washington and London for its move toward rejoining the international community. Libya had chosen "of its free will" to "completely eliminate the internationally banned weapons of mass destruction," the Foreign Ministry in Tripoli said. Britain said Libya had been close to making a nuclear bomb and U.S. officials said Libya's nuclear program was "much further advanced" than believed and it had acknowledged cooperating with North Korea to develop Scud missiles. President Bush immediately praised Libya for taking "essential steps" on the weapons programs and said: "Its good faith will be returned." He also said the United States and Britain would work to ensure Libya lives up to its agreements. ...
Bush offered the prospect of U.S. assistance for Libya in the future, saying: "As Libya becomes a more peaceful nation it can become a source of stability in Africa and the Middle East. Should Libya pursue internal reform, America will be ready to help its people to build a more free and prosperous country." ...
An official in London said a British team working with the Libyans had been shown "significant quantities of chemical agent" and that Libya had acknowledged that it was developing nuclear material intended to create a weapon. ... It would be up to Libya to disclose the details of the weapons programs to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, as it has now agreed to do, the official said. ...
From Reuters: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 11:44 a.m. ET
Gaddafi Tells World Libya Has 'Nothing to Hide' By Salah Sarrar
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi invited the world to come to Libya to see for itself that Tripoli was not concealing banned weapons, after promising the country was abandoning its nuclear weapons program. "Come and see... We don't want to hide anything," the Libyan leader told CNN in an interview broadcast on Tuesday. Libyan and U.N. officials said on Monday that snap checks of Libyan nuclear sites could begin as soon as next week after Tripoli accepted U.N. inspections to convince the world it was giving up its nuclear weapons ambitions.
Gaddafi's oil-rich state, long on the U.S. list of sponsors of terrorism, said last week it was abandoning plans to build an atomic bomb and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). It now wants trading benefits, including an end to U.S. sanctions. "We have no intention to make these weapons, these WMD. But there are many rumors, many accusations, (much) propaganda against Libya, particularly in this field, and we have to stop this propaganda against us," he said in English. ...
From The Hindu: Sunday, December 28, 2003
Gadhafi armed al-Qaeda with germ bombs: report
London, Dec 28. (PTI): Libyan leader Maommar Gadhafi, who recently abandoned his country's weapons of mass destruction programme, had armed al-Qaeda terror network with germ bombs, a report claimed today. Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kusa told British secret service agency Mi5 that tens of thousands of weapons had been produced at 10 secret sites in the country, the Sunday Express said. Kusa has named 500 al-Qaeda terrorists in Britain and the information he gave is being checked, it said. ...
From The Associated Press at ABC News: Dec. 29, 2003
ElBaradei: Libya in Early Nuclear Stages
U.N. Nuclear Chief ElBaradei Says Libyans in Early Stages of Developing Nuclear Weapons Program
TRIPOLI, Libya — The U.N. nuclear chief said Monday that his visits to four once-secret nuclear sites proved that Libya had been in the early stages of a weapons program before it dismantled its efforts. Mohammed ElBaradei said the equipment and technology had come from a number of countries. ...
From AP at Mercury News: Posted on Mon, Dec. 29, 2003
Oil companies itching for Libya return PETROLEUM WEALTH BARELY EXPLORED
By Bruce Stanley, Associated Press
LONDON - American oil companies have chafed for more than 17 years at U.S. sanctions that forced them to abandon prolific oil fields in the Libyan desert. Now, after Libya's surprise agreement to abort its programs for weapons of mass destruction, the Americans can foresee their return to a country of promising and barely explored petroleum wealth. The Libyan government, desperate to boost its oil exports, is eager to have them back. Libya now produces less than half of its 1970 peak of 3.3 million barrels a day. With fresh investment, analysts say it could once again become a leading producer. ...
From AP: Jan 3, 9:46 AM (ET)
U.S., U.N. Divided Over Libya Nuke Issues By GEORGE JAHN
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The United States believes it would be well within its rights to lead the effort to scrap Libya's atomic weapons program, but it wants the debate taken out of the public arena, diplomats said. The diplomats said Secretary of State Colin Powell has spoken with chief U.N. nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei about resolving differences with Washington. At issue is whether the International Atomic Energy Agency or Washington should police the destruction of Libya's nuclear arms program, which Tripoli disclosed publicly last month. Senior U.S. officials have said that will be carried out by a team of American and British experts and suggested the IAEA was poorly informed about the extent of Libya's nuclear activities. ...
The diplomats told The Associated Press that Powell's recent telephone conversation with ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, focused on tensions over Libya between the IAEA and U.S. administration officials already unhappy with the agency's stance on Iraq and Iran. Over the past year, the Egyptian law professor also has been the target of U.S. accusations that he minimized the nuclear weapons threats from Iraq under Saddam Hussein and from Iran. The United States maintained that both nations were trying to build atomic bombs, which the IAEA disputed. ElBaradei told AP on Tuesday that the IAEA intends to "do it alone" in destroying Libya's atomic programs. ... ElBaradei and an IAEA team visited four once-secret nuclear sites in Libya's capital, Tripoli, last weekend. While U.S. officials have suggested that the Libyan program was advanced, ElBaradei said that, from what his team saw, Libya still was years away from developing atomic bombs. ...
From Agence France-Presse: Tuesday, January 6, 2004 13:53 IST
President Bush renews US sanctions on Libya
St Louis (Missouri) - US President George W Bush has renewed US sanctions imposed on Libya in 1986, saying that Tripoli must follow positive overtures on unconventional arms with "concrete steps." "The crisis between the United States and Libya that led to the declaration of a national emergency on January 7, 1986, has not been fully resolved, although there have been some positive developments," he said in a statement on Monday. ...
From The Australian: January 08, 2004
Libya starts peace talks with Israel By Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem
From The Associated Press at The Washington Post: Thursday, January 15, 2004
Libya Ratifies Nuclear Treaty Once Approved by Others, Pact Will Ban Weapons Tests
VIENNA, Jan. 14 -- Libya has ratified the nuclear test ban treaty and approved establishment of a monitoring station on its territory, U.N. officials said Wednesday. ...
At The Washington Post: Sunday, January 18, 2004; Page B05
My Secret Talks With Libya, And Why They Went Nowhere By Gary Hart
From AP at Yahoo: 02/26/04 5:35pm ET
U.S. Oil Companies Can Now Deal With Libya By BRAD FOSS, AP Business Writer
WASHINGTON - U.S. oil companies with holdings in Libya received White House permission Thursday to negotiate the resumption of once-lucrative deals stalled by bilateral sanctions imposed in 1986. ...
From Reuters: Thu Feb 26, 2004 05:50 PM ET
US Eases Sanctions on Libya, Cites WMD Progress By Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States took major steps toward normalizing ties with Libya on Thursday, including allowing U.S. firms to start negotiating their return, in order to reward Tripoli for efforts to get rid of banned weapons. ...
From The BBC: Friday, 23 April, 2004, 20:08 GMT 21:08 UK
US eases Libya economic sanctions
The US says it is easing its economic sanctions on Libya, following Colonel Gaddafi's decision to stop trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. The move will enable US oil companies and banks to resume commercial activities in Libya. In a statement, the White House praised Libya's "excellent co-operation" with Western officials and said its recent actions "have made the world safer". However, Libya remains on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. ...
From Reuters: Fri Apr 23, 2004 06:05 PM ET
Libya Confirms Oil Cargo to U.S. By Edmund Blair
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Friday it had confirmed its first cargo to the United States in more than 20 years for loading in May after Washington lifted many of its economic sanctions. ...
From Reuters at Yahoo: Fri May 28, 2004 5:31 PM ET
U.N. uranium find links Libya to Iran, Pakistan By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a confidential report on Friday it had found traces of high and low enriched uranium on Libyan nuclear centrifuges, as it found on identical Pakistani-made centrifuges in Iran last year. ...
From The Times Of India, Times News Network: Fri, June 18, 2004 12:45:46 AM
India eyes oil deal with Libya By SANJAY DUTTA
NEW DELHI: New Delhi is pushing for a tech-for-oil deal with Tripoli in the wake of the US lifting laws that bring into Washington's crosshairs any non-American company investing over $20 million in Libya's oil sector. A team of Indian oilmen, led by additional petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan, sought stakes in oilfields there in return for Indian investment on modernising Libyan refineries. ... Tripoli is putting at least eight promising oilfields to international bidding. Simultaneously, it is also seeking over $3 billion investment for upgrading its six refineries. These have a combined capacity of processing 380,000 barrels a day of crude but operate roughly at half their strength due to ageing plants. ...
From Deutsche Welle: 20.06.2004
Libya Sets Demands in Berlin Bomb Compensation Talks
Libyan officials negotiating compensation to victims of a 1986 bomb attack in Berlin are demanding money for victims of German World War II mines as well as the extradition of Libyan opposition members. ... Gadhafi needs an agreement on the matter in order for Libya to be admitted to an EU partnership program with Mediterranean countries. ...
From AP at ABC News: Aug. 10, 2004
Libya to Pay $35M for Berlin Disco Bomb
Libya to Pay $35 Million in Compensation for Non-U.S. Victims of 1986 Bombing at Berlin Disco
From Xinhuanet: www.chinaview.cn 2004-08-11 11:07:47
US demands Libyan compensation for US victims in 1986 bombing
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States on Tuesday demanded Libya to make compensation for the victims of the 1986 LaBelle disco bombing in West Berlin.
The US State Department made the request after Libya had agreed to compensate more than 160 non-US victims of the 1986 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub. ...
From AFP at SpaceWar: Aug 11, 2004
Libya seeks compensation for US air strikes in 1986
From Reuters and AFP at The Sydney Morning Herald: August 12, 2004
Libya to pay $50m to Berlin bomb victims
Libya has agreed to compensate 160 victims of the 1986 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub, taking another step towards ending its international isolation. The Libyan ambassador to Germany, Said Abdulaati, said the compensation would amount to €30 million ($50 million), a figure later confirmed by the German Government. Libya's Gaddafi Foundation, which negotiated the terms of the compensation deal, demanded in turn that the US provide compensation for its retaliatory air strikes against the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. The foundation expressed "complete satisfaction" with the deal, which was announced on Tuesday. The US strikes, in April 1986, killed 41 people and wounded 226 others "who undoubtedly deserve to be properly compensated and honoured and those who carried [out] this action be brought to justice", said the foundation, which is chaired by Saif al-Islam, who is the son of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Two US soldiers and a Turkish woman were killed and more than 200 people injured in the explosion at La Belle, a nightclub popular among US soldiers. The compensation covers non-US victims only. ... Payouts to US victims and their families are the subject of separate legal action in the US. Lawyers said 11 people who were severely injured would receive €285,000 and the other victims €155,000. ...
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