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U.S. Demands Libya Admit Pan Am Bombing
A Bush administration plan to let Americans travel to Libya was thrown off track Tuesday when Muammar Gadhafiâs prime minister said his government had not accepted responsibility for blowing up Pan Am flight 103. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States had demanded retraction of the ministerâs remarks, carried in a British Broadcasting Co. radio interview.Wonder if Shokri was doing this for the Arab street? Libya last August acknowledged in a letter to the U.N. Security Council its responsibility for the 1988 bombing of the jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, including 181 Americans. Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem told the BBC that Libyaâs government agreed in December to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to the victimsâ families to improve relations with the West and to secure the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Libya. Asked in the interview if the payment did not mean Libya had accepted guilt for the bombing, Ghanem replied: "I agree with that, and this is why I say we bought peace." Um, Shokri, remember how defenseless you guys felt last month? "After the sanctions and after the problems we have (been) facing because of the sanctions, the loss of money, we thought that it was easier for us to buy peace and this is why we agreed to compensation," the prime minister said in the interview, which was recorded in Libya. So itâs just blood money? Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said: "Libya made it very clear in their letter to the U.N. that it âaccepts responsibility for the actions of its officials on that very matter. ... We would expect Libya to make clear that that remains their position." The âcourse not, Jesse, just from the Prime Minister. Whoâs he, anyway, right? Idjit. Susan Cohen, of Cape May, N.J., whose daughter, Thea, 20, was killed in the bombing, said "The Libyan prime ministerâs statement is humiliating to the families because what he says is (that) this money is just a disgusting payoff and that they did not do it. ... This is an example for the Bush administration of what they are going to have if the administration continues the rapprochement with Libya. This is the same regime that blew up Pan Am 103, and they are totally untrustworthy." Say, Susan, could you Posted by: Steve White 2004-02-25 |
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