By Patrice Claude, Le Monde
Libya is not âfor nothingâ in the revelation of the great international atomic âblack marketâ directed from Islamabad by the âfatherâ of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Even before Colonel Muammar Khadafi decided to open up his arsenal to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors in December 2003, âthe Americans knew everythingâ Seïf Al-Islam Khadafi, son and presumed heir of the Libyan leader, asserts. âOur contribution to their knowledge of the subject was null. They had infiltrated the networks long ago,â he adds.
| Is anybody but me having doubts that we don't know where the WMDs are? If we really, truly, don't know what's up with them, the CIA's Iraq section needs new management — brought in from the South Asia section or the WMD section. |
It was in October 2003 that the fourth delivery to Libya of metal parts made in Malaysia and intended for the assembly of a modern centrifuge — indispensable to the production of Isotope 235, the essential component of an efficient nuclear bomb — was stopped in Italian waters by American security services. Some think that this boarding played a role in the spectacular aggiornamento taking place between Washington and Tripoli. Others- as President George Bush clearly allowed it to be understood January 20- prefer to believe that itâs the American invasion of Iraq that decided Colonel Khadafi to conclude his efforts with regard to weapons of mass destruction. âNine months of intensive negotiations including the United States and Great Britain have succeeded- in Libya- where twelve years of diplomacy with Iraq failed,â the President asserted. âFor diplomacy to work, words must be credible and no one may any longer doubt Americaâs word,â he added. In fact, the last negotiation session between Tripoli, London and Washington began in March 2003, several days before the American offensive in Iraq, and it was on December 19, a week after Saddam Husseinâs capture, that the Libyan âGuideâ announced to the world that he was giving up all secret weapons programs.
| Makes sense to me. We saw Muammar doing the turnaround here. He may have even wanted to before 9-11, but after that date he put them into high gear. |
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