| TheTip.org |
| Polls | Members | Refer | Forums | Write for TheTip! | Home | Impeach Bush |
Impeach George Bush
You know the one about Libya
Okay, what strange world are we living in? Icke, reptilian outer-spacers, American teaming up with the Libyans to fight terrorism? This is some serious illumnatti-stuff (if they're real, of course).
Source: AP, 2006-05-15
Candidate: Republican Party
This is the kind of thing that makes you wonder if this has ever happened before?
Has the US ever joined forces with a putative mad-man dictator (Khadafi) to fight some percieved but not yet active potential threat (Iran)?
Oh wait, yes. It was Saddam Hussein. I mean, didn't we learn our lesson last time. Next, just watch, we'll be selling him chemical and biological agents and lending him 'advisors' to deploy them.
Holy guacamole, batman, that's some serious green sh*t right there.
The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Libya and remove it from a list of terrorism sponsors, the Bush administration said Monday, rewarding Moammar Gadhafi's government for renouncing weapons of mass destruction and cooperating in the hunt for terrorists.
"Today's announcements are tangible results that flow from the historic decisions taken by Libya's leadership" to renounce terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in announcing moves long sought by Libya.
While announcing expanding ties to one oil exporter, the United States clamped down on another. The State Department announced later that it is banning arms sales to Venezuela because of what it says is a lack of support by President Hugo Chavez's government for counterterrorism.
The announcements came as the West grasps for carrots or sticks to counter what it claims is a growing risk of nuclear proliferation in Iran. Although the United States is not now dangling the promise of normal diplomatic relations with Iran, it pointed to Libya's decision as an international example.
"The United States hopes that states with even more threatening WMD and missile programs will see Libya's experience as a model to emulate," a State Department fact sheet on the Libya deal said.
By taking Libya off the terrorism sponsorship list, the Bush administration clears the way for broader economic ties with the oil-producing nation during a period of record-high gasoline prices in the United States.
Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said a search for oil was not behind the decision, and noted that U.S. companies have been able to operate in Libya since some sanctions were lifted in 2004.
"This decision is undertaken because they've addressed our national security concerns," Welch said.
The United States withdrew its last ambassador to Libya in 1972. Remaining U.S. employees pulled out and the Tripoli embassy was shut down after a mob attacked and set fire to it in December 1979.
The relationship hit its nadir following the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libya was held responsible for the bombing, which killed 270 people, most of them American.
Libya was also implicated in the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub frequented by U.S. soldiers, killing two Americans, and the bombing of a French airliner in 1989 that killed 170.
Gadhafi surprised the world in late 2003 when he swore off terrorism and announced plans to dismantle his country's weapons of mass destruction programs. Libya was eager to end the international isolation and economic hardships from United Nations and U.S. sanctions in the Pan Am case, and Gadhafi concluded the weapons programs were best used as a bargaining chip.
The United States will upgrade its diplomatic office in Tripoli to a full embassy, following a 15-day waiting period and discussions with Congress, the State Department said. Libya would be removed from the list of countries the United States considers to be state sponsors of terrorism following a 45-day public comment period.
Libya will also be omitted from a list released later this week of nations that fail to cooperate with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, Rice said.
The State Department praised Libya's cooperation in getting rid of its weapons, and in helping the United States in the search for al-Qaida and other terror suspects in the Middle East and North Africa.
"This was not a decision that we arrived at without carefully monitoring and assessing Libya's behavior," Welch told reporters.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Shalgham told The Associated Press the move was not a surprise. The United States had said it planned to restore full diplomatic relations by the end of last year, but the announcement was held up by a last round of checks of Libya's compliance, officials said.
"In politics there is no such thing as a reward but there are interests," Shalgham said when asked if the restoration of ties was an incentive to Libya to further cooperate with the United States.
Families of the Pan Am victims have sometimes disagreed with U.S. policy on Libya, and with one another. With a few exceptions, victims' families accepted terms of a financial settlement reached with Libya after it took responsibility for the Pan Am bombing in 2003. Families have received more than $1 billion.
Libya had agreed to pay an additional $2 million per family upon its removal from the terrorism list, but it is not clear whether Tripoli will be bound to that pledge because it was hinged to a deadline that the United States missed.
"We have mixed emotions because there has been real progress, but as of today Libya has not fully lived up to its commitments to the United States and the victims of terrorism," a statement on behalf of most families of Pan Am 103 victims said Monday.
Libya remains a largely autocratic state with limited personal and press freedoms.
"Libyan citizens are still not able to influence politics or the political process in any meaningful way, and the state demands total conformity," a Freedom House report said last year.
In Venezuela, there has been a nearly total lack of cooperation with anti-terrorism for the last year, the State Department said.
As a result, U.S. sales and licensing for the export of defense articles and services to Venezuela, including the transfer of defense items, will be banned.
Venezuela is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, far ahead of Libya at No. 21, but relations between Chavez and the Bush administration have sharply deteriorated. Chavez has called Bush a "terrorist" and denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Just last month, the State Department used its annual report on international terrorism to accuse Chavez of having an "ideological affinity" with two leftist guerrilla groups operating in neighboring Colombia, the FARC and the National Liberation Army. The United States considers both to be terrorist organizations.
___
Add a comment to this Message in our Forums.
While you're at it, check out our forums too!
User Originated Comments:
From: new yorker
2006-05-23 00:00:00
these oil tycoons are all full of themselves. they
have their grudges, partnerships, and then
fall-outs. what gives them the right to politicize
their business ventures. iraq is a friend
yesterday, enemy today. just the opposite with
venezuela. and now libya. there is no major
terrorist organization, and definitely no one man
behind it all. it's all about fixing energy prices
in a newly emerging global market, and who's going
to be king of mountain when it's all said and
done. so they figure if they have to drop bombs
along the way to scare people and keep them
distacted, i believe it. hell, they drafted this
country's energy policy in secret behing close
doors with the help of ken lay.
From: Linda
2006-05-16 00:00:00
i love this. daffy kadaffy is rehabilitated? um,
no. his oil is in demand. if bush can us libyan
oil to bring down the prices at the pumps to
rehabilitate his polls, which are lower than
daffy's at this point, he will.
voila!!
libya is a good guy!
Related News
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
owned by TheTIP.
[ Skip Next | Next | Random Site | List Sites |Previous ]
NEWS | ACTION | RESULTS | POLLS | MEMBERS | SEARCH