(Washington Post) Tom Lantos - In December 1988, agents of the Libyan government took 270 lives with the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Now Libya's ruler, Moammar Gaddafi, says his country is ready to reform - no more terrorism, no more weapons of mass destruction. Should we believe him? I just returned from Libya, where I met at length with Gaddafi and senior members of his government. American non-proliferation experts on the ground assisting the Libyans with removing and destroying their WMD capacity are impressed with the progress that has been achieved in just a few weeks. Information provided by Libya will help uncover international arms smuggling networks that aided Libya and many other rogue nations. Given the outrageous track record of the Libyan regime for the past 3 1/2 decades, we must be skeptical and relentless in verifying. Removal of Libya from the terrorist list, elimination of U.S. sanctions, and full normalization of relations should be considered only after Libya has verifiably completed the dismantling of its WMD program and agreed to long-term monitoring procedures. Rep. Lantos (D-Calif.) is the ranking member of his party on the House International Relations Committee.
2004-02-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive