(National Post-Canada) Amir Taheri - This is not the first time Ghadafi has promised to change course and "come in from the cold." In 1982 he promised French president Francois Mitterrand that Libya would stop funding the IRA and cut links with terror organizations attacking U.S. military targets in West Germany. By 1984, the British had established that Libya had, in fact, doubled its support for the IRA, and Libyan-backed groups stepped up their attacks, killing and wounding a number of U.S. troops in West Germany. In 1986 Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak informed the Americans that Ghadafi had pledged his "Arab honor" that he would stop all anti-American terrorist activities. Two years later came the destruction of the Pan-Am jetliner. Surely, British and American politicians cannot be so naive as to believe that a man like Ghadafi, with his capricious and sudden policy changes, can ever pursue a rational policy.
2003-12-23 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive