Posted on 08/30/2007 2:07:46 PM PDT by vadum
Libya is an authoritarian state with an abysmal human rights record, yet Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has embraced the Global War on Terror and is promoting his son’s charitable foundation to increase his influence and refurbish his reputation abroad......
Last week the State Department announced that Condoleezza Rice will visit Libya –probably in late October— becoming the first U.S. secretary of state to visit since 1953. Rice will meet with Gaddafi, the erratic Libyan dictator whom President Reagan called “the mad dog of the Middle East.” It is expected that Rice will discuss ways to fight terrorism and expand U.S. trade and investment with a country the U.S. once treated as an enemy.
In recent years Libya has been refurbishing its reputation. It agreed to pay restitution to the families of the victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland. After Saddam Hussein fell in 2004, Libya announced that it would surrender its nuclear materials and renounce its weapons of mass destruction program......
This is Gaddafi's extreme image makeover. The longtime international pariah has emerged as a defender of innocent Bulgarian nurses and a vital U.S. ally in the Global War on Terror. He hands out humanitarian prizes and is launching charitable initiatives to help poor people around the world. This use of public diplomacy (a.k.a. “soft power”) is one aspect of Gaddafi’s determined public relations effort to improve his personal image and his country’s international standing.
Charity and philanthropy play an important role in this quest for redemption. Nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, enjoy high status around the world because they claim to be non-partisan and independent of governments; often they hold themselves out as the true representatives of civil society. Gaddafi well understands how to use them to promote Libya’s interests. .....
(Excerpt) Read more at capitalresearch.org ...
Boy, this Hillary campaign finance stuff is really getting big. Oh, wait... wrong one this time.
If I were Condi, I’d take along an aerial targeting photos of Operation El Dorado Canyon, signed “Bombs away - Ronnie”. Just in case.
Have we ever really gotten the full story of Libya’s nuke program? I know they turned some materials over to us and stuff was flown to Oak Ridge, but did we ever really get a full and credible accounting of everything? How do we know they didn’t just give up some obsolete crap while keep the best part of the program hidden? Did we ever really find out whether Iraq was outsourcing a nuke program to Libya and/or whether uranium sources in Africa (Niger???) went to Libya?
Anyone know the real status? thx
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