In U.S.-Libya Nuclear Deal, a Qaddafi Threat Faded Away

NY Times ^ | March 1, 2011 | David E. Sanger

[americanophile]

...Today, with father and son preparing for a siege of Tripoli, the success of a joint American-British effort to eliminate Libya’s capability to make nuclear and chemical weapons has never, in retrospect, looked more important.

Senior administration officials and Pentagon planners, as they discuss sanctions and a possible no-fly zone to neutralize the Libyan air force, say that the 2003 deal removed Colonel Qaddafi’s biggest trump card: the threat of using a nuclear weapon, or even just selling nuclear material or technology, if he believed it was the only way to save his 42-year rule. While Colonel Qaddafi retains a stockpile of mustard gas, it is not clear he has any effective way to deploy it.

“Imagine the possible nightmare if we had failed to remove the Libyan nuclear weapons program and their longer range missile force,” said Robert Joseph, who played a central role in organizing the effort in 2003, in the months just after the invasion of Iraq... But Colonel Qadaffi appeared to sense that loss of leverage over the last two years. The cables indicate a last-minute effort to hold on to the remnants of the program, less to assure his regime’s survival than to have some bargaining chips to get the weapons and aid that Colonel. Qaddafi and his son insisted they were promised.

The cache of nuclear technology that Libya turned over to the United States, Britain and international nuclear inspectors in early 2004 was large — far larger than American intelligence experts had expected. There were more than 4,000 centrifuges for producing enriched uranium. There were blueprints for how to build a nuclear bomb — missing some critical components but good enough to get the work started.

[americanophile]

Thank you President Bush!

[Incorrigible]

Bush’s fault!

[wbarmy]

The other part of the story is that when Obama was elected, Qaddafi stopped cooperating. Obviously Qaddafi understood the difference between the two leadership “styles” of Bush and Obama.

[americanophile]

Of course, but the Slimes had to start the story with a nod to Obama.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks americanophile.

...the 2003 deal removed Colonel Qaddafi's biggest trump card: the threat of using a nuclear weapon, or even just selling nuclear material or technology, if he believed it was the only way to save his 42-year rule. While Colonel Qaddafi retains a stockpile of mustard gas, it is not clear he has any effective way to deploy it.

OTOH, during the Clinton administration, North Korea worked up a phony deal to keep it from further developing nukes, while doing so covertly, and has been stonewalling ever since it achieved success. Carter's masterpiece, the mullahcracy in Iran, stonewalled the future despot of Egypt, El Baradei, who was conducting a pro-jihadist hate campaign against Israel, instead of carrying out the declared mission of the IAEA.

[linn37]

Interesting.