(BREAKING NEWS)Libya's Fatal Blow to Axis of Evil (Islamic Regime in Iran IMPLICATED)

Sunday Herald ^ | Dec 21, 2003 | David Pratt and Trevor Royle

[faludeh_shirazi]

.INVESTIGATION.

Gaddafi deal signals end to secret nuclear weapon programme with Iran and North Korea..

By David Pratt, Foreign Editor, and Trevor Royle, Diplomatic Editor

Free Iran at ActivistChat.com!

THE end of the threat posed to world peace and secure oil supplies by the “axis of evil” is emerging this weekend as the real prize that Tony Blair and George Bush have secured for Christmas.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi took the decision to renounce all weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on Friday night, but while at first it was thought this only had implications for Libya it is now clear that his decision has scuppered a secret partnership between Libya, Iran and North Korea formed with the intention of developing an independent nuclear weapon.

New documents revealed yesterday show that the three were working on the nuclear weapons programme at a top-secret underground site near the Kufra Oasis of the Sahara in southeastern Libya. The team was made up of North Korean scientists, engineers and technicians, as well as some Iranian and Libyan nuclear scientists.

North Korea and Iran, originally dubbed by Bush as the axis of evil along with Iraq, avoided detection by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) inspectors by each member farming out vital sections of its projects to its fellow members.

Iran, which is now in the final stages of uranium enrichment for its program, is badly hit, having counted on fitting into place key parts of its WMD project made in Libya. North Korea may also be forced to scale back the production of nuclear devices as well as counting the loss of a lucrative source of income for its Scuds and nuclear technology.

Yesterday, Tripoli acted swiftly to prove its commitment to the world at large when the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, met a senior Libyan official in Vienna to discuss eliminating the programme.

Almost 15 years to the day since Gaddafi’s agents brought down a PanAm jet over Lockerbie and eight months after US and British troops toppled Saddam Hussein, the Libyan leader has now opened the prospect of an end to sanctions and a return of US oil firms.

The news has delighted three American oil companies, Marathon, Amerada Hess, and ConocoPhillips whose Libyan leases were about to expire. They all pulled out of Libya in 1986 after the US imposed strict sanctions against the regime.

Tripoli’s announcement on Friday was the culmination of secret talks with Britain and the US launched around the time of the Iraq invasion. The initial approach to discuss how to bring Libya in from the cold was made by Libya’s chief of intelligence, Musa Qusa, who contacted the British government in March, amid preparations for war on Iraq.

“You could say that these discussions followed on from the Lockerbie contacts,” a spokesman for Blair said yesterday. It was in March that the deal was done by Libya to settle with the families of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103.

Months of secret diplomatic activity followed which led to the clandestine three-week visit to at least 10 sites in Libya. British and US weapons experts who inspected laboratories and military factories in October and early December established that Libyan scientists were “developing a nuclear fuel cycle intended to support nuclear weapons development.” The British team also saw “significant quantities of chemical agent” and “bombs designed to be filled with chemical agent.”

Following the visit, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Blair’s national security adviser, and Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s national security adviser, held intense negotiations with Libyan officials in the days leading up to Friday’s declaration.

Blair had his first-ever telephone conversation with Gaddafi on Thursday, in which they discussed the declaration.

Libya finally transmitted the statement to British officials at about 9pm and, after trans lation and an “assessment” on both sides of the Atlantic, it was released to the press at about 10.15pm.

The breakthrough capped a week of positive developments for London and Washington that began with the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and followed with a pledge from Iran to submit to unfettered inspections of its nuclear industry.

Bush implied in his remarks at the White House on Friday that there would now be reciprocity. “As the Libyan government takes these essential steps and demonstrates its seriousness, its good faith will be returned. Libya can regain a secure and respected place among the nations, and over time, achieve far better relations with the United States.”

Gaddafi’s move also sounds a warning for Israel. If Washington manages to dispose of Iran’s nuclear program and Syria’s unconventional weaponry, attention will focus on Israel as the only remaining Middle Eastern nuclear power.

[Enterprise]

My belief is that if Libya had WMDs and refused to destroy them, that it too would be invaded in time. But what is key, is the timing. I don't believe that Libya was "next" on the list. I believe too, that Khadaffy Duck knows that President Bush isn't bluffing.

[freekitty]

Gaddafi wants out while he still has his ass.

[Sender]

They need defensive locations that are pinchpoints for attack but are also neutron micro-nukes....something like that. Something that looks like a desk or a xerox machine but is actually a package nuke.

Interesting...sounds like a good idea.

[Walkingfeather]

bttt

[cars for sale]

off your wider picture it just hit me (actually it was the misses) and BOOM listen up ya'll.................
the biggest point here is the TIME LINE
get this....no plan right ? no exit strategy right ?
well back engineer the time line....took 8 months
to get Saddam , less for the kids and dems screaming
that IRAN and N Korea were the real threat...Look at that time line again...Kodaffi was. We good Americans and British busted, talked and made rules with Libya NINE MONTHS ago. As a poster in the strat of this thread said, what a great chess move...take out Libya thus taking out (by pieces parts) Iran and N Korea.
soooooo...before we bomb Iraq....Libya is neutered and therefore no pieces parts for Iran and N Korea and Kadaffi
knew it and thug by thug watched em die, get captured
knowing he was next, maybe.......

and Dubya had no plan my rosy read American arse.

[adam_az]

original article:

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=229

"Pyongyang has its hand in nuclear programs and missile technology transfers with several Middle Eastern countries, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Step by step, its engineers and technology have been quietly investing in the Libyan-Egyptian al Kufra nuclear center (where Iraqi nuclear scientists are also employed); its long-range missile components are assembled in Egyptian factories near Alexandria, Syria’s medium-range missile assembly plant and chemical and biological weapons laboratories near Hama in the north use North Korean components and technology and, as we reported last month, North Korea transferred nuclear manufacturing facilities, including uranium enrichment equipment, to secret Iranian sites at Natanz and Arak. These are all multibillion projects. "

[Bon mots]

Ghadafi still must die.

[Enterprise]

I give President Bush for a lot of strategic planning. I don't doubt for a second that other things are going to happen, like Libya, that have already been planned.

[adam_az]

And Sharon is no fanatic?

What makes him a "fanatic?" What is he fanatical about? What do you mean exactly by "fanatic?"

[bert]

.....a secret partnership between Libya, Iran and North Korea.....

Wonder what language the collaborated in?

[bert]

.....This is going to be the best Christmas......

Think December 1944, think Battle of the Bulge.

Think Counter Attack!

[DB]

Osama was way too prideful not to video himself to encourage his supporters and stick it in our eye. Saddam did and that's why we thought he was still around. There hasn’t been any factual evidence Osama is still alive for a long time now. He may be alive and hiding in Iran but I doubt it very much at this point.

[LonePalm]

I prefer this kind of "Big Stick."


We could have our own Iowa caucus.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[des]

same for france, germany, were afraid he would rat on them.

[des]

rezi, come home

[Minutemen]

Bump

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

You all realize don't you, that if the war on terror and WMD is won before the 2004 election, that people will feel free to elect Howard Dean and get back to fun and games just like they did with Clinton after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War?