Bush set to visit Libya in first half of 2004 (World Tribune)

WORLD TRIBUNE.COM ^ | Tuesday, December 30, 2003 | Not Provided

[.cnI redruM]

LONDON – Libya is preparing for defense cooperation talks with the United States, leading to a visit by President Bush early next year.

Libyan officials said the United States has agreed to review Tripoli's defense requirements in wake of an agreement by Col. Moammar Khaddafy to eliminate his nation's medium-range missile and weapons of mass destruction arsenal. The officials said the two countries plan to begin formal talks on Libya's defense and security requirements over the next few months.

The officials said Britain and the United States will lift sanctions from Libya by April 2004. They said this would pave the way for a visit by U.S. President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Tripoli during the first half of next year.

"The United States has promised to protect us from any attack," Khaddafy's son, Seif Al Islam, said in an interview with the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily on Dec. 24.

Al Islam, who is being groomed to succeed his father as Libya's ruler, said Tripoli and Washington have held defense cooperation talks, including the prospect of joint exercises, Middle East Newsline reported. But he denied immediate plans to renew such efforts. In the interview, Al Islam said Libya will end the development program of a medium-range missile that can fly 800 kilometers. He said that in 1986 Tripoli canceled a plan to attack a U.S. military base in an island off Greece. The plan was to retaliate for a U.S. air strike earlier that year that he said killed more than 200 Libyans.

U.S. industry sources said Libya has discussed a range of projects with at least one American defense contractor. The sources said Tripoli has expressed interest in upgrading and replacing many of the aging U.S. military platforms procured in the 1970s. They include aircraft, helicopters and artillery.

Libyan officials, in an assertion echoed by Al Islam, said the Bush administration planned to send a U.S. military team to Tripoli to review Libya's defense needs. Al Islam said such a visit would take place soon.

"There will be a joint military and security cooperation agreement with the United States," Al Islam said.

[.cnI redruM]

This is a major defection from the ranks of terrorist nations.

[My Favorite Headache]

Incredible...Dangerous...I still don't trust Libya at all.

[Argus]

Bush and Blair will then visit Syria, Iran and North Korea in 2005.

[JohnnyZ]

I was going to post, but my brain is still doing somersaults trying to take in this article.

[cake_crumb]

That's worrying. I hope Qadaffi isn't preparing to sacrifice a goat.

[westnews]

Well let's put it in perspective.

1. Libya is truly repentant (however I feel it's more of a Cover your A** move) and we have another front available for the continuing war on Terrorism.

or

2. Libya is pulling our chain and will become a very, very large hole in the ground.

Nuff Said.

[TheExploited]

Holy Smokes Bullwinkle....the next thing you know Jacques Chirac will be sleeping at the White House!

[zarf]

Some serious international head games going on here.

[Sir Gawain]

Incredible...Dangerous...I still don't trust Libya at all.

Lybia isn't a fundamentalist Muslim nation. They can be bought off with perks, which is what we apparently just did.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I thought the bulter was usually English.

[mystery-ak]

OMG...this has got to be the Secret Service's worst nightmare...let Q come to the US.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

You gotta be fecesing me. I wouldn't trust Libya and Khadafy as far as I can throw them.

A slap in the face to the 1988 Pan-Am flight victims...

[jpl]

Bush meant it when he said you're either with us or with the terrorists, and Ghadafi decided he doesn't want to spend eight months in a spider hole.

[zarf]

I thought the bulter was usually English.

This sentence belongs in the FR typo Hall of Fame

[zarf]

This is alot bigger than one act of terroism.

[azhenfud]

"From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli...."

[GOPyouth]

This turn of events in Libya is quite amazing. I just hope that he is really giving up terrorism. I remember as a kid growing up in the 80's and listening to President Reagan saying, "You can run, but you can't hide." The bad guys then were the Soviets, Khaddafy, and the Ayatollah in Iran.

It's amazing how the times change.

[xrp]

...WORLD TRIBUNE.COM isn't exactly the most reliable news source

[MEG33]

My take on this article is "I'll wait and see".Let's see it somewhere else in a more mainstream paper.