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Posted on 04/09/2004 6:08:36 AM PDT by dead
Eager to tout improved relations with Libya for abandoning its weapons programs, the White House omitted the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing from the list of terrorist attacks cited today by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, angering victims' families.
After the backlash, the White House scrambled to minimise the damage, issuing a letter of apology by Rice to the Lockerbie families, some of whom said they had been sickened by the administration's stance.
"We did not include attacks that were the work of a government, such as the Libyan government's bombing of Pan Am 103. This was a mistake, for which I want to apologise to you and all the families who lost relatives on that terrible day," Rice said in the letter, provided to Reuters.
"As you know from your painful personal experience, this was the most deadly terrorist action prior to al-Qaeda's attack of September 11, 2001," she said.
Dan Cohen of New Jersey, whose 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, died in the bombing, said Rice's omission - in testimony before the commission investigating the September 11 attacks - made him feel "sick".
"It's bad enough when you lose a child and then to have this whole thing swept away," he said.
Victims' families and other sources said the White House had omitted Lockerbie from Rice's speech in order not to upset US-Libyan relations and detract from what the administration sees as its biggest post-Iraq war foreign policy success.
The White House insists that the invasion of Iraq played an important part in Libya's decision to disarm and has been steadily increasing ties with its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, once condemned by former US President Ronald Reagan as the "mad dog of the Middle East."
Tripoli announced in December it would abandon efforts to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in a bid to further mend ties with the West after agreeing to pay damages for the 1988 airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
A Libyan secret agent was jailed in January 2001 for life for the bombing, which killed 270 people.
Rice, in her testimony, chronicled major terrorist attacks before September 11, 2001.
"The terrorist threat to our nation did not emerge on September 11, 2001... The attack on the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983; the hijacking of the Achille Lauro in 1985; the rise of al-Qaeda and the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993; the attacks on American installations in Saudi Arabia in 1995 and 1996; the East Africa embassy bombings of 1998; the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 -- these and other atrocities were part of a sustained, systematic campaign to spread devastation and chaos and to murder innocent Americans," Rice said.
Rice's only direct mention of Libya came in the form of praise.
"Because we acted in Iraq, Saddam Hussein will never again use weapons of mass destruction against his people or his neighbours. And we have convinced Libya to give up all its WMD-related programs and materials," she said.
The Bush administration has started easing some of the economic sanctions against Libya. The OPEC member produces about 1.4 million barrels of oil daily and US oil firms are eager to invest there.
Reuters
Rice: she was right to apologize, good politics, and it seems justified.
I understand why she left it off (it was Libya, no Al Qaeda) but an apology don’t cost nothing. I can understand why the families would be a little pissed off. (“Sickened” is a bit much.)
The backlash is instantaneous scripted, in fact!
All the sickos are not overtly blatant. Some revel in their professional "victim" status forever. I am sickened by those who would exploit a child's death to that extent. Losers, sad sacks, hungry for attention no matter how, since they have otherwise to face an empty and pedestrian life.
Look at me! Look at me!
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