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To: ncdave4life

THIS LINKED ARTICLE IS A DIRECT REBUTTAL TO THE INYCK ARTICLE and has the sourced quote (It was first published in the Daily Telegraph):

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.20016/pub_detail.asp

"Unfortunately for members of the "soft power" school of thought, it hardly seems a coincidence that Gaddafi's intelligence chief, Moussa Kussa, opened the dialogue on WMDs in March 2003, immediately before the invasion of Iraq. Gaddafi's own testimony at the time reveals the extent to which America's sudden willingness to assert its power in the Middle East weighed heavily on him. "When Bush is finished with Iraq, we'll have a clear idea of where he's going," he told the French daily Le Figaro on the eve of the war. "It won't take long to find out if Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Libya will be targets as well."8 Likewise, in September 2003, a spokesman for Silvio Berlusconi told the Daily Telegraph that Gaddafi had confided to the Italian prime minister: "I will do whatever the Americans want, because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid."[9]

"Soft power" advocates also overlook the fact that negotiations with Gaddafi had been dragging on for years--a steady process of wooing and cajoling the dictator with offers of international acceptance and lucrative oil contracts, but with no conceivable end in sight. What ultimately shuttered the Libyans' secret WMD programs were not these blandishments but a more tangible reality: namely, they got caught.

In August 2003, the U.S. and British intelligence communities scored a remarkable coup, blowing open the vast nuclear black market operated by Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. As revealed this past month, the CIA infiltrated a factory in Malaysia that was manufacturing centrifuges for uranium enrichment, which were then shipped to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. There, they were repackaged as "used machinery" and loaded onto the BBC China, a German ship bound for Tripoli. As the BBC China passed through the Suez Canal, Washington ordered the vessel seized, thus securing ironclad proof of Libya's clandestine nuclear program.

According to U.S. officials, the shipments of machine parts suggest that the Libyans had hoped to acquire at least ten thousand centrifuges, which could have produced enough uranium for ten nuclear bombs a year. "Their goal was far-reaching," said a top European nuclear expert. "They had ordered this very large amount."[10]

Despite Gaddafi's years of high-flying oratory about "engagement" with the West and his strenuous denials about unconventional weapons--a mere nine months before the interdiction of the centrifuges, he insisted that nuclear weapons "are no use to us, and we don't have enough money to manufacture weapons of mass destruction"--it was only after the seizure of the BBC China that the behavior of his regime actually changed.[11] "The seizure showed them how much we know about the program," said one U.S. official. "Even though the Libyans said, 'You can come and look,' months went by and they didn't grant access. When the interdiction took place, they said, 'You can come in.'" [12]

The seizure of the centrifuges and the unraveling of Khan's nuclear network effectively left Gaddafi with little room to maneuver. In addition, Gaddafi has become "increasingly isolated at home," as "corruption, mismanagement, and unemployment have eroded support for the regime."[13]


35 posted on 08/07/2004 10:47:02 PM PDT by WOSG (George W Bush - Right for our Times!)
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To: WOSG

Thank you. That explains why we heard nothing more of this story. It's just another failed ploy on the part of a failed administration to exculpate themselves from failed policies. There'll be more.


39 posted on 08/07/2004 11:04:10 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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