What was that original thing with the German dance hall which provoked Reagan to the semi-major air raid about? Was that just some sort of a youthful indiscretion or something??
I do not know all details but it was something like this. Relations of US and Libya were very tense in the 1980s.
In 1986 US decided to hold a naval exercise in Libyan territorial waters and clashed with Libyan Navy (Gulf of Sidra incident). 35 Libyan seamen were killed.
After the incident, Daffy asked for all Arabs to attack American interests everywhere.
Soon afterward, a bomb was placed in Berlin discotheque and 80 people were killed.
The perps were one Libyan and Palestinians from Abu Nidal network.
After the fall of Berlin wall and when Stasi files got opened, perps were arrested and put on trial.
BBC reported that "Prosecution was unable to prove that Colonel Gaddafi was behind the attack - a failure which the court blamed on the "limited willingness" of the German and US governments to share intelligence. "
The terrorist underground of Europe was the place where strange connections and alliances were being built, and much of what was really going on was different from what was perceived, hence reluctance of US and Germany to share data. Google GLADIO NATO for more on the background of terrorism in Europe. Really scary stuff.