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Bush Urges Other Nations to Follow Libya

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 20, 2003
Filed at 1:41 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After winning concessions from Libya, President Bush urged other nations to recognize that the pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons brings not influence or prestige, but ``isolation and otherwise unwelcome consequences.''

Bush's remarks alluded to the Iraq war that toppled Saddam Hussein over his alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction and were apparently aimed at North Korea and Iran, still suspected of seeking and developing banned weapons.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Bush, in back-to-back appearances late Friday in Britain and at the White House, announced that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had agreed after nine months of secret talks to halt his nation's drive for such weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them.

The series of negotiations and onsite inspections by U.S. and British experts were initiated by the long-reviled Gadhafi in March, shortly after he agreed to a settlement in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The result, Bush and Blair said, was that Libya agreed to disclose all its weapons of mass destruction and related programs and to open the North African country to international weapons inspectors to oversee their elimination.

Libya's most significant acknowledgment was that it had a program intended to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons, a senior Bush administration official said.

Libya's nuclear effort was more advanced than previously thought, said the official, who briefed reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity. U.S. and British experts inspected components of a centrifuge program to enrich the uranium, but did not see a fully operational system, the official said.

Teams of American and British experts went to Libya in October and December, the official said. The Libyan news agency Jana Tripoli quoted Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam as saying Libyan experts had shown their U.S. and British counterparts ``the substances, equipment and programs that could lead to production of internationally banned weapons.''

The experts visited 10 sites related to Libya's nuclear program, the official said.

The American and British team also was shown a significant amount of mustard agent, a World War I-era chemical weapon. Libya made the material more than a decade ago, and had bombs that could be filled with the substance for use in combat, the U.S. official said.

Libya also acknowledged having chemicals that could be used to make nerve agent. The official said there was little evidence of a biological warfare program.

Libyan officials further acknowledged contacts with North Korea, a supplier of long-range ballistic missiles, and provided the U.S.-British team access to missile research and development facilities.

However, the official said several ``remaining uncertainties'' about Libya's programs exist even after all the disclosures.

Bush said the United States and Britain, wary of Libyan promises, would watch closely to make sure Gadhafi keeps his word. And he said Libya's promises on weapons aren't enough; it must ``fully engage in the war against terror'' as well.

If Libya ``takes these essential steps and demonstrates its seriousness,'' Bush held out the promise of helping it build ``a more free and prosperous country.'' Neither he nor aides provided specifics.

The U.N. Security Council ended sanctions against Libya on Sept. 12 after Gadhafi's government took responsibility for the Pan Am bombing and agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the victims' families.

But the United States has kept its own 17-year embargo in place and has kept Libya on the list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

``As we have found with other nations, old hostilities do not need to go on forever,'' Bush said. ``Libya can regain a secure and respected place among the nations and, over time, achieve far better relations with the United States.''

In a statement carried by the Libyan news agency, Gadhafi called his move a ``wise decision and a brave step that merit support from the Libyan people.''

Senior U.S. officials said the Pan Am 103 families were briefed before Bush's announcement. But Susan Cohen of Cape May Courthouse, N.J., whose daughter was among the 270 people killed in the bombing said Gadhafi cannot be counted on to keep his promise.

``How can we trust somebody who has blown up a plane?'' she said.

It was the second foreign policy victory for Bush in a week, after last weekend's capture of Saddam. He said his action against the Iraqi leader, as well as U.S. efforts to rein in weapons pursuits by North Korea and Iran, ``have sent an unmistakable message to regimes that seek or possess weapons of mass destruction'' and played a role in Gadhafi's decision.

The president sought to nudge other regimes with both the threat of ``unwelcome consequences,'' if weapons pursuits are not abandoned, and the offer -- if they are -- of ``an open path to better relations with the United States and other free nations.''

``I hope that other leaders will find an example in Libya's announcement today,'' Bush said. ``When leaders make the wise and responsible choice ... they serve the interest of their own people and they add to the security of all nations.''

The move represents a shift for a nation long regarded as an outlaw.

While Libya is credited with moderating its behavior in recent years, Gadhafi has been depicted as an erratic, untrustworthy ruler. In 1986, President Reagan sent American warplanes to bomb the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in retaliation for the bombing of a Berlin disco where a U.S. serviceman was killed.

The bombs struck Gadhafi's barracks and killed his young, adopted daughter and wounded two of his sons. Gadhafi, sleeping in a tent outside the compound, escaped injury.

Associated Press writers Beth Gardiner in London and John J. Lumpkin in Washington contributed to this report.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Libya-Weapons.html

Them Muslims in Iran will use the US to spring from their self-created tyranny of their Mullas and Muftis and Ayatollas...

so the can better hate all he INFIDELS later!

Iran, Saudi worst religious freedom violators in Mideast

2003-12-18
Middle East Online
By Matthew Lee - WASHINGTON

US reports reveals Iranian, Saudi governments implement policies designed to intimidate certain groups.

Egypt was named a lesser offending nation.

The United States on Thursday assailed the Islamic states of Iran and Saudi Arabia as the worst offenders of religious freedom rights in the Middle East.

The two countries - along with pre-war Iraq - were listed in the State Department's annual report on international religious freedom as nations in which there is "state hostility toward minority or non-approved religions."

Egypt was named a lesser offending nation where there is either state neglect religious persecution or discrimination toward certain groups.

Israel and Turkey, which had been in Egypt's class last year, graduated up a level to the group of nations in which there is "discriminatory legislation or policies disadvantaging certain religions, according to the report.

The designations do not carry sanctions, but Iran is already subject to myriad US restrictions and continues to be listed as "country of particular concern" in the area of religious freedom.

Despite calls from religious freedom and human rights watchdogs, Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Middle East, is not designated a "country of particular concern" although Thursday's report equates conditions there with those in Iran.

"These governments implement policies designed to intimidate certain groups, cause their adherents to convert to another faith or cause their members to flee," the report said.

In Iran, "members of the country's religious minorities ... suffered varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, including intimidation, harassment and imprisonment," the report said, referring to Baha'is, Jews, Christians, Sunni and Sufi Muslims.

That discrimination - most pointedly directed at Baha'is and Jews - comes mainly in the areas of employment, education, and housing, it said.

As it has in its previous four editions, the 2003 report bluntly identifies Saudi Arabia as a country totally void of religious freedom.

"Freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia," it said, noting Riyadh's refusal to recognize any religion other than the Sunni branch of Islam and its bar on any public demonstration of a non-Muslim religion.

"Muslims not adhering to the officially sanctioned version faced harassment at the hands of the religious police," the report said, adding that Shi'as continued to be detained and face economic and political discrimination.

The report did note that Saudi Arabia had taken steps to rein in rising levels of intolerance toward other religions including the replacement of more than 2,000 government-paid imams accused of fomenting violence and terrorism.

"Senior (Saudi) officials have made some efforts to improve the climate of tolerance toward other religions and within Islam," it said, adding that there had been moves to delete disparaging references to non-Muslims in schoolbooks.

"However, there continued to be religious discrimination and sectarian tension in society ... including ongoing denunciations of non-Muslim religions from government sanctioned pulpits," it said.

Egypt was accused in the report of not acting consistently against religious freedom violations and, in some cases, being responsible for transgressions, particularly against of Baha'is and Christians.

"The government continued to prosecute persons, including Muslims, for unorthodox religious beliefs and practices under the charge of 'insulting heavenly religions'," it said.

The report was less severe on Israel and Turkey which were listed as countries in which laws or policies had put certain religions at a disadvantage.

In Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, the report said some non-Jewish citizens "continued to experience discrimination in the areas of education, housing, employment, and social services," it said.

Government funding to the religious and education sectors tends to favor Jewish citizens and control of marriage, divorce and burial regulations lies only with Orthodox Jewish authorities, it noted.

In Turkey, the report said Ankara continued to restrict some faiths, Muslim and non-Muslim, amid ongoing debate of the country's secular status.

"Restrictions continued on non-Muslim religious groups and on Muslim religious expression in government offices and state-run institutions, including universities, usually for the stated reason of preserving the secular state," it said.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=8229

"It was the second foreign policy victory for Bush in a week, after last weekend's capture of Saddam. He said his action against the Iraqi leader, as well as U.S. efforts to rein in weapons pursuits by North Korea and Iran, ``have sent an unmistakable message to regimes that seek or possess weapons of mass destruction'' and played a role in Gadhafi's decision.

The president sought to nudge other regimes with both the threat of ``unwelcome consequences,'' if weapons pursuits are not abandoned, and the offer -- if they are -- of ``an open path to better relations with the United States and other free nations.''

``I hope that other leaders will find an example in Libya's announcement today,'' Bush said. ``When leaders make the wise and responsible choice ... they serve the interest of their own people and they add to the security of all nations.''

According to the liberal media, President Bush had nothing to do with it. [Please don't give him any credit. We're still trying to get over the Saddam story - seems to be their take]