But the threat of Libya is not well known - in part because Khadafy has tried hard to clean up his act. After being forced, by U.S.-led sanctions, to indirectly admit complicity in the Lockerbie airliner sabotage, the dictator in Tripoli denounced terrorism. He tried to hire a Washington lawyer to get Libya removed from the U.S. list of terror-sponsoring nations. He nearly succeeded - since the State Department during the Clinton administration conveyed discreet messages to then-Israeli-prime-minister Ehud Barak's government that Khadafy had "endorsed Yasser Arafat's peace process."
Khadafy tried so hard to convince the world he had stepped away from the axis of evil, 10 years ago, a Libyan chemical-weapons plant, operating with the illegal help of German firms and scientists, was shown blazing in flames. Intelligence reports indicated, however, that Khadafy removed the weapons and equipment before staging the fire. But in the last month, Western intelligence agencies gained details of Khadafy's latest adventure - his bid to join the Nuclear Club. At first, intelligence analysts suspected that Egypt was helping him in this project. But now it is certain that Iraqi scientists and engineers, who developed their expertise in the last 25 years under Khadafy, are leading the underground Libyan effort.
Sharon said a secret weapons effort "is taking place in Iraq, and a similar process is going on in Libya - which probably will turn out to be the first Arab state with weapons of mass destruction." Other countries are helping Khadafy, but the extent of the assistance is not clear, Sharon said. "It may be that there is assistance from Pakistan, as Iran had [in nuclear weapons development]," the prime minister warned. "But for sure, there is assistance from North Korea." [End]
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