Posted on 07/11/2002 6:47:02 PM PDT by Shermy
London - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, whose country is on a US list of states sponsoring terrorism, said members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda guerrilla network were terrorists, crazy and mad.
In comments broadcast on Thursday, he said in an interview with CNN that Libya would arrest and put on trial any al-Qaeda member found in the country.
"We are not in need of bin Laden, we don't need his money and we don't need his protection and we don't want to use him or be used by him. These terrorist groups which we term heretics are non-Muslims.
"They are terrorist people, crazy and mad...," he added.
'We even suffered from them'
"We even suffered from them. A number of elements from Afghanistan were successful to infiltrate and come back and cause quite a lot of trouble to us and some of them got killed in action," he added. He did not elaborate.
"I would like to reassure the Americans and non-Americans that Libya plays a very important role in combating and fighting terrorism," he added.
The United States bombed Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 in retaliation for what it said was Libya's responsibility for a disco attack in Germany that killed two American soldiers.
Gaddafi, who once saw himself as the chief Arab scourge of the United States, Europe and Israel, has striven in recent years to win international respectability and attract badly needed foreign investment in Libya's oil-based economy.
Diplomats in Tripoli say he has shut training camps in Libya for guerrillas from around the world, from Sierra Leone to the Philippines, bulldozing most of them.
'Libya is innocent' The Libyan leader quickly offered condolences for the September 11 attacks on the United States, blamed on al-Qaeda.
He declared that America had the right to retaliate and submitted information on Libyans thought to have links with al-Qaeda. But his support for the campaign against global terrorism has yet to convince the United States to thaw relations.
Gaddafi told CNN a series of trilateral meetings between US, British and Libyan officials to discuss Libya's response to UN resolutions and accept liability for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing "have gone a long way", but did not elaborate.
The mid-air bombing of a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie killed 270 people. The trilateral meetings began in London last October, with the fourth round taking place in June.
"Libya is innocent," Gaddafi told CNN when asked about Lockerbie. He said Libya wanted "excellent and good relations with America".
In 2001, a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands found Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi Megrahi guilty of the bombing, sentenced him to life in jail and said it accepted evidence he was a member of Libya's Jamahariya Security Organisation. Megrahi appealed against the verdict, but Scottish appeal judges in the Netherlands in March upheld his conviction. Libya has always denied any role in the bombing.
Asked what would Libya's reaction be if the United States attacked Iraq, Gaddafi said: "If such a thing takes place, people will say bin Laden was right because America is practising terrorism".
Translation Momar says "Don't come after us....please"
Muammar appears to be getting wise in his old age. Or maybe it was those calling cards Mr. Reagan sent him back in 1986 that helped guide him to the light??
Now round up and execute a few of these guys for us, would you please? Thanks.
He’s against fundamentalists. Country is big with small population that isn’t anti-American and has old NATO bases. He’s a total nutcase, but I think he’s out of the terrorism game. Wants to be the “hero” of Africa and go off with a twisted, but humanitarian, reputation.
Yes, American bombing threatened him. But legitimately, I think he’s against Osama and all he means. He complains about the West harboring fundamentalists. (As does Egypt, Jordan) Complains that Britain tried to assassinate him with Arab-Afghan fundies. And what I noticed, was the first Arab leader to come out plainly and say America had the right to attack.
I think if it wasn’t for Lockerbie, we’d be having no problems at all with him now. Would be more of an entertainment source, a kooky foreign leader.
Gadaffi: Our New Friend (Really!?)
”...America as any other states and individuals has the right to defend itself, either in accordance with article 51 of the UN Charter, that is actually inoperative or with else. Right of self-defense is a legitimate matter and America possesses the power enabling it to do so. In this regard, America does not need anybody to defend it, strike its enemy or even get assistance to justify that. It is kind of flattering to show readiness to assist America in a matter concerning it.Define terrorism, urges Gaddafi (Oct. 24)The second part: Terrorism this matter does not concern America alone. It concerns the entire world. This needs an international cooperation and international procedure.America could not fight it alone. And it is illogic and useless to charge America with this mission. What a pity! Mingling has appeared and confusion in perception. Proceeding and cooperation in this matter (terrorism) is not a service to America like flatterers have shown. =It is a self-defense for each of us. Either America was hit on 119 or not America should not reward who fight terrorism inasmuch as fighting terrorism is not a service to America as those show. It is rather a service to yourself, who among us likes terrorism, who among us likes to live with his children, people and state in a world where terrorism prevails. Terrorism is an awful thing
Unfortunately, the world has shown a high level of hypocrisy, from which has resulted world uneasiness: are we defending America and helping to retaliate and punish those who stroke on 119? Are we adopting an international program to fight terrorism, or according to our wishes eliminating it?
There is a great deference between both matters. Hypocrisy, fear and greediness are the elements behind this mingling, and this confusion these days.
There are pigheaded people that refused to cooperate to fight terrorism, because it has been connected with defending America, or with participation with it against Afghanistan.....”
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has entered the debate on terrorism - telling a TV interviewer that the US might just as well bomb London if it is serious about fighting terrorism. "If the United States wants seriously to eradicate terrorism, the first capital that should be pounded with cruise missiles is London," Colonel Gaddafi said on the Arabic satellite news channel al-Jazeera."It is the shelter of terrorism," he added, referring to charges that Islamic militants suspected of violence are protected by Britain's policies on political asylum.
Colonel Gaddafi, who said that the US had the right to respond to the 11 September terrorist attacks, called for an international conference to define terrorism and then fight it.
He said that while no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks, the United States could attack Osama bin Laden if it were sure he was responsible.
"If the United States knows who attacked it, and if he admits to attacking the United States, then it would have the right to retaliate against him," the Libyan leader said.
"It would have the right to do whatever necessary without consulting the UN Security Council." Sticking to that "principle", Colonel Gaddafi said that he would have attacked the White House after the US raids on Tripoli in 1986, had he had missiles.
Libya's bid to buff image, end US sanctions May 31
BTW, thank you for "Quadafi" - another in a long list of ways to spell his name.
The good Colonel is a true poker player; he waited until the last sentence to show his cards.....
Hilarious and true!
Interesting, to say the very least.
What say we nuke them all?
What country was the first to request International warrant for Osama Bin Laden through Interpol ?
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