Gaddafi admits WMD program, commits to dismantling

dahamsta

Libya to give up WMD

Libya's leader Colonel Gaddafi has said his country sought to develop weapons of mass destruction capabilities but will dismantle this programme completely, Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced.

"This decision is an historic one and a courageous one and I applaud it," Mr Blair said.

Colonel Gaddafi had told him the process of dismantling the programme would be "transparent and verifiable", the prime minister said in a statement from Durham Cathedral.

The range of all Libya's missiles would be restricted to "no more then 300km", he added.

[...]

So Bush makes a play for a second term with "We Got 'Im", and Blair makes a play for his with Real WMD[TM].

What's Bertie gonna pull out from under his anorak in Q1?

adam

gurramok

What's Bertie gonna pull out from under his anorak in Q1?

Mass Deception

Capt'n Midnight

"has said his country sought to develop weapons of mass destruction capabilities but will dismantle this programme completely" ... the process of dismantling the programme would be "transparent and verifiable"

What are the chances of certain other countries following suit ?

Qadhafi

it looks like Kernal Qadhafi has been mellowing out in the last decade and wants to start developing his country and thaw Western relations. Its a good day for the middle east and hopefully Iran will follow suit and that will leave only syria left.

Zaphod B

Yes, our friends can continue to practise Shariah law, brutally suppressing political dissent and other such friendly policies, only now they'll invite us to the public execution too. Yup, the world is a much better place :rolleyes:

Atreides

Originally posted by Qadhafi
it looks like Kernal Qadhafi has been mellowing out in the last decade and wants to start developing his country and thaw Western relations. Its a good day for the middle east and hopefully Iran will follow suit and that will leave only syria left.

Very little evidence that syria has WMD or Iran for that matter, however we all know isreal has nukes.

mike65

A good day for Libya (and Tony Blair). Done for very practical, pragmatic reasons - the US market for oil.

Mike.

shotamoose

Further proof that Iraq was invaded because it didn't have WMD. And that the US and UK are perfectly willing to try constructive engagement with mad dictators when they feel like it. So yet more incentive for everyone else to develop WMD, then offer to give them up in exchange for x, y, z ...

Cork

Fair Play to Gadaffi to try & mend fences and come clean with regards to weapons programmes.

Pan Am Flight 103 was an act of sheer terrorism.

It is a very good sign that Lybia will begin to build bridges with Western countries.

sovtek

Man they are milking this to the hilt.
Already 2 days as top story on the BBC!
The corrupt leader of a little country (who "we" put in power) that has been trying to get friendly to the west for the past several years is now voluntarily giving up WMD's.
Yes yes yes Tony and George what peaceful diplomats you are, what leadership....*swoon*.
Nevermind that Mandela is almost single handedly responsible.

DadaKopf

I haven't actually seen mentioned in the news much that Gadafi is only doing this because his two previous political projects - pan-Arabism and pan-Africanism - were total failures and have left him in a weak political and financial position.

So now former avowed enemies of Britain (when he was courting the Arabic cause) have turned Supergrass, which is US/UK's new currency - "give us info on bold people and we'll take your oil but we won't invade you and give you weapons".

A fair trade.

Of course more than anything, as it's already been said, it shows how the Iraq war had nothing to do with threat - which is why they invaded. No way America would commit troops to a country where there actually was a real risk of mass casualties.

Victor

Originally posted by Cork
Pan Am Flight 103 was an act of sheer terrorism.

Indeed. As were prior attacks by the Americans on Libya.

Sand

I wonder if the fear he and Libya might be next on the list after Iraq would have motivated Gadaffi into publicy dismantling his weapons program so as to reduce the risk. Nah, that should have motivated him to increase his weapons probram shouldnt it?

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by shotamoose
Further proof that Iraq was invaded because it didn't have WMD. And that the US and UK are perfectly willing to try constructive engagement with mad dictators when they feel like it. So yet more incentive for everyone else to develop WMD, then offer to give them up in exchange for x, y, z ...

I do believe you are referring to the billions of dollars given to North Korea for mobillising it's forces a few years back.

Oh I might as well say it - WMD are really "poor man's nukes" and the big boys want to keep the ability to wipe out our race to themselves. And it's been shown time and time again (excluding WWI where up to 25% of casualties in some cases were attributed to chemicals) that WMD are only used when there is a massive imbalance in conventional arms ie. where the other side Can't retaliate in kind. Or in other words in most cases they get used where they aren't really needed militaraily.

Still it's nice to know the Russians and US have stopped all their hidden bioweapons programs.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

mike65

Good point Daveirl, the Libya strikes by the US airforce came after a bomb was planted by Libian agents in Berlin if I remember rightly...1985 ish...that said the US strike was way out of proportion to the bomb.

Mike.