Libya bombed into submission - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Medmech · #1 12-11-2007, 09:25 PM

Play by the rules, reap the benefits.

The United States gave its blessing Monday to a civilian nuclear energy deal between France and Libya, saying it expected its former foe to respect its decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction. "In light of Libya's historic decision in 2003 to rid itself of its WMD programs, we expect any cooperation with Libya on a peaceful secure and responsible use of nuclear power to be consistent with the highest standard of non-proliferation," said Kurtis Cooper, a State Department spokesman.
France announced plans to sell nuclear reactors to Libya as well as 10 billion euros of trade deals, as President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi on Monday for a five-day visit.
US-Libyan relations were restored in early 2004, following a break since 1981, a few weeks after Kadhafi announced that Tripoli was abandoning efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
The United States announced last year a full normalization of ties, lifting Libya from a State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism and raising diplomatic relations to the level of ambassadors.

Hatterasguy · #2 12-11-2007, 10:03 PM

Well some progress. But how come my gut tells me those reactors are going to be used for bomb making...hope I'm wrong.

LaRondo · #3 12-12-2007, 04:53 AM

Gadhafi Denies Libya Ever Did Terrorism

By ELAINE GANLEY – 12 hours ago
PARIS (AP) — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi insisted Tuesday his government was never involved in terrorist acts, blaming two bombings of Western passenger jets on "individuals," and he disputed critics who accuse Libya of abusing human rights.
Speaking in a French television interview on the second day of an official visit to France, Gadhafi said Libya wants to take its place in a world marked by peace and cooperation.
The interview with state-run France-2 was conducted in a tent equipped with the latest communications devices and pitched in the elegant garden of the official guest residence.
Protests over his six-day visit, which has clinched contracts worth billions of dollars for French business, started even before Gadhafi arrived. They grew larger Tuesday when he entered the grounds of the National Assembly, considered a symbol of democracy and human rights.
More than half the 80 lawmakers invited to the session at the speaker's residence boycotted the event, at which Gadhafi first evoked his theme of a "new era" for Libya and the world.
The Libyan leader later fed the controversy over his warm official welcome by denying that he and President Nicolas Sarkozy discussed the need for progress in human rights.
"Myself and President Sarkozy, we did not evoke these subjects," Gadhafi said during the TV interview. The French president told journalists Monday that he urged Gadhafi to make progress in human rights.
Sarkozy is the first Western leader to offer an official visit since Gadhafi's falling-out with the West in the 1980s.
Gadhafi has sought to repair relations in recent years, freeing a Palestinian and five Bulgarian medical workers earlier this year after eight years imprisonment and agreeing in 2003 to dismantle Libya's secret nuclear arms program.
Also in 2003, Libya paid compensation to families of victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to compensate families of the 170 victims of the 1989 bombing of a French UTA passenger jet.
Gadhafi was categorical in his denial of a state role in the passenger jet bombings.
"Libya has never committed a terrorist act," he said in the TV interview. He argued that a state cannot be responsible for each of its citizens, but said an era of conflict is ending.
"We are coming out of a period of national liberation across the world," Gadhafi said. "This struggle, this confrontation is now over. We are in another phase."
Gadhafi also said there are no human rights abuses in Libya, as charged by watchdog groups, and insisted "not a single" political prisoner is held by his government.
Libya is "determined to participate in a new world of peace, liberty and cooperation among nations and civilizations," he said.
The comments didn't calm Gadhafi's critics. Sarkozy's political rivals, including former Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, held a protest Tuesday evening.
At a parliamentary session, the Socialists left their benches for 20 minutes to protest a refusal to allow them to publicly question the government on the Gadhafi visit.
"You don't roll out the red carpet to a dictator in the (symbol) of democracy," said Socialist group leader Jean-Marc Ayrault.
Government officials have defended the warm welcome for Gadhafi as a way to encourage states that show signs of moving away from terrorism.
"It's not the color of the carpet that we should remember. It is the fact that we are trying to bring toward us countries which have left terrorism," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said

LUVMBDiesels · #4 12-12-2007, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Well some progress. But how come my gut tells me those reactors are going to be used for bomb making...hope I'm wrong.

Depends on the reactor being sold to them. If it is a standard commercial reator, it cannot be used to make plutonium you need a breeder reactor for that and I think even France would balk at sending him those...

Of course if he were to grind up his fuel rods into powder and put containers of that powder into a conventional bomb you have the 'dirty bomb' scenario come to life...

Personally I do not trust the guy although he has been behaving since W's "you are either with us or against us" speech. Gadhafi knows who to cozy up to these days...

What kills me are the enormous amount of ways to spell Gadhafi.
Kadaffi, Kadafi, Gadhafi, Quadaffi, etc... doen't he know how to spell his own name? Also what's up with the tents? He has been living in tents pitched in the courtyards of his palaces since the 1970's... Sounds pretty nuts to me!

LaRondo · #5 12-12-2007, 03:53 PM

Dec 12, 2007 15:13 | Updated Dec 12, 2007 18:38
'France worried by Iran-Israel tension'

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview published Wednesday that there is a danger of war erupting over Iran's if "the Israelis consider their security truly threatened."

In the interview with Le Nouvel Observateur magazine, Sarkozy said France was more worried about tensions between Iran and Israel than between Iran and the United States.
"I have never been for war," Sarkozy was quoted as saying. "The problem for us is not so much the risk that the Americans could launch a military intervention, but that the Israelis consider their security truly threatened. "The danger of a war exists," he was quoted as saying.

In a major report last week, US intelligence agencies concluded that Teheran stopped developing its nuclear weapons program four years ago. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted Tuesday that Iran is still pursuing nuclear arms and poses a major threat to the West and the world must stop it.

Israel has for years been warning that Iran is working on nuclear weapons, and it considers Iran a significant threat because of its nuclear ambitions, its long-range missile program and repeated calls by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to wipe Israel off the map.

Olmert also said Tuesday that Israel would work with world bodies such as the International Atomic Agency and would not take the lead in the struggle against Iran's nuclear program - an apparent attempt to counter speculation that Israel might feel the need to strike Iran militarily on its own, in the aftermath of the US intelligence report.
Israeli leaders have never explicitly said they are considering an attack.
Iran claims its nuclear development is peaceful and that the goal is nuclear power.
In the interview, Sarkozy said, "Everyone agrees that what the Iranians are doing has no civilian explanation. The only debate is whether they will have military capability in one year or in five years." Sarkozy said that if Iran allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out inspections, he "would be ready to come to Teheran and study the possibility of collaborating on civilian

cmac2012 · #6 12-12-2007, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Well some progress. But how come my gut tells me those reactors are going to be used for bomb making...hope I'm wrong.

I've read interviews with Kadhafi's son and he comes across as way more reasonable than his old man or many other ME leaders.

Who knows, might be springtime in Libya.