The Scum at the Top
Commentary on the Rats in Washington
Libya: The Strongman Is Still Making Trouble
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
© November 1, 2004
Page 8
President George W. Bush counts Libya's
decision to give up its nuclear-weapons program - a move that
helped thaw relations with the longtime pariah regime of
Col. Muammar Kaddafi - as one of his foreign-policy successes.
To reward the Libyan strongman, Bush last month lifted
most U.S. sanctions against Libya, prompting a rush of
U.S. energy executives to Tripoli in search of drilling-rights
concessions and other deals. (Among the beneficiaries:
Halliburton, whose chief financial officer recently told
investors that the Libyan market presented "a great
opportunity for us.") Another sign of the thaw: the Libyans
have just hired their own D.C. lobbyist, signing a $1.4
million contract with Randa Fahmy Hudome, until last year
a top Bush-administration energy official.
But U.S. counterterrorism officials are deeply uneasy. Libya
is still on the State Department list of state "sponsors" of
terrorism, and sources tell NEWSWEEK the country is likely to
remain there for some time. One reason: mounting evidence
that, even while they were bargaining with the United States
over the nuclear issue, Kaddafi and his top aides were
financing a bizarre plot to assassinate Saudi ruler Crown
Prince Abdullah by attacking his motorcade with grenade
launchers. When reports of the alleged plot surfaced last
spring, U.S. intel officials downplayed it. But corroboration -
including a documented trail of Libyan payments to the alleged
plotters - forced the CIA to change its assessment. "The
agency's view went almost overnight to, 'Oh God, there's
something here'," said one U.S. official. "It's put the
lifting of the 'state sponsor of terrorism' [designation]
on indefinite hold."
The chief source for the assassination plot was U.S. Muslim
activist Abdurahman Alamoudi, recently sentenced to 23 years
in prison for illegal dealings with Libya. Alamoudi told FBI
agents he had been recruited by Libyan officials in March
2003 to contact two Saudi dissidents in London and create
"headaches" for Abdullah. (This was just after Kaddafi and
Abdullah had a shouting match at an Arab League conference.)
Alamoudi says Kaddafi himself later told him the real purpose
was to kill Abdullah. As recently as September 2003, court
papers show, an unnamed top Libyan official personally
arranged for the delivery of $500,000 in cash to pay for
the plot. That official, sources tell NEWSWEEK, was Musa
Kusa, the chief of Libyan intel who was once a suspect in
the 1988 Lockerbie bombing but who last year became the
prime negotiator with U.S. officials about improving
relations. Libyan officials have denied the plot, but so
far offered no explanation for the alleged payments. Libya
lobbyist Hudome told NEWSWEEK the government won't comment
until "the investigation is complete."
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.
URL:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6314340/site/newsweek/
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