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[Phoenix]

It seems that now the administration wants to play nice with everyone

 

[goodcow]

What do we gain from this?

 

[Chesapeake Silt]

Alright! Now I can finally take that Libyan vacation I've been planning for the past 24 years.

 

[xsarien]

Maybe it's the cynic in me, but I find it abhorrent that we're just taking Libya's fucking word for it, but get in a hissy fit whenever France disagrees with us.

 

[GigaDrive]

dang! no more F-14s shooting down Lybian Mig-23s

 

[Phoenix]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States resumed direct diplomatic ties with Libya on Monday after a 24-year break, even as the Bush administration pursued reports that Moammar Gadhafi had taken part in a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's crown prince.

The announcement was made at the State Department and in Tripoli by Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns after talks with Gadhafi.

Burns inaugurated a new U.S. liaison office in Tripoli in what was the latest move by the Bush administration to reciprocate for Gadhafi's promise last December to dismantle his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

Burns said that he and J. Cofer Black, who heads the State Department's office of counterterrorism, had discussed with Gadhafi "recent public allegations regarding Libya and Saudi Arabia."

At the State Department, spokesman Adam Ereli said, "I think we made clear our concerns about the story" concerning an alleged plot against Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

Burns said the two sides "held detailed discussions on Libya's commitment to support the global war on terrorism, to repudiate the use of violence for political purposes and to implement its pledge to cease all support for terrorism."

Libya is one of seven nations annually branded as sponsors of terror by the department.

More at the CNN story link...

CNN Story link

 

[GDGF]

This is good news for a friend of mine. His father made him go to Libya to visit his family a few weeks ago, and he's kind of afraid that his dad won't 'let' him come back for awhile. Atleast now he's got a little bit of recourse if anything goes down.

 

[Mandark]

1) Qaddafi's been cozying up to the US for a while now, at least since he decided to play ball and pay damages to the Pan Am 103 families. This was probably inevitable ever since he agreed to halt his WMD programs.

2) He's pretty gung ho about the war on terror, at least the US version of it. An ex-MI5 agent claims that MI6 paid an Al Qaeda cel, including Anas al-Liby, to kill Qaddafi.

3) On December 21st of last year, professor Juan Cole said:

So the real reason Qadhafi just folded is economic. And the lesson to be drawn here is that under certain circumstances, economic pressure can work, and remove the need for war. The sanctions on Libya were very different from those on Iraq, and peace thinkers need to study why the former worked but the latter didn't.

4) Now we need a follow-up on human rights and maybe a bit of democracy. The commitments Libya has made all seem to be about external violence.

 

[Ripclawe]

It seems that now the administration wants to play nice with everyone

No surprise here since Libya has been making all the moves and Qaddafi has all but tell the arab league to go to hell. Oil companies will be pleased