Sunday, September 01, 2002

Ghadaffi is still speaking a good game. I've said this before, and I still maintain, that of all the mercurial leaders in the Middle East he may be the one that ends up coming to our side. He rarely spews the rhetoric or threats that you see pouring from our 'allies' in Egypt and Suadi Arabia. Moreso than any other Arab or North African leader he has condemned the attacks on Sept. 11th. He has no love for bin Laden, who put a price on Ghadaffi's head. He occassionally gives the nod to Palestinian 'resistance' but of late he has been more interested in Africa. He does still work with and give aid to tyrants like Taylor and Mugabe (who he has had a falling out with) but no active terrorist networks are based in or are carrying out attacks from Libya. Once he admits Lockerbie and makes a move toward contrition I think we should open a dialogue with him and see what can come of it. By remaining adamant in the face of real reform and attempts at reconciliation we do more harm and add to the list of foes that we must deal with in the end.

In a two-hour speech on Libyan national television, Gadhafi condemned the Sept. 11 attacks, saying: "We have never seen such a horrific and terrifying act performed in such an exhibitionist manner."

He said that Libya's policy toward the United States and Israel will now follow the line of the African Union - a new grouping of African nations to which Libya belongs.

"Now, no one can say Libya is a rogue state. There is no Libyan policy. This is an African policy ... which represents Libya and Lesotho (alike)," Gadhafi said, referring to a country at the opposite end of the African continent.

His speech marked the anniversary of the 1969 coup in which he took power.

"In the old days, they called us a rogue state. They were right in accusing us of that. In the old days, we had a revolutionary behavior ... We acted like an independent state and we put up with the consequences of our action," he said to a crowd of several thousand in the south Libyan city of Sibha.

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