Word: gaddafi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...April, American reporters had good reason to go after the story. But they were chasing a will-o'-the-wisp. The Washington Post claimed last week that the rumors over Libya had been instigated by the Administration in a "secret and unusual campaign of deception" to destabilize Muammar Gaddafi...
...newspaper's famed Watergate sleuth, Bob Woodward, unearthed a damning document to back up the charge: a memo from National Security Adviser John Poindexter to President Reagan. In it Poindexter outlined a plan that "combines real and illusionary events -- through a disinformation program -- with the basic goal of making Gaddafi think that there is a high degree of internal opposition to him within Libya, that his key trusted aides are disloyal, that the U.S. is about to move against him militarily." According to the Post, this disinformation policy was approved on Aug. 14 at a meeting of the National Security...
...Administration readily acknowledged its policy to mislead Gaddafi as to U.S. intentions -- a deception the President endorsed. "We would just as soon have Mr. Gaddafi go to bed every night wondering what we might do," said Reagan. Secretary of State George Shultz agreed. "Frankly, I don't have any problems with a little psychological warfare against Gaddafi," said he. Citing the example of Winston Churchill's efforts to mislead the Nazis about the site of the D-day landings during World War II, the Secretary said of the situation with Libya, "We don't have a declaration...
Misleading Gaddafi was one thing, but what troubled Washington's press corps was the idea that it had been duped as well. Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Norman Pearlstine stood by the basic thrust of his paper's story: that the U.S. believed Libya had resumed sponsoring terrorist acts, and was exploring ways of deterring Gaddafi. But Pearlstine "deplored" the Administration's "attempt to mislead the Journal and its readers" about the "likelihood of employing some of these options." A New York Times editorial summarized the reasons for the journalistic outrage: "All media, all Americans, are vulnerable because they must...
Administration spokesmen continue to insist the raw intelligence about Gaddafi's activities was accurate, if overblown. The sources for the Wall Street Journal story, they said, had glossed over the relative value of the intelligence information and the U.S. military's readiness to respond. The Journal story quoted a "top official" as saying Gaddafi "seems to have gone off his rocker again." Other officials claimed he was involved in terrorist plots in Cyprus and Berlin. But the Poindexter memo contended that "Gaddafi is temporarily quiescent in his support of terrorism." The Journal wrote that Administration officials were convinced...