Word: islam
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...Gaddafi had taken heart from the willingness of the U.S. and Britain to reach a compromise agreement over Lockerbie. As those negotiations neared their conclusion with a partial lifting of sanctions, Seif al Islam secretly met with three MI6 officers in a hotel room in London?s posh Mayfair district late one Sunday afternoon in March 2003. (An aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Mohammed Rashid, arranged the rendezvous...
...Seif al Islam opened the discussion by saying that Libya proposed a strategic dialogue on mutual concerns starting with extremism. He recalls their surprise when he quickly agreed that Libya could begin by making a sincere effort to address WMD concerns. Seif al Islam says they reciprocated by immediately obtaining Blair's promise to deal with Libya in good faith. "When they called 10 Downing Street," he recalls, "they said, 'Don't fall off your chair. We got something from the Libyans.' It was a total surprise to them...
...technical experts. But besides the distraction of the Iraq War, progress was held up by Gaddafi's insistence on guaranteed incentives - like military cooperation and a complete end to sanctions - if Libya followed through and not only admitted but dismantled its WMD programs. When Gaddafi grew nervous, Seif al Islam says he reassured his father about the West's intentions, telling him, "'Trust me.'" As he recalls his own faith in the process, he claims, "I could smell...
...Seif al Islam says that Gaddafi?s confidence grew as the number of messages from the British and U.S. governments came in via MI6 and the CIA. The key breakthrough occurred on Sept. 6, 2003, when a British air marshal flew in to Tripoli on a Royal Air Force plane and handed Gaddafi a personal letter from the British Prime Minister formally agreeing to Gaddafi's conditions for proceeding. That paved the way for the visit of the MI6-CIA technical team to inspect all of Libya's top-secret WMD sites and report back to their governments...
...Mediterranean carrying thousands of components for Libya's illicit uranium-enrichment facility. As only a handful of top U.S., British and Libyan officials knew about the secret talks, the discovery provided the public with smoking gun proof of Libya's covert nuclear program. According to Seif al Islam, MI6 officers immediately flew from London to Tripoli to assure the Libyans that the incident need not affect the secret disarmament plans. The seizure added pressure on Libya to come clean, Seif al Islam admits, but the lack of bullying by MI6 and the CIA reassured Gaddafi. "We realized that we were...