Word: libya
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...eruption came as the Reagan Administration was applying calculated pressure on Gaddafi, and on U.S. allies, to prevent the production in Libya of poisonous gases that could be used in chemical warfare. The U.S. insists that a huge chemical plant at Rabta, 50 miles southwest of Tripoli and ringed with antiaircraft batteries, is primarily intended to produce mustard gas and chemical nerve agents. In a pre-Christmas TV interview, Reagan refused to rule out the possibility of a military strike against the plant. On background, Pentagon experts even suggested that Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can be launched by surface ships...
Moreover, the State Department disclosed that it has been quietly exchanging messages with Gaddafi for several weeks and that it sent the Libyan government a detailed explanation of last week's shooting incident. Still, Libya's U.N. Deputy Ambassador, Ali Sunni Muntasser, charged that the Navy had attacked two unarmed reconnaissance planes. U.S. Ambassador Vernon Walters responded by presenting the Security Council with blowups of two photos showing air-to-air missiles under the wings and fuselage of one of the Libyan MiGs. Charged Pentagon spokesman Dan Howard: "The Libyan Ambassador to the U.N. is a liar." At week...
...talk continues in Paris, where representatives from 142 nations have convened. The chances for a breakthrough anytime soon are slim. Only the U.S., the Soviet Union and Iraq have even acknowledged owning chemical arsenals. Yet in recent years, there have been claims that poison gases have been used by Libya against Chad, by Viet Nam against Kampuchean rebels and by Iran and Iraq against each other in their recently concluded war. It was Iraq's slaughter of the Kurds that prompted President Reagan to call for the Paris conference. The initiative was quickly seconded by President Francois Mitterrand of France...
...most countries can piously deny their involvement. As last week's verbal cross fire over Libya indicated, it is not easy to distinguish between factories that manufacture fertilizers, pesticides or pharmaceutical products and those that produce chemical weapons. Experts say that with just the turn of some levers or the change of a catalyst, a plant can convert from the production of pest killers to people killers in as little as 24 hours. Small wonder, then, that the U.S. spurned Libya's offer for a one-time inspection of the facility at Rabta...
...were freed last week. The French girls, their mother and five members of a Belgian family had been captured while sailing off the coast of Gaza. Abu Nidal charged that the two families were Israeli spies, which they deny. The girls were delivered into French custody in Benghazi, Libya, but the others remained in captivity...