Word: libya
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...there the expectation that any American attack would depend on whether Libya fired first. Libya had already fired--choosing once again the weapon of a terrorist bomb. After countless unheeded warnings and after futile attempts to counter terrorism with economic and political sanctions, the U.S. Sixth Fleet was poised to strike the type of blow the Reagan Administration had threatened--and anguished about--for so long...
...West European allies fretted about the potential consequences, and as Senate and House leaders gave qualified support while waiting to be consulted under the War Powers Resolution, the pilots of the F/A-18 Hornets and A-7E Corsairs stood ready for the command, should it come, to attack and destroy Libya's airfields, radar stations, Soviet-built missile sites and terrorist training camps. No matter what the outcome, regardless of when and if the President issues a final order, the week's drum rolling dramatized Ronald Reagan's world view in action. It also illustrated some of the frustrations of putting...
...week these uncertainties stoked tensions toward a fever point. It began with American officials pointing a menacing finger of suspicion at Libya as instigator of the bombing of a West Berlin disco that left an American serviceman and a Turkish woman dead. Then the Pentagon cryptically noted that the Sixth Fleet, which had scattered after the Gulf of Sidra battle, was steaming back toward Libya. Almost simultaneously, President Reagan at his Wednesday-night news conference called Gaddafi "this mad dog of the Middle East" and proclaimed that the U.S. would "respond" whenever the perpetrator of a specific terrorist act could...
...thing has always held the U.S. back from striking hard on its own in retaliation against Gaddafi's terrorism. The Administration felt that it could justify such an attack to the American people--and allies around the world--only if it had hard evidence to prove Libya responsible for a specific terrorist act. And such evidence was always lacking--until the early hours of Saturday morning, April 5. Then a bomb went off in La Belle disco in West Berlin, which was packed with off-duty American soldiers spending some of the pay they had collected earlier that night...
...NATO commander in Europe, said the U.S. had "indisputable evidence" that the bombing was the work of a Libyan terrorist network. Though no one would disclose it publicly, the evidence is known to consist largely of intercepted messages from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to the "people's bureau" (as Libya calls its diplomatic missions) in East Berlin, which is believed to have dispatched a terrorist to bomb the disco. One message, sent a few hours after the blast, guardedly congratulated the East Berlin bureau for a job well done...