Word: libya
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rising tensions between the U.S. and Libya were dramatically demonstrated last week in an extraordinary exchange of charges over the existence of the hit teams. Interviewed on ABC'S This Week with David Brinkley (see PRESS), Gaddafi stoutly?and predictably?denied he had sent agents to kill Reagan...
...physical liquidation" against Americans, including President Reagan. Then, in mid-August, came the attack by two Libyan SU-22 fighter planes against a pair of U.S. F-14s as they flew over the Gulf of Sidra during a naval exercise by the U.S. Sixth Fleet in disputed waters that Libya had long claimed as part of its territory. The U.S. planes downed the Libyan jets...
...especially dismaying aspect of all these reports is the prospect that either former agents of the CIA or onetime Green Berets may be involved in the plots. Gaddafi has openly hired ex-employees of those organizations to further his causes. Two notorious former CIA agents now living in Libya, Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil (both wanted in the U.S. on charges of conspiring to sell explosives and to commit murder), are known to have supplied military and terrorist technology to Libya. More than a dozen onetime Green Berets, recruited by Wilson, have trained Libyan troops. Federal investigators...
...Capitol Hill, a majority of Senators and Representatives were willing to believe that the hit-team threat exists. Some Congressmen, in fact, were ready to impose sanctions on Libya even before Reagan announced the travel restriction. "The situation is serious enough to warrant the level of precautions," said Republican Senator Harrison Schmitt of New Mexico, who was briefed by the CIA. "I don't think the Administration is making it up," said Democratic Representative Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee, who also had a CIA briefing. "There's ample evidence that this is a very real threat...
...have been disturbed by the publicity about the hit men, and for two weeks have urged top Administration officials to try to stem the leaks from their own departments. The aides were especially upset by allegations that the leaks were orchestrated in order to build support for sanctions against Libya. Said White House Chief of Staff Baker, pointedly speaking on the record: "I want to deny as emphatically as I can that this was done as a predicate for any action that might be taken...