Word: libya
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...General Benjamin Civiletti strode purposefully into the ornate Senate Caucus Room last week. He was there to answer a subcommittee's questions about whether he, the nation's chief law enforcement officer, and his aides had properly handled their investigation of Billy Carter's dealings with Libya. In six hours of skilled testimony, Civiletti made a stout defense. Said he: "I am both comfortable with and proud of the conduct of the department in this matter...
...pressures, in fact, had been considerable. Within days of the original Knesset bill annexing Jerusalem, Saudi Arabia and Iraq announced they would cut all diplomatic and economic ties, including oil shipments, to any country that kept its embassy in Jerusalem. Early last week Kuwait and Libya joined the ultimatum, bluntly giving Holland 30 days to make up its mind. As the recipient of up to a quarter of a million barrels of oil daily from Kuwait alone, the Dutch were in no position to resist...
What has changed, especially in the past few years, is that assassination has become an official form of warfare. National leaders like Libya's Gaddafi and Syria's Assad announce open season on their enemies, and whether or not they actually hire the hit men or, more likely, merely encourage assassins by their lusty rhetoric, they leave little doubt of their connivance. Not far from where Mr. Tabatabai met his postman, former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier was blown apart on Embassy Row in 1976. The day before the Tabatabai assassination, former Syrian Prime Minister Salah Eddin al-Bitar...
...course, in order to stop these assassinations one must first sincerely want to do it. One big reason that places like Libya, Syria and Iran may get away with murder in other countries is that those other countries have decided that they prefer oil to order. The absence of sanctuaries in the modern world must be of general help as well. He who would mow down an archbishop saying Mass in a chapel in San Salvador (or storm a mosque, or sack an embassy) would hardly hesitate to invade Bethesda. The public heart recoils at such goings-on, but briefly...
Subcommittee Chairman Birch Bayh, the Indiana Democrat, inquired whether Billy had any qualms about associating with a regime that backs terrorists and is virulently anti-American. Asked the Senator: "Did you give any thought to what your presence would do in Libya, to how it would be used?" Billy made no apologies. But he did admit to having some second thoughts. Said he: "If I knew then what would happen, I'd never have made the trip [to Libya]. But hindsight ain't worth a damn...