Word: plant
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Kennedy was sailing to the east last Wednesday. The carrier was near Crete, more than 600 miles away from the Rabta plant and 120 miles off recognized Libyan territorial waters, when the unexpected combat situation arose. Even the Libyans had to know that the F-14s were fighters on routine patrol, not bombers carrying out an attack...
...this reckless attack, then, really intended to fail? "We suspect -- mostly on the basis of the two Libyan pilots parachuting from their MiGs -- that they intentionally provoked the incident," said an Italian government official. Besides being concerned about the chemical plant, added a West German diplomat, Gaddafi "has been outraged by the P.L.O.'s concessions to the U.S. for direct contacts, and he could have seen a chance here to try to sabotage...
...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...
...effective inspection would require ripping apart a chemical plant to analyze manufactured materials and examine waste products taken from sewers, ventilators and pipes. If chemical weapons were not yet in production (as the U.S. believes to be the case at Rabta), the inspection would turn up no damning residues. Other telltale signs would be the protective equipment used at the plant, including the presence of special ventilation systems and chemical sensors connected to alarms. But that same equipment is employed in pesticide and fertilizer manufacture. Inspectors must also look for military- oriented equipment, such as machinery to produce or fill...
Even if a nation were caught making chemical weapons, who could enforce the rules, short of military action? Would the guilty government dismantle its own facility -- particularly if the plant also produced agricultural and pharmaceutical products? Perhaps more to the point, would other nations agree to halt the lucrative export of the component parts? As the Reagan Administration learned in its dealings with Iran, it is hard enough for nations to abide by an arms embargo, let alone enforce...