Word: plants
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...dragging, the U.S. welcomed the change of tune. "The objective now is to let the Germans climb down without further embarrassment," said a senior White House official. "We want to prevent further shipment of German equipment and further participation of German personnel. We're persuaded that without them the plant will never go into production...
...officials had become concerned that Libya's mercurial leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, was developing a chemical-weapons capability. By mid-1987 U.S. analysts were convinced that a facility at Rabta, 50 miles southwest of Tripoli, which began showing up in satellite photos in 1985, was indeed a chemical-weapons plant. Code-named "Pharma-150" by the Libyans, the plant was built under tight security conditions, with a 1,300-man force of cheap labor imported from Thailand. Foreign consultants entered the country without visas and left no hotel or other records of their stay in Libya...
...important piece of evidence pointing to the participation of West German firms was obtained last August when U.S. intelligence intercepted telephone conversations between Libyan plant operators and officials of Imhausen-Chemie, which has its headquarters in the Black Forest town of Lahr. The calls reportedly took place after a toxic spill resulted from a bungled attempt by the Libyans to manufacture a test quantity of chemical-weapons material at the still uncompleted plant. In a frantic effort to get advice on cleaning up and repairing the plant, Libyan officials spoke at length with Imhausen-Chemie personnel. Those conversations left...
West German officials may have dug in their heels in part because of what they called "a media campaign" in the U.S. Bonn took special umbrage at a New York Times column by William Safire calling the desert chemical plant "Auschwitz-in-the-sand...
Even Libya, while continuing to claim that the huge desert plant was built strictly as a pharmaceutical facility, had a small role in documenting West Germany's participation in the project. The Libyan Ambassador to the United Nations, Ali Treiki, confirmed that West German firms "did help us, not only in this plant, in other plants also...