Word: sidra
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...ruffled friend and foe alike, and occasionally dulls her effectiveness as a diplomat. Last year, for example, when 93 "nonaligned" countries signed a document criticizing the U.S. for, among other things, "aggression," after a pair of U.S. Navy jets shot down two Libyan fighters over the Gulf of Sidra, Kirkpatrick lashed out with a letter accusing them of what she called "absurd and erroneous charges" and "fabrications and vile at tacks." The upshot was that countries planning to criticize the document decided to keep silent, for fear of appearing to side with the U.S. Says a former U.S. official...
When U.S. fighters downed a pair of Libyan jets last August, two choruses sounded in counterpoint: "Hooray! We've finally put Viet Nam behind us!" and, from the other side of the stage, "Beware! The Gulf of Sidra may be another Gulf of Tonkin!" (thus the onstage, with clanking chains, the ghost of the 1964 naval skirmish off the coast of Viet Nam, which Lyndon Johnson used as a pretext to escalate American involvement there...
...late July, a Libyan group called the Free Unionist Officers threatened a campaign of "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...
...plane, Air Force One; shooting rockets at his limousine; and attacking him with handguns. The alleged motive for the Libyan assault: Gaddafi's determination to seek revenge after U.S. military planes returned the fire of two Libyan aircraft and shot them down over the Gulf of Sidra in August. A Libyan government spokesman in Tripoli dismissed the reports as a product of "the CIA fantasy farm." Said he: "There is no such hit team working under orders from the Libyan [government...
Rumors that Libya would attempt some type of dramatic revenge have been circulating ever since U.S. pilots downed two Libyan jets in a dogfight over the Gulf of Sidra last August. Haig and others have spoken of a "hit list" of potential U.S. targets. Although Libya has labeled these claims "insolent in the extreme," security around American leaders has been significantly tightened in recent weeks. Secret Service agents carrying UZI submachine guns have been notably more prominent at Reagan's side during public appearances. Air Force One and other official planes have been equipped with devices to foil heat...