The Libya frame-up

April 29, 1992
Issue 

While the US and British governments continue to undermine the credibility of the United Nations by using it as a vehicle for their political vendetta against the Libyan government, Time magazine and the Pan Am company have come up with evidence that suggests the US government, at least, knows the real bombers of Pan Am flight 103 were not Libyan. In fact, it appears US and Israeli intelligence were warned in advance of a bombing attempt against the flight, but Mossad did nothing and the CIA bungled its response despite the fact that a five-member CIA team was aboard.

The Time and Pan Am investigators say a Syrian double agent working with the US Drug Enforcement Agency is directly linked to the bombing, which wiped out a CIA team planning rescue operations for US hostages in Lebanon. They also claim it is unlikely the suitcase containing the bomb was dispatched from Malta, as claimed by the US. Responsible staff at Frankfurt airport have said no unaccompanied baggage, from Malta or anywhere else, was transferred to Pan Am 103 in Frankfurt. Even if it had been, it would have gone through rigorous checks, including X-rays, designed to detect bombs.

It is far more likely that the bomb was placed on the plane through channels used by the DEA drug sting operation, which was assisted by German federal police and British customs, and presumably not subject to normal security checks. The Syrian DEA agent, who is closely related to high officials in the Syrian government, was in a position to get the suitcase aboard flight 103.

Whatever the US and British governments might claim, their evidence against the two accused Libyans is flimsy to say the least, and is not the real reason for the UN sanctions against Libya. The fact is, the US is using its dominant role in the New World Order to target governments it deems undesirable, and Colonel Muammer Qadhafi's administration has long fallen into that category.

Qadhafi came to power by tossing out a corrupt US ally, King Idris, and then proceeded to nationalise the country's oilfields, much to the disgust of international oil companies. He later went further and nationalised most of the economy, using Libya's oil wealth to set up an impressive welfare state by Third World standards. Such policies, combined with a militant Third World nationalism in international policy, incurred the scornful concern of some other Middle Eastern regimes and the wrath of the US and other imperialist powers. It was all so much worse because Qadhafi and his close supporters started off as army officers of humble origins.

All in all, from the US point of view, Libya sets a terrible example to other Arab countries, and the Third World in general, of the possibilities for exercising some control over the flow of wealth from the poor countries to the wealthy, and of the potential for political alternatives to those favoured by the US and the World Bank. Whatever might be the problems in present-day Libya, there is no doubt most Libyans live freer, better educated n most residents of the Third World, and particularly those countries whose governments buckle under to the dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. For such reasons, the US has decided Libya must be made an international pariah. It has nothing to do with the Lockerbie tragedy.

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