|
Books on Libya
REPUBLICAN REFERENCE
Area (sq.km)
1,759,540
Population
5,499,074
Capital
Tripoli
Currency
Libyan dinar
Leader
Col Mu'amar al-Qadhafi
|
Update No: 033 - (03/08/06)
Nuclear Libya
Perhaps reinforcing the fact that Libya now enjoys normalized relations with
the West, Libya's leader Col. Qadhafi resuscitated the subject of Libya's
efforts to develop a nuclear weapon and that he willingly gave up those plans in
the interest of Libya. Coincidentally, Qadhafi's announcement in mid-July
coincided with the discovery by the American satellite Isisin that Pakistan has
been building a new reactor in Khushab. Once finished, the plant would have the
capacity to make some 50 nuclear warheads/year. The coincidence lies in the
evidence that Libya's nuclear program was developed thanks to Pakistani aid. The
main element in this story is one Dr. Abdel Qader Khan. Dr. Khan admitted his
guilt in Pakistan, after he was confronted by the government for his alleged
involvement in exploiting his government position to sell nuclear technology to
those willing to pay. Khan's popularity in Pakistan as the father of the
'Islamic Bomb', allowed him to avoid arrest, so his guilt was presented as a
'judgment error'. However, his actual potential contribution to any actual
nuclear weapons development remains arguable. Khan's contributions were
restricted largely to areas in which he had worked. Much of the nuclear weapons
technology actually came from plans likely purchased in China in the 1980s.
Indeed, Chinese documents were discovered in the material that Libya turned over
to international authorities. It is believed that Libya paid Khan some $50
million for the nuclear weapons plans and some of the required equipment. It
would not be totally surprising if Libya used the Pakistani nuclear weapon
technology plans - the plans were insufficient in themselves in leading to the
production of an actual bomb - as the centrepiece of its strategy to gain
diplomatic currency with the West, at a time when the presence of Weapons of
Mass Destruction were sufficient excuse to invade a country.
If Dr. Khan has gotten away with a 'mea culpa' admission, the investigation into
the nuclear proliferation business that had - among others - Libya as a customer
continues, but the first results are not encouraging. In late July, the first
criminal trial of an alleged top figure was cancelled due to insufficient
evidence. A judge in the south-west German town of Mannheim dismissed the case
against Gotthard Lerch, a German engineer, who was accused of helping Libya
clandestinely build a nuclear bomb, because the prosecution withheld evidence.
The dismissal will not help the efforts of those trying to close down A.Q.Khan's
nuclear technology proliferation network. Lerch was alleged to have exported
components for centrifuges for enriching uranium for Libya's alleged nuclear
bomb program. According to the prosecution, Lerch was one of Dr. Khan's
principal associates according to witness Peter Griffin, a British citizen also
believed to belong to Khan's 'team'. Mr. Griffin testified against Lerch last
May, but he denied having played any deliberate role in helping Libya develops
nuclear arms capability. Mr. Lerch, according to the prosecution, helped Khan's
network in supplying Libya a uranium enrichment plant featuring more than 11,000
centrifuges, capable of producing enough weapons-grade uranium to build several
nuclear warheads a month. Khan's circle was made up by associates including a
Sri Lankan businessman, a Swiss engineer Friedrich Tinner, Mr. Lerch, and Peter
Griffin. The investigation has revealed that manufacturing the equipment for
Libya was subcontracted to firms in South Africa, Malaysia, Turkey and
Switzerland. Interestingly, Lerch's defence team was trying to convey the notion
that their client was actually a fall guy in a western intelligence plot. Should
that defense prove to be correct, it might give credence to reports first
published in the Wall Street Journal last May, that the plan to use Libya's
development of nuclear weapons as a card to improve relations with the west, was
the result of many months of backdoor negotiations between Libya, the UK and the
United States. Indeed, it even suggests that the shipment of nuclear equipment
cargo from Malaysia stopped in October of 2003, that led to the investigation
into Dr. Kahn's activities was perhaps part of that intelligence web and that it
had Col. Qadhafi's blessing. Obviously with the prosecution withholding evidence
after the trial had commenced, this gives ammunition to the conspiracy
theorists.
In July, meanwhile, as for Libya's nuclear capacity now, U.S. officials have
removed three kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the Tajoura
research centre near Tripoli, which could have been used to make a nuclear
weapon. The material was returned to Russia. The HEU was removed by the National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with participants from the United States,
Libya, the Russian Federation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The HEU was placed in three specialized transportation containers in a process
monitored by the IAEA. The containers were then airlifted from Tripoli to a
secure facility in Russia, where the HEU will be turned into Low-enriched
uranium (LEU). This is the latest shipment of a process that will result in all
nuclear material of Russian origin being returned to Russia. A large shipment of
material was made in May 2004.
The revived interest in Libya's nuclear program comes as Col. Qadhafi made a
surprisingly candid revelation in one of his speeches in July. According to JANA
(the main government news agency in Libya) Qadhafi said: "Libya was on the
point of building a nuclear bomb: that is no longer a secret….The Americans
and the International Atomic Energy Agency were well aware…." In the same
speech, Qadhafi also highlighted the distancing from the notion of pan-Arabism
that had marked much of his country's foreign policy efforts until the late
nineties, when Africa became their main declared focus. He described pan-Arabism
as a costly illusion: "We spent a lot of money on military projects but not
on civilian projects and reconstruction; our hopes on setting up an Arab nation
were immense but unfortunately all failed….This support was indispensable at
that time. It was in the name of Arab nationalism, socialism and revolution. Now
all that has changed and we have paid dearly for it."
The Lebanon Crisis
This revelation has some additional weight considering it comes as Lebanon
finds itself in a situation reminiscent of the late 1970's and early 1980's,
when there were strong allegations of Libyan involvement in Lebanese affairs.
Libya has always been the obvious primary suspect in the disappearance of the
spiritual and political leader of Lebanese Shiites - who helped launch the
Lebanese Shiite community's political aspirations in the 1960's and 1970's - who
disappeared mysteriously during a visit to Libya in 1979. Most Lebanese Shiites
have long maintained that Qadhafi's men assassinated Sadr and his two
companions, Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoub and Abbas Bader Eddine, a journalist. Libya
however maintains that Imam Musa al-Sadr boarded a plane to Rome (the Italian
government denied this). In the fall of 2000, a crisis emerged as Amal (the
political Shiite party associated with Al-Sadr, which would spawn Hezbollah and
Islamic Amal in the 1980's - see Syria update) led by Parliamentary Speaker
Nabih Berri, refused to invite Libya's ambassador in Beirut, Ali Maria, to the
opening session of Lebanon's newly-elected parliament. A Libyan state-run
newspaper demanded that the estimated 15,000 Lebanese who live and work in their
country be expelled. Defunct Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri travelled to Libya to
defuse the situation. However, Berri remained unimpressed and allies in the
Shiite communities such as Sheikh Nasrallah and the head of the Higher Shi'ite
Council, Sheikh Muhammad Mehdi Shamseddine, accused Libya of fuelling violence
during the Lebanese civil war, even suggesting that Libya conspired with Israel,
as the disappearance of Sadr occurred only four months after Israel's 1978
invasion.
As Lebanon is suffering another invasion from Israel and its internal politics
faces uncertainty once again, Libya is urging Arab countries to help Lebanon.
Libya has praised the Lebanese people's resistance and offered support for the
country over "the barbaric attacks of the Israeli regime" in an
official statement. The Libyan General People's Committee (GPC) has asked that
the External Relations and International Co-operation ministry establish
contacts with UN Security Council members and international organizations to
stop the Israeli attacks against the Lebanese people. The GPC has also to set up
an airlift medical, food aids and other relief materials, for which it would
also mobilize the grassroots People's Congresses and the different
municipalities to gather donations for the Lebanese people.
« Top
|
