Word: libyan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...perish under a deluge of facts. So the British government in Westminster and the semi-autonomous Scottish administration in Edinburgh could reasonably have expected the torrent of documents they published on Sept. 1 to kill off the wilder conspiracies surrounding last month's release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi. And those documents - letters among Westminster, Edinburgh and Tripoli; minutes of meetings; and reports on everything from al-Megrahi's failing health to the hefty policing costs that would be incurred if he were released in Scotland - certainly did illuminate the decision-making process that...
...Scottish document in particular could cause grief for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who insists that Britain had nothing to do with al-Megrahi's release. By contrast, the document, the minutes of a March 2009 meeting between Libyan and Scottish officials, says a Libyan minister recounted being told by British Foreign Minister Bill Rammell "that neither the prime minister [Brown] nor the foreign secretary [David Miliband] would want Mr. Megrahi to pass away in prison, but the decision on transfer lies in the hands of the Scottish ministers." If the critically ill al-Megrahi died in jail, the Libyan minister...
...Three years ago, Gaddafi opted to invest his excess oil revenues in a sovereign wealth fund called the Libyan Investment Authority, which has rocketed in value thanks to soaring oil prices on the world market. The fund has about $65 billion in capital, part of which Libya has used to build five-star resorts in African capitals and to run Afriqiyah Airways, which crisscrosses the Mediterranean to European cities...
...Perhaps for that reason, Libyan officials seem almost indifferent to the West's ire over al-Megrahi. In fact, on Aug. 31, Minister of International Cooperation Siala told reporters in Tripoli that Libya thinks now is a good time to ask Britain to investigate an assassination plot several years ago against Gaddafi - a plot which British officials deny ever existed. For its part, Britain wants Libyan officials to divulge information about the murder of British police officer Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot outside the Libyan embassy in 1984. What happens next between Britain and Libya could reveal whether al-Megrahi...
...Libyan officials are to meet with representatives of Britain and the U.S. next week to discuss what remains to be done in order to have the sanctions lifted. Even though Libya has the backing of the Arab League in demanding an immediate end to sanctions, don't expect any movement soon. For one thing, the Libyans want to wait until Megrahi's appeal is over before considering compensation - and that'll be just fine with the West. Ghaddafi's neighbors may begin simply ignoring sanctions as they have been doing with Iraq, but it could still be years before...