bin Laden tried to kill Gadhafi in 1998. May be why he seen the light?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040326-061833-8543r

Analysis: Al-Qaida tried to kill Gadhafi

By Roland Flamini
Chief International Correspondent
Published 3/26/2004 7:06 PM
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WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair was right. It was "strange" to be in Libya. Firstly because of the Arabian nightmare setting of tents, camels and security men. But also because Moammar Gadhafi's remarkable switch from leader of a rogue state with a secret nuclear weapons program to an Arab president apparently eager to cooperate with the West raises and leaves unanswered curious nagging questions.

President Bush has been quick to claim the great Libyan turnaround as one of the welcome by-products of the Iraq war. Gadhafi does not want to be the next Middle Eastern maverick to mess with the U.S. Marines, goes the Bush administration's argument. But European sources who know Gadhafi say he is less concerned about the U.S. threat than the threat from Osama bin Laden.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shalgam told British reporters with Blair Thursday that Libya had pushed Interpol in 1998 to issue an international warrant for the arrest of the Saudi-born militant leader, but Interpol failed to take action. Shalgam said Libya had done this after bin Laden had organized an attempt on Gadhafi's life because he was not a true Muslim.

Shalgam's claim was remarkable because the Libyan regime has in the past always denied the periodic reports of assassination attempts against the leader. But the purpose was to show that Gadhafi shared common cause with the United States and its allies in the fight against terrorism.

In reality, bin Laden's organization al-Qaida has tried more than once to assassinate Gadhafi, on one occasion actually wounding him in the arm and leg.

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[Minstrel Boy]

1. And Britain more than once tried to kill Gadhafi with the help of al Qaeda

"British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice."
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4543555-102279,00.html

http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/shaylergatehtm.htm

Whose interests, again, does al Qaeda serve?

[TacticalPeek]

2. And AQ wanted to kill Saddam and he knew it.

March 5, 2003

Why Hussein Will Not Give Weapons of Mass Destruction to Al Qaeda

by Gene Healy

Gene Healy is senior editor at the Cato Institute.

Of all the reasons the administration has offered for war with Iraq, keeping chemical and biological weapons out of the hands of Al Qaeda resonates most strongly with the American people. President Bush used that frightening prospect to dramatic effect in his State of the Union speech: "Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known."

But the administration's strongest sound-bite on Iraq is also its weakest argument for war. The idea that Saddam Hussein would trust Al Qaeda enough to give Al Qaeda operatives chemical or biological weapons -- and trust them to keep quiet about it -- is simply not plausible.

Bin Laden, who views the rigid Saudi theocracy as insufficiently Islamic, has long considered Saddam Hussein an infidel enemy. Before Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, Bin Laden warned publicly that the Iraqi dictator had designs on conquering Saudi Arabia. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, Bin Laden offered to assemble his mujahedeen to battle Hussein and protect the Arabian peninsula.

Last summer, when CNN acquired a cache of internal Al Qaeda training videotapes, they discovered a Qaeda documentary that was highly critical of Hussein. Peter Bergen, the CNN terrorism expert who interviewed Bin Laden in 1998, noted that Bin Laden indicted Hussein, as "a bad Muslim."

That theme continues in the latest "Bin Laden" audiotape, released to Al Jazeera. In it, Bin Laden (or someone claiming to be him) urges Muslims to fight the American "crusaders" bent on invading Iraq. But even while urging assistance to Hussein's "socialist" regime, "Bin Laden" can't resist condemning that regime: "The jurisdiction of the socialists and those rulers has fallen a long time ago .... Socialists are infidels wherever they are, whether they are in Baghdad or Aden."

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http://www.cato.org/dailys/03-05-03.html

[BonjourUSA]

3. just because Gadhafi (like Saddam) was a secular Arab leader.

[UTUSN]

4. Kick for Deflating Crusader Shrub n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I think ol' Moammar may have seen the light

glinting off one of those carpets of gold. Maybe he got tired of living in a tent with all his camels.

[Aidoneus]

6. ahem.. MI6 PAID Ussamah's people to try and kill al-Qaddhafi

Only half the story there..

on edit:--bah, somebody else already mentioned that. :shrug:

[KharmaTrain]

7. Lots Of Things At Play Here

Pepe LeBlair's visit to Tripoli is sublime at best, considering this rapid "change of heart". But there's a bunch of other things at play here and I'm sure I am only hitting on a few I've heard...and I already see others putting in links and quotes that add to the picture.

For years, I've heard Khadaffi (is there a proper DU spelling here???) has been playing ball with Western Europe. I have an online contact in Malta (between Libya and Italy) and there's a lot of commerce that goes on between those countries as well as the rest of Europe. The U.S. embargo on Tripoli was a far bigger joke than the one on Iraq.

If you'll remember, Khadaffi began "coming around" in the late 90's when he stopped harboring the Pan Am bombers and then slowly started to open up. I remember CNN doing a live interview with him in 2000 (this is one strange dude) offering to discuss WMD and other weapons programs and establishing better relations with the U.S.

The wingnuts have attempted to make this seem like some conversion by the sword...Khadaffi didn't want to suffer the same fate Hussein did, but the "isolation" of Libya has been a sham for years...especially since Libyan crude gets the best price on the spot market. Ya think a Halliburton could let something like this get past 'em???

[Old and In the Way]

8. So Bush is simply taking credit for Libya's change of heart 6 years

ago. A picture of this warrant was in the book, "Forbidden Truth"