As part of efforts to bring about democracy and freedom to the more restrictive countries of the Arab world, the Bush administration is cozying up to Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi after he reneged on terrorism and gave up trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
Qadhafi, the one-time blackest of sheep among Middle East potentates, has suddenly turned a lighter shade of gray.
With that in mind Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed to Libya this week hoping to push forward diplomatic relations with Tripoli, relations that Libya would like to see expanded into full-blown ambassadorial exchanges. Lugar's trip will be the highest-profile US visit to Libya. It follows earlier visits by officials from the Treasury and State Departments. However, exchanges of ambassadors may still be off the books for a while as Qadhafi still needs to introduce real changes in Libya.
For decades Qadhafi has taunted the United States and the West by his blatant support of terrorist groups, funding of extremist Palestinian factions and arming of the Irish Republican Army, as well as providing support to a number of European separatist organizations such as the Corsicans, Basques and others.
For nearly 30 years Qadhafi arrested, jailed and executed - often without trial - tens of hundreds of Libyans opposed to his authoritarian demagoguery.
Qadhafi never hesitated to order his special branch of trained assassins to eliminate dissidents around the world or to place bombs in German discotheques frequented by American servicemen. He had a French civilian airplane blown out of the sky over Africa when he disagreed with Paris and was blamed for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to spite Washington.
Qadhafi tried to acquire weapons of mass destructions only to later realize that he would never have the capability of delivering them. In his own words, the supreme leader of the Libyan revolution said that if Libya ever managed to construct or acquire a nuclear bomb, the only target they could probably hit would be the island of Malta. And to what avail?
So why is it that this same Qadhafi decided to change his ways? Or has he?
Critics of the Libyan regime argue that in truth nothing in Tripoli has changed. Astute as ever, the Libyan leader handed to a visiting US congressional delegation some nuclear bomb-making equipment, along with a promise to introduce political changes and democracy.
But can Qadhafi who has ignored the law and ruled Libya through whims and caprices since he overthrew the monarchy in 1969 truly introduce democracy?
Mahmoud Chamam, a Libyan journalist living in the United States, said on Al Hurra TV on Monday that arrests and executions were still common practice in Libya and that nothing had changed.
Chamam and other Libyan exiles reject Qadhafi's "reforms" as pure whitewash meant to placate the Bush administration and to win him prestige and legitimacy in the eyes of the world and of his own people. Qadhafi even extended an invitation to President Bush to visit Libya. That would be the ultimate reward.
Contented that the Libyan leader is talking of reform the administration has engaged him in dialogue, hoping to normalize relations with the North African nation, but along the way somehow continued to ignore his human rights abuses.
It is precisely this attitude that has long angered critics of US foreign policy who accuse Washington of consistently supporting corrupt regimes when it suits its interests.
At this point it is worth asking what led Qadhafi to change his policy?
According to several Libyan exiles, one of his sons, Saif Al Islam, is more business-oriented than his father. Saif and his business associates would like to acquire concessions of mega-American corporations, such as MacDonalds, Pizza Hut and Nike. But as long as Libya remains on the US
Department of State terror list, conducting business with US companies remains impossible. So Saif convinces daddy that building WMD and supporting terrorism is bad for business. Well, you get the drift.
Changes are announced to the outside world while internally the regime continues to detain political prisoners, to muzzle the press and to ban political parties. Saif meanwhile, who holds no official position in the Libyan government, invited Libyan expatriates to return and invest in Libya's future.
If Libyans failed to flock back taking Qadhafi at his word, Western leaders wasted little time jostling for positions and prospective business deals.
In this respect Bush is not alone in flirting with Qadhafi and his potentially lucrative oil fields. Other top Western officials who have already visited Libya include Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French President Jacques Chirac and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The list of foreign visitors looks impressive but Libyan dissidents say that they would like to see real changes.
By Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
