QADHAFI SCOURGE OF THE THIRD WORLD
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CIA-RDP88B00443R000502190001-7
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December 22, 2016
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January 10, 2011
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QADHAFI
SCOURGE OF THE THIRD WORLD
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It should come as a surprise to no one that the leading
fomenter of trouble in Africa--and in many other parts of the
world--is none other than Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, dictator of
Libya. Since the mid-1970s Qadhafi has stepped onto the world stage
as an unwelcome actor who regularly dabbles in the internal affairs
of other countries. That is hardly news to any of you.
But it may come as news to learn that during the past few
years Qadhafi's drive for power has taken on a new dimension as his
military forces add new weapons and as his personal security service
takes on increasingly daring missions of assassination and
subversion. Today, Qadhafi's operations threaten perhaps two dozen
countries on five continents. His agents roam the world in search
of mischief, and his armies pose an ever-growing threat to Libya's
neighbors.
This morning I hope to tell you a little bit about Mr.
Qadhafi's recent activities to give you a feel for his growing
influence, and the nature of Qadhafi's quest for power. (PAUSE)
As revolutions go,....
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As revolutions go, that which brought Qadhafi to power back
in 1969 was not especially noteworthy. All that can be said is that
it was brief, nearly bloodless, nationalist in character, and
succeeded in bringing down a drowsy monarchy that threatened no
one. But in the monarchy's place, Qadhafi created a totalitarian
state that has the potential to unleash a savage war in Africa and
the Middle East. What is more, Qadhafi has at his command the
financial resources needed to build a highly militarized state and
to engage in sabotage and subversion as far afield as Nicaragua and
the Philippines.
When Qadhafi took power in 1969 he did so as a zealot with
messianic pretensions. Qadhafi sees himself as a latter-day prophet
who has received a special vision of religious, social, and
political truth to bring to the people of Libya. Qadhafi genuinely
believes that his views will serve as a basis for eventual
revolution throughout the Third World. While broadcasting his views
of revolution, puritanism, unity, and militancy, Qadhafi carefully
masks his personal ambitions for Libyan territorial expansion at the
expense of his neighbors, and for increased personal power.
I want to point out that Qadhafi's goals--both his publicly
stated aims and his hidden agenda--have not changed since he came to
power more than fifteen years ago. But his early and somewhat naive
optimism is today clearly gone. Qadhafi now recognizes that his
version of pan-Arabism ....
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version of pan-Arabism has little appeal to other Arabs. Moreover,
his brand of socialism and radicalism is repugnant to most Muslims
outside Libya. Qadhafi surely knows this, as he has suffered a
number of setbacks politically since his aims became generally known
in the early 1970s.
Nonetheless, Qadhafi remains absolutely determined to change
the course of history in the Middle East and elsewhere. He has
never had any moral qualms about using terror and violence to
achieve his ends, but with the failure of his early attempt to
persuade others to follow his example, he has turned increasingly to
military might and subversion. This trend has become particularly
pronounced in the last few years.
Since 1981 Qadhafi has turned sharply to confrontational
tactics with his neighbors that make good use of his
rapidly-expanding military forces. For example, Libya's army and
air force currently are operating in the northern portion of
neighboring Chad in an effort to continue and deepen the turmoil
that has cursed that small country for many years. Other military
forces are deployed opposite the border with Egypt--a major enemy
from Qadhafi's point of view. Yet another major portion of
Qadhafi's forces threatens Tunisia.
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It is no secret how Qadhafi has been able to build up his
military power. Qadhafi is the best cash-paying customer Moscow has
for its weaponry. Now, the Soviets are not fools. They are puzzled
by Qadhafi's erratic behavior--as are the rest of us. And the
Soviets genuinely fear that Qadhafi's wild behavior may lead him to
overstep his bounds, thus plunging the Middle East into serious
conflicts that could threaten Soviet interests.
But still they sell him weapons.
Lots of weapons.
Consider for example, the fact that Qadhafi has purchased
some $20 billion worth of weapons since 1974 from the Soviets and
their client states in Eastern Europe. This includes more than
2,500 tanks, 550 Jet fighters, and hundreds of self-propelled
artillery pieces and surface-to-air missiles. Now, weapons like
these look fine on the parade ground. But their purpose is to
intimidate moderate regimes in the Third World and to inflict death
and destruction on the battlefield--and they do.
Another indicator of Qadhafi's aggressive intentions is his
expansion of the manpower of the armed forces. Before Qadhafi
seized power, Libya's army consisted of barely 8,500 men with six
tanks and 90 scout cars.....
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tanks and 90 scout cars. Today, Qadhafi has more than 90,000
troops. Indeed, this figure is up by a third from estimated troop
strength of 60,000 just five years ago. And still the build-up goes
Egypt must now consider that a major threat to its security
lies west of El Alamein. And Cairo also cannot ignore the
possibility that the Libyans will force their way in through the
"back door" to the South--through the Sudan. Qadhafi also possesses
enough naval and air power to disrupt shipping in the Suez and Red
Sea (as indeed he did in the Spring of 1984) and to disrupt resupply
to Egypt from European ports across the Mediterranean.
The Libyan air attack on a Sudanese radio station
broadcasting anti-Qadhafi propaganda in March, 1984 demonstrates the
lengths Qadhafi will go to intimidate moderate regimes as well as
the types of terrorist missions he foresees for his armed forces.
Algeria finds itself in the position of directing increasing
amounts of attention to its southeastern border with Libya. But
even more important from Algiers' perspective is Qadhafi's political
threat to Tunisia. If Qadhafi is able to create or capitalize upon
serious internal upheaval in Tunisia, Algeria could face a greatly
increased Libyan threat along its entire eastern border.
But unhappiest of all....
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But unhappiest of all are the weak states lying to the south
of Libya. Chad is the obvious victim of Libyan aggression. But the
Sudan and even Niger [NEE-ZHER] feel the threat of Libyan arms on
their borders. As many of you know, Chad has been effectively
partitioned since 1983 into a Libyan-dominated northern "state", and
the recognized government of President Habre [HAH-BRAY] in the
south. What is not generally known is that Qadhafi nipped off a
slice of Chadian territory known as the Aozou [OW-ZOH] Strip as his
price for temporarily curtailing subversion against the Government
-- subversion that, I might add, he instigated.
Now, we have seen this kind of bullying and threatening
before. Many of you who are as old as I am vividly remember a
similar megalomaniac by the name of Adolf Hitler who followed a
nearly identical path. Motivated by visions of grandeur and
conquest, Hitler built up a tremendous military machine while
completing his totalitarian hold on Germany. Through generous doses
of duplicity and terror, he used his power to strip Czechoslovakia
of the Sudetenland [SOO-DATE-N-LAHND], to bully small neighbors on
his borders, and to swallow tiny Austria whole. From my
perspective, the parallels between Hitler's behavior in Europe and
Qadhafi's behavior in Africa are too close to be a matter of mere
coincidence or idle curiosity.
But the story does not....
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But the story does not end here.
There is an aspect of Qadhafi's international behavior that
even Hitler did not emulate. And that is Qadhafi's use of "hit
teams", subversion, and terrorism on a scale unprecedented in this
century.
Qadhafi's program of terror, fear, and subversion has reached
countries hundreds or even thousands of miles from Libya's shores.
These include, to name but a few, Italy, Greece, West Germany,
France, Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Ghana, Mauritania, Zaire,
Uganda, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Brazil, the island republics
of the West Indies, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and...yes, the United
States.
Let me give you just a few of the more spectacular Libyan
plots that have come to light in the last two years or so.
*In June 1983, the Libyan envoy to Jordan defected
and revealed Qadhafi's plan to use missiles to
destroy the aircraft carrying King Hussein.
*One of Qadhafi's most publicized efforts was an
attempt to kill Chadian President Habre with a
briefcase bomb in September 1984.
*As indicated during ....
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*As indicated during the shootout last year in
London, Libya abused diplomatic privilege by
storing large quantities of arms and explosives
at its diplomatic establishments.
*The FBI last spring disrupted Libyan plans to
conduct attacks on Libyan dissidents living in
the U.S.
*During the past two years, Libyan terrorists
have killed or wounded a number of dissidents
in Europe. Tripoli also was responsible for
a series of bombings in the UK which injured
25 people in London and Manchester in spring 1984.
*In March 1984, Tripoli used one of its
Soviet-supplied TU-22 bombers to attack a
dissident radio station outside of Khartoum,
Sudan. This was followed in July 1984 by Libya's
mining of the Red Sea.
*Last May Egyptian officials intercepted a truck
loaded with explosives that reportedly were to be
used in a Libyan-backed plot to blow up the U.S.
Embassy in Cairo.
In the past, Qadhafi's....
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In the past, Qadhafi's fear of U.S. retaliation has made him
reluctant to target U.S. personnel directly in terrorist operations.
This reluctance may be diminishing, however.
*Qadhafi has publicly warned that he would expand
terrorism to the U.S. in retaliation for what he
claimed was the U.S. inspired attempt to attack
his headquarters in May 1984.
*Moreover, Qadhafi and his principal deputy,
Jallud, [JAH-LOOD] have made five major speeches
this year alone extolling the use of suicide
terrorists in operations against U.S. personnel
in Lebanon.
Now, I could go on and on with specific examples to document
Qadhafi's numerous outrages against other nations and against
international law in general. But I think I have cited enough
examples to make the case.
The point is that Qadhafi has repeatedly--let me emphasize
that word--repeatedly demonstrated that he is unconstrained by
accepted standards of international conduct. He has repeatedly
employed tactics of assassination and violence not only against
Libyan exiles and ....
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Libyan exiles and opponents, but against foreign leaders such as
President Mubarak [MOO-BAHR-AHK], President Habre, and former
Sudanese President Nimeiri, King Hussein, and Iraq's President
Saddam Hussein. He has established terrorist training camps on
Libyan soil, financed known terrorists, provided them weapons and
documentation, and given terrorists safe-haven following their
missions.
This latter activity--the training and dispatching of
terrorist goons--has the potential for becoming an even greater
threat to international stability and order than does Qadhafi's
purely military build-up which I mentioned earlier.
This is basically for two reasons. First, with continued
recruitment and training of terrorist operatives, Qadhafi can expand
his "reach" to corners of the globe he could not otherwise hope to
touch. Second, the terrorists he has trained now are training
others. In this way, the evil that Qadhafi has brought into the
world now is reproducing itself and spreading like a virus
throughout Africa and the Arab World to Europe, the Americas, and
East Asia.
Unlike the build-up of military forces, the employment of
terrorists is relatively cheap and quick. And, in the Middle East,
it is not hard....
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it is not hard to recruit or train fanatics of many stripes to carry
out terrorist acts. Furthermore, terrorist teams are small, highly
mobile, hard to detect, and harder still to defend against.
Qadhafi probably hopes that terrorist units can be employed
to destabilize his enemies, particularly Egypt and Jordan, thereby
precipitating a revolution or--at a minimum--weakening the military
and security defenses of those countries.
Qadhafi's goals in Western Europe and the Americas probably
are somewhat less ambitious, but are nonetheless serious. By
fomenting trouble, for example, in the island republics of the West
Indies, Qadhafi probably hopes to divert the attention and resources
of the U.S. and France away from the Middle East and Africa.
Qadhafi's objectives in Africa are more obvious. By methods
both crude and bold, Qadhafi seeks to make himself the paramount
ruler on the continent. If Qadhafi had his way, both Western and
Soviet influence in Africa would be eliminated and replaced by his
own stark, narrow, ethnocentric views which blend socialism, a
maverick version of Islam, and xenophobia. Tripoli would become, in
effect, the political capital of Africa, and Qadhafi its prophet and
master.
Let me go back....
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Let me go back for a moment and pick up on the Soviet thread
in this Libyan tangle.
I mentioned earlier that the Soviets are as puzzled as we are
about some of Qadhafi's actions. And they are. And, I mentioned
that--despite their well-placed qualms about Qadhafi's goals--they
continue to sell him mountains of sophisticated weapons. And so
they do.
Why? (PAUSE)
The Soviets look at Qadhafi through two sets of eyes. As
veteran subversives themselves, they recognize in Qadhafi one of
"their own." Qadhafi's activities are almost entirely directed
against the democracies of Europe and the Americas, and their allies
among the moderate states of Africa and the Middle East. These are
the very same countries that the Soviets are seeking to weaken or
destroy. If Qadhafi can do the work for them, so much the better.
The icing on the cake, of course, is that--not only is
Qadhafi actively aiding and promoting the Soviets' long-term
strategy-- he is paying for the privilege! In hard currency, at
that.
W.C. Fields once....
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W.C. Fields once said "Never give a sucker an even break."
The Soviets are no fools. But they recognize in Qadhafi a useful
crackpot who repeatedly squanders billions of dollars of Libya's
precious oil money on Soviet weapons, and then turns those weapons
against the very countries that are targets of Soviet subversion.
Why, indeed, should the Soviets give Qadhafi an even break?
The Soviets should be grateful to Mr. Qadhafi. Were it not
for Qadhafi's kind assistance, the Soviets would have to spend years
building up legions of spies and fifth columnists in many countries,
carry out the whole range of risky terrorist and subversive
activities themselves, and then supply--at their own cost--the
billions and billions of dollars' worth of weapons that have been
channeled through Qadhafi's arsenals to other countries. Maybe
Lenin was right when he talked of "useful idiots" who unwittingly
serve the cause of the Bolshevik Revolution. Qadhafi certainly fits
the description.
But let me touch on one other thing before I close. Like
war, fear makes strange bedfellows. Qadhafi's rapid military
build-up, his political blustering over the air waves, and
especially his wide-ranging bands of thugs and murderers is getting
a lot of people worried. Not just on Pennsylvania Avenue. But in
places like Algiers, Cairo, Tunis, Paris, Kinshasa, and Bonn.
In short, if Qadhafi....
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In short, if Qadhafi continues his current reckless path to
power, more and more countries will come to recognize him for what
he is--a major threat to peace in the Middle East. And, if he
continues to bully and threaten, sooner or later his smaller and
weaker neighbors will Join together to protect themselves from
Qadhafi's depredations.
Qadhafi, like Hitler, will last only so long as his many
victims remain divided and fearful. Qadhafi has repeated Hitler's
error of mistaking for weakness the restraint of moderate countries
like Egypt. He looks cynically on international resolutions
condemning him for aggression as being only so many scraps of paper.
Could history repeat itself? Only time will tell.
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