Does Libya have WMD?

Listening to the radio today (Radio 4) there were a couple of interviews with elderly residents of Tripoli, one of whom was extremely distressed and feared that a biological attack was a real possibility..

With this in mind I've been digging into the history a little..

Over the years, Libya’s nuclear program’s progress has suffered from mismanagement, lack of spare parts, and the reluctance of foreign suppliers to provide assistance, particularly since the UN embargo went into effect in 1992. However, Qadhafi had not abandoned his goal of acquiring a nuclear weapon. He continued to try to develop a Libyan nuclear weapons infrastructure. Despite a 25-year effort to acquire or develop a nuclear weapon, Libya’s nuclear program remained in the embryonic stage. Prior to 2003, the U.S. Intelligence Community estimated that Libya would have a deployable weapon by 2007. Subsequent inspections have since refuted that belief. It had succeeded in providing some training to a number of students and technicians and the establishment of a nuclear research center, which includes a small nuclear research reactor under IAEA safeguards. This facility, located at Tajura, southeast of Tripoli, was provided by the former Soviet Union. Since it was unlikely that Tripoli could produce a weapon without significant and sustained foreign technical assistance, Qadhafi reportedly was trying to recruit nuclear scientists to assist in developing nuclear weapons.

The article goes on further stating,

Libya ordered a pilot scale uranium conversion facility in 1984. A Japanese company supplied Libya with the technology. The sale was apparently arranged directly with the Japanese instead of through middlemen.

The full article is here globalsecurity.org
Nucleaar Non-Proliferation (wiki)

I'd be interested to hear any thoughts (on this subject in general, not necessarily just Libya)

Much Love
Stu

reply to post by discostu123


Libya has no WMD. Gadaffi was brutally honest, telling America that it had programs to develop nuclear technology, and urged them to come and inspect the facilities. It doesn't make sense that that they would do this if they planned to have nuclear weapons or develop them.

Following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by US forces in 2003, Gaddafi announced that his nation had an active weapons of mass destruction program, but was willing to allow international inspectors into his country to observe and dismantle them. US President George W. Bush and other supporters of the Iraq War portrayed Gaddafi's announcement as a direct consequence of the Iraq War by stating that Gaddafi acted out of fear for the future of his own regime if he continued to keep and conceal his weapons. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a supporter of the Iraq War, was quoted as saying that Gaddafi had privately phoned him, admitting as much. Many foreign policy experts, however, contend that Gaddafi's announcement was merely a continuation of his prior attempts at normalizing relations with the West and getting the sanctions removed. To support this, they point to the fact that Libya had already made similar offers starting four years prior to it finally being accepted.[49][50] International inspectors turned up several tons of chemical weaponry in Libya, as well as an active nuclear weapons program. As the process of destroying these weapons continued, Libya improved its cooperation with international monitoring regimes to the extent that, by March 2006, France was able to conclude an agreement with Libya to develop a significant nuclear power program.

en.wikipedia.org...

Seems like they have chemical and biological weapons, so yes, they have these types of WMDs - but what from I could find, Libya doesn't currently have functional nuclear weapon capabilities.

This recent article on Al Jazeera makes me worry a bit though:

Mustafa Abdel Galil, who resigned three days ago from his post as the country's justice minister, spoke to Al Jazeera at a meeting of tribal leaders and representatives of eastern Libya in the city of Al Baida.

He warned that Gaddafi has biological and chemical weapons, and will not hesitate to use them.

"We call on the international community and the UN to prevent Gaddafi from going on with his plans in Tripoli," he said. "At the end when he’s really pressured, he can do anything. I think Gaddafi will burn everything left behind him."

Source

The WMD issue appears to be clear. Remember that those now in opposition will say anything in order to get Gaddafi out. The same thing happened in Iraq with anti-Saddam sources over hyping WMD.

Back in 2004 Libya allowed international inspectors in to destroy the chemical cache and bombs.

www.armscontrol.org...

At the same time, international efforts to dismantle Libya’s chemical weapons program are progressing. On March 19, inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)—the organization that verifies compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention—verified Tripoli’s March 5 initial chemical weapons declaration. According to the OPCW, Libya declared “approximately 23 metric tonnes of mustard gas, 1,300 metric tonnes of precursor chemicals, …[an] inactivated chemical weapons production facility, …[and] two chemical weapons storage facilities.”

Between Feb. 27 and March 3, the OPCW also “verified… the complete destruction” of more than 3,500 unfilled bombs “designed to disperse chemical warfare agent,” according to organization press releases. The OPCW stated March 22 that it intends to verify Libya’s destruction of the remaining chemical agents.

www.iaea.org...

TJ