zimv20
Jun 9, 2004, 09:12 PM
link (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/international/africa/10LIBY.html?hp)
WSHINGTON, June 9 — While the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was renouncing terrorism and negotiating the lifting of sanctions last year, his intelligence chiefs ordered a covert operation to assassinate the ruler of Saudi Arabia and destabilize the oil-rich kingdom, according to testimony of two participants in the conspiracy.
Those participants, Abdurahman Alamoudi, an American Muslim leader now in jail in Alexandria, Va., and Colonel Mohamed Ismael, a Libyan intelligence officer in Saudi custody, have given separate statements to American and Saudi officials outlining the plot. One of them, Mr. Alamoudi, has stated to FBI officials and federal prosecutors that Colonel Qadaffi approved the assassination plan.
A Libyan terrorist plot, if verified by American, British and Saudi governments who are working in close coordination to investigate it, would undermine Colonel Qadaffi's public pledges that his government has abandoned terrorism. It could also trigger a reinstatement of international sanctions on Libya that were lifted by the United Nations Security Council last September after Colonel Qadaffi's government renounced terrorism, admitted responsibility for the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, and agreed to pay $10 million compensation to the families.
A senior Bush administration official said that the emergence of convincing evidence that Colonel Qadaffi ordered or condoned an assassination and terror campaign could cause a full ''180 degree'' reversal of American policy towards Libya. President Bush has conveyed to the Saudi royal family that he is going to find out what happened in the alleged conspiracy, according to a diplomat. Mr. Alamoudi has told prosecutors that he twice met with Colonel Qadaffi, in June and August of 2003, to discuss details of the assassination plan, according to people with official access to his statements.
WSHINGTON, June 9 — While the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was renouncing terrorism and negotiating the lifting of sanctions last year, his intelligence chiefs ordered a covert operation to assassinate the ruler of Saudi Arabia and destabilize the oil-rich kingdom, according to testimony of two participants in the conspiracy.
Those participants, Abdurahman Alamoudi, an American Muslim leader now in jail in Alexandria, Va., and Colonel Mohamed Ismael, a Libyan intelligence officer in Saudi custody, have given separate statements to American and Saudi officials outlining the plot. One of them, Mr. Alamoudi, has stated to FBI officials and federal prosecutors that Colonel Qadaffi approved the assassination plan.
A Libyan terrorist plot, if verified by American, British and Saudi governments who are working in close coordination to investigate it, would undermine Colonel Qadaffi's public pledges that his government has abandoned terrorism. It could also trigger a reinstatement of international sanctions on Libya that were lifted by the United Nations Security Council last September after Colonel Qadaffi's government renounced terrorism, admitted responsibility for the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing, and agreed to pay $10 million compensation to the families.
A senior Bush administration official said that the emergence of convincing evidence that Colonel Qadaffi ordered or condoned an assassination and terror campaign could cause a full ''180 degree'' reversal of American policy towards Libya. President Bush has conveyed to the Saudi royal family that he is going to find out what happened in the alleged conspiracy, according to a diplomat. Mr. Alamoudi has told prosecutors that he twice met with Colonel Qadaffi, in June and August of 2003, to discuss details of the assassination plan, according to people with official access to his statements.
