Rabta A Case Study in International Action

These allegations caused anxiety because of the bellicose, and recurrently ineffective, foreign policy mounted by Muammar Qaddafi since he seized power in 1969. He has frequently gone to war with his neighbours, sent forces to intervene in more distant parts of Africa, sponsored acts of terrorism, and issued threats against Israel, the United States and other countries. Moreover, his military forces, armed with conventional weapons, have periodically foundered in their local conflicts. In 1977 

Shultz repeatedly interjected to make the key points as sharp as possible the Bonn authorities felt unable to act publicly against the companies involved. The BND insisted that its own evidence, which confirmed the role of Imhausen and Salzgitter AG staff, could not be used in court. Moreover, it doubted whether any evidence would be found in the Imhausen premises, as the company had almost certainly moved all its documentation abroad after the earliest revelation of the Rabta plant in The New York Times of 24 December 1987.  

The Bonn authorities deeply resented the American allegations, especially the recourse to a media campaign . Some officials suggested that this was merely an attempt to embarrass Foreign Minister Genscher, and there was understandable outrage over Williams Satire s reference in The 

We had three things the engineering configuration of the plant, which our experts said was unmistakenably [.y/c] chemical weapons. We had the deployment of anti-aircraft guns, and we had other sources that we couldn t share which were even more direct. We knew 100 per cent it was a chemical weapons plant.  

Within days of the inauguration of President George Bush, official spokesmen were also asserting that the policy had had a serious impact upon the Libyan production programme. Charles Redman of the State Department maintained that Rabta was not capable of production , and that US policy was intended to prevent Libya from producing any operational or full-scale quantities of chemical weapons. Although other 

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