The Lebanese newspaper Dar Al Hayat publishes an interview with US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, David Welch. Among the questions posed is:
'You personally mediated the agreement between Libya and Washington on Lockerbie case, among other issues. How did you reach the breakthrough?'
And here is Mr Welch's answer:
'There have been attempts from several American administrations to move Libya out of the game of terrorism into a more responsible behavior and away from weapons of mass destruction. And only because Libya decided to do this, it offers an alternative role model. As Americans, we took some steps too, you know my country, sometimes it is hard for Americans to close the book, and we cannot forget that Americans died, and Libyans died. Today, we have turned the page and it is very important to remove a country from terrorism list when it has done the things expected from it. In the next five years we will see dramatic changes in the policy, as Secretary Rice says there is no "hole in the policy" going from here.'
It was playwright George Bernard Shaw who claimed that "England and America are two countries divided by a common language." But in this instance Americans too might find it difficult to fathom Mr Welch's meaning.
David Welch was also the architect of the Libya Compensation and Restitution Act (LCRA) whereby a fund was set up in the U.S. to which donors contributed 1.8 billion dollars for the compensation of victims of Libyan terror and for victims of the U.S. bombing of Libya in 1986. Welch would not say who the donors were but assumed they were American companies.
ReplyDeleteThe back story is that U.S. oil companies in Libya contributed all the money. $US300 million went directly to Libya and $US 1.5 billion was sent to the U.S. canceling all lawsuits against Libya (many billions). The agreement also allowed Libya and the U.S. to transfer what remained of the fund anywhere they jointly chose. The net result was that U.S. oil companies (perhaps BP also?) bribed the Libyan government with a $300 million up front payment, got all lawsuits against Libya in the U.S. canceled, prepared the way for a backend payment and opened the door for USAID military assistance to Libya.
The victims of Libya terror were the last people to be considered and were squeezed by the State Department to settle for far less than they would have received in court.
And Libya paid NOTHING.
Sweet deal for Libya and for David Welch who immediately quit the State Department and went to work for Bechtel in London in charge of, among other things, Bechtel's Joint Egyptian-Libyan power sector projects. Would we be surprised if al Megrahi's early release was not a part of this deal?
Perhaps somebody should find out what companies were the actual contributors to the fund, did they declare it on their books, or as it paid by foreign subsidiaries and did they declare it as a charitable gift in the U.S. for tax purposes?