AL-QADHDHAFI ON POSSIBILITY OF ANOTHER U.S. RAID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP05-01559R000400410063-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 30, 2012
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: October 17, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/30: CIA-RDP05-01559R000400410063-1
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Friday Annex
17 October 1986
Vol V No 201
Annex No 067
Daily Report
MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
The information printed on these Annex pages preceding
and following the standard Daily Report cover bears the
caveat FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. Users may detach the
outer pages and treat the Daily Report as unclassified
and unrestricted.
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MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
ANNEX
Al-Qadhdhafi on Possibility of Another U.S. Raid
PM161442 Paris PARIS MATCH in French 17 Oct 86
pp 38,39 - FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
[Interview with Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi by
Pierre Hurel - date and place not given]
[Text] Paris Match: At the beginning of September the immi-
nence of another U.S. attack on Libya was front-page news in
the American press. At the same time General Walters, Presi-
dent Reagan's special envoy, visited the European governments
to find out about their attitude to such an eventuality. Do you
think that Europe, and particularly France, would take part in
another raid?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: I do not think so. The first Ameri-
can raid was a fiendish act and the whole world condemned
Reagan. The European governments, aside from Britain, were
not pleased with the American initiative. None of them would
want to take part in another attack by the White House thug.
Paris Match: If such an attack was perpetrated, how would
you react?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: If the United States uses its mili-
tary strength once again, I will be forced to look outside Libya
and raise an army on a world scale - an army of fedayeen and
commandos to crush the American empire. American fleets,
intercontinental missiles, and nuclear bombs will be unable to
combat this invisible army. There would be tens of thousands of
clandestine warriors,each wearing the cloak of danger. No reg-
ular army can right against a secret army. It is always secret
armies that have destroyed empires. This statement is my final
warning. I will not hesitate.
Paris Match: Do you mean that attacks will be perpetrated on
American territory?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: You should not ask me this ques-
tion. We have not perpetrated any acts of terrorism in Europe or
the United States. But if I decide to do so, no border will be
inviolable.
Paris Match: And yet no terrorist commando group has yet
struck inside the United States. It is Europe which is experienc-
ing the violence....
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: It is the United States that wants
the violence to be transferred to Europe. The United States is
prepared to sacrifice Europe to defend itself. That is why it has
deployed its medium-range missiles in Europe. It wants World
War III to be fought in your countries! The Europeans are
unaware of what is happening or are obedient to the Americans.
Paris Match: If there is another U.S. attack on Libya, how
would the Soviet Union react?
Paris Match: What was Gorbachev's answer to your recent
proposal to join the Warsaw Pact?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: I called for the creation of a pact
against imperialism that would be broader than the Warsaw
Pact. It will be created.
Paris Match: What do you think of the forthcoming Reagan-
Gorbachev summit?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: It will be a failure, like all the
previous summits. The Soviet Union wants to halt the arms race
for the sake of its own interests. The United States wants to
extend its lebensraum over the whole earth. Peace does not
interest the Americans. Reagan has told his friends that this
summit is a historic opportunity for the United States to win a
strategic victory over the USSR. Gorbachev will realize one day
that he has been betrayed.
Paris Match: What was your reaction to the recent terrorist
attacks in Paris?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: I expressed my sympathy to the
French Government over the victims of these acts. We were
surprised at this wave of violence in France. I do not know what
France has done to be the scene of such violence. Perhaps there
are things about which we do not know.... The cause of all this is
that France is involved in the Middle East conflict. And, just as
France and other European countries train terrorist groups, the
Middle East countries have their terrorist groups. Europe, as a
democratic continent, gives asylum to Middle East oppositionists
who are in fact terrorists. This is what has brought violence from
the Middle East to European territory. This violence will not end
until the Middle East conflict has been solved.
Paris Match: Do you know [Lebanese Revolutionary Armed
Forces leader] Georges Ibrahim `Abdallah?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhari: This is the first time I have heard
this name. Nobody is sure that it is his real name. And nobody
is sure that a person known by this name exists.
Paris Match: What is your reaction to [French Prime Minister]
Jacques Chirac's statements at the United Nations about Libyan
interference in Chad?
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Paris Match: He condemned Libya for "its attempts at
destabilization, its occupation of part of the territory, and,
finally, its open military aggression..."
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: But it is France that is responsible
for the destabilization of Chad! It is France that must withdraw
its troops! France is responsible for the destabilization of numer-
ous African countries. It has organized coups in the Central
African Republic, in Chad, in Congo, in Guinea, and in Niger.
All former French colonies have experienced and will experience
coups staged by France. This is because France wants certain
kinds of regime and is prepared to sacrifice a country's stability
to achieve this. But we will oppose this. If a French force returns
to Chad, we will enter Chad. If France fights in Chad, we will
fight. We will do this because our proximity puts us in the best
position to guarantee Chad's peace and stability.
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: We are opposed to the partition of
Chad. The law is on the side of the National Unity Transition
Government. The Ndjamena regime is illegal, it is a minority
government -protected by France. There is no government in
Ndjamena.
Paris Match: Could you intervene personally to secure the
release of the seven [French] hostages in Lebanon?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: Who is holding these hostages?
Paris Match: I personally do not know... You are in a better
position to know than I am!
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: So many hostages have been
released and so many have been killed that I do not have a very
clear picture of the current situation in Lebanon. But if I could
help secure their release I would not hesitate to do so.
Paris Match: You said recently with regard to the U.S.
raid: "The Libyan people repulsed the 10th crusade." Do you
regard yourself as the leader of the Arab people's historic revenge
against the West?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: Crusader-style hatred of the Arabs
is being revived in the West; it is ancestral hatred revived by the
alliance with Israel. We must enlighten the world and reveal the
existence of this religious pact against Islam - this racial pact
against the Arabs. The crusades are not over and this revival is
a disaster for civilization. We thought that the West had gone
beyond the stage of religious fundamentalism and racial hatred.
It is now reviving them.
Paris Match: The French in general tend to think that you are
the aggressor....
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: This is because I am one of the first
to defend the Arabs against the West. The West thinks that the
earth belongs to it and that men are its slaves. When the slaves
struggle, the West regards them as enemies, insurgents, barbar-
MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
ANNEX
ians, and terrorists. Somebody should restore the West's con-
science either by a cultural revolution or a violent struggle.
Paris Match: Western espionage experts state that the U.S.
raid in April destabilized your position inside Libya...
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: I have not noticed anything.
Paris Match: Has nothing changed?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: Nothing.
Paris Match: And yet there is talk of a plot hatched inside the
armed forces. Is this true? Has anybody been punished?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: The United States has trained ter-
rorists that it has infiltrated into Libya. This has happened
before, back in 1984: We found them in an apartment block
manufacturing explosives and plotting attacks. They were all
arrested. I know that the West and the United States are
continuing to train terrorists to infiltrate them into Libya. The
West is guilty of official terrorism against Libya and Syria. The
terrorists who have perpetrated attacks against civilians in Syria
were trained in the West. They are now in the FRG and Britain.
Paris Match: Do the French have reason to fear the Islamic
Revolution - that of Libya, Iran, and Syria?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: The three cases are not comparable.
The Libyan revolution is a national revolution that does not
concern France. We would have carried out this revolution
whether or not we had been Muslims. We are not living in the
days of the wars of religion. The conflict is not between Muslim
and Christian, but between the colonizer and the colonized.
Paris Match: Will you continue as Libyan leader for long or
do you intend to retire one day?
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: This is one of the things you do not
understand: I have no official post. This is a Jamahiriyah
(literally "of the people"), not a republic.
Paris Match: And yet you are called "the leader"! And it is
your face which can be seen on posters throughout Tripoli.
Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi: That is because I represent the
Libyan people. The Libyan people are behind me and this makes
me stronger than ever.
(Footnote) (The five questions Al-Qadhdhafi refused to answer:
- Does Georges Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine still have an office in Tripoli?
- What do you think of the presence in southern Lebanon of
1,400 French forces from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon?
- Will the Muslim Brotherhood play an important role in
future?
- It is said that since the American attack on 14 April you have
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V. 17 Oct 86 3 MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
ANNEX
worn a bullet-proof vest in public, that you change your car - What is the state of your health? Is it true that you take
several times a day, and that you never sleep in the same house antidepressants every day?)
two nights running.... Is this true? Are you afraid of an attack?
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