ABC NIGHTLINE - MOAMMAR KHADAFY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505250059-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: November 20, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP
ABC NIGHTLINE
20 November 1984
KOPPEL: Good evening. I'm Ted Koppel, and this is N ems &r1 ,n
as the ultimate Arab leader. He has supported international terrorism. He's
underwritten political assassination. And he's engaged in a frantic effort to
buy his own nuclear bomb. Libya's Moammar Khadafy, how much longer will the
rest of the world put up with him?
DUNSMORE: However complex Khadafy's personality, analysts are unanimous that
he
is driven by a single-minded ambition. He wants the mantle of former Egyptian
President Nasser. He wants to reunite and lead the Arab world. It has been
his
greatest frustration that he comes from a tiny country of some 3 million people
and therefore has no legitimate power base. ROBERT KUPPERMAN (Center for
Strategic and International Studies): He's.a one-man source of tyranny, with a
comparatively small following that is willing to violate all of the
international norms of decency and who somehow has maintained a high degree of
personal charisma and zealousness upon the part of his followers.
DUNSMORE: Most of his escapades, however egregious, can be seen as attempts to
make himself important. He has dispatched hit squads to assassinate President
Reagan and former Secretary of State Haig. He has mined. the Suez Canal. He
has
made war on the Sudan. And he has eliminated untold numbers of his opponents
within and outside of Libya. The latest incident in Egypt would be, for him,
only a minor setback. If you take a map of the world and then paint red every
country where Khadafy has supported terrorist groups, tried -to overthrow the
government, sent in hit squads to assassinate political leaders or tried to
form
a political union, the map will be redder than during the heyday of the British
empire. There are rather more important reasons for the British to dislike.
Khadafy. In April, a man inside the Libyan People's Bureau here in London
fired
on a crowd of demonstrators, killing a policewoman. After the shooting and
siege here at the People's Bureau, many Britons were asking the old questions,
'Why do we put up with Khadafy? Why not cut off all ties and isolate him?' And
back came the same old answer, 'Well, Khadafy may be bad politics, but he.is
good business.' There's no question that Khadafy's oil money has created a
tolerance for his behavior, which would otherwise not exist. Britain broke
relations but continues to trade with Libya. France stood up to Khadafy in the
civil war in Chad, but President Mitterrand's critics say he was out-maneuvered
by Khadafy into a premature withdrawal from Chad because the French want to
resume arms sales to Libya. Even the United States, despite all the public
hand-wringing, still does business with Libya. One thousand Americans continue
to work there, and U.S. oil companies continue to make millions. Ironically,
parts of the Arab world believe Khadafy survives because he is a creature of
the
CIA. In this view, said to be held by.senior Saudi Arabian officials, Khadafy
is useful because he could give the U.S. access to his Soviet weaponry, and he
is a divisive force in the Arab world. Actually, the greatest concern for
Washington is the possibility that Khadafy might get his hands on nuclear
Continued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000505250059-2