 Libyan leader Muammar Kadhafi said that his government had taken "corrective" action in renouncing weapons of mass destruction and that nations such as North Korea, Iran and Syria, suspected of having nuclear arms, should follow its lead.
| Oh, I love this. The cockles of my heart are all warm and mellow... |
"In my opinion I should believe that they should follow the steps of Libya, take an example from Libya, so that they prevent any tragedy being inflicted upon their own people," Kadhafi said in an exclusive interview with CNN late Monday. Kadhafi reasoned that such a step would "tighten the noose around the Israelis, so they would expose their programs of" weapons of mass destruction.
| Without everybody else trying to come up with warheads, maybe the Zionist Entity™ wouldn't need them? |
Libya on Friday took the world by surprise admitting after years of denial that it had weapons of mass destruction and vowing to renounce them.
| Floored me, I'll admit. On the other hand, I've also been saying all along that Muammar wasn't as dumb as his tailor makes him look... |
Kadhafi, however, told CNN that Libya did not posess nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. "We have not these weapons," he told CNN's Andrea Koppel during his interview in a tent a half an hour's drive outside the Libyan capital Tripoli. The programs to be dismantled, Kadhafi said, "would have been for peaceful purposes — but nevertheless we decided to get rid of them completely."
| Good idea. You don't need any peaceful nuclear warheads. |
In its official statement, Libya on Friday said it had "formally decided of its own free will to renounce all these substances, equipment and programmes, to become a country free of weapons of mass destruction." US officials on Saturday said that during secret visits to Libya in October, US intelligence agents found a more advanced uranium enrichment program than publicly disclosed but no evidence of actual production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Asked if US sanctions had impacted his decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction, Kadhafi replied: "The important thing is what we have done. It is the correct — corrective action."
| "Sanctions? Thhhhppp! I spit on sanctions! But we were pissing a lot of money away on toys and having adventures, and there are more important things in life than warheads. Like survival." |
He said the idea was "to improve relations between our respective countries," adding that he expected cooperation in "the technology industry" and in acquiring industrial equipment. "We wish American companies and these rich companies to cooperate with us and use them together for peaceful purposes," the Libyan leader said. The US government banned the import of Libyan crude oil in 1982 and in the following years imposed extra trade, export and investment bans. More sanctions were imposed in 1986 for Libya's alleged support for terrorism, including a total import-export ban, and expanded economic and travel embargos. Libya is also on a US blacklist as one of seven states accused of supporting terrorism. Libya's surprise announcement last week came days after US troops captured former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein near his home town of Tikrit.
| Quite a coincidence, huh? |
But Kadhafi said images of a bedraggled and bearded Saddam shown after he was found in an underground bolthole only served to create sympathy for the ousted dictator. "By the way he was shown, the way he appeared, meant everybody sympathizing with him," Kadhafi said. Kadhafi denied Saddam's fall had anything to do with the timing of his decision.
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