Something else you won't see in the NY Times>

PatPatriot · Mar 7, 2004

Last of Nuclear Equipment Leaves Libya
The Las Vegas Sun ^ | March 06, 2004 at 12:05:41 PST | ASSOCIATED PRESS

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - A cargo ship left Libya on Saturday carrying the last of the equipment that Moammar Gadhafi's government had used for its nuclear weapons program, a White House spokesman said.

The ship steamed for the United States laden with 500 tons of material containing "all known remaining equipment" associated with Libya's nuclear program, which it agreed last year to abandon.
The equipment included "all centrifuge parts and all equipment from its former uranium conversion facility," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters covering President Bush's long weekend at his Texas ranch.

The shipment also contained all of Libya's longer-range missiles, including five Scud-Cs, McCormack said.

In addition, "All Libya's known chemical munitions have been destroyed," he said, and stocks of mustard gas were removed from vulnerable warehouses and stored in a single, secure facility.
U.S. experts plan to open discussions with Libyan weapons scientists beginning Sunday about retraining them for peaceful projects, McCormack said.

In December, Libya agreed to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programs.

The country is trying to end its international isolation and restore relations with the United States.

WildBill · Mar 7, 2004

Sorry to disappoint you, but straight from the NY Times:

March 6, 2004
Libya Discloses Production of 23 Tons of Mustard Gas
By JUDITH MILLER

In a formal declaration on Friday, Libya disclosed that it had produced and stored some 23 tons of deadly mustard gas, according to an international disarmament body that monitors the ban on chemical weapons.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, said a Libyan delegation had turned over to the organization more than a dozen folders containing details of the illicit chemical weapons program.

In an effort to normalize its relations with the West, the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, announced last December that his country was renouncing chemical, biological and nuclear arms.

As officials at the chemical weapons organization and American officials in Washington began analyzing the Libyan declaration, a State Department-chartered ship loaded with more than 500 metric tons of equipment from Libya's nuclear and other weapons programs was preparing to leave Saturday morning.

The ship, whose name American officials refused to disclose, is carrying nuclear centrifuges and components, equipment from a uranium conversion facility and Libya's five SCUD-C, longer-range missiles, among other equipment and material, administration officials said.

A senior official said that the administration was still discussing the ultimate fate of this material, but that much of it would undoubtedly be destroyed. In late January, two American aircraft flew to the United States carrying nuclear weapons plans, centrifuge designs and components, and containers of chemicals used to enrich uranium.

"This is an astounding achievement," the senior official said of the impending departure of the so-called weapons of mass destruction. "Libya's W.M.D. program will soon be sailing away."

In its declaration to the chemical weapons organization, officials said Libya had acknowledged that it had made the mustard gas over a decade ago at Rabta, a production facility in the Libyan desert 75 miles southwest of Tripoli. It said it had kept the gas and a variety of chemical precursors intended for the production of sarin and other nerve agents at two storage facilities.

Libya also declared that it had tested the gas as a weapon and made thousands of bombs to deliver the lethal agents as part of its chemical weapons program. Libya said the chemical program began in the 1980's and ended in 1990, officials said.

In an interview on Friday, Rogelio Pfirter, director general of the chemical weapons organization, described the mustard gas stockpile as quite sizable, though the former Soviet Union and the United States both declared that they had made thousands of tons of the deadly agent. Mr. Pfirter noted that 23 tons of mustard gas could still have caused serious havoc to civilians and armies of the region had it been used.

He said Libya had also told his organization that while the mustard gas had been tested, it had never been used in a conflict or even put into bombs or other weapons.

Libya had been repeatedly accused of having used mustard gas and perhaps other chemical weapons in 1987 in its conflict with neighboring Chad, accusations Libyan officials had denied. The chemical weapons organization never found the allegations sufficiently persuasive to justify sending a mission to Chad to investigate, an organization official said today.

Officials of the organization are now poring over the declarations for information about which countries or companies might have helped Libya make chemical weapons or provide precursor chemicals. Officials said that while Libyan scientists had made the mustard gas, Libya had received precursor chemicals for deadly sarin and other nerve agents from entities in other countries.

One official said there was no indication yet that such precursors came from Pakistan. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, has acknowledged having sold nuclear materials and expertise to the nuclear programs of Libya, Iran and North Korea.

Officials at the organization said they expected that Libya's dossier on its chemical weapons program would be accurate and complete.

Only a handful of states have not signed and ratified the treaty banning chemical weapons. Israel has signed, but not ratified the treaty. Egypt, Syria and Lebanon have not signed it. Nor has North Korea, another state whose nuclear and other weapons programs deeply trouble the United States.

Mr. Pfirter said his organization was working closely with American and British inspectors who had visited Libyan weapons sites and advised Libyan officials on how best to carry out the government's renunciation pledges.

Last weekend, the organization monitored the destruction in Libya of more than 3,300 bomb casings that had never been filled but were designed to hold chemical agents.

Officials from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said the group would now begin plans for building a facility to destroy the mustard gas inside Libya.

Oceans11 · Mar 7, 2004

Libya ships out last WMD parts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3539799.stm

Front Page last night.

Balanced reporting. Ya can't beat it.

JudgeWapner · Mar 7, 2004

Pat,actually won't read anything in the Times,lousy sports page and no comics.

Shotgun · Mar 7, 2004

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Judge Wapner:
Pat,actually won't read anything in the Times,lousy sports page and no comics.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Come on Judge...we know the 'no comics' charge is just a codeword for no porn.