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Ship Seizure Led Libya to Open WMD-Related Sites, Officials Say
An operation conducted this fall through the Proliferation Security Initiative — a U.S.-led effort to interdict suspect shipments of WMD-related cargo — played a role in Libya’s decision to allow U.S. and British experts to visit WMD-related sites, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Dec. 30). In September, U.S. and British intelligence learned that a German-owned freighter was leaving a Persian Gulf port with uranium enrichment centrifuge equipment bound for Libya, U.S. officials said. U.S. and British officials alerted the German government, which in turn contacted the ship’s owner, who agreed to divert it, according to the Journal. The ship arrived in an Italian port, where the centrifuge equipment was found onboard. The capture of the equipment appeared to have an impact on Libya, which had previously discussed only in general terms with U.S. and British officials about allowing access to WMD-related sites, U.S. officials said. Once the centrifuge shipment was blocked, “they saw how much we knew about what they were doing,” a U.S. official said (Carla Anne Robbins, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 31). Meanwhile, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday that his agency, and his agency alone, would dismantle Libya’s nuclear weapons program, according to the Associated Press. The IAEA would welcome U.S. and British intelligence that would aid agency inspectors in Libya, ElBaradei said. He also said, however, that the IAEA would be responsible for dismantling Libya’s nuclear program — contrary to U.S. plans to send technical experts to assist in such efforts. “I am not familiar with anything they plan to do on a bilateral basis,” ElBaradei said of the U.S. plans. “As far as I’m concerned, we have the mandate, and we intend to do it alone,” he added (George Jahn, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 31).
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