...on his confirmation, coupled with a related hold on funds for a new embassy in Tripoli, have stymied real progress. Administration officials argue that both sides have already achieved essentially what they want from the new relationship, blaming the present stalemate on Libya. On the contrary, an assessment of the American-Libyan relationship, as it unfolded over the last decade, would suggest there is plenty of blame on both sides. More important, it highlights how much both states have to gain from a broader, deeper relationship.

CHANGING ATTITUDES

After years of stonewalling, Libya in April 1999 remanded into UN custody the two suspects in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the United States began to rethink its policy toward Libya. In congressional testimony in July 1999, Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann, deputy assistant secretary for Near East and South Asian Affairs, emphasized that the United States expected "Libya to fulfill all of its UN Security Council requirements, including an end to support for terrorist activities, acknowledgment of its responsibility for the actions of Libyan officials, cooperation with the [Lockerbie] trial, and payment of appropriate compensation." (1) Four months later, in a November 1999 address at the Middle East Institute, Neumann recognized Libya's "declining support for terrorism" and acknowledged the "positive steps" taken by the Qaddafi regime. After repeating the American goals for Libya outlined in July, Neumann added that there were other sources of contention in the bilateral relationship, specifically "Libyan efforts to obtain missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD)." (2) In congressional testimony in May 2000, Neumann added regional intervention to the list of U.S. concerns.

U.S. policy and policy goals vis-a-vis Libya have remained consistent through three administrations. Our goals have been to end Libyan support for terrorism, prevent Tripoli's ability to obtain weapons of mass destruction, and contain Qadhafi's regional ambitions. Since Lockerbie, we have added additional aims, including bringing the persons responsible to justice. (3)

In concluding his testimony, Neumann stressed that the goal of the United States was one of deterring Libyan policies of concern, and that an improvement in the American-Libyan bilateral relationship was not an end in itself.

As the public diplomacy played out, the Clinton administration in mid-1999 opened secret talks with Libya, negotiations with a carefully defined agenda. Once the two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing were remanded into UN custody, the United Nations had suspended, but not lifted, its sanctions. U.S. diplomacy at this point aimed to maintain the UN sanctions in place until Libya complied fully with all aspects of three UN Security Council resolutions--Resolution 731 (January 1992) called on Libya to extradite the two suspects in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103; Resolution 748 (March 1992) imposed some sanctions on Libya, including a ban on Libyan aircraft flights; and Resolution 883 (November 1993) banned the sale of oil equipment to Libya and placed a limited freeze on Libyan foreign assets. Full compliance with these resolutions called for Libya to end support for terrorism, accept responsibility for the acts of Libyan officials, and compensate the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. Ambassador Martin Indyk, the assistant secretary of state who opened the 1999 talks with Libya, later indicated the talks began only after Libya also agreed to keep the negotiations quiet and to cease lobbying the UN to permanently lift the multilateral sanctions regime. (4)

At the first session of the secret talks, held in Geneva in May 1999, the Libyans openly recognized a common threat from Islamist fundamentalism and agreed to cooperate actively in fighting al-Qaeda. Regarding unconventional weapons, the United States was most concerned with Libyan production of chemical weapons; however, when the Libyans offered to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and open their facilities to inspection, the United States elected not to pursue the issue at that time. According to Indyk, Washington did not believe Libya's unconventional-weapons programs posed an immediate threat; therefore, the top priorities of the United States remained getting Libya out of the terrorism business and securing compensation for the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. Once these goals were met and the UN sanctions were lifted permanently, Indyk told his Libyan counterparts that U.S. bilateral sanctions would remain in place until the unconventional-weapons issue was resolved. (5)

The secret bilateral negotiations initiated by the Clinton administration in mid-1999 were later suspended in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election out of fear they might become public knowledge and cause a scandal. One of the last acts of the outgoing Clinton administration was to continue the state of emergency with Libya declared by President Reagan in January 1986. Reflecting the goals of the suspended talks, the December 1999 announcement read in part that the United States still had concerns about Libyan support for terrorism and its noncompliance with UN Security Council resolutions 731, 748, and 883. (6)

Throughout the 1990s, Libya had expressed an interest in bilateral talks with the United States aimed at a full restoration of commercial and diplomatic relations. Libya also had expressed a willingness to put any and all issues on the table; however, when the United States finally initiated bilateral talks in May 1999, it limited them to two subjects, terrorism and compensation for the families of the victims of Pan Am flight 103. Over time, Ambassador Neumann and other American officials added weapons of mass destruction and Libyan regional policies to the list of U.S. concerns, but there was no indication throughout this period that the United States placed any priority on issues like democratic reform and the promotion of human rights, later assigned importance.

FRIENDS AND ALLIES

On January 31, 2001, after a 12-year investigation and an 84-day trial that cost an estimated $106 million, three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands found Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, one of the two Libyan defendants in the Lockerbie case, guilty in the attack on Pan Am flight 103. Even though the Libyans continued to proclaim his innocence, the guilty verdict, combined with a March 2002 appellate-court ruling that upheld the verdict, brought an element of closure to the case. At the same time, some family members of the victims, as well as others, continued to feel the Qaddafi regime likely orchestrated the attack. Other family members questioned Libyan involvement in the attack in general and Megrahi's guilt in particular.

The guilty verdict prompted President Bush and Prime Minister Blair to issue a joint statement in February 2001 calling on Libya to comply with all outstanding UN Security Council resolutions. Tripartite talks at the United Nations among American, British and Libyan officials actually opened the month before, detailing the steps Libya had to take to terminate UN sanctions. According to Flynt Leverett, a member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff at the time, these talks generated a "script" that told Libya exactly what it must do to satisfy the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing and to accept responsibility for the actions of Libyan officials implicated in the attack. Once Libya fulfilled these requirements, Great Britain and the United States agreed, in an explicit quid pro quo, to allow the UN sanctions to be lifted permanently. (8)

Responding immediately to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Qaddafi was an enthusiastic early recruit to the war on terror, condemning the attacks and expressing sympathy for the victims. Following the attacks, American and British officials conducted lengthy information-sharing sessions with their counterparts in the Libyan intelligence community. In October 2002, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abderrahman Chalgam confirmed that Libyan...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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