Blair hails 'new relationship'
25 March 2004


Tony Blair today said that Libya had given "full and transparent co-operation" in the dismantling of its weapons of mass destruction programmes since Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's historic declaration last December that he was giving up illicit arms.



Mr Blair said: "Libya's voluntary and open implementation of that decision gives us real hope that we can build a new relationship with it, one for the modern world."

Mr Blair said Col Gaddafi recognised Libya's future "is best secured by a new relationship with the outside world".

There was also a recognition of a "common cause with us in the fight against al Qaida, extremism and terrorism which threatens not just the western world but the Arab world also", he said.

"None of this, as I explained, can alter the pain of past actions," the Prime Minister added.

"In respect of Lockerbie, Libya has accepted UN resolutions on this, accepted responsibility for the actions of its agents and has agreed compensation in respect of the victims.

"Libya has also agreed to a further visit on April 3 by the Metropolitan Police Service in respect of the murder of WPc Yvonne Fletcher.

"We have kept and will continue to keep the relatives affected by such actions fully informed.

"In reaching out the hand of partnership today, we do not forget the past.
"But we do try in the light of the genuine changes happening to move beyond them."

Mr Blair continued: "Of course, we must be aware of the pitfalls. Trust on both sides will take time to establish.

"But the signs are better than they have been for many years.

"And the future prize in terms of security not just of this region but the wider world - indeed our own country - is great."

The two leaders spent an hour in discussions in a tent on farmland outside the Libyan capital with camels grazing nearby.

After shaking hands, Mr Blair said: "It's good to be here at last after so many months."

With an interpreter standing behind him Mr Gaddafi spoke first in Arabic then switched to English to say to the Prime Minister: "You did a lot of fighting on this issue and seem exhausted."

Mr Blair replied: "There's been a lot to do."

Mr Gaddafi speaking in English replied: "You look good, you are still young."
The Prime Minister's chartered British Airways jet had earlier touched down at Tripoli airport at 9.18am.

Mr Blair was met by a Revolutionary Guard of Honour on the tarmac at the airport.

Crowds lined the streets of the Libyan capital as his motorcade sped towards to the venue for the talks.
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/art...3344?source=PA


Who would have thougt that one of the world's worst terror regimes would publicly embrace the US and UK, and agree to give up their WMD programs, and their support for terror. Blair and Bush are the best team since Reagan and Thatcher. The world is in good hands.

We Finally Got Our Frankenstein... and He Was In a Spider Hole! -- by Michael Moore



Thank God Saddam is finally back in American hands! He must have really missed us. Man, he sure looked bad! But, at least he got a free dental exam today. That's something most Americans can't get.

America used to like Saddam. We LOVED Saddam. We funded him. We armed him. We helped him gas Iranian troops.

But then he screwed up. He invaded the dictatorship of Kuwait and, in doing so, did the worst thing imaginable -- he threatened an even BETTER friend of ours: the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, and its vast oil reserves. The Bushes and the Saudi royal family were and are close business partners, and Saddam, back in 1990, committed a royal blunder by getting a little too close to their wealthy holdings. Things went downhill for Saddam from there.

But it wasn't always that way. Saddam was our good friend and ally. We supported his regime. It wasn’t the first time we had helped a murderer. We liked playing Dr. Frankenstein. We created a lot of monsters -- the Shah of Iran, Somoza of Nicaragua, Pinochet of Chile -- and then we expressed ignorance or shock when they ran amok and massacred people. We liked Saddam because he was willing to fight the Ayatollah. So we made sure that he got billions of dollars to purchase weapons. Weapons of mass destruction. That's right, he had them. We should know -- we gave them to him!

We allowed and encouraged American corporations to do business with Saddam in the 1980s. That's how he got chemical and biological agents so he could use them in chemical and biological weapons. Here's the list of some of the stuff we sent him (according to a 1994 U.S. Senate report):
* Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.
* Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.
* Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs, brain, spinal cord, and heart.
* Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs.
* Clostridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing systemic illness.
* Clostridium tetani, a highly toxigenic substance.

And here are some of the American corporations who helped to prop Saddam up by doing business with him: AT&T, Bechtel, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM (for a full list of companies and descriptions of how they helped Saddam, click here.

We were so cozy with dear old Saddam that we decided to feed him satellite images so he could locate where the Iranian troops were. We pretty much knew how he would use the information, and sure enough, as soon as we sent him the spy photos, he gassed those troops. And we kept quiet. Because he was our friend, and the Iranians were the "enemy." A year after he first gassed the Iranians, we reestablished full diplomatic relations with him!

Later he gassed his own people, the Kurds. You would think that would force us to disassociate ourselves from him. Congress tried to impose economic sanctions on Saddam, but the Reagan White House quickly rejected that idea -- they wouldn’t let anything derail their good buddy Saddam. We had a virtual love fest with this Frankenstein whom we (in part) created.

And, just like the mythical Frankenstein, Saddam eventually spun out of control. He would no longer do what he was told by his master. Saddam had to be caught. And now that he has been brought back from the wilderness, perhaps he will have something to say about his creators. Maybe we can learn something... interesting. Maybe Don Rumsfeld could smile and shake Saddam's hand again. Just like he did when he went to see him in 1983 (click here to see the photo).

Maybe we never would have been in the situation we're in if Rumsfeld, Bush, Sr., and company hadn't been so excited back in the 80s about their friendly monster in the desert.

Meanwhile, anybody know where the guy is who killed 3,000 people on 9/11? Our other Frankenstein?? Maybe he's in a mouse hole.

So many of our little monsters, so little time before the next election.

Stay strong, Democratic candidates. Quit sounding like a bunch of wusses. These bastards sent us to war on a lie, the killing will not stop, the Arab world hates us with a passion, and we will pay for this out of our pockets for years to come. Nothing that happened today (or in the past 9 months) has made us ONE BIT safer in our post-9/11 world. Saddam was never a threat to our national security.

Only our desire to play Dr. Frankenstein dooms us all.

Yours,

Michael Moore


I really like this guys, and I think it was perintent to share this piece.

Michael Moore :lame:

Oh yippee - look who's back. How about that Bush meeting the 9/11 commission only if his puppet master shows up with him?

Looks like the left is whiffing again with the 9-11 hearings. Condi is twice as popular as Clarke.

Better luck next time!

Wow, that's a very provocative response and is certainly going to make me think twice about this Moore guy.


Why don't you write something to the extent of why you would respond with only a smiley? What about Michael Moore?

Mr Blair just like G.Bush is quite happy to sell weapons to countries for whatever purpose....you would have thought they would rethink selling weapons to countries with human rights violations and terrorist connections. You would have thought the profit from selling these weapons was nothing comapred to ther human devestation the weapons would knowingly cause. Obviously not. Just goes to show the wests goverment are money scheming politically tactless humaniods who give shit all for the poeple being killed by these weapons....that is unless if its themselves.

There haven't been many big labour arms scandals. The Hawk jets to Jordan is the only one I can remember of the top of my head. Most of the big arms scandals were from tories.

I do think the 9/11 intelegence was not sufficient to damn anyone though. As I've said, MI5 usually had toons of info on where the IRA were goign to strike (even which city and when) but this didn't mean they had the info neccessary to stop them.

Neon