Belgian FN F2000 bull-pup assault rifle with grenade launcher, taken from loyalist soldiers in Misurata, Libya in 2011. CJ Chivers/The New York Times
Secret Diplomatic Cable Sheds Light On Libyan Arms Deals -- New York Times
Thirty-eight years ago, a largely forgotten Belgian ambassador serving in Libya sent a secret cable from Tripoli to his home office in Brussels. Now declassified, the contents of the cable, “Libyan Arms from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia,” offered one diplomat’s baldly undiplomatic take on a theme common at the time among analysts trying to assess the activities of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi: What was the colonel up to as he placed order after order for more weapons?
This cable was discovered by Damien Spleeters, an independent journalist, in Belgium’s government archives. It does more than offer new insights into Libya’s arms-procurement record. It presents the naked cynicism of the very suppliers of part of Colonel Qaddafi’s lethal bounty. And it suggests that those making the arms deals knew, even 40 years ago, that Libya’s weapons would not be retained by Libya’s government — an observation that in light of the proliferation risks posed by Libya’s stockpiles reads like a starkly reckless position for an arms-dealing nation to take.
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My Comment: Qaddafi was someone who always paid cash for what he bought .... a fact that was not lost by governments and their arms merchants. Unfortunately .... no one had the vision (or interest) to focus on what would be the long term consequences for conducting business with someone like Gaddafi.
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