Oil Workers Well-Paid, Well-Treated : No Fear of Terror for Americans in Libya

It was right after last month’s Gulf of Sidra crisis, and Col. Moammar Kadafi was angrily assailing the United States before a crowd of several thousand young people

Earlier, Tripoli Radio had denounced all Americans as spies who should be “executed wherever they might be,” and now the Libyan leader was whipping the audience into an anti-American frenzy, shouting threats and pounding the podium with his fists as the crowd chanted, “Down, Down, U.S.A.”

An American in the crowd, surrounded by screaming youths, felt uncomfortably conspicuous. And the feeling was made worse when one of the demonstrators demanded to see his identification.

“You from America,” the youth said, after examining the papers. “Good. Nice country, America. Welcome.”

Such is the difference between revolutionary rhetoric and reality in Libya. Strange as it may seem, Libya is probably one of the safest places in all the Middle East for an American to be just now.

Increasingly, Americans are becoming targets for terrorist attacks in Europe and the Middle East, attacks that in several instances have been linked to Libya, but the Kadafi regime has taken pains to ensure that Americans who work here are safe, secure and exceedingly well-paid.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” a Western diplomat replied when he was asked if the estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Americans living in Libya are in any danger. “The American community is the best-protected in Libya. They are even better protected than the East Europeans.”

The Americans still here, mostly oil industry technicians who work in remote desert compounds far from Tripoli, the capital, are what is left of a sizable U.S. presence that began shrinking in 1981, when the Reagan Administration declared that U.S. passports were no longer valid for travel to Libya.

Those who stayed circumvented that restriction with the help of Libyan authorities who stopped stamping the Americans’ passports when they left or re-entered the country.

However, the Americans’ continued presence became more difficult last January, when President Reagan, citing evidence of Libyan involvement in terrorist attacks last Dec. 27 in Rome and Vienna that left 20 people dead, including five Americans, imposed trade sanctions on Libya and made it a criminal offense for Americans to remain there beyond Feb. 1.

No one is sure how many Americans have stayed on here, except for the Libyans, and they will not say.

Employment Uncertain

Western diplomats estimate that no more than a third of the Americans who were here in January obeyed the President’s order. Unwilling to give up high-paying jobs for uncertain employment prospects at home, the rest either ignored the deadline or “took a walk around the block,” in the words of a Texas oil worker, and returned after vacations in Europe.

Americans who live in Libya now are committing a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Thus, they are not exactly eager to talk publicly or identify themselves.

Two American oil workers having dinner at Tripoli’s Grand Hotel literally jumped out of their chairs and fled when approached by a reporter; they shouted “no comment” over their shoulders. Others, despite their cowboy boots and Stetson hats, would smile and say in a thick Western or Southern drawl, “Nope, I’m Canadian.”

Two reporters managed to get into a walled-in oil company compound near Tripoli where several Americans are known to live, but they were intercepted by security men and escorted off the premises.

Security Tight

“It’s not that we object to your talking to them,” one of the security men said. “But we are responsible for the Americans’ security, and maybe you are not a journalist and would kill them. That’s what Reagan wants, because then he would say Libya treats Americans badly.”

Ismail Sadeq, administrative general manager for Libya’s National Oil Co., said, “These people are now in a very awkward position with their government.”

He cited the case of one American who was so frightened when he heard that reporters were looking around that he locked himself in his house and refused to go to work.

“We have to honor their wishes and protect them,” Sadeq said. “These people don’t want to be interviewed.”

No Roots Elsewhere

Still, a few Americans agreed to talk briefly with reporters providing that their identities were not disclosed. They all said they stayed on in Libya because of the high pay and the lack of jobs elsewhere in the depressed oil industry. Many are nearing retirement age and plan to stay until they get their pensions. Others have been in Libya so long they have no roots anywhere else.

An American in his 60s who has been working here for 15 years said, “The oil business is so down the drain in the United States that, at my age, I wish I had never heard of the oil industry.”

A few Americans still live in little bungalows behind neatly trimmed lawns in one of three oil company compounds in suburban Tripoli, but most work in the remote desert oil fields, where they put in a 33-day shift and then get four weeks’ paid leave in Europe. Salaries average $100,000 a year, plus housing.

‘Exaggerated’ Threat

Few of the Americans seem to have much sympathy for Kadafi. Yet they think the Reagan Administration is exaggerating the threat posed by the Libyan leader. They say that Washington’s fixation with Kadafi only encourages him to be bolder.

“I’ve been here for years and I’ve never had anything bad happen with the Libyans, and I’ve never seen any terrorist camps, either,” one oil worker said. “Kadafi just enjoys annoying Reagan, that’s all.”

It is an assessment shared by many Western diplomats in Tripoli and businessmen who often visit here. Without exception, nearly a score of diplomats and businessmen interviewed recently expressed concern that the Reagan Administration fails to distinguish between reality and rhetoric, and thus has an oversimplified view of Kadafi that works against U.S. interests and impedes efforts to isolate the Libyan leader.

U.S. Policy Criticized

Last month’s military confrontation in the Gulf of Sidra, they said, was an example of the way U.S. policy toward Libya undercuts its own aims.

The U.S. strategy, officially denied but later confirmed by sources in Washington, was to provoke a confrontation that would add to the discontent with Kadafi said to exist among the 73,000 members of Libya’s armed forces. In the past six months there has been at least one attempted coup against Kadafi, and Washington evidently hoped to provoke another, the sources said.

However, according to the diplomats, the Gulf of Sidra crisis had just the opposite effect. It rallied Libyans around Kadafi and distracted attention from the economic problems that had been fomenting discontent with his regime.

“The U.S. totally misread the situation,” one diplomat said.

Also, the U.S. crusade against Kadafi is pushing him closer to the Russians than he might otherwise be, the diplomat said, and added:

“Despite the military aid he receives from them, Kadafi has never been fond of the Russians, and has always turned down their requests for a base here. But since January, when tension in the Gulf began to rise, Soviet naval ships have been stationed in Tripoli harbor. This never happened before, and it is another step in an unwelcome direction.”

Looking Toward Moscow

Other diplomats agreed that Kadafi is being forced by the confrontation with the United States to rely more heavily on Moscow for protection. They predict that the Soviet presence here will increase.

Caught in the middle of this conflict are more than a score of U.S. companies and the Americans who work for them in Libya.

U.S. commercial interests in Libya are substantial. Four U.S. oil companies, Occidental Petroleum, Conoco, Marathon and Amerada Hess, have assets in Libya estimated at $1 billion.

A group of engineering and construction firms, among them Kaiser Construction of Oakland, Calif., Brown & Root and Price Brothers, were owed an estimated $20 million when Reagan ordered them to suspend all dealings with Libya in January. There is no indication when or even if these companies will be paid.

Sanctions Undercut

The Administration apparently quietly undercut its own sanctions in February by approving temporary licenses for the American firms to continue to function in Libya to prevent their walking away and providing the Kadafi government with a windfall.

A Treasury Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “temporary” means that the American firms may wait until they arrange a fair and appropriate sale with some Libyan entity. The official added that he did not believe there was a deadline for such sales, but any profits realized in this period are supposed to go into an escrow account.

Despite the rhetoric, the Libyans have also sought to keep the door open to economic cooperation with the United States by not retaliating and seizing the assets of U.S. companies here.

“The Libyans very much want to continue their relations with American companies and individuals,” said a Western businessman who comes to Libya often. “They have done everything they can to assure a smooth transition.”

On a personal basis, Libyans and Americans seem to get along just fine.

An American oilman, talking about the Gulf of Sidra crisis, said: “I felt no animosity at work. Hell, we even joked about this bay, or whatever it is. Now that both bad boys have done their thing, we hope this will be the end of it.”

A Libyan merchant, waiting until everyone else had left his store, expressed similar feelings.

“Look,” he said, “this thing is between Moammar (Kadafi) and Reagan. Between the Libyan people and the American people, there is no problem.”