Clark Suing Reagan and Thatcher Over Libya Raid

Former Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark said today he has filed a lawsuit against President Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and others for compensation for 55 Libyans killed or injured in a U.S. bombing raid on Tripoli two years ago.

Clark accused Reagan of building up a false hate campaign to justify killing Libyans in a bombing raid timed for prime U.S. television news programs.

He also called the raid in April, 1986, an attempt to assassinate Libyan Leader Moammar Kadafi.

“The President has no power to kill whomever he wants, to bomb civilian populations after deliberately building up a hate campaign against the country and timing it for prime television,” Clark said at a press conference.

Clark said he filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington on Wednesday against Reagan, Thatcher, other officials, and pilots who conducted the raid, for compensation for 15 Libyans killed and 40 injured.

Clark said the compensation would total between $75 million and $100 million.

He said Thatcher was sued because she allowed U.S. bombers to fly from British bases for the raid. He said American pilots were sued for not refusing to carry out what he called Reagan’s illegal order to bomb Tripoli in peacetime.

Clark said Reagan and his aides falsely accused Libya of sending death squads to the United States and of directing the bombing of a West German disco to justify the raid deliberately timed for about 7 p.m. U.S. time when the major American news programs are broadcast.

Clark also said two bombs toppled the tent where Kadafi sleeps and two landed near his office, showing that “this was an attempt to assassinate a foreign leader.”

U.S. officials have denied that Kadafi was a target of the raid.

Some U.S. officials have said reports of Libyan death squads in the United States proved to be unfounded but Reagan aides maintained there was good evidence that Kadafi was involved in the bombing of a West German disco popular with U.S. servicemen.

Clark, attorney general from 1967 to ‘69, has criticized U.S. military policies, particularly involvement in the Vietnam War.