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Libya Reportedly Sought to Kill U.S. Envoy to Italy

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From Reuters

Washington’s outgoing envoy to Italy was quoted Sunday as saying Libyan gunmen came to Rome to kill him in 1981.

Maxwell M. Rabb, who is ending eight years as U.S. ambassador, told the magazine Epoca in an interview to be published today that he was awakened in his hotel during a trip to Milan on Oct. 13, 1981, and told to fly home to the United States.

“I was to have been assassinated the next day,” Rabb said in the interview. “Five Libyans had been captured by police in a Rome hotel, and one of them was to have been my killer.

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“I can’t go into details for security reasons, but they had practically put a price on my head and another on the head of the U.S. consul in Palermo,” Rabb was quoted as saying.

The Libyan Embassy was not available for comment, but Libya, accused by Washington of supporting world terrorism, dismissed a similar accusation in 1986 as U.S. propaganda.

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