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Libya May Be Crossing the Line : Kadafi Must Be Denied a Chemical-Weapons Capability

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At least two dozen countries are known to be producing chemical weapons or to be capable of doing so. Why, then, single out Libya as an object of special concern, as the White House has now done in a tough and admonitory statement?

First, because of Libya’s infamous record as a sponsor, armorer and haven for international terrorists. A country that provides terrorists with explosives and machine guns to murder innocent civilians isn’t likely to scruple at giving them chemical agents that kill by blistering the lungs or paralyzing the central nervous system.

Second, because Libya itself is suspected of employing chemical weapons in the course of its meddling in Chad in the 1980s. A regime that uses outlawed weapons once is likely to use them again. Witness Iraq, which was so pleased with the results of its chemical attacks on Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf war that it soon turned those same weapons on its own Kurdish citizens.

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Finally, because Moammar Kadafi, Libya’s dictator, to all appearances, is a loony. The very fact that Kadafi wants to produce chemical weapons is reason enough to set alarm bells ringing.

Those bells last sounded in late 1988, when the United States identified Libya’s chemical weapons plant at Rabta, about 60 miles south of Tripoli. Pressure was brought to bear on foreign firms, especially in West Germany, that supplied technology for the plant. For a time it appeared that was the end of it, but last month West German sources reported that Libya has produced enough poison gas for 1,000 artillery shells. Now White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater says the plant is “dangerous and becoming more so.”

What’s to be done? The urgent need is for international cooperation to shut off Libya’s access to the technology and materials used to produce chemical weapons; difficult, but not impossible. And if that fails? “Nothing is ruled out,” said Fitzwater, clearly and we think correctly implying that the military option remains wide-open. Should it come to that, the preferable course would be through collective action. The foremost consideration, in any event, is that a Libya arming itself with chemical weapons becomes more of an international menace than ever. One way or another, Kadafi must be denied that capability.

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