The newly credentialed United States Ambassador to Tripoli, Gene Cretz, wasted no time in engaging the Libyan government in possible military cooperation in an attempt to secure the burgeoning Libyan arms market for US weapons manufacturers. The United Nations, doing the United States’ bidding, and the European Union implemented arms embargoes that came close to eradicating the Libyan domestic defense industry sparing only a skeletal state owned industry. The lifting of the embargoes in September of 2002 and 2003 respectively allowed the Libyan government to legalize multinational involvement in the sector. The Libyan government, in desperate need to reinvigorate its non-existent domestic defense industry and to upgrade its aging military inventory, has been in low-level negotiations with several international defense companies eager to establish themselves in the country. In October 2008, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Pentagon. 
In June 2006, the Bush administration repealed Libya’s designation as a terrorism sponsoring state. It had finally decided Qadhafi had abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and accepted liability for the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub and the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Since then, the political and economic relations between the two countries have been growing attracting the international investors of the defense sector who have been encouraged by such a less restrictive economic environment.
According to the State Department’s annual terrorism report, released April 30, 2008, Libya has been actively supporting European and American counter-terrorism efforts in the region. Its involvement in international counter-terrorism operations was compelled by Al-Qaeda’s alliance with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and Al-Zwahiri’s 2003 audio taped scolding of Qadhafi for pandering to the United States and terminating his support to terrorism; Al-Zawahiri also called for the toppling of Qadhafi whom he described as an “enemy of Islam.”
The United States military assistance to Libya will be spearheaded by AFRICOM. In the short term, Libyan military officers will benefit from the US International Military Education and Training Program while US military personnel train Libyan soldiers on infantry weapon systems and tactics and provide them with class II military equipment such as night vision goggles to enhance their border security.
Qadhafi, drawing a valuable lesson from Saddam’s demise in 2003 and tired of the perfunctory approach of the Arab leaders to Pan-Arab nationalism, has decided to align himself with the US, a country that attempted to assassinate him in 1986 and which he once labeled the leader of imperialism and capitalism, thus worming himself into a strategic powerbroker position in the Arab world. I find such alignment ironic.
A. T. B. Copyright © 2009
My comment today may be silly, but with all what is going on around, i needed to get in this silly mood…
“Bref”, back in the days and whenever i had the chance to watch Kaddafi talking on TV; i would always pay a close look to his hands (maybe because i never got whatever he was talking about, so i’d be distracted by his hands moves…), and was always amazed by the good quality of his manicure ( i am a woman so do not blame me!).
Amazingly enough, and for this new post of yours, among all pictures of him, you decided to choose this one; so you made me go back to my old habit… And let me tell you that I am happy and jealous in the mean time that he is still taking a good care of his cute hands… but who cares about his positions, political philosphy, and his “green book”…
By the way, did he ever think of changing the name of the Jamahirya to something else than “Socialist People’s Libyan Arab”? It does not make any sense to be called so right now!
Inspiration,
I put in a better picture of Kadhafi for you. There are reasons for Kadhafi’s good grooming habits other than the hygenic benefits; he’s been known to think of himself as quite an irresistible womanizer. He even hit on Condoleezza Rice when she was on an official visit this past September. He called her “my darling black African woman.” When Sarkozy invited him to Paris, Kadhafi requested a tent outside in the hotel yard and 200 women in it (true story – corraborated by reputable media sources.) His personal security is an all women team …:-)
But those hands are not clean … they’re quite bloody.
There is a video on youtube of the last arab summit where he states some ‘funny’ fact about the arab countries. And actually, from what I sensed watching it, it’s the fact that he decided that he doesn’t want to be killed as Saddam so he aligned himself with the USA. Realistik.
Pingback: Global Voices Online » Morocco: Libya’s Coming of Age