◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 By JerRoLD D, GREEN And Aucustus RICHARD Norton By attempting to demonize Muammar Qadhafi are we not running the risk of canonizing him? Without a doubt, Col. Qa- dhafi, the unguided missile of the Middle East, is an attractive devil. His record is replete with involvement in international terrorism, anti-U.S. agitation, and gross disregard for the norms of acceptable be- havior. His current outrage in London is only the most recent example of Libya’s tendency to trample on the inviolable stan- dards of accepted international diplomatic practice. . Yet to allow the form and flavor of Col. Qadhafi’s actions to obscure their content has proven to be a dangerous and self-de- ceiving pitfall. Mr. Qadhafi may be a bad actor, but he is a “normal” political actor all the same. His goals are rational and self-evident—the pursuit of the Libyan na- tional interest at the expense of those whom he views as his competitors. Given Libya’s splendid isolation, the list of these competitors is very long indeed. The obvi- ous ones include Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq and Libya’s immediate neighbors on all sides—Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Niger and Chad. But rather than directly challenging for- midable states like Egypt, for example, Col. Qadhafi astutely prefers to mount challenges by proxy. To bomb Khartoum is to indirectly bomb Cairo. But why pick on the Sudan? Unlike many in Washington who still attribute Middle East dust storms to computers in Moscow, the colonel recog- nizes the challenges confronted by Gaafar e] Nimeiri in his own backyard. Mr. Qad- hafi does not create turmoil, he exploits it. Sudan is a country rife with ethnic and re- MANCHESTER GUARDIAN SPECIAL EDITION -- TERRORISM WALL STREET JOURNAL 11 MAY 1984 Qadhafi’s Not Alwa Pg. 30 ligious cleavages—the north, largely Mus- lim, and the south, predominately black African and animist, subsist in an environ- ment of active hostility and mistrust. Col. Qadhafi’s intervention may exacerbate the existing situation, but it also threatens to mask the very real contradictions that plague the Sudan and countries like it in the Third World. While the visitor to Khar- toum is regaled with tales of Col. Qadhafi’s barbarous challenge to Sudanese sover- eignty, this sovereignty is being much more seriously eroded by the Sudanese themselves. Although the road to Omdurman is lit- tered with sightseers eager to witness bomb craters emplaced by a Libyan jet, the South continues to fester and Islamici- zation is blithely pursued. An Islamic pe- nal code will not bring an end to insurrec- tion in the South, nor will curtailment of Libyan adventures. Rather, the situation demands the same type of resolution that has eluded the hapless Lebanese. Ethnic problems are political. They are elusive and frustrating. Looking for Libyan MiGs is far easier than sharing political power. But the stakes for which Gaafar el Nimeiri is playing demand genuine concessions and negotiations rather than demon-mon- yering and mythologizing. In a perverse sort of way, Mr. Qadhafi may have done he West a favor by highlighting a tenuous situation in the Sudan that will not go away. The tragedy is that we may be so mcensed by the activities of this North Af- rican colone! that we end up perceiving the region in his terms rather than in a context that realistically reflects the situation on the ground. Mr. Qadhafi’s actions cannot be ig- nored. Given the will, there are remedies for the “Libyan problem,” ranging from Libyan threat to British expats By our Diplomatic Staff A LIBYAN newspaper, Green March;. organ of the country’s revolu- tionary committee, this. week threat- ened violent reprisals against British people in Libya if the British au- thorities did not release a number of Libyan students being held in Lon- don and Manchester on charges of being involved, in bomb. attacks in Britain against anti-Gadafy Libyans. - At the same time the official news agency said that a terrorist’ gang which it claimed had British Govern- ment backing had been intercepted after it had crossed the frontier into Libya from Tunisia. Two members of the gang were said to have been captured and one killed. Green March is normally more hectic in tone than the other official newspapers in Libya but the fact that its pronouncements were given international publicity by. the official news agency, Jana, seems to indicate a hardening of position by Colonel ‘Gadafy, who at the time of. .the Libyan Embassy siege in London promised that the 8,000 . British 41 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 -- 26 JUNE 1984 ys to Blame heightening the country’s diplomatic ana political isolation to curtailing purchases of Libyan oil and restricting sales of irre- placeable oil-extraction equipment. How- ever, Col. Qadhafi's penchant for exploit- ing existing social and political problems should not so infuriate us that they make Libya one of the centerpieces of American foreign policy. This fear seems reasonably realistic given the born-again prominence nf terrorism in U.S. foreign policy formula- tion. That terrorism is never far from the utterances of policy makers in Washington reveals a sad tendency to substitute pot- s0iler plots for the real world that is much nore complicated than the terror-czar sce- narios that seem to proliferate during elec- toral campaigns. Terrorism is a significant international problem. But to elevate it to a position in which it is a primary determinant of our foreign policy benefits terrorists as much as those who rail against them. At a time when the American image in the Middle East is a source of derision and even con- tempt, it is doubly important that our pol- icy reveals an interest in real problems and concerns rather than chimerical ones. Genuine problems like the plight of the Palestinian people, the future of Lebanon, the viability of Israel, the stability of Jor- dan, the Gulf war and Afghanistan deserve at least as much attention as the deadly mischief of the isolated Muammar Qad- afi. Messrs. Green and Norton are political scientists at the University of Michigan and the U.S. Military Academy, respec- tively. Mr. Green recently returned from a visit to the Sudan. The opinions expressed are solely their own. 13 May 1984 people now in Libya would be completely safe. ; The. newspaper said that “If Brit- ish courts bring false charges against Libyan students and tourists and imprison them, it will make the revolutionary committees react vio- lently against English people resi- dent: in the. Jamahiriya. If Libyan tourists and: students studying in Britain are not, released, the British Governnient will bear responsibility for any act the revolutionary com- mittees carry out against the English.” _ Armed police guarded Manchester magistrates’ court last week when three Libyans were remanded on bombing charges and there ‘were similar precautions at Lambeth CONTINUED NEXT PAGE