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Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, in the last month the entire strategic balance in the Middle East has been altered by the actions of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin has made the region a much more dangerous place, and has proved once again that it has no interest in peace in the Middle East.
Specifically, according to a report in today's New York Times, the Soviet Union has provided the chief supporter of international terrorism, Colonel Qadhafi of Libya, with the capability of delivering weapons of mass destruction over a wide range of the Middle East and Mediterranean.
Sixty miles south of Tripoli, is what is widely believed to be a nearly completed $4 billion war plant. In one corner of the complex is the largest poison gas facility in the world. When the German technicians get it on line it may be able to produce 40 tons of nerve gas every day. One drop of this gas is enough to kill the average person.
The rest of the complex is reportedly devoted to the delivery of this poison gas. There is a foundry, a forge, machine shop, warehouses and three large metalworking buildings linked together. Japanese firms constructed these buildings and stocked them with Japanese and Western European machine tools.
The three large metalworking buildings linked together contain three assembly lines for artillery shells, aerial bombs and guided missiles. According to open testimony by the Director of the CIA, only the first two are in operation. Apparently, Qadhafi has not as yet found a country willing to provide the missile technology necessary to put the third assembly line into production.
Mr. President, the intentions of Colonel Qadhafi are clear to everyone in the region: He intends to use his poison gas weapons to destroy Israel.
Fortunately, however, Libya does not share a common border with Israel. The Israeli border is 600 miles away and his Soviet Mig-23's can only fly 500 miles without air-to-air refueling. Qadhafi has reportedly been trying to obtain an air-to-air refueling capability from a West German company but they apparently do not have the bugs out of the system yet.
Today's New York Times reveals that the Soviet Union has solved Qadhafi's delivery problems. Not only have they begun to deliver 12 to 15 advanced SU-24 fighter-bombers with a range of 800 miles but just to make certain, they have thrown in two IL-76 refueling tankers.
Mr. President, some people may be shocked to learn that the Soviet Union has deliberately provided the world's chief
terrorist with a long range striking force. I am not shocked.
What the Soviet Union has done is simply again to reveal itself for what it is, the primary destabilizing force in the world. One need not look far to see the Soviet Union behind the major terrorist groups and terrorist countries of the world. Beyond Qadhafi, the list includes the PLO, Syria, the Salvadoran guerillas, the Sandinistas, Cuba. And the list goes on and on.
The SU-24 sale to Libya should make it abundantly clear to everyone that the Soviet Union is not concerned about world peace or security or stability in any region of the world--especially in the Middle East.
There is no new thinking on the part of Soviet planners. There is no new Soviet foreign policy; there is only a disguised version of the old deadly Soviet foreign policy.
Ironically, the SU-24 sale to Libya comes at the same time a proposal is being floated to introduce the Soviet Union into security discussions in the Pacific Rim. Bringing the Soviet Union and its North Korean soulmate into such a regional arrangement would not be helpful but rather the opposite. It would introduce the problem into a region which has reached a solution. The Pacific Rim, which is largely at peace today, would suddenly be confronted with a dangerous, irresponsible new player.
Mr. President, Soviet actions in Libya must be considered as the primary evidence of the Soviet's real intentions in the world. Any failure on the part of our Government to recognize this can only threaten the long-term security interests of the United States.
I ask unanimous consent that the page one article on Soviet aircraft sales to Libya published by the New York Times today be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
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From the New York Times, Apr. 5, 1989
Soviets Sold Libya Advanced Bomber, United States Officials Say--Threat to Israel Is Seen
Washington, April 4: The Soviet Union has sold Libya high-performance bombers and airborne refueling ability that would greatly enhance Tripoli's capacity to hit targets in Israel and beyond, Administration officials say.
Puzzled American officials said the deal, and the Soviet Union's training of Libyan pilots to fly the supersonic Sukhoi-24D airplanes, appeared to be at odds with Mikhail S. Gorbachev's proclaimed intention to bend Soviet policy to a more conciliatory role in regional conflicts.
The Soviet sale raises some awkward questions for the Bush Administration, which has credited Misco with moving to defuse a number of regional conflicts, including those in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Southern Africa, and has asked for Soviet help in reducing tensions in the Middle East and Central America. The Administration must now decide whether to protest the Libya sale publicly or raise the issue privately when Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d meets next month with Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the Soviet Foreign Minister.
RADIUS OF OVER 800 MILES
One official said the deal involved as many as 15 SU-24 bombers. Another Administration official said that American intelligence tracked the delivery of the first six SU-24's from Novosibirsk in Siberia to the Umm Aitiqah airfield in Libya aboard an Antonov-22 cargo aircraft, and that some Libyan pilots had already traveled to the Soviet Union for training.
An Administration official said the bombers are likely to be based in eastern Libya at Bumbah, the airfield outside of Tobruk that was the base for the two Libyan fighters shot down by the United States Navy in January. From Bumbah the aircraft, with a radius of more than 800 miles, could without refueling fly round trip to Israel and many of the North African and European nations bordering the Mediterranean.
RHETORIC AND BEHAVIOR
Administration officials said it was unclear what motivated the Soviets to sell the planes at a time when they are openly courting Israel and hoping for better relations with the Arab countries in the region. The officials said that with the intense American eavesdropping and photographic coverage of Libya, the Soviet Union had to have known that the sale could not be kept secret.
`It raises major questions about the Soviets' new thinking,' an Administration official said. `Indeed, the so-called new thinking in the Middle East is turning out to look a lot like the old thinking. It underlines the gap between rhetoric and behavior.'
The official said the subject was likely to be raised when Mr. Baker meets with Mr. Shevardnadze.
The official said that money from the sale may be a motivating factor, but that the deal could also illustrate the Soviet Union's continuing policy of supporting `pariah' nations in the Middle East. The official said Moscow's embrace of Iran, its continued military support for Syria and its weapons sales to Libya `all add up to a disappointing approach so far.'
This official said the bomber deal was in conflict with the Soviet Union's `professed concern with stability,' particularly in view of Libya's efforts to build chemical weapons and its relations to terrorist groups.
Other officials saw the sale as a way of cementing the Soviet Union's relationship with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, at a time when Moscow has few other friends in North Africa.
`They look at this as an investment that will lead to a good political relationship,' an Administration official said. `The Libyans seem to be important enough for the Soviets to focus on. They're apparently willing to risk other things to bolster that relationship.'
REFITTING CRAFT TO REFUEL
Libya's relations with the Soviet Union have waxed and waned in the past decade and have seemed to be closer in recent months. Several Administration officers noted that when the United States complained about the construction of a chemical plant in Libya, the Soviet Union supported Colonel Qaddafi's assertion that the plant was to make pharmaceuticals, not chemical weapons.
Administration officials said that along with the bombers, the Soviet Union had also agreed to refit a Libyan transport plane, a Soviet Ilyushin-76, so it can be used as an aerial refueler. The tanker can refuel three SU-24's at a time. Jane's All the World's Aircraft estimates the maximum unrefueled radius of the SU-24 at 805 miles, and one aerial refueling would increase its radius by as much as 50 percent.
William H. Webster, the Director of Central Intelligence, told Congress earlier this year that if Libya did extend the range of its bombers, it could alter the balance of power in the Middle East. Mr. Webster's comments came in response to questions about whether Libya could hit cities in the region with chemical weapons.
AIRCRAFT'S ABILITIES
At present, Libya has only a few bombers that could fly the 1,300-mile round trip from eastern Libya to Israel. Libya's forces include some aging French-made Mirage fighter-bombers, which each carry one two-thousand pound bomb, and a squadron of 4 Tupolev-22's, which can transport larger loads and have a greater range but are slower and far less sophisticated than the SU-24's.
The SU-24D was deployed in the 1970's and is equipped with the type of modern electronics gear needed to evade anti-aircraft fire. It has a highly accurate bomb delivery system and, unlike the other planes in the Libyan arsenal, it can also be flown at night and in inclement weather.
The plane can be compared to that of the F-111, wich flew from England to Libya and back when the United States bombed Tripoli in April 1986. Although their roles are similar, aviation experts say the F-111 is a far more capable aircraft than its Soviet counterpart.
The IL-76 aerial tanker is similar in appearance and performance to the United States C-141. Both aircraft are designed primarily to carry troops and cargo and are over 150 feet in length. The tanker version of the IL-76 can carry between 80,000 and 100,000 pounds of jet fuel.
In the past year, American officials said a German company, Intec, had been working unsuccessfully to put together a refueling system for Libya's Soviet-built MIG-23's, shorter-range fighter planes that can be adapted for bombing missions.
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