Tracking Number: 131321
Title: Libya has reopened a poison gas factory in the Libyan desert. TV Highlights. (900307)
Title: Libya has recently attempted to start up chemical
weapons production at a plant near Tripoli. TV Highlights. (900307)
Title: US intelligence has uncovered a Libyan chemical weapons manufacturing plant in Libya. TV Highlights. (900307)
*NXE301
03/07/90 * NEAR EAST, SOUTH ASIA TV HIGHLIGHTS (1670) (Tuesday 03/06/90 pm - Wednesday 03/07/90 am)
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
LIBYAN POISON GAS FACTORY REOPENED -- ABC News has learned that the Libyan leader Colonel Quadhafi has re- opened his poison gas factory in the Libyan desert. It is one of the largest facilities in the world. Even at limited production levels, it is capable of producing sufficient quantities of chemical weapons. The wrong weapons -- in Washington's view -- in the wrong hands. (Peter Jennings)
U.S. intelligence sources tell ABC News that the Libyan facility at Rabda resumed limited production late last year after months of technical problems. Analysts say the Libyans are making two kinds of chemical agents, one that blisters and burns the skin and lungs, and a second, in far smaller quantities, that attacks the central nervous system. The huge Rabda plant has not yet gone into full- scale operation, but even with limited production, analysts estimate Libya has already stockpiled about 30 tons of the blister agent. Sources claim some of it has been loaded by hand into canisters that could be dropped from aircraft as chemical bombs. This process is described as extremely slow and hazardous with just five or six bombs being filled a day. It's estimated about 100 such weapons have been made thus far. Qadhafi has repeatedly denied making chemical weapons. Even so, U.S. intelligence sources say during the last year, Qadhafi has pushed hard to bring the plant into full production, continuing to buy the chemicals needed to make the poison gas, storing some in huge tanks near Tripoli. So what is the U.S. going to do about it? Once again, Washington is reduced to a strategy of calling on its friends to pressure Qadhafi, denying the chemicals that he needs, trying to isolate him politically and economically. But that's been attempted before, of course, and Qadhafi is still very much in business. (John McWethy -- The State Department)
ATTEMPTED AFGHAN COUP -- The capital of Afghanistan is under a military curfew tonight. An attempt to overthrow the government of President Najibullah has apparently failed. According to government reports from Kabul the attempted coup was led by the Afghan defense minister and an Afghan guerrilla leader based in neighboring Pakistan. (Peter Jennings)
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
LIBYA'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS CAPABILITY -- According to State Department officials, Libya has recently attempted to start up chemical weapons production at a plant near Tripoli. The official said the U.S. is uncertain whether the attempt has succeeded. Last June customs officials in Western Europe were told to look for sales of hydrogen peroxide, a chemical that is needed for such start up operations. (Tom Brokaw)
ABC GOOD MORNING AMERICA
LIBYANS AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS -- The Libyans and chemical weapons -- a nightmare for the Bush administration. Secretary of State James Baker goes to Capitol hill today where he is expected to be grilled on reports claiming Libya has resumed limited production of mustard and nerve gas. (Morton Dean)
It was on the agenda in meetings yesterday with Italian Prime Minister Andreotti and U.S. officials say it has been a growing concern in Washington for the last two months. American intelligence sources claim that the Libyan facility at Rabta is once again producing chemical weapons. Although not in full production, the huge facility has still managed to produce an estimated thirty tons of poison gas, most of it the type that blisters the skin and lungs. Sources claim some of it has been loaded into bombs that could be dropped from Libyan aircraft or sold to someone else. The canisters are being loaded by hand, analyst claim, meaning that only five or six of these bombs are being made per day. It was CIA Director William Webster who first focused world attention on the Rabta plant in 1988 calling it "the largest chemical plant I know of for chemical weapons."
Libyan leader Qadhafi has repeatedly denied making chemical weapons and for a time it appeared that Libya had suspended operations at the Rabta facility. So what can the U.S. do about Libya's renewed efforts to make these chemical agents? American officials admit beyond trying to isolate Qadhafi politically and economically, there is very little the U.S. can do. (John McWethy, State Dept)
NNNN
File Identification: 03/07/90, NX-301
Product Name: Wireless File
Product Code: WF
Keywords: ISRAEL/Politics & Government; IRAN/Foreign Affairs; RAFSANJANI,
HOJATOLESLAM HASHEMI; HOSTAGES; ARENS, MOSHE; PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION (PLO); LIKUD BLOC; PALESTINIANS; PEACE PROPOSALS
Thematic Codes: 1ME; 2TE; 160
Target Areas: NE
PDQ Text
Link: 131321
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