What Kind of New Friend Is Libya’s Strongman?

I was discussing “Tripoli Can Show the Way” (editorial, April 5) with a friend. She was pleased that Libyan dictator Moammar Kadafi had decided to abandon Libya’s program to develop weapons of mass destruction. She said it was a victory for mankind. My reply: But the leopard doesn’t change its spots. I would urge caution in dealing with Kadafi. Considering his many nefarious deeds of the past, can he be trusted? Another way to look at this latest event is that perhaps he recognizes that he does not now have the resources to develop such weapons and it is a ploy to gain what he can while waiting for another day to resume his efforts. His economy is a shambles, so he really cannot afford the effort.

Meanwhile, the free world has already promised him $200 million to develop Libya’s liquefied natural gas capabilities; Kadafi will get a fleet of jet aircraft and who knows what other benefits. What are the chances that Kadafi will resume his program to develop weapons of mass destruction after he gets the rewards for his present ploy? Dare we trust him?

George Epstein

Los Angeles

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The Times is correct to remind us that “neither Britain nor the U.S. can forget that it was Libya that killed 270 people by blowing up a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.” However, it might be more accurate to say that Kadafi killed 270 people. (Osama bin Laden killed 3,000 Americans; Afghanistan didn’t.) Rather than Kadafi giving up his WMD, though, U.S. firms lining up to do business with him and Royal Dutch/Shell’s plans for his natural gas would tend to explain better the sudden willingness of President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair (the great haters of dictators and terrorists) to let bygones be bygones.

Mark Feehan

Washington