The Arab leader who funded Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme is about to be rehabilitated by Britain. This follows hopes of a massive sales bonanza for arms manufacturers and new gas and oil exploration deals for UK companies, it has been revealed.
The new respectability conferred on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi follows his Thursday's meeting in Tripoli with visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who praised the Libyan leader for his "courage" in giving up weapons of mass destruction.
All of Gaddafi's past transgressions have been forgiven, including the Lockerbie bombing, the funding of the Pakistani nuclear weapons programme and IRA terrorists, as well as the shooting by his diplomats of an unarmed woman police officer on the steps of the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.
The extraordinary hypocrisy underlying the British initiative has been explained by Foreign Office sources in London who confirm that British Aerospace is on the verge of winning a major deal with Libya for civil aviation. The oil giant Shell is also "within days" of signing a massive deal to explore for gas off Libya's Mediterranean coast.
UK officials say Libyan military officers will also be offered places at the Sandhurst Military Academy.
Before leaving for Tripoli on Thursday Blair praised Gaddafi for "rightly and courageously" dismantling his nuclear arsenal earlier this year. Speaking at a press conference in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, Blair added that Libya deserved support for recognising its past errors. "Let us offer to states that want to renounce terrorism the hand of partnership to achieve it, as Libya has rightly and courageously decided to do."
Blair has been supported by his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw who said in a radio interview on Thursday, "Libya was a state that supported terrorism and was involved in nuclear, chemical and biological warfare capability. We managed to shift Libya from that position by peaceful means and they have co-operated 100 per cent with organisations that supervise weapons of mass destruction. It is my belief that this required a high degree of courage."
But Blair's trip has been criticised by Conservative opposition leader Michael Howard who said: "It was a strange moment to choose to go to Libya, which was responsible for the biggest terrorist outrage in Europe (Lockerbie), a day after attending a service for the second largest terrorist horror (Madrid) to have occurred in Europe."
Queenie Fletcher, the 70-year-old mother of police constable Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984, is also critical of the Blair visit.
"I am not optimistic it will lead to my daughter's killer being named," Fletcher said. "Gaddafi says one thing and does another. It makes me angry because I have heard it all before and it has gone on too long."
