TRIPOLI, Libya, March 1 (UPI) -- A bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation led by Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon arrived in the Libyan capital Monday, just four days after the State Department lifted a U.S. travel ban on Libya. The ban was imposed in retaliation for Libya's involvement in the Dec. 1988 downing of Pan Am flight 103, which took the lives of all 259 people on board and killed another 11 persons on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.
Weldon plans three days of talks with Col. Moammar Gadhafi and other senior Libyan officials aimed at expanding U.S.-Libyan ties. This is Weldon's second trip to Libya since Gadhafi announced his intention to abandon his weapons of mass destruction programs in December.
"I told him that the past actions of his government were outrageous. But we are willing to open a new chapter," based on Gadhafi's willingness to abandon his weapons programs and to admit responsibility for past terrorist acts, including Pan Am 103, Weldon said.
The United States government flew out 55,000 pounds of WMD production components on Jan. 22, including uranium enrichment centrifuge parts and guidance kits for SCUD-C missiles Libya had acquired from North Korea. A second planeload of WMD components was flown out shortly afterwards.
The equipment is currently at a U.S. government nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Missile gear has been shipped for analysis to Huntsville, Ala.
Included in the first shipment were a "full set" of nuclear weapons designs purchased form nuclear black market network of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, officials said.
Weldon says he believes Gadhafi is sincere in his desire to abandon his WMD programs, although the Libyan leader expressed concern that other Arab states and Iran were seeking to destabilize his regime to punish him for disclosing their previous collaboration with Libya's WMD programs.
"I told Gadhafi that if he follows through, this could lead to a restoration of ties" with the United States, the Pennsylvania Republican told UPI.
Weldon's cautious optimism toward Gadhafi was shared by top Bush administration officials, who told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday they were stunned by the extent of Libya's cooperation in disclosing and dismantling its chemical, biological, missile, and nuclear weapons programs.
"I am about as skeptical as people get," said Paula De Sutter, Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance. "But what we've seen is about as verifiable as it gets."
Since Gadhafi's surprise announcement on Dec. 19, the Libyan government has given U.S. arms control officials unimpeded access to their weapons development sites, De Sutter told UPI. "We've seen a genuine decision by Libya to walk away from their WMD programs. I am convinced of that."
Before her appointment as the top Bush administration official for arms control verification, De Sutter earned a reputation for challenging the Clinton administration's willingness to gloss over arms control violations by Russia and communist China for political reasons. Arms control professionals consider her about as tough as they come.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asia William Burns shared De Sutter's upbeat assessment at Thursday's hearing.
Gadhafi's "historic commitment" to eliminate his WMD programs marks "a turning point" in U.S.-Libyan relations. "Since December 19," Burns said, "Libya has taken significant and, in some cases, irreversible steps to implement these commitments."
The United States agreed on Thursday to lift five categories of sanctions against Libya, including the U.S. travel ban. The United States has also established an Interest section in Tripoli, which it plans to staff with five full-time diplomats, marking the end of Libya's isolation from the United States.
Libya will also be allowed to open an interest section in Washington, although no Arab state has yet agreed to host a Libyan delegation in the United States, diplomatic sources said.
(Kenneth R. Timmerman is a senior writer for Insight magazine.)
