Associate Editor Angie C. Marek reports:
A coalition of seven U.S. senators has delivered a strongly worded letter to Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte urging him to address unresolved terrorism issues concerning Libya in a visit with Col. Muammar Qadhafi this week. Negroponte, the first U.S. ambassador to visit the country since 1953, is there primarily to discuss the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.
"Libya must put past crimes behind it and settle these cases," said the letter, citing money still owed to the families of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, as well as a reneged-upon proposed settlement with victims of the 1986 bombing of the LaBelle discothèque in Germany.
"Otherwise," the senators continued, "we believe that the State Department's request for a new embassy in Tripoli, its request for economic and military aid for Libya, and its yet unfilled ambassadorial post will be the subject of significant congressional concern."
They urged Negroponte "to send a strong message" to Qadhafi "that he must settle the remaining terrorism cases ... before he can have fully normalized diplomatic relations with the United States." Sen. Norm Coleman was the only Republican signer of the letter, which included signatures from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chris Dodd. Some $2 million per family is still owed to the relatives of victims of the Pan Am attack.
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