WASHINGTON, DC, September 4 -- As part of the celebrations marking the
27th anniversary of Libya's September 1, 1969 Revolution, Colonel
Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi inaugurated the second stage of the Great Man-Made
River project which last April the U.S. threatened to attack with
nuclear weapons.
Labelled by the international press as the 8th Wonder of The World,
the project launched in 1984 and built with the help of Korean firms
includes 4000 km of pipelines, and two aqueducts of 1000 km. When
completed it will bring five million cubic meters per day of water from
desert aquifers to Libya's coastal cities. It will eventually increase
the size of Libya's arable land by over 70 percent. The total cost of
the huge project is expected to exceed $25 billion.
Because the "Jabal Nefussa" mountainous formation blocks
the flow of water from the aquifers to the coast, it was necessary to
drill a tunnel through the mountains and to install a pumping station at
Tarhunah. This pumping station was described, according to The
Washington Post, as a chemical plant at a Defense Department
briefing on April 23, 1996 where a senior defense official stated that
the United States would not exclude the use of nuclear weapons to
destroy it. This plant, said the official, "is not in the interest
of peace, not in the interest of stability, and not in the interest of
world order." U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry confirmed
that the use of nuclear weapons to destroy this chemical weapons factory
was not excluded.
Last Saturday, August 31, Presidents Alpha Omar Konare of Mali, Jerry
Rawlings of Ghana, Lansana Conte of Guinea, Ibrahim Mainasara Bare of
Niger and other guests including Nation of Islam leader, Louis
Farrakhan, joined Libyan leader Col. Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi to
simultaneously push buttons which caused a barrier to open allowing the
chemical compound H2O (aka water) to gush forth to fill the Garabouli
dam, 60 km east of Tripoli, and to begin supplying water for drinking
and irrigation to Libya's northwestern coastal plains.
Some intelligence services believe, however, that a chemical weapons
factory does exist at Tarhunah. If so they should present their evidence
to the relevant international organization for appropriate action. The
Great Man-Made River project should not be threatened with nuclear
strikes.
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["One year after President Bush labeled Iraq, Iran and North
Korea the 'axis of evil,' the United States is thinking about
the unthinkable: It is preparing for the possible use of nuclear
weapons against Iraq."--William M. Arkin, The Nuclear Option in Iraq, Independent,
January 26, 2003
