Sanctions Lifted, Libya Withholds Final Lockerbie Payment
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/08/world/africa/08libya.html
WASHINGTON, July 7 — Libya is holding off on making hundreds
of millions of dollars in payments to the families of Americans killed
in the bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
The payment appears to have fallen victim, at least for now, to a
Libyan desire for a prominent public acknowledgment of its rehabilitation,
according to people expert in the dispute.
The payments were to have been made when the United States
removed Libya from the list of states that sponsor terrorism,
which Washington did on June 30.
According to a government official involved in foreign policy,
who would not speak for attribution because of the sensitivity
of the topic, Libya was seeking an invitation to the White House
for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, or at least a visit
to Tripoli by an important American official.
State Department officials have said that Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice has been discussing making such a visit,
but that she had decided not to do so, yet.
James P. Kreindler, a lawyer who specializes in aviation disasters,
said that only the Lockerbie escrow agreement had lapsed, not the
underlying compensation agreement. And action by the United States
government was delayed, he said, because the Libyans had plotted in
2004 to kill Abdullah, then the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
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How embarrassing.
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