A team of up to 14 men from Britain’s SAS has for the past six months been providing training to Libyan special forces in “counter-terrorism” techniques including covert surveillance, according to a news report. This news comes shortly after Libya received home to a hero’s welcome Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. Somehow the bumbling Brits, based on no visible evidence, seem to think that Colonel Gaddafi will, for no apparent reason, abandon his past ways of terrorism and torture and become a model world citizen.
It seems inconceivable that any government could be stupid enough to give counter-terrorism training to a terrorist state. Gaddafi has made some token gestures, such as paying compensation for terrorist acts, which have been leapt at by the West as attempts at reconciliation, but which have merely been calculated commercial manoeuvres designed to create a large financial return for a comparatively modest outlay. Gaddafi has not repented of terrorism or showed any signs of contrition, and he continues to show utter contempt for Western leaders.
Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former head of state, is currently on trial before the International Criminal Court for his role in supporting Sierra Leone’s rebel RUF movement in its eleven-year campaign of terror, rape, mutilation and murder. Gaddafi was a co-conspirator, responsible for providing the RUF rebel leaders with military training and funding. Will anyone be bold enough to arrest him and put him on trial?