"BUFDRVR" a écrit dans le message de
...

If you believe intelligence officials (both US and German), that operation
was in progress for over three years, ordered before El Dorado Canyon.

I don't get your point. If, according to the intelligence reports you
highlight, the Lockerbie bombing was planned around 1985 but was not
cancelled after El Dorado Canyon in 1986 and did happen in 1988, how can one
say the Libyan support and practice of terrorism has decreased after the
Tripoli bombing? The bodycount (270 dead people, including 200 Americans),
alas, speaks for itself. Same for the UTA plane in 1989.

Libya's overt support for international terrorists and even Qaddafi's
covert support were severely curtailed after El Dorado Canyon

In addition to destroying two planes and killing about 450 people in the
following years, Libya also continued to support rebel movement in North
Chad (the Aouzou strip) until 1994. There are also reports that it supported
the FLNC, a violent Corsican separatist group. As for weapon smuggling for
the PIRA, I'm not sure but I think it was mostly in the early 80's.


Did they "officially" announce they were giving up their support of
terrorists? No,

Yes, the Libyan representative institution (called something like the
People's National Concil, I don't remember exactly) issued an official
statement about it in 1992, whatever its worth. And Qaddafi himself has made
several official speeches these last years on the subject, about his will to
be part again of the international community. There are also of course the
Libyan statements in front of the UN Security Council to get the sanctions
lifted.


but actions speak
louder than words and Qaddafi has been seen on US TV approximately a half
dozen
times since El Dorado Canyon which tells me, at least from a US
perspective,
that the strike had the required effect.


Didn' t he show up on US channels after the Lockerbie bombing or at least
during the investigation? Anyway, I'm not sure that the average coverage of
one subject or the other by the US, British, German, French, or any other
Western mainstream TV channels is the most accurate tool of analysis of what
is really going on. Sometimes a dog that has been ran over by a car next
block is more important than the death of multiple people overseas.
As for the "required effect", in the light of what happened in 1988 (to
concentrate on US interests) I still don't understand your way of thinking.
But that's no news... :-)

Regards,
ArVa