Libya acknowledges role in Pan Am bombing

By Barry Schweid

Feb 25, 2004 | Libya on Wednesday reversed its prime minister and confirmed that it was responsible for blowing up Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 and killing 270 people, the government's web site said.

The statement by the Jamahiriya news agency could put back on track a plan by the Bush administration to let Americans travel to Libya.

The statement, which appeared on Libya's web site, said Libya had helped bring two suspects to justice ``and accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials.''

Referring to the prime minister's statement that Libya had not acknowledged responsibility in a letter to the United Nations, the Libyan news agency said ``recent statements contradicting or casting doubt on these positions are inaccurate and regrettable.''

The White House and State Department withheld an immediate judgment of the new Libyan statement.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had not seen the Libyan agency's statement but said he believed the prime minister's remarks were ``unfortunate.''

Powell said they were not consistent with what the United States had been hearing recently from Libya. He called the remarks ``a little blip that will go away and we'll be back on track.''

Libya last August acknowledged in a letter to the U.N. Security Council its responsibility for the bombing of the jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, including 181 Americans.

But hours before the White House was to announce lifting of the ban on use of U.S. passports to travel to Libya, Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem told the BBC that Libya's government agreed in December to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to the victims' families to improve relations with the West and to secure the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Libya.

Asked in the interview if the payment did not mean Libya had accepted guilt for the bombing, Ghanem replied: ``I agree with that, and this is why I say we bought peace.''

``After the sanctions and after the problems we have (been) facing because of the sanctions, the loss of money, we thought that it was easier for us to buy peace and this is why we agreed to compensation,'' the prime minister said in the interview, which was recorded in Libya.

The new statement indicates that Libya had complied with the U.S. request for a retraction of the prime minister's statement.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said he could not analyze the statement on the spot, but ``it's really the facts that matter much more than any statements.''

He said the administration was watching the way Libya follows up on a pledge to get rid of its nuclear weapons program and whether it takes concrete steps to part company with terror groups.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said ``this is something that is just breaking. I haven't had a chance to look at it.''

Susan Cohen, of Cape May, N.J., whose daughter, Thea, 20, was killed in the bombing, was skeptical of the news agency statement.

``This is typical of the Libyans,'' she said on the telephone. ``They do this thing all the time. They say confusing things. This doesn't cancel out that (Libyan leader Moammar) Gadhafi keeps telling people they did not commit the bombing.''

Mrs Cohen said the U.S. government should demand that Gadhafi ``come out and say, 'yes, we did it'.''

``They are the same old Libyans,'' she said. ``If they don't accept the responsibility right up to Gadhafi, this whole thing is a fraud.''

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