subject: Gaddafi extorted money from American companies to pay for Lockerbie [print this page] Gaddafi extorted money from American companies to pay for Lockerbie
The assessors of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi demanded huge amounts of American companies to help Tripoli to bear the costs of compensation (1.5 billion dollars) to victims of Libyan in Lockerbie bombing, under threat of making them to lose their lucrative contracts in Arab country, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
In 2009, Libyan officials have warned that American executives if their companies - most multinational energy - did not yield to such demands, there would be serious consequences for their businesses, according to the U.S. State Department quoted by the newspaper.
The attitude of the Gaddafi regime, according to a story in The New York Times, highlights the culture of political patronage and endemic corruption in Libya, which have widened in 2004 when the U.S. resumed trade relations with Tripoli.
This reopening trade meant that the multinationals are eager to cast oil reserves of Libya.
American entrepreneurs, eager to do business in this region of North Africa, were manipulated by Gaddafi and his sons, who, according to the material, obtained an amount that totals several billion.
It is this sum that allows Kadhafi to remain in power despite the people's rebellion against the Libyan regime and the coalition's air strikes against Western forces loyal to the Libyan leader.
"Libya is a kleptocracy, in which the regime (whether the Gadhafi family or their allies) have direct interests in everything that has value," said the State Department, quoted by the newspaper.
Business interests have also gained a new impetus in Libya in 2008, when Tripoli accepted responsibility in the Lockerbie bombing.
The New York Times says that a dozen U.S. companies, including Boeing, Raytheon, ConocoPhillips, Occidental, Caterpillar and Halliburton, immediately sought to settle in Libya.
Some companies listed in this method of extortion paid a fortune. Occidental Petroleum passed a billion dollars to Libya as part of a 30-year contract.
Juan Zarate, a former senior White House aide in the administration of George W. Bush said Washington had made "a deal with the devil" when he resumed trade with Libya.
"The hope was that with standardization, Gaddafi acted less like the mad dog of the Middle East and was more partners," he told the Times.
On December 21, 1988, was a terrorist attack carried out against Pan Am flight that exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people.
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