Reuters Downplays Gaddafi's History of Terrorist Activity

Reuters reporter William Maclean wrote in his article, "Gaddafi says fear drives world economic system", that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was shunned by the international community for much of his rule because the West "accused him of terrorism."

In the article, Maclean glossed over one Gaddafi linked terrorist act--the 1986 bombing of a passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland.  He neglected to report that there were 270 deaths involved in the attack though.

Gaddafi wasn't just "accused of terrorism".  He has been linked to terrorists and terrorism for more than 30 years.

The Council on Foreign Relations says that Qaddafi "has provided training, weapons, funding, safe haven, or other support to several Palestinian terrorist organizations" and to "the Basque separatist group ETA and Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front."

It was discovered that Gadaffi supplied the Irish Republican Army with arms in 1973 when a ship was apprehended off the coast of Ireland.

In 1981, President Ronald Regan ordered Libyan diplomats be expelled from the U.S. when intelligence reports indicated Gaddafi had plans to assassinate American diplomats in Pairs and Rome.

In 1986, U.S. officials held Libya responsible for the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen.

Also in 1986, Time Magazine reported, "Since 1980, more than 15 anti-Gaddafi Libyan exiles have been assassinated in Italy, England, West Germany, Greece and the U.S."

A French court convicted six Libyans in 1999 for their roles in an attack on a French airliner over Niger in 1989.

In 1999, Libya paid a Philippine terrorist group with ties to al-Qaeda for the release of hostages, which the U.S. State Department criticized.

In 2006, Gaddafi gave a speech on the 37th anniversary of the military coup that brought him to power urging his supporters to kill anyone trying to subvert his power.

Any of these would have been good, Mr. Maclean.