UN, U.S. make up with the man who ordered Lockerbie

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After accepting "responsibility under international law" for the 1988 Lockerbie Pan-Am bombing that killed 270 people, Libya claims it is part of a new world order, in which Washington and Tripoli are natural allies in the war against Islamic extremism.

Don't blink. It's almost true.

Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi -- the man who was widely regarded as the godfather of terrorism when Saddam Hussein was still a U.S. ally -- is about to buy his way back into the international fold.

On Friday, the United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote on whether to lift a long list of sanctions that have hung over Libya's economy for 11 years.

Those sanctions were imposed when it became obvious Libyan security agents working for Colonel Gaddafi had planted the bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988.

All 259 people on board were killed, along with 11 people on the ground.

The horror of that act of terror was unparalleled -- until the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

But now, Col. Gaddafi has magnanimously agreed to pay US$2.7-billion in blood money to the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims in order to salvage his international reputation.

In a deal brokered by British diplomats and endorsed by the United States, Libya has agreed to formally accept responsibility for the Lockerbie murders, while paying relatives of the dead an amount equal to one quarter of Libya's annual oil revenue.

In exchange, Britain and the United States are supposed to undertake a series of co-ordinated diplomatic steps to lift international sanctions on Libya and remove the country from Washington's list of nations that support terrorism.

The only hitch to implementing the deal has been a last-minute extortion bid by France.

Impressed by the size of the Lockerbie payout, Paris wants Col. Gaddafi to reopen a similar deal he cut to pay a mere US$35-million to the relatives of the 170 people who died when six Libyan security agents, including Col. Gaddafi's brother-in-law, blew up a French UTA airliner over Niger in September, 1989.

France, which holds a Security Council veto, is pressing Libya to bring its UTA settlement into line with the Pan Am buyout.

Yesterday, France won a three-day postponement of the UN vote welcoming Libya back into the international community, so it can continue its negotiations.

Still, the whole sordid affair raises some interesting points.

How much is a human life worth?

Do international sanctions really work? If they do, should they be removed?

Is Col. Gaddafi truly reformed? Can he be trusted?

Is it possible to reintegrate and resocialize a rogue state such as Libya? Or is the whole thing nothing more than a cynical cash grab that flings Libya's oilfields open to international exploitation?

Ever since a 27-year-old Col. Gaddafi overthrew Libya's king in 1969, he has loved to strut the world stage. With his flamboyant style, his taste for designer clothes and a phalanx of all-female bodyguards, he constantly draws attention.

He renamed Libya the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (state of the masses) and he codified his own political philosophy in little "Green Books" of his own sayings.

Over the years, he became a self-appointed defender of Islam, a champion of Arab and then African unity. He preached anti-Western and anti-Israeli politics with fervour and he drenched himself in the blood of innocents.

He fought wars against Egypt and Chad and fostered coups, civil wars and assassinations all over the world.

Backed by Libya's oil revenue, he supplied funds, weapons and training facilities to several radical Palestinian groups. He helped finance a Muslim rebellion in the Philippines, supported terrorists in Argentina, helped Italy's Red Brigades and armed the Irish Republican Army.

He trained, financed and supported some of the continent's most notorious leaders -- Foday Sankoh of Sierra Leone, Charles Taylor of Liberia and Idi Amin in Uganda all were indebted to Col. Gaddafi.

In 1984, a Libyan diplomat in London shot and killed an unarmed British policewoman. In 1985, Libyan-sponsored terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and killed a crippled American passenger. In 1987, the freighter Eksund was intercepted off France carrying 15 tonnes of weapons from Libya to the IRA.

A year earlier, Libyan terrorists bombed a Berlin disco frequented by U.S. troops and killed two people. At the time, U.S. president Ronald Reagan called Col. Gaddafi "this mad dog of the Middle East [who] has a goal of a world revolution, a Muslim fundamentalist revolution."

When the United States retaliated for the Berlin bombing, U.S. jets attacked Col. Gaddafi's home. He wasn't hurt. But his adopted two-year-old daughter died.

That is widely regarded as the possible reason for the Lockerbie bombing.

But ever since sanctions were imposed on Libya, Col. Gaddafi has moved to shed his terrorist ways.

Without ever indicating remorse, he has sought to re-invent himself, struggling to drop his radical image and pragmatically redefining his nation's interests.

He withdrew from most Arab-Israeli confrontations, shut down terrorist training camps in Libya, expelled the Abu Nidal organization and cut his ties to other radical Palestinian groups.

He has tried to broker peace deals in Africa and extradited Islamist militants and suspected terrorists to Egypt, Yemen and Jordan.

Ironically, Col. Gaddafi was the first Arab leader after the Sept. 11 attacks to recognize the U.S. right to strike out at terrorists operating around the world.

Libya's intelligence services, which committed the Lockerbie bombing, are now said to be providing Washington with valuable information in its war on terrorism.

Still, one wonders if that is enough to rehabilitate Col. Gaddafi.

If, a decade from now, Osama bin Laden were to send cheques to the families of the dead at the World Trade Center, would we forgive him?

pgoodspeed@nationalpost.com