Libyan “Man-Made River” Threatened

(In view of U.S. bombing of Serbia, missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan, continued bombing of Iraq, you may be interested in the following—a U.S. threat to bomb Libya.)

Wisdom Fund- As part of the celebrations marking the 27th anniversary of Libya's September 1, 1969 Revolution, Colonel Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi inaugurated the second stage of the Great Man-Made River project. In April, 1996 the U.S. threatened to attack the project with nuclear weapons.

Labeled by the international press as the 8th Wonder of The World, the project launched in 1984 and built with the help of Korean firms includes 4000 km of pipelines, and two aqueducts of 1000 km. When completed it will bring five million cubic meters per day of water from desert aquifers to Libya's coastal cities. It will eventually increase the size of Libya's arable land by over 70 percent. The total cost of the huge project is expected to exceed $25 billion.

Because the “Jabal Nefussa” mountainous formation blocks the flow of water from the aquifers to the coast, it was necessary to drill a tunnel through the mountains and to install a pumping station at Tarhunah. According to the Washington Post this pumping station was described, as a chemical plant at a Defense Department briefing on April 23, 1996 where a senior defense official stated that the United States would not exclude the use of nuclear weapons to destroy it. This plant, said the official, “is not in the interest of peace, not in the interest of stability, and not in the interest of world order.” U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry confirmed that the use of nuclear weapons to destroy this “chemical weapons factory” was not excluded.

Presidents Alpha Omar Konare of Mali, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Lansana Conte of Guinea and Ibrahim Mainasara Bare of Niger joined Col. Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi to simultaneously push buttons which caused a barrier to open allowing the chemical compound H2O (aka water) to gush forth to fill the Garabouli dam, 60 km east of Tripoli, and to begin supplying water for drinking and irrigation to Libya's northwestern coastal plains.

Some intelligence services believe, however, that a chemical weapons factory does exist at Tarhunah. If so, they should present their evidence to the relevant international organization for appropriate action. The Great Man-Made River project should not be threatened with nuclear strikes.

© Reprinted with permission from The Wisdom Fund website:http://www.twf.org