Analyst: Washington still trying to control events in Libya

The reopening of the case of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing shows that Washington is still meddling in Libya, which the Obama administration destroyed in 2011, according to an American journalist and analyst.

Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and radio host in New York, made the remarks commenting to the Press TV website on Sunday after US authorities confirmed that a Libyan man accused of making the bomb that destroyed a Pan Am flight over Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people, has been taken into US custody.

Abu Agila Mohammad was charged by the United States two years ago for the Lockerbie bombing. Many Americans died in the incident, AFP reported.

Masud had previously been imprisoned in Libya for alleged involvement in a 1986 attack on a Berlin nightclub.

The US Justice Department said in a statement on Sunday that Masud was in American custody after Scottish prosecutors made the announcement that the suspect was in US hands.

“As far as Lockerbie goes, the general claims against Libya and the specific claims here have to be taken in context. Tripoli denied the claims for many years and because of it, and because of US geopolitical games, Libya was subjected to crippling sanctions from the US and Europe,” DeBar told Press TV. 

“Gaddafi struck a deal that constituted a proforma admission of responsibility and the US, et al lifted the sanctions. The lifting of the sanctions, in turn brought about a prosperity across Libya that was a model for Africa, Asia and Latin America - and the world in general - until it was destroyed by US bombing in 2011,” he added.

“The current case has to be looked at in the context of what's currently happening inside Libya and the fact that the US is attempting to influence events there. Nothing more,” he said.

"I heard some reports this morning about it. I didn't realize that the Libyans had him and handed him to the Americans and that he supposedly confessed to the Libyans. What's interesting is the history of CIA rendition to Libya even before the government was a puppet of the US. So it seems to me likely this guy was tortured, and, thus, whatever confession he has apparently made has to be looked at through that lens. In other words, it may be a false confession to make the pain stop," DeBar added. 

A US Justice Department spokesperson said Masud was expected to appear in a federal court in Washington, DC.

Masud was arrested by the FBI and was being extradited to the United States to face prosecution, according to The New York Times.

The bombing of Pan Am flight 103 on December 21, 1988 was the deadliest terror attack on British soil.

The New York-bound aircraft exploded 38 minutes after it took off from London, with the main fuselage plunging to the ground in the town of Lockerbie.

The crash killed 259 people including 190 Americans on board, and 11 people on the ground.

DeBar has previously said that the United States and its allies are responsible for completely destroying Libya, perhaps the richest country with the highest standard of living in Africa.

“It was an unconventional war on Libya with the US Air Force and NATO allies providing air support and the ground troops being comprised of al-Qaeda fighters and other irregulars that were trained and armed by the US, but the Qataris, including Qatari command and control on the ground,” the journalist said.

“Libya has been completely destroyed by the intervention of the United States and NATO.  With once the most prosperous countries in the region, perhaps the wealthiest country with a highest standard of living on the continent of Africa, and one of the wealthiest countries with one of highest standard of living in the Middle East region as well, it had complete domestic peace; they were constructing and had constructed rather an amazing economic space,” the journalist told Press TV. 

“It was the engine for the consolidation of the integration of Africa. And it has been completely and totally destroyed,” the analyst noted.

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More than 11 years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has become a failed state, with the central government holding no sway over the country.

DeBar said Gaddafi was deposed because he “was well into the process of helping to organize a United States of Africa, an integrated African polity and economy, and was offering to bankroll it with Libya’s wealth.”

“That was something that would run counter to the US plans, now actualized by installing AFRICOM (the United States Africa Command) on the continent, essentially re-colonizing Africa,” he added.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk