Chemical Weapon Profile: Libya

Pranamita Baruah

June 2011

Recently, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya drew a lot of international attention following the violent crackdown on the protests there. As the situation deteriorated further, the possibility of Colonel Gaddafi using chemical weapons against the rebels opened a new dimension to the Libyan crisis. Soon, reports regarding Libya’s possession of weapons grade chemical stockpile started pouring in.

Libya’s association with chemical weapon is not a recent phenomenon. It first began as a victim when, in 1930, Italy’s autocratic leader Benito Mussolini authorized the use of sulfur mustard against the Libyan rebels. However, since mid-1980s, Libya itself has pursued an offensive chemical warfare programme. At that time, several factors were offered as drivers of Libya’s chemical weapon programme. Firstly, in order to compensate Libya’s military weakness vis-à-vis neighbouring states (particularly Egypt and Israel), Libyan leader Gaddafi felt it necessary to pursue such a programme. Secondly, it has been argued that Libya went ‘chemical way’ in concert with an aggressive programme to develop a ballistic missile delivery capability. Finally, increasing security threat posed by the alleged pursuit of chemical weapons by neighbouring states (particularly Egypt, Iraq and Syria) also largely pushed Libya to pursue a chemical weapons strategy.1

dernawiya Hanan

Where has #Gaddafi stored his 8 tons of chemical weapons in #Libya?

20 Jul

Skeptical4 Skeptic

#Germany built chemical weapons factory 4 #Saddam in #Iraq, 4 #Gaddafi in Rabda, Libya, OTRAG helped Saddam … (cont)http://deck.ly/~0TAD6

20 Jul

RedPleb Ben

RT @ajit8_: Labour spokesman: Custard Pies are are an assault but chemical bombs on Tripoli are protecting civilians #Libya #hackgate

19 Jul

SydWalker Syd Walker

In March, Wikileaks Central ran anti-Ghadafi hype re chemicalweapons wlcentral.org/node/1553 v @J0nblaz Who's really behind @wl_central? #Libya

18 Jul