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2008-09-06来源:和谐英语
BBC 2008-09-06
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Thank you for downloading from the BBC. For details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use, go to bbcworldservice.com/podcasts.
Welcome to the latest global news recorded at 1500 BST on Friday, the 5th of September. I’m Dorrin Walton with a selection of highlights from across BBC World Service News today.
Coming up, it’s a trip which is being hailed as historic. The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has flown to Libya, but family members of the Lockerbie bombing have their reservations.
“It is just common sense that you do not develop relations with an individual that’s in charge of a country that massacred innocent citizens.”
Angola goes to the polls for the first time in 16 years. Now John McCain has accepted the Republican Party nomination to be its presidential candidate, the countdown to November’s US election gets serious. Switzerland will see the switching on of the biggest project in physics, but will a RAP allay the public’s fears over the plans? And Google turns ten. How has it managed to survive?
But first, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is beginning her trip to Libya, a visit being described as historic. It’s been over 50 years since an American of her rank has traveled to the country. She’ll meet the Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who US President Ronald Reagan once called a “mad dog”. In the past, Colonel Kadhafi was regarded by many western governments as a supporter of terrorism. He was blamed for the bombing of an American passenger plane over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. For that reason, some Americans are feeling uncomfortable. Fergus Nicoll spoke to Bert Ammerman, an American who lost his brother Tom in the Lockerbie bombing.
“I do believe that in the future we should re-establish diplomatic relations with Libya, but not as long as Kadhafi is in power. He is responsible for the massacre of at least 189 Americans at 31,000 feet for a total of 270 with Pan Am flight 103. So you’re rewarding an individual that authorized the massacre of innocent citizens because of oil and big business. That just shows that the Bush Administration has no moral backbone.”
So you don’t believe that the compensation package agreed by Libya, the fact that the Libyan national Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is still in prison, though pending appeal, that doesn’t wipe the slate clean.
“Not at all. The only time that that slate is clean is when Kadhafi is out of power. As I’ve said over and over again, I don’t think, if Hussein from Iraq were still alive and made the comment that "I denounce state-sponsored terrorism. I’ll never again try to develop weapons of mass-destruction," that our government would put him back in power. And we have Castro in Cuba that never killed an America(n), and we don’t open up diplomatic relations with Cuba because of politics of Florida that the Republican or Democratic Party are afraid that they’ll lose the Presidential election. It is just common sense that you do not develop relations with an individual that’s in charge of a country that massacred innocent citizens. Do we open up relations at some time in the future with Libya? Absolutely. Today’s enemies are tomorrow’s allies. I’m well aware of that. The timing of this is horrendous.”
So you think it stinks because it’s politics.
“That’s the bottom line. It’s politics. It’s oil and it’s big businesses. And the only reason I know that is the Clinton Administration tried to do this halfway through his Administration. And we, as the families, many of the families, stopped it. And we had a conference call with the, at that time Secretary of State, Albright, and National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, and there were about 40 American family relatives on this conference call. And halfway through the conference call, I interrupted it and said, "Madam Secretary, to show you how awful this is, this most likely is the first time that all of the families agree on anything." And the next day, I received a phone call from somebody in the State Department thanking me, because there was an internal debate on whether they should move ahead, and when the family group united and said no, they stopped. So this has been going on for a period of time. It’s not Republicans. It’s Republicans and Democrats. And it’s simply based on business, economics, oil, politics, and the lives of innocent citizens are a distant second.”
Bert Ammerman. Well, that’s one view. But what’s the political significance of this trip? Dan Damon spoke to North Africa expert, George Joffe of King's College London.(Www.hxen.net)
“It’s the first time since 1953 that an American Secretary of State has actually been to Libya. So really it’s remarkable. And it has to be said that in view of events in Libya in the 1970s, 80s, it would never seem possible for a senior American official to actually go to, to the country.”
Well, nonetheless there have been some kind of regime change which there hasn’t. So, what’s going on?
“Well, what’s going on, basically, it’s Colonel Kadhafi over a very long period of time has been trying to persuade the international community that Libya is now a respectable state, and he’s eventually succeeded, and the last people to be brought on board to that view were the United States. And that was made possible because last week Congress passed an act approving a fund to be set up into which the Libyans would pay to satisfy any further claims against them for terrorism but to ensure that no future claims could be brought. And since the Libyans have now agreed, in effect, the last contention between the two countries has gone.”
Download Audio
Thank you for downloading from the BBC. For details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use, go to bbcworldservice.com/podcasts.
Welcome to the latest global news recorded at 1500 BST on Friday, the 5th of September. I’m Dorrin Walton with a selection of highlights from across BBC World Service News today.
Coming up, it’s a trip which is being hailed as historic. The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has flown to Libya, but family members of the Lockerbie bombing have their reservations.
“It is just common sense that you do not develop relations with an individual that’s in charge of a country that massacred innocent citizens.”
Angola goes to the polls for the first time in 16 years. Now John McCain has accepted the Republican Party nomination to be its presidential candidate, the countdown to November’s US election gets serious. Switzerland will see the switching on of the biggest project in physics, but will a RAP allay the public’s fears over the plans? And Google turns ten. How has it managed to survive?
But first, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is beginning her trip to Libya, a visit being described as historic. It’s been over 50 years since an American of her rank has traveled to the country. She’ll meet the Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who US President Ronald Reagan once called a “mad dog”. In the past, Colonel Kadhafi was regarded by many western governments as a supporter of terrorism. He was blamed for the bombing of an American passenger plane over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. For that reason, some Americans are feeling uncomfortable. Fergus Nicoll spoke to Bert Ammerman, an American who lost his brother Tom in the Lockerbie bombing.
“I do believe that in the future we should re-establish diplomatic relations with Libya, but not as long as Kadhafi is in power. He is responsible for the massacre of at least 189 Americans at 31,000 feet for a total of 270 with Pan Am flight 103. So you’re rewarding an individual that authorized the massacre of innocent citizens because of oil and big business. That just shows that the Bush Administration has no moral backbone.”
So you don’t believe that the compensation package agreed by Libya, the fact that the Libyan national Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is still in prison, though pending appeal, that doesn’t wipe the slate clean.
“Not at all. The only time that that slate is clean is when Kadhafi is out of power. As I’ve said over and over again, I don’t think, if Hussein from Iraq were still alive and made the comment that "I denounce state-sponsored terrorism. I’ll never again try to develop weapons of mass-destruction," that our government would put him back in power. And we have Castro in Cuba that never killed an America(n), and we don’t open up diplomatic relations with Cuba because of politics of Florida that the Republican or Democratic Party are afraid that they’ll lose the Presidential election. It is just common sense that you do not develop relations with an individual that’s in charge of a country that massacred innocent citizens. Do we open up relations at some time in the future with Libya? Absolutely. Today’s enemies are tomorrow’s allies. I’m well aware of that. The timing of this is horrendous.”
So you think it stinks because it’s politics.
“That’s the bottom line. It’s politics. It’s oil and it’s big businesses. And the only reason I know that is the Clinton Administration tried to do this halfway through his Administration. And we, as the families, many of the families, stopped it. And we had a conference call with the, at that time Secretary of State, Albright, and National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, and there were about 40 American family relatives on this conference call. And halfway through the conference call, I interrupted it and said, "Madam Secretary, to show you how awful this is, this most likely is the first time that all of the families agree on anything." And the next day, I received a phone call from somebody in the State Department thanking me, because there was an internal debate on whether they should move ahead, and when the family group united and said no, they stopped. So this has been going on for a period of time. It’s not Republicans. It’s Republicans and Democrats. And it’s simply based on business, economics, oil, politics, and the lives of innocent citizens are a distant second.”
Bert Ammerman. Well, that’s one view. But what’s the political significance of this trip? Dan Damon spoke to North Africa expert, George Joffe of King's College London.(Www.hxen.net)
“It’s the first time since 1953 that an American Secretary of State has actually been to Libya. So really it’s remarkable. And it has to be said that in view of events in Libya in the 1970s, 80s, it would never seem possible for a senior American official to actually go to, to the country.”
Well, nonetheless there have been some kind of regime change which there hasn’t. So, what’s going on?
“Well, what’s going on, basically, it’s Colonel Kadhafi over a very long period of time has been trying to persuade the international community that Libya is now a respectable state, and he’s eventually succeeded, and the last people to be brought on board to that view were the United States. And that was made possible because last week Congress passed an act approving a fund to be set up into which the Libyans would pay to satisfy any further claims against them for terrorism but to ensure that no future claims could be brought. And since the Libyans have now agreed, in effect, the last contention between the two countries has gone.”
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