West braces for Gadhafi's terror counterpunch

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Moammar Gadhafi

Experts watching developments in Libya fear that embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi could resort to acts of terror like the Lockerbie bombing to retaliate against the West, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Gadhafi is battling rebel forces aided by U.S.-led NATO air-strikes.

Whether he remains in Libya in some semblance of power or whether he eventually gains asylum in another country, Gadhafi could work through proxies to instigate terror attacks inside Libya – and against Western targets, the analysts fear.

At this point, Gadhafi's forces have been ineffective against NATO air assets. In its enforcement of the U.N.-approved no-fly zone over Libya, the coalition has minimized Gadhafi's use of tanks and artillery, which had been pounding military elements of the opposition.

Sources recall that Gadhafi directly confronted the U.S. military on a number of occasions, with the same results. In 1981, for example, two Libyan jets challenged U.S. warships after he had declared that waters off the Gulf of Sidra were in Libyan territory. Two U.S. Navy fighters shot down the Libyan aircraft.

Then in 1986, Gadhafi became outraged by the U.S. attacks on Libyan surface-to-air missile sites after missiles were launched at U.S. aircraft flying over the contested waters.

Gadhafi realized, however, that he could not directly respond militarily to the overwhelming superiority of U.S. forces. Consequently, he resorted to terrorism through proxy groups in an effort to give himself plausible deniability.

It was similar to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's approach after his military defeat during Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990. Saddam targeted Americans by working closely with jihadist organizations throughout the Middle East. He also collaborated with known al-Qaida affiliates and associated Islamic terror groups.

Gadhafi has been a master at working these groups, which included not only Middle East organizations but the FARC in Latin America and the Irish Republican Army in Ireland.

Following the March 1986 destruction of his SAM sites, for example, Gadhafi the following month had the Abu Nidal Organization plant a bomb on board TWA Flight 840. The bomb tore a hole in the fuselage of the aircraft, killing four Americans and injuring a number of others.

Then on April 5, 1986, he orchestrated the bombing of the LaBelle disco in Berlin, Germany. That blast killed two American servicemen and a civilian, injuring some 200 other people. The U.S. knew Libya was responsible, since it had intercepted communications between the Libyan embassy, called the Libyan People's Bureau, in East Berlin at the time, and Tripoli.

Later came the 270 deaths in the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland.

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