Part IV 1969 - 2011

RS&BP PART IV

1966 Occidental Petroleum under Armand Hammer won valuable drilling rights in Libya by bribing a key member of the Libyan royal family.(SFC, 1/17/96, p.D7)

1969 Sep 1 A coup in Libya overthrew the monarchy of King Idris and brought Moammar Gadhafi (27) to power. Crown Prince al-Hassan al-Reda, was acting ruler while King al-Senousi, al-Senousi's grandfather, was undergoing medical treatment in Turkey. Gadhafi emerged as leader of the revolutionary government and ordered the closure of a U.S. Air Force base. (AP, 9/1/99)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C12)(AP, 6/26/05)

1969 to 1984 Libya’s Crown Prince al Reda and his family remained under house arrest for 7 years after the coup. He then spent 2 years in detention without trial where he was said to have been tortured. He suffered a brain tumor that paralyzed his body and traveled to Britain for treatment. He died 6 years later when the Libyan office in London suspended payment for the treatment. (AP, 6/26/05)

1970 Jun 11, The United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base.(AP, 6/11/00)

1970 Jul 21, Libya ordered the confiscation of all Jewish property. (MC, 7/21/02)

1970 Nov 27, Syria joined the pact linking Libya, Egypt and Sudan. (HN, 11/27/98)

1971 Quadaffi’s son Seif al-Islam (Sword of Islam) born.

1972 Mar 4, Libya and USSR signed a cooperation treaty.(SC, 3/4/02)

1973 Feb 21, Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan Airlines jet over the Sinai Desert, killing 108 people. (AP, 2/21/98)(MC, 2/21/02)

1973 The Irish Navy caught Joe Cahill as he tried to smuggle 5 tons of Russian-made explosives, guns and ammunition from Libya. (SFC, 7/26/04, p.B4)

1975 - Libya’s leader Muammar Qaddafi published The Green Book. The 3-part book rejects modern conceptions of liberal democracy and encourages the institution of a form of direct democracy based on popular committees.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Book)

1976 Americans Frank Terpil and Joseph McElroy deliver 50 revolvers to Libya.

1976 Former CIA official Ed Wilson begins selling tons of C4 explosives to Libya, along with experts to teach covert operations.

1977 Mar 2, Libya amended its constitution. (SC, 3/2/02)

1977 Mar 3, Libyan Socialist Arabs People's Republic formed (SC, 3/3/02)

1977 May American Legion Magazine (Vol. 102 #4) publishes reports of Patricia Dougherty (of Leonia Borough Council, NJ) and her writer friend Melba Edmunds, who visit cemetery in Tripoli, finding it overgrown with weeds.

1977 Nov 19, Libya dropped diplomatic relations with Egypt. (MC, 11/19/01)

1977 Col. Moammar Gadhafi launched his Jamahariya, or "State of the Masses."
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C12)

1978 Aug, Imam Mousa Sadr, the spiritual leader of Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community, disappeared during a visit to Libya. (AP, 9/3/03)

1979 Jun 3 - Ex-president Idi Amin of Uganda fled to Libya. (MC, 6/3/02)

1979 Dec 2, Some 2,000 Libyans ransacked the US embassy at Tripoli, Libya, chanting support for the radical Islamic regime that took power in Iran earlier in the year.
(AP, 12/30/03)

1979 Libyans attack US Embassy in Tripoli.

1980 Jul 23, Billy Carter, brother of Pres. Jimmy Carter, admitted to being paid by Libya.(MC, 7/23/02)

1980 Colonel Muammar Khaddafi of Libya recruited the nationless, disenfranchised nomads by implying that he would train the Kel Tamashek and provide weapons to fight for their independence from the Malian government. The rebels slowly realized that Khadaffi's only intention was to use them in his own wars. Some of these dejected fighters formed the band Tinariwen in Khadaffi's rebel camp (www.jacneed.com/10Tinariwen.htm)

1981 May 6, US expelled Libyan diplomats. (MC, 5/6/02)

1981 Aug 12, President Reagan, citing alleged Libyan involvement in terrorism, ordered U.S. jets to attack targets in Libya. (AP, 12/19/03)

1981 Aug 19, Two U.S. Navy F-14 jet fighters shot down a pair of Soviet-built Libyan SU-22s in a dogfight over the Gulf of Sidra.(AP, 8/19/06)

1981 Dec 11 Concerned about the safety of Americans in Libya, the Reagan administration asks them to leave. It also invalidates use of U.S. passports for travel to Libya.(AP, 12/19/03)

1981 to 1986 In Uganda Yoweri Museveni led a five-year bush war against Milton Obote. Museveni had trained in a Libya guerrilla camp. (SFC, 5/11/96, p.A-8)(AP, 12/16/02)

1982 Mar 10, Pres Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya and banned Libyan oil imports, because of the continued support of terrorism. (HN, 3/10/98)(MC, 3/10/02)

1982 Ed Wilson is lured out of hiding in Libya and brought to New York for arrest and trial.

1983 Wilson introduces sworn statement from CIA that Wilson didn’t do anything for the CIA after his retirement in 1971, is convicted, sentenced to 25 years and is incarcerated at federal penitentiary at Marion, Illinois.

1983 Nov 25, Syria and Saudi Arabia announced a cease-fire in PLO civil war in Tripoli.(MC, 11/25/01)

1983 Edwin Wilson was convicted of running arms to Libya. In 2003 the conviction was thrown out because prosecutors knew he worked for the CIA and misled the court.
(WSJ, 10/29/03, p.A1)

1984 Apr, Yvonne Fletcher, a British police officer, was killed from rifle shots fired from the Libyan embassy in London during a demonstration against Moammar Ghadafi. Libya later gave Fletcher’s family some compensation. (SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C12)

1984 Spring C4 explosives explode at homes of anti-Quaddafi Libyans in Manchester England, sparking demonstrations and the shooting murder of female British constable at Libyan embassy at St. James Square. Diplomatic relations between England and Libya broken, Libyans escorted out of the country. They leave behind some of the U.S. revolvers.

1985 Jan 8, The Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was released 19 months later. (AP, 1/8/05)

1985 Aug 21, Tunisia expelled 253 Libyans in apparent retaliation for Libya’s expulsion of over 20,000 Tunisian workers in recent weeks.(http://tinyurl.com/yq3x4e)

1985 Charles Taylor escaped from a Plymouth County jail in Massachusetts while awaiting extradition to Liberia, where he was accused of embezzling money as an official in the dictatorship of Samuel Doe. He went to Libya received military training as a guest of Col. Moammar Ghadafi. Taylor met Foday Sankoh, a corporal from Sierra Leone while training in Libya. (SFC, 7/3/99, p.A10)(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B5)(AP, 12/16/02)

1986 Jan 1 Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi threatened to retaliate if attacked as the United States built its strength in the Mediterranean. (HN, 1/1/99)

1986 Jan 7, US president Reagan proclaimed economic sanctions against Libya.
(www.iie.com/research/topics/sanctions/libya.cfm)

1986 Jan 23, U.S. began maneuvers off the Libyan coast. (HN, 1/23/99)

1986 Apr 5, A Berlin nightclub was bombed and 2 US soldiers and a woman were killed and 230 injured. Palestinian Yasser Shraydi (Chraidi) was suspected of playing a lead role in the bombing of the La Belle discotheque. In 1996 he was extradited from Lebanon to face charges in Germany. In 1996 Andrea Hasler was arrested in Greece and extradited to Germany. Also a woman named Verena Chanaa, suspected of planting the bomb, and her former husband named Ali Chanaa were arrested in Berlin. In 1997 Musbah Abulghasen Eter was arrested by Italian police in Rome in connection with the bombing. In 2001 V. Chanaa was sentenced to 14 years, A. Chanaa and Eter were sentenced to 12 years, and Chraidi was sentenced to 14 years. Libya was implicated and in 2004 agreed to pay $35 million in compensation. (SFC, 5/234/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A1)(SFC, 8/28/97, p.C3)(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A18)(AP, 9/3/04)

1986 Apr 14, Americans got first word of the U.S. air raid on Libya (because of the time difference, it was the early morning of April 15th where the attack occurred). US aircraft attacked five terrorist locations in Libya in response to the Apr 5 terrorist attack in Berlin. In 2003 Joseph T. Stanik authored "El Dorado Canyon," an account of the military strike. (AP, 4/14/97)(HN, 4/14/98)(SFC, 12/18/99, p.C4)(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.D8)

1986 Apr 15, The United States launched an air raid with F-111 warplanes against Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya says 37 people, mostly civilians, were killed. The step-daughter of Moammar Gadhafi was killed near Tripoli by US bombing. (AP, 4/15/97)(HN, 4/15/98)(WSJ, 8/30/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/19/03)

1986 Apr 16, Dispelling rumors he was dead, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared on television to condemn the US raid on his country. (AP, 4/16/06)

1986 Ghadames, Libya, designated a World Heritage site.(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.D12)

1986 May USS Somers discovered in 107 feet of water off Veracruz, Mexico. Salvage Expedition underway.

1987 In Burkina Faso Blaise Compaore, trained in Gadhafi's guerrilla camps, seized power in a bloody takeover. Libya and Burkina Faso later denied repeated accusations of gunrunning to West Africa hot spots.(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A10)(AP, 12/16/02)

1987 France ousted Libyan troops from a disputed area of northern Chad. In the proxy war, code-named Arid Farmer, France and the US backed government forces against Libyan troops. (SFC, 6/22/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.D8)

1988 December 21 Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland.

1988 Dec 21, Pan Am Flight 103 was downed over Lockerbee, Scotland by a terrorist bomb. 270 people were killed aboard the Boeing 747. Libya was accused of responsibility for the bombing, which killed 259 people onboard and 11 on the ground. Two Libyan operatives, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and A-Amin Khalifa Fahimah, were indicted in 1991 and thought to be in hiding in Libya. They were sent to the Netherlands for trial in 1999 and implicated Mohammed Abu Talb, a Palestinian terrorist jailed in Sweden. In 2000 Ahmad Behbahani (32) told a 60 Minutes journalist from a refugee camp in Turkey that he proposed the Pan Am operation and coordinated the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. He also claimed that Iran was behind the 1994 bombing in Argentina that killed 86 people. Behbahani was later called a fraud by the CIA and FBI. In 2001 a Scottish court convicted Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, of murder in the 1998 bombing of Pan am Flight 103. A 2nd Libyan, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted. The conviction was upheld in 2002. In 2003 Libya set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of 270 people killed.
(WSJ, 12/18/95, p.A-9)(SFC, 5/11/96, p.A-8)(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A4)(AP, 12/21/97)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/25/99, p.A14)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A9)(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A10)(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A20)(SFC, 1/31/01, p.A11)(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A9)(AP, 8/15/03)

1989 Jan 4, US Navy F-14s shot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean.
(www.history.navy.mil/wars/foabroad.htm)

1989 Jul 27, Eighty people were killed when a Korean Air DC-10 crashed in Libya.
(AP, 7/27/99)

1989 Sept. 19 A Paris-bound French DC-10, UTA Flight 772, was bombed over the Sahara desert of Niger and all 170 [171] passengers died. French authorities placed the blame on Libya’s Abdallah Senoussi, brother-in-law of Moammar Ghadafi and chief of foreign operations for the Libyan secret service. The six Libyan suspects were named by a French judge in 1998 and tried in absentia in 1999. The attack was in retaliation for French intervention on behalf of Chad in a war with Libya since the mid 1980s. In 2004 Libya signed a $170 million compensation accord with families of the people killed.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C3)(SFEC,10/19/97, p.A26)(WSJ, 1/30/98, p.A1)(SFC, 6/13/98, p.A11)(SFC, 3/9/99, p.B10)(AP, 9/19/99)(AP, 1/9/04)

1989 1993 An outbreak of Old World Screwworm was eradicated by a coordinated int’l. effort. (SFC, 6/13/98, p.A7)

1991 Nov 14, U.S. and British authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. (AP, 11/14/01)

1992 Mar 23, The president of the U.N. Security Council announced that Libya had offered to surrender two men suspected in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 to the Arab League. Libya reversed itself two days later; however, the suspects surrendered for trial seven years later. One was subsequently convicted, the other found innocent. (AP, 3/23/02)

1992 Mar 25, Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi backed away from an offer to turn over two suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 to the Arab League.
(AP, 3/25/97)

1992 Apr 7, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat survived the crash landing of his plane in the Libyan desert; three crew members were killed. (AP, 4/7/97)

1992 Apr 14, Libya cut itself off from the world for 24 hours to mark the sixth anniversary of the U.S. air raid, the same day the World Court rejected Libya's appeal to prevent sanctions against it for refusing to turn over suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. (AP, 4/14/97)

1992 Apr 15, Countries barred Libyan jets from their airspace and ordered diplomats to go home because of Libya's refusal to turn over suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on arms sales and air travel against Libya to prod Gadhafi into surrendering two suspects wanted in the Pan Am 103.
(AP, 4/15/97)(AP, 12/19/03)

1992 Dec 22, A Libyan Boeing 727 jetliner crashed, killing 157 people. (AP, 12/22/97)

1993 al Islam graduates from Tripoli’s al-Fateh University where he studied urban engineering; chairs the National Anti-drug Association of Libya.

1993 Dec 10 Mansour El-Kikhia, former Libyan ambassador to the UN, was kidnapped in Cairo. The US CIA later reported that he was taken to Libya and executed in early 1994. El-Kikhia’s book “Libya’s Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction” was published in the US in 1997. (SSFC, 5/21/06, p.E5)(http://tinyurl.com/lnqr5)

1993 There was a coup attempt against Moammar Ghadafi. (SFC, 1/3/97, p.A17)

1994 Historic Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) notifies the FBI that items from its collection are missing, (including the Somers ring).

1995 Sep 1, Moammar Ghadafi of Libya announced the expulsion of all 30,000 Palestinians from Libya. More than 1,200 ended up in a border camp between Libya and Egypt. (SFC, 8/22/96, p.E1)

1995 Libya declared jihad against NATO, but no concrete action was taken.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.A10)

1995 September 8 – Senator D’Amato introduces what would become ILSA – the Iran Foreign Oil Sanctions Act of 1995.

1995 December 20 – Senate passes ILSA, with an amendment sponsored by Senator Kennedy, that applies all provisions to Libya as well as Iran (ILSA) because of efforts of the families of the victims of the Dec. 21, 1988 downing of Pan Am 103.

1996 Jan, Louis Farrakhan visited Libya and received a promise of $1 billion from Col. Moammar Ghadafi. His tour also included stops in Iran, Nigeria and the Sudan. (SFC, 8/27/96, p.A3)

1996 Feb, In Libya a plan to kill Moammar Ghadafi failed and several bystanders were killed. In 1998 David Shayler, a former member of the British intelligence services, revealed the information in France while fighting extradition to Britain. The British foreign secretary denied the attack. Shayler returned to London in 2000 to face charges.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A9)(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A10)

1996 Mar 28, Col Gadhaffi of Libya sent troops to put down unrest in northeaster Libya after a 400 prisoners, many including dissidents and Islamic militants, escaped from prison last week. (WSJ, 3/28/96,p.A-1)

1996 April 4 - US intelligence indicated the Libya was building a chemical weapons plant at Tarhunah, 40 miles southeast of Tripoli. The plant was reportedly designed to replace a plant at Rabta, 55 miles SW of Tripoli, where Libya insists that only pharmaceuticals are produced. (SFC, 4/4/96, p.A-10)

1996 May 17, Libya was preparing to expel some of its 30,000 Palestinians.
(WSJ, 5/17/96,p.A-1)

1996 May 29, Col. Moammar Ghadafi left Cairo after a five-day visit. He went about town with his well-armed female bodyguards and spoke with numerous intellectuals, union leaders, business leaders and officials. He offered a vision of Libyan style democracy, a decentralized government based on popular committees. (SFC, 5/30/96, p.A10)

1996 Jul 12, In Libya at least 20 people were killed in Tripoli at a soccer match. Bodyguards loyal to the sons of Moammar Ghadafi fired a spectators who shouted hostile slogans. A stampede resulted. (SFC, 7/15/96, p.A11)

1996 Aug 23, The Nation of Islam applied to the US Treasury Dept. for permission to accept a $1 bil donation from Col. Moammar Gadhafi that was promised to Rev. Louis Farrakhan to help America’s black people. (WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A1)

1996 Oct 6, Turkey’s prime minister urged Moammar Ghadafi to sign a document to denounce Kurdish rebel terrorism but instead Ghadafi condemned Turkish repression of the Kurds. A trade deal hung in suspension. (SFEC, 10/7/96, A9)

1996 Nov 23 A member of the Fighting Islamic Group, Abdullah Guryou, hurled a grenade at Moammar Ghadafi in the desert town of Brak. Ghadafi was not hurt.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A17)

1997 Jan 2, Six military officers and 2 civilians were executed on charges of spying. Experts believed they case was related to the 1993 coup attempt. (SFC, 1/3/97, p.A17)

1997 Mar 10, The Vatican established diplomatic relations with Libya. (SFC, 3/11/97, p.A11)

1997 Dec 2 It was reported that Libya was constructing some 2,000 miles of tunnels with 13-foot concrete pipes. Libya called it the Great Man-Made River Project and it stretched from Tunisia to Egypt. Analysts feared it would be used for military purposes. The primary contractor was Dong Ah, a South Korean construction conglomerate and much of the equipment used was of US make. (SFC, 12/2/97, p.A11)

1997 December 23 FBI question George Csizmazia in theft of Somers ring.

1998 Aug 26, Libya indicated that it would accept an American and British proposal that 2 suspects of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet be tried in the Netherlands by Scottish judges. (SFC, 8/27/98, p.A10)

1998 Oct 5, Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi was reported to have turned his face to Africa rather than a pan-Arab unity: ""I would like Libya to become a black country. Hence, I recommend to Libyan men to marry only black women, and to Libyan women to marry black men." (SFC, 10/6/98, p.A14)

1998 Dec 4 The London Guardian was cited in a report that 3 high security officials in Libya, were convicted and sentenced to prison for dereliction of duty. Abdullah Senussi, Musa, Koussa and Mohammed al-Misrati were thought to be the superiors of the men wanted for the 1988Lockerbie Pan Am bombing. (SFC, 12/4/98, p.A16)

1998 Dec 15, The 500 members of Libya’s General People’s Congress voted for conditional approval for the trial of Pan Am Flight 103 bombing suspects in a 3rd country. (SFC, 12/16/98, p.A15)

1999 Feb. In Libya health workers including 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were arrested on charges they intentionally infected some 393 children with the AIDS virus as part of an experiment to find a cure. The defendants were tortured daily for their 1st 3 months of captivity. On May 6, 2004, the nurses and doctor were sentenced to death. (www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/liby-s02.shtml)(AP, 5/6/04)(SSFC, 6/6/04, E3)

1999 Apr 5, Libya handed over to UN officials 2 men accused in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103. They were then flown to the Hague to be tried under Scottish law. UN Sec. Gen'l. Kofi Annan immediately suspended economic sanctions on Libya.
(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A1)(SFC, 4/6/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.A1)

1999 Apr 18, Pres. Kabila of Congo and Ugandan Pres. Museweni signed a cease-fire agreement that was mediated by Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi. Rwanda and Congolese rebels rejected the deal. (SFC, 5/29/99, p.A11)

1999 Apr 28, The US announced that it would allow US firms to sell food and medicine to Iran, Sudan and Libya. (SFC, 4/29/99, p.A3)

1999 Jun 11, The US and Libya engaged in their first official meeting in 18 years. The US stipulated conditions to be met prior to the lifting of sanctions. (SFC, 6/12/99, p.A13)

1999 Jun 13, In South Africa Pres. Mandela welcomed visiting Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi as his last official guest. Ghadafi was on his first foreign tour since sanctions were lifted in April. (SFC, 6/14/99, p.A13)

1999 Jun 21, It was reported that Libya would pay $40 million to the families of those killed in the Sep 19, 1989 bombing of a French jet. (SFC, 6/22/99, p.A12)

1999 Jul 7, Britain and Libya announced a resumption of diplomatic relations.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A8)

1999 Jul 27, The US eased sanctions against Iran, Libya and Sudan to allow the sale of food, medicine and medical equipment. (SFC, 7/27/99, p.A5)

1999 Sep 6, In Libya Moammar Ghadafi unveiled plans for a new, safe, 5-passenger "Rocket of the Jamahariya" automobile. (SFC, 9/8/99, p.A16)

1999 Nov 24, In Britain authorities intercepted Scud missile components labeled as auto parts originating in Taiwan and destined for Libya. (SFC, 1/10/00, p.A10)

1999 Dec 1, Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema of Italy began a 2-day visit that involved a $5.5 billion oil and gas project involving ENI, an Italian oil company. It was the 1st visit by a Western head of government since sanctions in 1992. (SFC, 12/2/99, p.D2)

2000 Jan 13, A Swiss Shorts 300-360 airplane carrying Libyan oil workers to a refinery at Marsa el-Brega crashed off the Libya coast and at least 15 of 41 people were killed. (SFC, 1/14/00, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/14/00, p.A1)

2000 Mar, Col. Gadhafi ordered the abolition of a dozen ministries and the supposed transfer of their power to the grass roots. (SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C12)

2000 Aug 29, In Libya 6 former hostages held captive in the Philippines arrived to thank Moammar Ghadafi for his role in securing their release.(SFC, 8/30/00, p.A12)

2000 Sep 8, In the Philippines Abu Sayyaf rebels freed 4 more hostages held since April 23. Libya paid a reported $1 million per hostage. (SFC, 9/9/00, p.A10)(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.C15)

2000 Oct 5, Nigerians from Libya arrived home on repatriation flights and bore tales of a pogrom by youths resentful of economic immigrants. (WSJ, 10/6/00, p.A1)

2001 Jan 4, It was reported that Africans from Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Congo had resumed treks across the Sahara to Libya for better economic conditions. (SFC, 1/5/01, p.A18)

2001 January 31 – Libyan suspect Abd al-Baset al-Magrahi convicted of the bombing of Pan Am 103.

2001 May 30, Libya flew troops and weapons to the Central African Republic to help Pres. Patasse to put down a coup attempt. (WSJ, 5/31/01, p.A1)

2001 In 2004 the UN gathered evidence suggesting the North Korea supplied Libya with nearly 2 tons of uranium in 2001.(WSJ, 5/24/04, p.A1)

2002 May 28, Libya offered $10 million in compensation for each victim in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in exchange for removal from the US list of states that sponsor terrorism. (SFC, 5/29/02, p.A1)

2002 May 29, Libya denied that it had any relationship to the deal made by lawyers to pay $2.7 billion to the families of Pan Am Flight 103 victims. The move was seen as a ploy and a settlement was expected soon. (SFC, 5/30/02, p.A10)

2002 Aug 7, The first British Cabinet minister to visit this country in two decades met with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, saying Libya was making a serious attempt to move away from its international pariah status. (AP, 8/7/02)

2002 Oct 24, Libya has decided to withdraw from the Arab League, Moammar Gadhafi's government announced.(AP, 10/24/02)

2002 Dec 28, Libyan soldiers ended a yearlong deployment to protect the Central African Republic government against a string of coup attempts. They were to be replaced by troops from Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon and Mali.
(AP, 12/31/02)

2003 Jan 20, The U.N. human rights watchdog elected a Libyan diplomat as its president for this year, despite concern from the United States about the country's poor record on civil liberties and its alleged role in sponsoring terrorism. (AP, 1/20/03)

2003 Apr 30, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalqam said his government accepted responsibility for the 1998 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. (SFC, 5/1/03, A7)

2003 May 1, Thursday Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam told the AP that the family of each of the 270 Lockerbie/Pan Am victims would receive $10 million in three installments. First $4 million, UN sanctions against Libya would be lifted, second $4 U.S. sanctions would go, and after final installment, U.S. would remove Libya from list of states sponsoring terrorism. Shalqam said his government will “bear the civil responsibility for the actions of its employees,” and “Libya will work hard to draw an end to that issue during the coming period.”

2003 Aug 13, Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of 270 people killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing. (AP, 8/13/04)

2003 Aug 19, Britain introduces a United Nations resolution to lift sanctions against Libya after Tripoli accepts the blame for the Lockerbie bombing and agrees to compensate victims' families.

2003 Aug 31, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said a second agreement over compensation has been reached between his country and the families of 170 victims of a French airliner that exploded in 1989. (AP, 9/1/03)

2003 Sep 12, The UN Security Council lifted 11-year-old sanctions on Libya after Moammar Gadhafi's government took responsibility for bombing a Pan Am jet over Scotland and agreed to pay the victims' families $2.7 billion.(AP, 9/12/03)

2003 Sep 24, Families of people killed when US jets bombed Libya urged Tripoli to suspend payments to relatives of the victims of the 1988 downing of a Pan Am airliner until they receive compensation from the United States. (AP, 9/24/03)

2003 Oct, A search of a German vessel bound for Tripoli, Libya, revealed uranium-enriching centrifuge gear.(WSJ, 12/31/03, p.A1). Container ship episode on high seas. German ship BBC China interdicted by USA, German, Italy, and uranium enrichment materials found.

2003 October 30 Federal Judge in Houston, Texas throws out the conviction of former CIA operative Edwin P. Wilson, who has spent 20 years in prison for selling arms to Libya.

2003 December 19 Libya agrees to destroy all of its chemical, nuclear and biological weapons, allow for immediate inspections and monitoring and permits the US military to remove all WMD it has on hand. [Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, after secret negotiations with the United States and Britain, agreed to halt his nation's drive to develop nuclear and chemical weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them. Libya admitted to nuclear fuel projects, including possessing centrifuges and centrifuge parts used in uranium enrichment. Libya showed American and British inspectors a significant quantity of mustard agent. Libya acknowledged it intended to acquire equipment and develop capabilities to create biological weapons. Libya admitted "elements of the history of its cooperation with North Korea" to develop extended-range Scud missiles.] (AP, 12/19/03) (AP, 12/20/03)

2003 Dec 28, A team led by U.N. nuclear chief Mohammed ElBaradei toured 4 atomic facilities in Libya and found dismantled equipment. ElBaradei said Libya appeared to reach only an experimental level in its attempts to enrich uranium, essential for a nuclear bomb. (AP, 12/29/04)

2003 Libya planned a covert operation to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia according to 2004 testimony by 2 jailed participants. (SFC, 6/10/04, A10)

2004 Jan 5, Pres. Bush extended a 1986 order of sanctions against Libya.
(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.A1)

2004 Jan 8, Libya agreed to compensate family members of victims of a 1989 bombing of a French passenger plane over the Niger desert that killed 170 people.
(AP, 1/8/05)

2004 Jan 9, Libya signed a $170 million compensation accord with families of people who died in the 1989 bombing of a French jetliner. (AP, 1/9/04)

2004 Jan 14, A UN agency said Libya has ratified the nuclear test ban treaty. The treaty is 12 nations short of the 44 ratifications needed for it to enter into force. Once it comes into force, the treaty bans any nuclear weapon test explosion in any environment. (AP, 1/14/04)

2004 January 26 US congressional delegation arrives in Libya, the first since Col. Muammar Gaddafi took power.

2004 January 27 The Guardian of UK reports “US may pay for Libya to dismantle weapons.” Congressman Curt Weldon said “We would be interested in a similar program in Libya (as the US funding of ‘threat reduction’ in USSR), with American dollars to help you dismantle your weapons program.”

2004 Feb 10, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi met with Libya leader Moammar Gadhafi, and the United States said it had restored diplomatic contacts with the country. In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair held talks with the Libyan foreign minister.
(AP, 2/10/04)

2004 February 23 Assemblymen John C. Gibson and Jeff Van Drew introduce AR – resolution No. 91 – Permanently establishing September 4th as Richard Somers Day in the State of New Jersey and AR No. 121 – requesting the federal government negotiate with Libya for the repatriation of Richard Somers and the crew of the USS Intrepid.

2004 Feb 26, The US lifted a long-standing ban on travel to Libya after Moammar Gadhafi's government affirmed that it was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988. (AP, 2/26/04)

2004 Mar 5, Libya acknowledged stockpiling 44,000 pounds of mustard gas and disclosed the location of a production plant in a declaration submitted to the world's chemical weapons watchdog. (AP, 3/5/04)

2004 March 6 Sudarsan, (of Krafricabureau) reporting on Weldon’s trip to Libya for Philadelphia Inquirer, visits the cemetery but reports via email “the Libyans wouldn’t let me take a picture. I’m trying to change their minds.” Sudarsan never heard from again.

2004 March 14 Press of AC reports: “Libya cannot locate Richard Somers Grave.”

2004 Mar 25, British PM Tony Blair and Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi greeted each other with smiles and handshakes in a meeting that marked a major step back into the international mainstream for the North African state. (AP, 3/25/04)

2004 Apr 18, In Libya Moammar Gadhafi called for the abolition of Libya's three decade-old exceptional courts and other strict laws criticized by human rights groups.
(AP, 4/18/04)

2004 April 20 Press of Atlantic City reports: “Fight to bring soldier home/ Richard Somers remains are missing after 200 years.”

2004 Apr 27, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi arrived in Brussels, his first trip to Europe in 15 years. Gadhafi sought "full normalization" of relations and entry to the aid and trade program the EU runs with countries around the Mediterranean, including Israel.
(AP, 4/27/04)

2004 May 6, A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death on charges they intentionally infected some 393 children with the AIDS virus as part of an experiment to find a cure. 9 Libyan health workers were acquitted. Under Libyan law, death sentences generate an automatic 60-day period for appeal.
(AP, 5/6/04)(SSFC, 6/6/04, E3)

2004 May 13, Libya agreed to halt military trade with North Korea, Syria and Iran. (WSJ, 5/14/04, p.A1)

2004 May 28, Malaysia issued a detention order for Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan businessman, on charges that in 2002 he brought 7 Libyan technicians to Malaysia to be trained to operate machines to produce centrifuge parts for Libya’s nuclear weapons program. Tahir was a key associate of Abdul Qadeer Khan, former head of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program. (WSJ, 6/4/04, p.A10)

2004 Jun 16, Libyan Arab Airline announced plans to spend a billion dollars over the next decade to buy 22 new aircraft, ranging from 14-seaters to jets with a capacity of 350 seats. (AP, 6/16/04)

2004 Jun 28, America resumed direct diplomatic ties with Libya after a 24-year break. (USAT, 6/29/04, p.12A)(AP, 6/28/05)

2004 June Libya frees 28 detainees.

2004 June 23 Press of AC : “Bill Urges Return of Somers Body.”

2004 Jul 4, It was reported that Libya's state-owned Tam Oil Co has bought the Niger unit of US oil major ExxonMobil Corp, in the first such deal following an end to US sanctions on Tripoli. (AP, 7/4/04)

2004 July 29 The Sentinel “Gone, but not forgotten – Community, New Jersey work to bring home remains of Master Somers after two centuries.

2004 Jul 30, Abdurahman Alamoudi pleaded guilty in a Virginia court to moving cash from Libya and involvement in a plot to assassinate Saudi Prince Abdullah. (SFC, 7/31/04, p.A3)

2004 Aug 10, Libya agreed to pay $35 million to the non-US victims of the 1986 Berlin disco bombing. Libya's Kadhafi Foundation, which negotiated the terms of a compensation deal for victims of the bombing, demanded compensation from the United States for subsequent air strikes against the north African country. (AP, 8/10/04)(WSJ, 8/11/04, p.A1)

2004 Sep 3, Libya signed an agreement to pay a total of $35 million US in compensation for 168 non-U.S. victims of a 1986 Berlin disco bombing. (AP, 9/3/04)


2004 September Somers Point Mayor Dan Reilly and members of the Somers family (See: Dean Somers) send letters to the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations [El Fatah Towers, 5th Floor No. 57, P.O. Box 1101, Tripoli, Libya ]. “As the Mayor of Somers Point, New Jersey, I send you greetings from the United States. Our small city has two centuries of common history with Libya – a son of our founding family was buried on the shores of Tripoli in September 1804. Richard Somers and twelve of his US Navy shipmates died in a naval battle and still lie buried in Tripoli today, near the old castle fort and Old Protestant Cemetery.”

2004 September 9 Paul V. Kelly, Asst. Sec. Legislative Affairs DOS wrote to Rep. Frank LoBiondo, “We have been in contact with members of that DoD mission (DoDPOW/MP) to discuss Captain Somers’ case and have been advised that the next step is to bring DoD intot he process. Ken Terry is the point of contact at the Department of Navy…Mayor Dan Reilly should contact Mr. Terry directly to pursue a discussion on repatriation of Captain Somers’ remains.”

2004 Sep 19, President George W. Bush has decided to lift sanctions against Libya, which he expects to trigger release of more than $1 billion US to families of Pan Am 103 victims. (AP, 9/20/04)

2004 Sep 22, The European Union agreed in principle to lift an arms embargo on Libya after pressure from Italy. (AP, 9/22/04)

2004 Oct 10, Libyan officials said police have arrested 17 non-Libyans suspected of being al-Qaida members who entered this North African country illegally. (AP, 10/11/04)

2004 Oct 11, The European Union ended 11 years of sanctions against Libya and eased an arms embargo to reward the North African country for giving up plans to develop weapons of mass destruction. (AP, 10/11/04)

2004 Oct 14, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arrived in Libya for an official visit during which he is to hold talks with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. (AP, 10/14/04)

2004 Oct 15, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi clashed over Iraq during their first-ever meeting in Tripoli while German business leaders touted for business in the oil-rich former pariah state. Schroeder praised the reforms of Muammar Gaddafi and invited the Libyan leader to visit Germany.
(AP, 10/15/04)(Reuters, 10/15/04)

2004 Nov 1, Libya’s PM Shukri Ghanemsaid he intends to abolish some five billion dollars worth of subsidies on electricity, fuel and basic food items in a move to liberalize the economy. (AFP, 11/1/04)

2004 Nov 24, President Jacques Chirac arrived in Libya in the first ever visit by a French head of state. (AP, 11/24/04)

2004 Nov 25, French President Jacques Chirac set aside years of acrimony over the bombing of a French passenger jet in the 1980s and declared a "new chapter" in relations with Libya. (AP 11/25/04)

2004 Dec 7, Libya listed three conditions under which it is prepared to drop charges against five Bulgarian nurses condemned to death on suspect charges of spreading AIDS.. (AFP 12/8/04)

2004 Dec 8, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of leader Moammar Gadhafi, said Libya will soon pass new laws that limit capital punishment to a small number of crimes. (SFC, 12/9/04, p.A3)

2004 Dec 14, PM Shukri Ghanem said Libya is planning to open up its banking sector to Arab investors and is to privatize two major government banks. (AP, 12/14/04)

2004 Dec 15, Libya said its Central Bank has withdrawn $1 billion of assets which had been frozen for almost two decades in the United States on Washington's orders. (Reuters, 12/15/04)

2004 - Dec 19, Canada’s PM Paul Martin met Moammar Gadhafi, the latest in a string of world leaders to visit Tripoli following the Libyan strongman's renunciation of terrorism. Martin said Canadian construction company SNC-Lavalin has won a $1 billion contract to help build a major water distribution system in Libya. (AP, 12/19/04)(Reuters, 12/19/04)

2004 Dec 22, Saudi Arabia announced it was withdrawing its ambassador to Libya and ordered out Libya's envoy in response to reports that Tripoli plotted to assassinate the Saudi crown prince. (AP, 12/22/04)

2004 Jan 4, Polish PM Marek Belka arrived in Tripoli for a two-day visit that will include talks on cooperation in the oil sector and a meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. (AFP, 1/5/05)

2005 Jan 29, Libya granted its first oil exploration licenses in over four decades, awarding 15 permits to foreign companies, with US companies taking the lion's share. PM Shukri Ghanem said Libya has opted for a policy of open communication with total transparence." (AP, 1/29/05)

2005 January Somers Point officials send letter to Congressman LoBiondo, cc Sec. Navy Gordon R. England; Navy Historical Center.

2005 January Ambassador Profile – Director Ali Suleiman Aujali – Libya Shedding Its Pariah Status – Interview with Larry Luxner in The Washington Diplomat.

2005 Feb 8, Officials said Italian real estate services company Norman 95 has won a 300-million-euro (384-million-dollar) contract to develop a luxury holiday resort on the Libyan coast. (AFP, 2/8/05)

2005 Feb 11, The US State Department said Libyan diplomats can travel freely in the US. (AP, 2/11/05)

2005 Feb 18, Libya refused to extend the deadline of the Lockerbie compensation deal in a possible bid to pressure Washington to drop it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. (AP, 2/19/05)

2005 Feb 19, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and Egyptian Pres. Hosni Mubarak backed an African solution to the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region during 2 rounds of talks in Cairo. (AFP, 2/19/05)

2005 February Michael Caputo begins private, independent negotiations with the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations.

2005 Mar 3 Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi issued a call for economic liberalization in the North African state. (AP, 3/3/05)

2005 May 17 Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki met with Sudan Pres. Omar al-Beshir in Tripoli, Libya. Beshir demanded that Eritrea refrain from harboring armed Sudanese opposition and stops offering assistance to that opposition. (AP, 5/17/05)

2005 May 21 In Libya reporter Daif al-Ghazal (32) was taken from the northern city of Benghazi by armed men and taken to an unknown location. His body was found a week later. (AP, 6/5/05)

2005 May 23 Morocco's king pulled out of the first North African summit in more than a decade, over Algeria's latest comments in a long-running dispute over independence for Western Sahara. Moroccan King Mohammed VI will be represented at the two-day summit in Tripoli, Libya, by Morocco's foreign minister, Mohamed Benaissa. (AP, 5/23/05)

2005 May 28 Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov flew Tripoli to meet with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, days before a Libyan court rules on the appeal of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death over an AIDS-tainted blood scandal. (Reuters, 5/27/05)

2005 Jun 7 A Libyan court acquitted 9 police officers and a doctor accused of torturing six foreign medics sentenced to death for allegedly infecting children with HIV. (AP, 6/8/05)

2005 Jul 4 In Libya Moammar Gadhafi called on African nations to stop "begging" during the opening of an African summit attended by more than 50 leaders from this crisis-wracked continent. African Union (AU) chairman Olusegun Obasanjo called on rich nations to provide "massive" financial help rather than sympathy in its fight against poverty at their summit in Scotland this week. UN Sec-Gen. Kofi Annan announced the creation of a fund to promote democratic institutions and practices around the world, an idea first proposed by the Pres. Bush in Sep 2004. (AP, 7/4/05)(AP, 7/5/05)

2005 July 6 David Talley, American Embassy Riyadh, reports from Tripoli: “I found your website as I was researching the cemetery of the five American sailors in Tripoli. I am currently in Tripoli and have visited the site of the cemetery and am going back this Friday with a team to clean it up. I will post photos and email them to you…” [See: Photos of American cemetery in Tripoli].

2005 Aug 17 Libya called on the Bulgarian government to negotiate a payment to win amnesty for five Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian sentenced to death for allegedly infecting 400 children with the AIDS virus. (AP, 8/18/05)

2005 Aug 20 Libya will free 131 political prisoners, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, said Saif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who heads a foundation dedicated to improving the country's image. (AP, 8/21/05)

2005 Sept. 1 Libyan authorities pardoned 1,675 Libyan and foreign prisoners serving time for minor crimes to mark the 36th anniversary of the revolution, which brought Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to power. (AP, 9/3/05)

2005 September 4 Attorney Seth Grossman organizes an assembly at the grounds of the Atlantic County Historical Society (ACHS), where the consensus is the location where Somers remains should be reburied once returned.

2005 Sept. 17 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Libya the US was committed to closer relations with its former enemy, which promised to work harder to fight terrorism. (AP, 9/17/05)

2005 Sep 28 President George W. Bush waived some defense export restrictions on Libya to allow U.S. companies to participate in destroying Tripoli's chemical weapons and to refurbish eight transport planes. (Reuters, 9/28/05)

2005 September 20 Somers Point Mayor Dan Reilly writes letter to Gaddafi IFCA.

2005 September 27 Dean Somers writes to Gadaffi IFCA.

2005 Oct 2 Libya awarded 44 oil exploration permits to predominantly Asian and European companies after a first batch was awarded earlier this year mainly to American firms. (AFP, 10/3/05)

2005 Oct 2 Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates met Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in Tripoli, as Libya continues its bid to warm relations with the West. (AP, 10/2/05)

2005 Oct 17 Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam rejected a call by US President George W. Bush for Tripoli to spare the lives of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the AIDS virus.
(AP, 10/17/05)

2005 October Michael Caputo uses letters from Reilly and Somers to begin backchannel negotiations with Libyans. He obtains $100,000 from an individual backer and hires a Libyan lawyer as a lobbyist and begins negotiations with Quadafi’s son and Charity Foundation.

2005 December 9 DOD POW/MP office identifies remains from 1968 Laos.

2005 Dec 23 Bulgaria and Libya agreed to set up a special fund for AIDS-infected children in Libya, where five Bulgarian nurses face the death penalty after being convicted of causing the infections. (AP, 12/23/05)

2005 Dec 25 Libya's Supreme Court scrapped death sentences against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor and ordered a retrial of the cases which have harmed Tripoli's efforts to build ties with the West. (Reuters, 12/25/05)

2005 December 29 Three U.S. oil companies say they will end a 19-year absence in Libya and pay $1.8 billion to resume oil production. (AP)

2006 Jan 2 More than 130 Libyan political prisoners, mostly members of the banned opposition Muslim Brotherhood group, started a hunger strike in a Tripoli prison, saying the government broke its promise to release them. (AP, 1/3/06)

2006 January 15 Pierre Welch, Global Real Estate Advisor, USDS, sends photo of the Green Square gravesite.

2006 January Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, Hawaii expresses interest.

2006 January - Michael Caputo says that Libyans excavated sections of park gravesite and found bones and buttons in mass grave.

2006 Jan 21 The families of 426 HIV-infected Libyan children asked for $12 million in compensation for each child as part of efforts to resolve the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor charged with intentionally infecting the children. (AP, 1/22/06)

2006 Jan 27 Libya said it is heading toward allowing private newspapers, radio and television news in what has been a state-controlled media environment for more than 30 years. (AFP, 1/27/06)

2006 February 18 10 die in Libya demonstrations against Italy for caricature t-shirts.

2006 Feb 18 Libya suspended Nasr al-Mabrouk, its interior minister, citing an "excessive use of force" in riots the day before that left at least 10 people dead in the bloodiest protest yet against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons roiling the Muslim world. (AFP, 2/18/06)

2006 Feb 18 Italy's Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli resigned following deadly clashes in Libya over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that he had made into T-shirts and wore on state television. (AP, 2/18/06)

2006 Mar 2 Libya released all 84 jailed members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement who had been held since the late 1990s. (AFP, 3/2/06)

2006 Mar 5 State TV said Libya had named a new prime minister, Baghdadi Mahmudi, as part of a major cabinet reshuffle. Mahmudi replaced former premier Shukri Ghanem, who had held the post since 2003. Ghanem would no longer be part of the cabinet but would head the state-owned Libya National Oil. (AFP, 3/5/06)

2006 Mar 20 Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said Saddam Hussein should still be considered Iraq's legal president and the current government illegitimate as it was elected under an occupation regime.(AFP, 3/20/06)

2006 Mar 21 A Kadhafi Foundation official said Libya is to return properties confiscated in the mid-1970s and pay compensation to their former owners, under a cabinet decree. (AFP, 3/21/06)

2006 Apr 15 In Libya US singer Lionel Richie jived and rocked for an adoring audience in a concert to mark the 20th anniversary of a US raid on the North African country. Libya renewed a demand that Washington apologize and pay compensation.
(AP, 4/15/06)(Reuters, 4/16/06)

2006 Larry Greer of the DOD POW/MP office in DC says, “In regards to Lt. Somers and the burial of his remains and others in Libya, we’ve also got word of that rumor that the Libyans had disinterred (the graves) – from an-on-the-scene look at the cemetery from a person who is in the US interests section, or US embassy, whatever it’s called, they say, not true. In any event, the issue of whether or not Lt. Somers’ remains will be moved, now or in the future, is a Navy issue, and the Navy has told us last time we went around on this, the Navy has told us they are NOT in any way interested in moving the remains. It’s not a POW/MP issue, because these men are not missing. But whatever happens to the remains of those men is entirely in the hands of the Navy…”

2006 May 10 Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian made a surprise visit to Libya, after he turned down an offer to make a refueling stop in Alaska in an apparent sign of diplomatic pique. (AP, 5/10/06)

2006 May 13 David A. Winters, ExVP Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund offers assistance in Repatriation of original Intrepid crew from Libya, possible venue for official repatriation ceremony.

2006 May 15 U.S. to Renew Diplomatic Relations with Libya – AP George Gedda

2006 May 16 Article by Judith Miller, NYT “How Ghadafi Lost His Grove – The Complex Surrender of Libya’s WMD.”

2006 May 17 In Libya Venezuela's anti-American president was given a warm welcome in Tripoli by Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Chavez and Gadhafi planned to discuss "social programs based on oil revenues." (AP, 5/17/06)

2006 May 21 Libyan journalist Daif al Ghazhl kidnapped from car in Tripoli.

2006 June 1 “BBC China, CIA, MI6” Article by Dr. Ludwing DeBracckeleer published.

2006 June 2 Body of Libyan journalist Daif al Ghazhl found tortured and murdered.

2006 Jul 11 State Department official Paula Dobriansky held talks with Libyan PM Baghdadi Mahmudi and announced that the US has lifted sanctions on Libyan air transport. (AFP, 7/12/06)

2006 Jul 15 US Middle East envoy David Welch flew into Tripoli for talks with Libyan officials on strengthening economic and financial ties between the two countries. (AFP, 7/16/06)

2006 August Tuesday Press of Atlantic City reports on City Council balking at backing Seth Grossman’s Richard Somers Day event. Sally Hastings of SPHS saves the day.

2006 September 2 Saturday Press of Atlantic City reports on backchannel negotiations [see: Group confident 1804 naval hero will be brought home By Michael Clark].

2006 September 4 Attorney Seth Grossman organizes an assembly at the grounds of Somers Mansion, where people gather to commemorate Richard Somers and ensure that the anniversary is acknowledged with a civic ceremony.

2006 Sep 14 Libya's population grew by 1.8% per year to 5.3 million in 2006 from 1995. A rare government census showed that Libya had also cut its illiteracy rate to 11.9% from 19% a decade ago. (Reuters, 9/14/06)

2006 September 22 Mohamed Eljahmi – A Libyan democracy activist in Boston writes op-ed: “Engaging Gadhafi hurts war on terror – By making the tyrant a test for nuclear diplomacy, the White House abandoned Libyan democrats.”

2006 September 24 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets privately with her Libyan counterpart, Foreign Minister Abdurahman Shalgam in New York, emphasizing “what the United States sees as a need to resolve outstanding legal issues related to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103.”

2006 October 6 Libya issues oil contracts.

2006 Oct 10- Government of Libya reached an agreement with One Laptop per Child, an American nonprofit group, to provide inexpensive laptop computers to all of its schoolchildren. The $250 million deal would provide the nation with 1.2 million computers, a server in each school, a team of technical advisers, satellite internet service and other infrastructure. (AP, 10/11/06)

2006 Oct 16, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi held talks on how to resolve the Darfur crisis in Sudan without intervention from outside Africa. (AFP, 10/16/06)

2006 Oct 29, Libya took delivery of a Boeing jetliner for the first time in 30 years after the privately owned Buraq Air airline bought six of the US-made aircraft.(AFP, 10/28/06)

2006 Nov 5, In Libya Idrees Mohammed Boufayed (49), a vocal critic of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's regime, was detained after being summoned to the internal security agency. The doctor, who had lived in Switzerland for 16 years, returned from exile in September to develop the National Union for Reform opposition party he founded 18 months ago. (AFP, 12/4/06)

2006 Nov 15, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi received assurances from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that Berlin would work to bolster ties with Tripoli when it assumes the EU presidency next year. (AFP, 11/15/06)

2006 Nov 21, Arab and African leaders in Libya agreed to work together to end the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. (AP, 11/22/06)

2006 Dec 11, The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it has granted the US and Russia a five-year extension to the 2007 deadline for destroying their chemical weapon stockpiles. The Chemicals Weapons Convention which went into effect in April 1997. Extensions were also granted to India and Libya as well as one country that requested anonymity. (AP, 12/11/06)

2006 Dec 19, A court convicted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor of deliberately infecting 400 children with HIV and sentenced them to death, despite scientific evidence the youngsters had the virus before the medical workers came to Libya. The verdict, which will be automatically referred to Libya's Supreme Court, drew quick condemnation from European nations. (AP, 12/19/06)

2006 Dec 24, Chad's president and the leader of a rebel faction that tried to oust him earlier this year signed a peace accord in Libya, but other Chadian insurgents dismissed the deal and vowed to fight on.. (Reuters, 12/24/06)

2007 Jan 25, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi chaired a meeting of African presidents and other top officials to prepare for an African Union summit as conflicts rage on the continent. (AP, 1/25/07)

2007 Jan 29, Libya will not execute five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death last month, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said in a newspaper interview, calling their trial "unfair." (AP, 1/29/07)

2007 Feb 2, Abdoulaye Miskine, the head of one of the Central African Republic's main rebel groups, inked in Libya a peace deal described as "historic" by the government. Under the deal, which CAR's other main rebel factions are expected to sign up to, there will be an immediate ceasefire and Miskine's rebels will be integrated into civilian life or absorbed into the army. Rebel prisoners are to be freed. (AFP, 2/3/07)

2007 May 29, Mr. Blair hails the strength of the relationship between UK and Libya after talks with Col. Gaddafi result in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

2007 June 7, Scotland's First Ministger Alex Salmond writes to Mr. Blair about the agreement to prisoner transfers, telling him of his regret that 'almost no thought' had been given to the role of the Scottish Government despite prison transfer being a matter for the devolved administraion.

2007 July 11 President Bush appoints Gene Cretz US Ambassador to Libya, subject to approval of Senate. Group of Senators announce they will hold up approval of appointment until Libya concludes its final reparation payment to families of victims of Pan Am 103.

2007 August 2 Doctor Recounts Imprisonment in Libya. Palestinian Describes Torture After His Arrest in H.I.V. Case. The New York Times International. By Matthew Brunwasser.

2007 – August - The remains of 72 Americans buried at the American cemetery at the former Wheelus AFB are (in an apparent secret operation) repatriated home and reburied in Delaware. This was the best opportunity to also repatriate the men of the Intrepid but the event is not publicized until after it happened.

2007 September US military forces capture records of foreign al Qaeda fighters in Sinjar province, Iraq, who entered the country via Syria. The Sijar records. Indicate Libyan fighters among them.

2007 - September Annual Richard Somers Day memorial service at Somers Mansion, slideshow and dinner at Gregorys.

2007 October 21 It is confirmed that Megrahi has been diagnosed with prostate cancer which has spread to other parts of his body and is at an advanced stage.

2007 December West Point terrorism center study of the Sinjar records indicates 20% of the fighters from outside Iraq came from Libya.


2008 January 1 Libya assumes rotating Presidency of the UN Security Council.

2008 January 27 Sunday Iraqi official: "Son of Libyan leader had hand in violence. By Robert H. Reid Associated Press BAGHDAD. A son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadafi is behind a group of foreign and Iraqi fighters believed responsible for this week’s devastating explosion in northern Iraq, a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al Qaeda said yesterday."

2008 March 1 USS New York, amphibious assault ship Christened.

2008 October 31 – Libya pays $1.5 billion into a fund to compensate the families of victims of Pan Am Flight 103.

2008 October 31 - President Bush issues Executive Order declaring the dispute settled, giving Libya legal immunity from further claims and removing final obstacle to normal relations.

2008 November 8 USS Intrepid aircraft carrier returns to its slip on the Westside Seaport, New York City.

2008 November 11 President Bush gives speech on the Intrepid on Veterans Day.

2008 November 14 An Edinburgh, Scotland court judge refused to free a cancer-stricken Libyan convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi.

2008 November 17 President Bush calls Gadhafi on the phone to thank him for making payments to Lockerbie victims families.

2008 November 19 Saif al-Gadhafi meets with Sec. State Condi Rice in DC.

2009 February - UK Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell tells Libya's minister for Europe Abdulati Alobidi at a meeting in Tripoli that Prime Minster Gordon Brown did not want to see Megrahi die in jail.

2009 March 12 - Mr. Alobidi attends talks with a Scottish government delegate in Glasglow.

2009 April 29 - A prison transfer agreement (PTA) between the UK and Libya comes into force allowing Megrahi to apply to serve the rest of his sentence in a Libyan jail. He must drop his appeal against his conviction for any PTA to take place.

2009 May 6 - The Scottish government says the Libyan authorities have applied for the transfer of Megrahi.

2009 August 14 In a telephone call US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urges Scotland's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill not to release Megrahi.

2009 August 18 Megrahi's bid to drop his appeal against his conviction is accepted by judges in Edinburgh.

2009 August 20 Kenny MacAskill announces his decision that Megrahi is to be returned to Libya on compassionate grounds. US President Barack Obama says the decision is a "mistake." Prime Minister Gordon Brown sends a letter to Col Gaddafi asking that Libya "act with sensitivity" when Megrahi is returned home but declines to express his own views.

2009 August 21 The UK and the US condemn the "hero's welcome" given to Megrahi as he arrives back in Libya. Claims by Col Gaddafi's son Saif that the decision to release Megrahi was tied to a trade deal are strongly denied by the Foreign Office.

2009 August 22 Libyan television shows pictures of Col Gaddafi meeting Megrahi and praising Gordon Brown and the British government for their part in securing his freedom. FBI director Robert Mueller accuses Mr. MacAskill of making a mockery of the law and giving comfort to terrorists.

2009 August 24 - Mr MacAskill tells an emergency session of the Scottish Parliament it had been his own decision to free Megrahi. It emerges that the Duke of York will not travel to Libya for an official visit in September.

2009 August 25 - Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he was "repulsed" by Megrahi's welcome in Libya and insists the British government had no role in the decision to free him.

2009 August 27 - It emerges that three ministers visited the country in the 15 months leading up to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

2009 August 28 - Col Gaddafi's son Saif tells a newspaper that Libya's original prisoner transfer deal with the UK had targeted Megrahi and was directly linked to talks on trade and oil, but denies it had anything to do with his eventual release.

2009 August 29 - Leaked letters from the Justice Secretary Jack Straw showed that he backed away from efforts to stipulate that Megrahi be exempt from the PTA "in view of the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom."

2009 September 1 - Notes taken by the Scottish Government at a meeting with a Libyan minister in March are published. In them, Abdulati Alobidi insists he had been told Gordon Brown did not believe Megrahi should die in prison. Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell confirmed that he had relayed the message during meetings in February.

2009 – September. Richard Somers Day is celebrated at Somers Mansion in Somers Point.

2009 – December – American Professor Benjamin Barber, board member of the Gadhafi Charities Foundation, meets with Saif Gadhafi and US Ambassdor Gene Cretz and gets both to agree on repatriation.

2010 – May – Memorial Day - US Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, his wife Annette and military attaches Linville and Garrett place American flags and wreath at the Intrepid graves at Old Protestant Cemetery in Tripoli. They also fly an American flag over the US Embassy and hand deliver it to Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser.

2010 – May – Tim McGrath’s biography John Barry – American Hero in the Age of Sail is published, prominently mentioning Somers, Decatur, Stewart and their associations with Barry and the city of Philadelphia.

2010 – September. Richard Somers Day is celebrated at Somers Mansion in Somers Point.

2010 - December 17 - Mohammid Bouazizi sparks regional Arab Revolution that quickly engulfs Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, as well as Yemen, Bahrain and Syria.