Blog #6 Where are Libya's WMD?

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/where-are-libyas-wmd-20110224

Laura Brewer
2/25/2011

Blog #6: Where are Libya’s WMD?

A worldwide and particularly American concern in the dismantling of Libya is the nature of its chemical weapons. Where are they and what will happen to them if Libya collapses? In 2003, Libya promised to dismantle WMD progams following the Iraq invasion. However, instead, the government seems to have “played cat and mouse” with the process, being deliberately slow in its processes regarding WMD commitments. The Libyan government has produced loose excuses from left and right of why the process takes so long, none of which making much sense in the nature of the tight hold the government has on its affairs. Today, Libya holds 9.5 metric tons of mustard gas and 1000 metric tons of yellow mustard gas, the perfect recipe for an atomic bomb. Libya is suspected of supplying weapons to African countries such as Sudan or Chad, fueling the political unrest and genocide in the area. Britain blocked a large shipment of weapons to Libya for this very suspicion. The man in charge of dismantling WMD programs, Dr. Ahmed Hesnawy is also the same man who was in charge of creating weapons until the promise to dismantle programs was created and worked with the men in charge of missile purchasing. The biggest fear regarding Libya’s possessions and passive aggressive means of avoiding dismantling WMD is if al-Qadhafi will resort to utilizing this huge stock pile of weapons against government opposition. Could the potential civil war in Libya come about by use of nuclear weapons? If the regime does collapse, what happens to these weapons and whose possession do they fall into? This an interesting point of question as to where the line of international involvement rests. If the danger of chemical warfare looms over the country, will it be the responsibility of neighboring countries to then become involved in Libyan policies or force removal of weapons? If chemical warfare erupts in Libya, will it ripple over other African or Middle Eastern countries? The rest of the world should keep its eyes open and be alert of the Libyan government’s actions. Perhaps there is so much attention on this country already that the government will not use such drastic strategies but it may all come down to how the levels of intensity and unrest accelerate over the course of this upheaval. Use of chemical warfare could be the deciding factor of another World War.