Libyan People

What a sad day when the gleam across the waves flickers at its source, then dies as The Inquirer joins the dark abyss of Rambo America. The editor calls for American support of the killing of innocent Libyan people. Or does he label this accidental collateral damage? Does the editor forget his own condemnation of Israeli attacks on Palestine Liberation Organization targets, specifically the long-range raid on PLO headquarters in Tunisia? Does he forget his own opinions about the anatomy of terrorism and how it escalates or how the U.S. has failed to address the root causes?

Amid tight security, a Jordanian national was arraigned here yesterday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up an Israeli jumbo jet by smuggling a bomb aboard in the hand luggage of his pregnant Irish girlfriend. Nezar Hindawi, 31, who acquaintances said was from a prominent Jordanian family, was formally charged late yesterday with conspiring to kill the woman who carried the bomb, Anne-Marie Murphy, 32. He was also charged with attempting to endanger an aircraft. The charges came as police in West Berlin announced that Hindawi's older brother, Ahmed Nawaf Mansur Hasi, had been detained in connection with the April 5 bombing of a discotheque crowded with American soldiers.

TRIPOLI, Libya - With Moammar Gadhafi's forces on the run, NATO air crews have continued to pound remaining loyalist troops outside Tripoli in such enclaves as Sirte, the longtime dictator's tribal stronghold 225 miles east of the capital. To some, the continued strikes again raise the question of whether NATO is acting as a rebel "air force" or is keeping with its U.N. mandate to protect civilians. NATO insists it has not taken sides in the Libyan civil war, supporting only the "Libyan people.

Right here on the world stage, with whirring cameras shooting them against an exotic backdrop, Ronald Reagan and French President Francois Mitterrand embraced yesterday in the closing scenes of the economic summit. In a case of life imitating art, the two presidents - who had been at odds over Mitterrand's refusal to let U.S. jets fly over France on their way to attack Libya last month - achieved an oh-so-French accommodation, if not an out-and-out American happy ending. Ever the gallant, Mitterrand broached to Reagan their "difficult situation.

The Reagan administration, bracing for a new crisis with Libya, yesterday renewed its threat to retaliate if evidence becomes available that the Libyan government is involved in terrorism against the United States or its allies. Top officials said that the administration was investigating three suspected terrorist plots with possible Libyan connections that recently came to light, but that so far no hard evidence of links had been found. "We know that Gadhafi hasn't ceased his efforts to organize terrorist activities," one White House official said, referring to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

President Reagan last night cited "irrefutable" evidence that the April 5 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub had been "planned and executed" by the regime of Libya's Moammar Khadafy. Saying that the United States would respond against terrorism whenever it knew conclusively who was responsible, Reagan also said the United States had "solid evidence" about other attacks Khadafy had planned against U.S. installations, diplomats and tourists. This was Reagan's description of the evidence in the nightclub bombing: "On March 25, more than a week before the attack, orders were sent from Tripoli to the Libyan People's Bureau (embassy)

BENGHAZI, Libya - U.S. Sen. John McCain, visiting the city of Benghazi on Friday, called for increased military support for Libya's rebels, including weapons, training, and stepped-up air strikes, in a full-throated endorsement of the opposition in its fight to oust Moammar Gadhafi. McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the United States and other nations should recognize the opposition's political leadership as the "legitimate voice of the Libyan people.

U.S. warplanes last night bombed military and terrorist targets in Libya in retaliation for the April 5 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub and because of "clear evidence that Libya is planning future (terrorist) attacks," the White House announced. "Today, we have done what we had to do," President Reagan said in a nationally televised address last night from the Oval Office. "If necessary, we shall do it again. "When our citizens are abused or attacked anywhere in the world, on the direct orders of a hostile regime, we will respond, so long as I'm in this Oval Office.

ZINTAN, Libya - Moammar Gadhafi's former heir apparent Seif al-Islam was captured by revolutionary fighters in the southern desert Saturday just over a month after his father was killed, setting off joyous celebrations across Libya and closing the door on the possibility that the fugitive son could stoke further insurrection. Seif al-Islam - who has undergone a transformation from a voice of reform in an eccentric and reviled regime to one of Interpol's most-wanted - now faces the prospect of trial before an international or Libyan court to answer for the alleged crimes of his late father's four-decade rule over the oil-rich North African nation.

President Reagan is unequaled among politicians in the ability to sound magnificent and downright silly on the same theme. Both the magnificence and silliness were amply displayed on Reagan's visit here, thanks in large part to the inability of key advisers to square extravagant rhetoric with realistic policies. Reagan had excellent reasons for visiting Indonesia, where he canceled a state visit in 1983 as a byproduct of his decision not to go to the Philippines after the murder of Benigno Aquino.