Libyan nuclear material secure, US says

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The State Department expressed confidence Thursday that Libya’s raw nuclear material and deadly chemicals are secure, trying to dispel fears that the near collapse of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime means terrorists could get their hands on weapons of mass destruction.

In a statement issued Thursday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the leaders of the rebel government in Libya, the Transitional National Council, had obligations to the international community as well as to their own people as they took control of the Arab country.

“We will look to them to ensure that Libya fulfills its treaty responsibilities, that it ensures that its weapons stockpiles do not threaten its neighbors or fall into the wrong hands, and that it takes a firm stand against violent extremism,” Clinton said.

Raw nuclear material and chemicals aside, the fate of thousands of rockets is less clear. U.S. intelligence officials and counterterrorism experts criticized slow work by the State Department to locate and buy back dangerous munitions such as the estimated 15,000 to 25,000 shoulder-fired missiles in Gadhafi’s weapons stores.

Two U.S. officials said the prices of such missiles in the region have fallen, suggesting that some of Gadhafi’s weapons already may be reaching the market, though there is no sign that al-Qaida-linked terrorists have managed to buy any. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a high-level briefing on the subject.

That’s feeding a debate within the administration over whether to devote more U.S. resources, including manpower on the ground, to find and secure the potentially deadly or at the very least, lucrative, material.