Countering claims that short of nuclear weapons the Pentagon had no means of knocking

General — July 21, 2010 at 13:03

Countering claims that, short of nuclear weapons, the Pentagon had no means of knocking out so well protected a target, they point to ground- penetrating bombs like the 5,000lb GBU-28, said to be capable of piercing 100ft of soil or concrete 22ft thick.Washington, moreover, has attacked Libya before, as the setting of the interview underlined. This is likely within 12 to 18 months, according to intelligence estimates here.Although Pentagon officials say the US will first seek to halt the plant by diplomatic means, they leave no doubt that the military threat is real. None the less, Libya was ready to permit international experts to examine the site, albeit under certain conditions which Col Gaddafi would not specify.But such equivocation will not satisfy Washington which, despite some scepticism from allies including Egypt and France, has gone to unusual lengths to single out Tarhuna as a menace to global security – complete with a warning by William Perry, Defense Secretary, that the US was prepared to attack the plant if necessary to prevent its completion. In a CNN interview marking the tenth anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s bombing of the Libyan capital, Col Gaddafi denied that the site, inside a hill at Tarhuna, 35 miles the capital, was being developed as a secret, well-nigh invulnerable site to manufacture chemical and biological weapons.
The US had produced no concrete evidence to support its claims, he said. Airport shooting

Jakarta – Indonesia’s military opened an investigation yesterday into the killing of 10 soldiers and five civilians by an army officer who ran amok at Timika airport in Irian Jaya, a military official said Reuter. Israel remembers

Jerusalem – Israel came to a halt for two minutes to remember the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis during World War Two Reuter. The US seems mightily unimpressed by a new offer from the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, to permit international inspection of a suspected chemical- weapons plant near Tripoli, which Washington vows will never enter service, even if it has to use military force to prevent it doing so.

Romanian elections

Bucharest – Romania’s left-wing government yesterday set a 2 June date for nationwide local elections. Interest will focus on the capital where retired tennis star Ilie Nastase is standing for the ruling Party of Social Democracy (PDSR) Reuter. The robbers escaped through an 80-metre tunnel they had dug over the preceding 18 months AP. Machine-gun fire echoedaround the Barclay Training Centre complex, where up to 20,000 are trapped Reuter. `Tunnel gangsters’

Berlin – Six men known as the “tunnel gangsters” went on trial on charges of stealing 16.3m German marks (pounds 7.3m) from a Commerzbank branch in Berlin on 27 June last year.

Liberian clashes

Monrovia – Gangs of youths, some armed with grenade launchers, advanced towards barracks in the centre of the Liberian capital where ethnic Krahn militiamen are holed up. Plea to President

Nairobi – As internal rivalries plague Kenya’s legal opposition parties, leaders of the Safina party, formed 10 months ago, urged President Daniel arap Moi to help legalise their group.
There has been no official explanation why authorities have not registered Safina, whose interim secretary general is paleontologist Richard Leakey AP. On Monday the US Defense Secretary, William Perry, unveiled a plan to reduce military facilities in Okinawa by up to a fifth.. Since September, when a girl was raped by US troops on Okinawa, there have been demands in Japan for a cut in US bases. Even before North Korea’s rejection, South Korean and US officials were warning that the North was unlikely to leap at the proposal, which will doubtless be discussed on the Japanese and Russian legs of Mr Clinton’s tour.Last night he arrived in Tokyo for a two-day visit intended to address the troubled US-Japan Security Treaty, a key component of American defence policy in Asia.