Rice sits down with Gadhafi

TRIPOLI, Libya | Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a historic meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Friday, demonstrating that the United States has no “permanent enemies” and that Washington is willing to do business with rogue states that renounce terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

The Libyan strongman looked stern as he received Miss Rice in an incense-filled reception room in the Bab al-Azizya barracks in the Libyan capital. He did not shake hands but placed his hand on his heart in a traditional Arab greeting, lightly touched her arm and gestured her to sit down.

Col. Gadhafi wore a full-length white traditional Libyan robe, a scarf covered with symbols of the African continent, black patent leather shoes and a North African black woolen hat.

He began the meeting by asking how Miss Rice was and “What’s the news about the hurricane?”

Miss Rice, beaming broadly, replied through an interpreter that, “The first one was less than feared, but there are two more.”

The Libyan leader, whom President Reagan once labeled a “mad dog,” later feted Miss Rice in a traditional Bedouin tent in the compound, which was bombed by the United States in 1986 in reprisal for what Washington said was Libya-sponsored terrorism.

Aides to Miss Rice left the barracks a short time after the meeting began, leaving the secretary and the colonel alone apart from their security details. Soldiers wearing red berets and carrying assault rifles patrolled the barracks accompanied by plainclothes officers from the colonel’s secret police.

The Rice visit was the first to Libya by an American secretary of state since John Foster Dulles in 1953. Miss Rice was the highest-level American in Libya since Vice President Richard Nixon came in 1957. At that time, Libya was ruled by a pro-Western monarch.

Col. Gadhafi took power in a 1969 coup and became an international pariah for supporting foreign groups that most other nations regarded as terrorist.

The Reagan administration’s air strikes on Libya in 1986 followed a bombing at a disco in Berlin frequented by U.S. servicemen that killed three people and injured more than 200.

Libya was also blamed for the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.

Libya slowly began to emerge from multinational sanctions and pariah status after surrendering two suspects for trial - one of whom was eventually convicted - agreeing to pay compensation to relatives of the victims and announcing in 2003 that it was giving up a fledgling program to make nuclear weapons.

Libya remains an authoritarian and erratic country that is accused of abusing the human rights of its people.

“There is a long way to go,” Miss Rice told reporters accompanying her to Tripoli. “But I do believe that this demonstrates that the United States doesn’t have permanent enemies.”

“A lot has happened in the years since ‘57, which was when Nixon was here,” she said, “but the most important has been the change in Libya’s strategic direction. That is not to say that everything has been settled between Libya and the United States.”

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