we're BUDS now? this man is a terrorist. he is at the VERY least equal to hussein if not WORSE

yet, we're making nice-nice? i'm sick to my stomach

U.S., Libya establish full diplomatic relations after 26 years

By Warren P. Strobel
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The United States announced Monday that it's re-establishing full diplomatic relations with Libya and removing it from the State Department's list of terrorism sponsors, completing a remarkable turnabout with a country whose leader was once at the top of the U.S. enemies list.
Senior State Department officials acknowledged that the move was aimed in part at influencing Iran to give up uranium enrichment, a process that can create fuel for nuclear weapons, and comply fully with the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi voluntarily gave up his oil-rich country's nuclear weapons program in December 2003. The message to Iran, U.S. officials said, is that it will reap concrete benefits if it does likewise - although that prospect now seems remote.
"Libya serves as an important model as we push for changes in policy by other countries, such as Iran and North Korea," said Assistant Secretary of State David Welch.
Monday's action, announced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will put a full U.S. Embassy in Tripoli for the first time since 1980. The United States and Libya established small diplomatic offices in each other's capitals in 2004, after Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction programs under international inspection. .......

this is from 2004, but it's a bit of background on our new peep moammar!

Libyan Dictator Moammar Gadhafi: Learning the Lessons of Stalin
by Alexander Marriott (January 3, 2004)

The Bush Administration is declaring victory now that the dictator (or for the BBC, "Leader") of Libya, Moammar Gadhafi, has agreed to let in United Nations Weapons Inspectors and to dismantle all Weapons of Mass Destruction programs. To "reward" Gadhafi for his "compliance" there is already talk of taking Libya off of the State Department's list of state sponsors of terror and easing the economic sanctions that were imposed by much of the western world in the 1980's after a series of heinous acts of war and terror that culminated with the Pan Am 103 bombing in 1988. This deal that has been struck with Gadhafi is a sign of one of three things, 1) Gadhafi has been frightened by our actions towards and against Iraq and has decided to give up his weapons programs, 2) He is attempting to pretend that he is giving up his weapons programs to get the economic restrictions lifted, hoping that the UN Weapons Inspectors won't figure out what's really going on, or 3) he has learned the lessons of Joseph Stalin and Communist China and has realized that the West will fund and supply their enemies if they give up totally non-essential things like weapons programs..........

.........Gadhafi has never had to pay for his crimes beyond the absurd "justice" of financial payment and a few bombs back in the 1980's. The fact that he is a terrorist, tyrant, and murderer isn't changed by the fact that he is twenty years older or a few billion dollars poorer. Would we allow men like Jeffrey Dahmer and Gary Ridgway to buy their way out of prison to "make up" for their murders (even if the families of the victims thought it was ok)? Hopefully not, because the Justice system is not in place to extract money for crimes like rape and murder or to appease the families of the victims, it is in place to exact Justice on criminals in the form of imprisonment and/or death in the name of the victims and in the name of civil society which these men have violated so heinously............