- WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Libya
is trying to buy longer-range missiles than it already has, possibly adding
its name to the "axis of evil" that can threaten the United States
and its allies, the director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said
Thursday.
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- "The Libyans have been pretty active in trying to
get missile capability and not just short range," Lt. Gen. Ronald
Kadish said at a breakfast with defense reporters. "They have enough
money to buy it. The trend seems to be their indigenous capability is not
as good as they thought it was."
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- Libya has been trying to develop a 1,000 km-range (621.37
miles) missile, the Al-Fatah, for the past 10 years but without apparent
success, news reports said. Libya was believed as long ago as 1994 to have
been in negotiations with North Korea to purchase the Nodong-1 missile,
with a range of between 1,000 km and 1,300 km (807.78 miles).
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- Libya has a healthy inventory of shorter-range, Soviet-made
Scud B missiles and Frog-7 missiles.
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- "All I can say is we worry a lot about Libya in
the Missile Defense Agency, even if other people might not concentrate
on them too much," Kadish said, referring to the intelligence community.
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- Intelligence officials focus primarily on the missile
threat posed by Iran, Iraq and North Korea, which comprise President Bush's
so-called "axis of evil."
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