Jamahiriya Jamup

We've all heard it claimed that if America hadn't invaded Iraq, Libya wouldn't have stopped its attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday's Financial Times gives us yet another reason to doubt that argument:

Libyan representatives offered to surrender WMD programmes more than four years ago, at the outset of secret negotiations with US officials. In May 1999, their offer was officially conveyed to the US government at the peak of the "12 years of diplomacy with Iraq" that Mr. Bush now disparages….

Why did we not pursue the Libyan WMD offer then? Because resolving the PanAm 103 issues was our condition for any further engagement. Moreover, as Libya's chemical weapons programme was not considered an imminent threat and its nuclear programme barely existed, getting Libya out of terrorism and securing compensation had to be top priorities.

[Via Matthew Yglesias.]