From Library Journal
In this prodigiously researched book, veteran British journalist Simons sets out to produce three distinct works: an investigative essay on Libyan involvement in the Lockerbie explosion, a descriptive sketch of modern Libya, and an analytical survey of Libyan foreign relations, especially those with the United States. He seeks to portray American policies of disinformation, economic sanctions, and the 1986 bombing raid from a perspective sympathetic to Gaddafi. Holding that "the most important factors of modern Libya are oil and Gaddafi," Simon says that the United States has pursued an interventionist foreign policy toward Libya in order to gain access to that oil by ousting Gaddafi. In the Lockerbie matter, Simons argues that the United States sought to blame Libya to the exclusion of other involved Middle Eastern parties in order to isolate Gaddafi even further from the international community. This perspective stands in stark contrast to Brian L. Davis's Qaddafi, Terrorism, and the Origins of the U.S. Attack on Libya (Praeger, 1990) and John Davis's Libyan Politics: Tribe and Revolution (Univ. of California Pr., 1988). While not totally convincing in its general argument, the book is fascinating in its amassed detail and belongs in all large public and academic libraries.- James Rhodes, Luther Coll., Decorah, Ia.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
'Geoff Simons has performed a service to the English-speaking world by writing the first, serious and comprehensive assessment of the late-twentieth-century Libya available in the English language.' - Tam Dalyell, MP
'A work of great authority and importance. Geoff Simons wipes away the web of Western camouflage, hypocrisy and deceit to discover the utterly disreputable truth.' - Harold Pinter
Book Description
This book charts in detail the West's response, particularly that of the US, to Libya's possible involvement in the bombing of the Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in 1988. It suggests that this response cannot be fully understood without consideration of the United States as sole military superpower in the New World Order. Geoff Simons argues that the US decision to target Libya, and to involve the UN in this policy, has more to do with the realpolitik objectives of a hegemonic power than with the disinterested use of international law to combat terrorism. The Lockerbie issue is set against a detailed history of Libya from the earliest times to the present, with emphasis on Libya's colonial past, the pivotal significance of Libya's oil resources, the character of the Gaddafi revolution, and the consequent impact on relations with the United States.
Libya: The Struggle for Survival FROM THE PUBLISHER
This book charts in detail the West's response, particularly that of the US, to Libya's possible involvement in the bombing of the Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in 1988. It suggests that this response cannot be fully understood without consideration of the United States as sole military superpower in the New World Order. Geoff Simons argues that the US decision to target Libya, and to involve the UN in this policy, has more to do with the realpolitik objectives of a hegemonic power than with the disinterested use of international law to combat terrorism. The Lockerbie issue is set against a detailed history of Libya from the earliest times to the present, with emphasis on Libya's colonial past, the pivotal significance of Libya's oil resources, the character of the Gaddafi revolution, and the consequent impact on relations with the United States.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
In this prodigiously researched book, veteran British journalist Simons sets out to produce three distinct works: an investigative essay on Libyan involvement in the Lockerbie explosion, a descriptive sketch of modern Libya, and an analytical survey of Libyan foreign relations, especially those with the United States. He seeks to portray American policies of disinformation, economic sanctions, and the 1986 bombing raid from a perspective sympathetic to Gaddafi. Holding that ``the most important factors of modern Libya are oil and Gaddafi,'' Simon says that the United States has pursued an interventionist foreign policy toward Libya in order to gain access to that oil by ousting Gaddafi. In the Lockerbie matter, Simons argues that the United States sought to blame Libya to the exclusion of other involved Middle Eastern parties in order to isolate Gaddafi even further from the international community. This perspective stands in stark contrast to Brian L. Davis's Qaddafi, Terrorism, and the Origins of the U.S. Attack on Libya (Praeger, 1990) and John Davis's Libyan Politics: Tribe and Revolution (Univ. of California Pr., 1988). While not totally convincing in its general argument, the book is fascinating in its amassed detail and belongs in all large public and academic libraries.-- James Rhodes, Luther Coll., Decorah, Ia.
BookList - Margaret Flanagan
A complex portrait of Libya as both an increasingly vulnerable Third World state and an oil-rich terrorist bully. Simons attempts to place Libya's contemporary position in the "new world order" in context by examining the social, political, and cultural history of this North African nation. The cyclical pattern of conquest, occupation, and colonization that engendered the advancement of Qadaffi's anti-Western regime soon becomes self-evident. In addition, an analysis of current U.S.-Libyan relations underscored by the reaction of the U.S. to the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 is also included. Though the author's quasi-sympathetic Libyan slant may be both unpopular and controversial, he does raise some valid and disturbing questions about the often self-serving and hypocritical nature of U.S. diplomacy in regard to the Middle East.
Art & Photography
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