Pentagon may help Libya destroy chemical weapons

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US Defense Department specialists made an unannounced visit to Libya in January to see what it would take to help Moammar Gadhafi's government destroy its tons of chemical weapons, a process that could cost $100 million, department officials said Thursday. James A. Tegnelia, director of a Pentagon unit known as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, said Thursday the officials who were in Libya are now writing a proposal for the State and Defense departments, spelling out options for helping Libya comply with an international agreement to get rid of the banned weapons. "It would be a difficult thing," Tegnelia said, in part because of the location, which he did not describe in detail. Tegnelia said the Libya visit was in February, but the Pentagon later corrected him, saying it was Jan. 19-28.