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herb herb herb herb herb herb herb herb good evening us warplanes attack targets in libya tonight to retaliate for the terrorist bombing of a berlin nightclub eight days ago the white house said the administration had tied that attack very directly to libyan leader moammar gadhafi and acted tonight to preempt and discourage further terrorist acts it said libya was planning

the white house called the raids carefully planned airstrikes against terrorist related targets president reagan was about to report to the nation after his address on this special report we will also hear from defense secretary weinberger and secretary of state george shultz now here's the president yesterday air and naval forces of the united states launched a series of strikes against the headquarters terrorist facilities and military assets that support moammar gadhafi's subversive activities the attacks were concentrated and carefully targeted to minimize casualties among the libyan people with whom we have no court from initial reports our forces have succeeded in their mission has several weeks ago and the warrens i warn colonel gadhafi we would hold his regime accountable for any new terrorist attacks launched against american citizens more recently i made it clear we will respond as soon as we determined conclusively who was responsible for such attacks on april fifth in west

berlin a terrorist bomb exploded in a nightclub frequented by american servicemen sergeant can afford a young turkish woman were killed and two hundred and thirty others were wounded among them some fifty american military personnel this monstrous brutalities with the latest app and colonel gadhafi's renewed or the evidence is not conclusive that the terrorist bombing of la belle discotheque was planned and executed under the direct orders of the libyan regime on march twenty fifth more than a week before the attack orders were sent from tripoli to the libyan people's bureau in east berlin the conduct a terrorist attack against americans to cause maximum and indiscriminate casualties libya's agents then planted the bomb on april fourth the people's bureau alerted troubling that the attack would be carried out the following morning the next day they were going back to tripoli on the great success of their mission our evidence is direct it as

precise it is directed we have solid evidence about other attacks gadhafi's plan against it united states installations and diplomats and even american tourists thanks to close cooperation with our friends some of these have been prevented with the help of french authorities we recently a boarded one such attack a planned massacre using grenades and small arms of civilians waiting in line for visas at an american embassy colonel gadhafi is not only an enemy of the united states his record of subversion and aggression against the neighboring states in africa is well documented and well no he has ordered the murder of fellow libyans and countless com greece is sanctioned acts of terror in africa europe and the middle east as well as the western hemisphere today we have done what we had to do it necessary we shall do it again

it gives me no pleasure to say that and i wish it were otherwise before gadhafi seized power in nineteen sixty nine the people of libya have been friends of the united states and i'm sure that today most libyans are ashamed and disgusted that this man has made their country a synonym for barbarism around the world the libyan people are decent people caught in the grip of a tyrant to our friends and allies in europe who cooperated in today's mission i would only say you have the prominent gratitude of the american people europeans remember history understand better than most that there is no security no safety in the appeasement of evil it must be the core of western policy that there'd be no sanctuary for terror and to sustain such a policy free man free nations must unite and work together sometimes it is said that by imposing sanctions against colonel gadhafi

for by striking and his terrorist installations we only magnify the man's importance of a proper way to deal with them is to ignore him i do not agree long before i came into this office colonel gadhafi had engaged in acts of international terror acts that put him outside the company of civilized man for years however he suffered no economic or political or military section and the atrocities commodity in number as did the innocent did and wanted and for us to ignore by inaction the slaughter of american civilians and american soldiers whether in nightclubs or airline terminals is simply not in the american tradition when our citizens are abused or attacked anywhere on the world on the direct orders of a hostile regimes we will respond so long time in this oval office self defense is not only are right it is our duty it is the purpose behind the mission undertaken to pay admission fully consistent with article

fifty one of the united nations charter we believe that this preemptive action against his terrorist installations will not only diminish colonel gadhafi's capacity to export terror it will provide him with incentives and reasons to alter his criminal behavior but tonight's action will bring down the curtain and gadhafi's reign of terror but this mission by little it was can bring closure us safer and more secure world they're decent men and when we will persevere this afternoon we consulted with the leaders of congress regarding what we were about to do and why tonight i salute the skill and professionalism of the men and women of our armed forces who carried out this mission it's an honor to be your commander in chief we americans are surely we always seek peaceful avenues before resorting to the use of force and we did

we tried quiet diplomacy of the condemnation economic sanctions and demonstrations of military force none succeeded despite our repeated warnings about the continued his reckless policy of intimidation his relentless pursuit of term incumbent on american people and wrong i warned that there should be no place on earth where terrorists can rest and train and practice their deadly skills i met i said that we would act with others as possible and alone if necessary to ensure the terrorists no sanctuary in the us but i had to put a half bedrooms banish be president reagan reporting to the american people from the oval office

exactly two hours after waves of american planes attack targets had to be terrorist related targets in the libyan cities tripoli and then does a few other items concerning those attacks members of congress who were briefed today said that gadhafi's un headquarters was one of the targets libyan radio reported that members of gadhafi's family were injured in the attacks they're girded pm eastern time which was two am local time in tripoli and in gaza and that lasted approximately a quarter of an hour not only the hat widely expected attack from the carriers based in the mediterranean are the navy fighters from the carriers based in the mediterranean but the surprise in this mission was third fighter bombers the larger f one eleventh based in britain were also used in the attack in a few moments we're expecting defense secretary weinberger and secretary of state shultz to appear in the white house briefing to briefing room to explain in more detail what happened tonight and why it happened and to answer

reporters' questions until they appear we have reaction and analysis and to start that we go first to judy woodruff in washington today we turn now to a former commander of us naval forces in the mediterranean retired admiral dan murphy he served as chief of staff for vice president bush during the first five years of the reagan administration he was also a deputy director of the central intelligence agency is now associated with graham company washington based public lobbying firm murphy first of all what you make of all this is this sort of operation that she would've expected from the administration and in the circumstance for years for years i assume the president will try to nail down just who was responsible for these terrorist operations and then to try to determine the kinds of targets that you could hit against it's quite apparent from listening to the president tonight but he's associated both ways that the person responsible is that the kind of cars has been wanting to hit and i am fully in favor of what he's done what is the significance of his bringing in the style app won eleven

planes from britain rather than just using using planes in the clothes are based in the closer mediterranean arid well chris i wasn't in on the operational planning to be but from talking to some people who are involved it appears that the areas that we had in the mediterranean crossing america were limited in the number of cars that could hit an initial period of time and that it was to get all the targets that the president had in mind was essential that we bring in and coordinated air force attacked why would you make of the of the base of the targets that we're told gadhafi's on kirk about his headquarters now we were robin just mention that some of his members of his family were injured are based on what you heard tonight that what you make of the targets that were selected well i have no information that they tried to hit that gadhafi's said had court it is a very elusive target in the first place so i really can't comment on that i understood there were a couple of terrorist type

training targets and the others were military targets that have in the past responded against the sixth fleet so in other words you don't have any information beyond not non on the target's to be known will have to wait until secretary of defense weinberger explains is it your expectation that this is the end of it and what would you think yeah well next move his epic about babies going to come out and be foolish he's going to get hit again the president mentioned that tonight so at the moment it could be all finished but if he's going to react foolishly and ask for more you can expect he's going to get more help how successful would you say the strikes would have to have been for the president to be able to claim that he is actually contain future terrorist activity will in no way is the president saying he expects to contain it in the future but what he said was you just can't see it by and let mad dog to quote good phrase get away with this cousin

terrorism without getting back at him he can't have a sanctuary and it's not going to have a sanctuary or whether or not it has a long term effect on gadhafi's thinking is something that would just have to wait to see what happens but you know but as far as this and from what you've heard of this operation tonight said you would expect any more sorties by the american now i think it's less it's a limited they're restrained action on the part of the president if it's a target information that we have available right now turns out to be true and i think it was certainly appropriate and i hope that it has some effect on gadhafi also by the way to the i have information just before i read that our forces did return safely without any us casualties is that right that means that none of the planes were shot there that's the first report that we have and that is that the role beck's it and the market will come back in a moment robin next we have some congressional reaction from california democrat george brown who

serves on the house intelligence committee congressman on this program friday night utilities you were not at all in favor of the idea of a strike against libya how do you feel now i suspect we'll be supportive here's the morsel on every action that has been expressed you're not already that we had to do something and this so kind of relieve the pressure and most americans would say well he had it coming i think my role is find out the truth point out however that this action will have to be judged really more on the basis of the immediate emotional reaction based upon whether or not the important american principles and with any concept of an international move law whether it will tend

to reduce our actual security and enhance tourism in the world and another word for that the pablo suggested that's one a test of pragmatism and while it's difficult to do that right now i would suspect tactics in this situation will probably be no more successful than that of the israelis were following a strategy at this point is going to the terrorists and they're in their own headquarters for their own camps and the israelis have not found that this is song of their problems and i doubt if we'll find it so before we go to some of the substantive issues you raise one other subject of consultation with congress the president did talk to some members of congress before the senator dole said that he gave members of congress an opportunity to say whether they strongly disapprove and before he made the final

decision to go i don't know whether you were included in those in that consultation now the consultation was with the leadership in the house and sullivan i don't know all of the individuals who were involved the intelligence committee's work we're not to the best of my knowledge and sell them lots of really turn heads isaac is it your understanding that congress was given an opportunity to object in this case the leadership of preferred with a part time job and they have been up there in the village i say no army on the point of principle that you just mentioned you just heard the president coaching article fifty one of the united nations which gives the member countries as i understand a member of an opportunity for kids in the right to act in their own self defense you heard the white house rationale well yeah i understand that and that's exactly the same rationale that we're using for supporting the

contras in central america and a number of the situation do we we will use that as our legal ban on congressman i hate to interrupt you if you'd stay there secretary shortz has begun briefing at the white house would listen to it and then come back to the united states reaction was proportional to this is say we're continuing and widespread use of kerrigan's americans than others like gadhafi's libya as the president said we must remember and of course europeans particularly remember the current or appeasement of aggression has historically brought more aggression in gadhafi's case what we have say over a period of

years an escalating in recent months there's a continuing to increase in the use of her show and this was not a question that's something that we have to being countered by something he has done and so on and has been an escalation by kentucky has called forward this act of self defense on the part of the united states so under these circumstances the president decided that it was time to act and he did describe where precisely precisely what the action was philip of seven pm eastern time elements million units of the third air

force attack targets in the western libyan soil and at the same time a six is from the america and the coral sea attack targets in the eastern libyans known as west of here the targets of the western vote for the military airport for tripoli flee us navy of barracks which are a command and control headquarters of the old libyan on terror erst activities and see the ball all with a training areas including at a marathon that ivory trading unit for terrorists in the east barracks which is an alternate command post says eric was also attacked the end of the evening air base from which defensive suppressing of our activities in their defense it would be mounted what was attacked and we used a combination of five hundred pound than two thousand pound laser

guided weapons and precision guided delayed gravity bomb and the un are all of the navy planes have rather returned there without casually out all of the f one elevens with one exception had been accounted for and our attorney there is one that is not accounted for at this time they will reach their recovered at their home bases somewhere in the neighborhood about two am eastern time the year of the bomb damage assessment at the more limited and we'd not have four reports that we do know that the nina airbase the base was closed they were unable to launch any aircraft they had no lights no radar no communication as result of the of the attack we will have a very full report of the attackers one elevens return to their bases early in the early morning and they're we will have

more more precise i'm on damage assessments at that time of the year the attack was carried out precisely as planned and very it was as the president said the evidence of great great skill both navigational as well as the organization of the attack which was a difficult one from a professional point of view and i'm now a great effectiveness and though we will should have the full reports of the of bomb damage assessment of that time all the targets for terrorist related and the criteria for selecting the targets was that they would be it had a full terrace connection that we would minimize any collateral damage from civilian or other of the facilities nearby but we would have for consideration for the safety of the pilots as a major consideration and that they would be good night target in the sense that they had good help lines that could

be about reflected on the radar and i'm not mistaken for the target for me personally you know that was not helpful and what is the worst we don't know anything about those report so from the libyan arabia have no idea that killed anybody you know we don't have any indication of the fact that at all it's simply not accounted for at this time over any one of a number of explanations incident ever at a trouble i could be going to another base because of radio trouble it could that have had their own internal problem on internal explosion of that there's no indication that there was it went down or that it was a victim of the enemy fire anything a quiet you know and that that would leak i think virtually impossible to the us while others are concerned

that the provisions really for this or a period of time as the evidence mounted in as the discussions were held her about her eighteen f one eleven served nationally that were about planned for and there were about fifteen a year a success and sevens and supporting aircraft in addition to that in the form of tigers lead to seize the yellow fighter cover and various other missions the report of the same time a very considerable number i don't have the exact location to put up the other charge this is the route that was followed by the air for eleven years from the bases enough in england mendenhall allegedly ran over his life and be a factor of factors followed along down there and they went through a total of about twenty eight hundred nautical miles

has been on the scale and so there's a certain host's us a suggestion that it was a nice gesture any kind of was intended to do exactly as secretary shall present said they were informed i was twelve that we have conclusive evidence of libyan involvement in terrorist activity including neverland at the time the military operation that is as it was taking place the soviet shared a year as a senior soviet in washington was called in and told of the operation he was told he was told and he was

told that this action was directed against libyan terrorism and was annoyed directed against the soviet power to fix the question of settling scores with the question of acting against terrorism both saying to terrorists that the x they perpetrate will cost them if you raise the chorus you do something that shared eventually act as a deterrent that is the primary objective to defend ourselves both in the immediate sense and prospect of the way and now to the security of the united states all of our

embassies are on alert of course we have reports and indications quite a substantial evidence of libyan efforts to attack the varying degrees of certainly on the evidence up to thirty of our embassies so when i say that gadhafi's plan is widespread the evidence is quite clear is that in this plan yet so i would also add that the military installations around the world are also on the phone fuller four attacks said terrorist attacks of any kind from many quarters saudi we have such good intelligence about this particular president said that i was able to stop that really the fact that we knew what had been ordered the day before we knew that they had ordered an attack in berlin remains a big place

and we were in the process of trying to track down and i think three in berlin and in other places through the intelligence we collected through the cooperation with other countries and their intelligence we have been able to a board and start a number of terrorist acts and in this case we were not able to identify the particular disco and yet people find out in time we were you know we were with them we were within fifteen minutes according to jim rogers of getting notifications with respect to this particular installation this to the fact that with potentially dangerous or the fifteen states in this crisis we know also of the

american civilians who are on the alert for any acts of terrorism against the united states and of course we have a collaborative patter with other countries and were as concerned about terrorism against others as we are about ourselves we now have evidence that the libyans were planning terrorist attacks against the us embassy the evidence of syrians terrorist attacks on americans right yeah we have nothing that i'm prepared to talk about on that score at all on the other hand syria has made the statement that you quoted to what that low turnout the main remains to be seen fifty why why with respect to our allies we have a

variety of opinions and i would have to say having no talked with a great many of them recently opinions vary within those governments and i think in general what we see is a shift in the direction of seeing very clearly what gadhafi is what he is doing and gradually more and more coming to the conclusion that something needs to be done about it today the european community foreign ministers met they were not surprised of what we were going to do some of those governments were aware of our plans and they stepped up and i've heard there attitude of condemnation of libya they single of the out by name so there is movement but as you say they do not yet share our conviction that action of this kind of messenger response they will other countries will speak for themselves and

fifty what will always weird julie if we had permission to fly direct route we would have not objected the power to quite such a long flight given the available own routes that we had left england and we reached libya it would have been obviously out from an operational point of you were less risk to the pilots in the us and a quarter time other than the typical the twenty twenty eight hundred nautical miles to get in there in their world one went around about jos and you also had much as you can by changes of altitude and so on to have to be at the maximum basic is what is it lifetime

maybe your mouth yeah and taller well it's it's revealed its range it has virtually unlimited as long as you can reveal whether they were too many times from ancient sod i think that for me that would've been the director and you mentioned earlier there is continual process that gets us into the hypotheticals and those you know are trying not to deal of those president i think made it very clear that he didn't feel that this would necessarily automatically spell the end of terrorism but i think it will

send an unmistakable signal and i think it will go very far towards you during a future acts as the president said that we are prepared to take other action figures secretary chu is you're the one said that this was not a ratcheting up with some of the responses that sense what it can oddly strikes that we don't even have the right to we will take the action that is wise as we see the situation and so what is clear tonight is that the united states will take military action under certain circumstances that established that's very important now for tuition low on voting will stay where we go from their original population of them about is this true dr rachel smith

of course we don't have any real damage assessment is yet and we will get that instant will know more precisely what happened but we seek to reduce his capability of carrying on terrorist acts and i'm sure to some degree that was done and we also have registered the point with him and whether libyans that they will pay a price that there is a cost to engaging in terrorism around the world so you know that just not supposed to is hamas says that you're heard obviously many questions that concerns that and then they were expressed in there that response was made to them and permission was given to do what was done that i don't think is a is

going to be accurate reports because of the nature of the targets and the nature of the ordinance used it's really funny senator weiner and secretary of stewardship show us giving more information on tonight's attack on the targets they say are called terrorist related targets in the libyan cities tripoli and then does it back now to our congressional reaction we were talking to george ryan in california before the two secretaries janitors everything we also have with us now a member of the house armed services committee republican duncan hunter also california what's your reaction to this evening ms higgins incident i think it was a classic case of a strong president defending the free world the defending the

rights of american citizens to travel the world and in these rights were being seriously impeded by mr gadhafi i think the key factor in this whole situation was the intersection of libyan messages out to his agency in east germany with the order to kill americans and therefore their message of back from the agents in east germany that they would do everything possible to see that gadhafi did not bear responsibility for the murders or for the destruction that would be wrought i think that was that was the key fact that that will result ultimately i think in the european community acknowledging a rather fine that the president at the right stuff does it to disturb the word all of this action was taking a secretary weinberger as just indicated with such little support from european allies that they didn't have the us did not have permission to fly over their airspace which would've have the distance these planes had to go from britain i don't think that's a problem i think it's so it's once again the lesson of the fact it was

brought out to that america sometimes has to stand alone i think great britain can understand that mr churchill stood alone not in in the face of the nazi a conquest a great difficulty in bringing the european allies and to work in the confrontation with mr hitler and i think that is as time unfolds as as we continue to talk about the fact that we had before we took this action the european community will come down solidly on the side of you not congressman brown about the evidence that the president gave and other congressman hunter is just repeated how does that alter your objections at all is it is it the kind of proof that would make you approve or what was done with sitting up the evidence of course a indicates that we have to do something about parents and i don't think any reasonable person can say that we can continue to promote the real question is what is the most effective way to deal with this problem and the way the president has chosen as i

indicated earlier is the one that i think needs our emotional needs that doesn't mean our security needs and what i'm afraid of is that we're moving further and further away from the rule of law in the world and i think that self evident and we may be alienating more and more of our allies are both in europe and that unilateral actions in latin america and this may be the step that will consolidate their community and their opposition to the united states and follow them and beyond the soviets how to react well i think i think again that it's that it was clear that we had to take action when what mr gadhafi was targeting americans for death and when he in fact was taking action to kill americans and let me just say as a congressman who put an amendment on last years for an authorization bill that brought about another another means of dealing with mr gadhafi and that was export sanctions it gave the president the power to words

of our exports from libya and my amendment frankly failed in that too that the economic pressure obviously did not deter mr gadhafi in the lease alive i think the united states has taken reasonable action to try to deter him from this course it hasn't worked and once again the european people's i think very much sympathize with what happened and they want to be able to travel europe freely one thousand rounds fears that this is going to further divide are in a united states from its european allies and consolidate the arab world i think yeah i don't i think those fears are not well founded because i think that most of the moderate arabs themselves live in great fear of mr gadhafi and in fact as taking apart of mr gadhafi it on his home ground will probably cause him great political problem as it maybe we're in right now after the attack in every as a chance to sit down and think about things you may worry about his own political stability he has knocked it is not secure in his present position the european community once again i think will will i

react to america's actions by ratifying also actions once a one they again review all the evidence and and we had a great deal of evidence that we couldn't put in front of them for security reasons before the strike well i think the story to say what the results and the reactions are going to be there which is why exercise some caution in my own view this kind of action does not comport with the way i think the fundamental problems this world maybe saw gadhafi is not the problem the problem is our fair to resolve the palestinian situation as mr brzezinski said under your program friday night go over i was also that if we do not take steps to resolve the underlying problem then we merrily inflame that problem by what were doing and that's what it is first limerick well one very simply

i i don't think you can rationalize away mr gadhafi's existence or his stated purpose by a talking about about problems that exist in the middle east i think mr mr gadhafi is a disaster waiting to happen i the only thing that will satisfy them and the middle east probably is the extermination of israel we obviously are not in the position to work to see that that particular gold through we turn now to jeffrey campbell former special assistant to president reagan for national security affairs specialized in us policy towards the middle east he left the administration in nineteen eighty four and is now a senior fellow at the center for strategic and international studies at georgetown university says the campaign was this dramatic military move by the united states called for by what colonel gadhafi had the power yes it was called farm i'm certain that what the administration was waiting for was first to get the force is in place so that you could do a very effective militia job a second to see whether there was any possibility of

getting a european cooperation clearly this has paid off because without the support of margaret thatcher and the use of the f what lessons from the uk the strike would have been much less affected but there were no other european countries that we know of who offered any support animal nor should we have expected any at this point in time the europeans that not most of the flying rights in nineteen seventy three during the yom kippur war and i hadn't expected that they would have done so in this occasion unless they themselves have been hit like about why the administration go all the trouble of signing burden walters of abc news well i think a sexy soaps pointed out there's been a distinct shift in the european opinion over the past week starting with the french decision to put terrorism on the agenda at the tokyo some at the decision of the germans to expel libyan officials from that country gradually seems to be the europeans are accepting that there is a smoking postal smoking pot stores located in tripoli what would you say to the administration's accomplished tonight in assuming there

were some targets that were hit assume there were some libyan casualties but what we accomplished well i don't think in terms of material damaged or affecting terrorism we've we've done very much of it we have done however is put on record not just about things that syrians and that friends in the arab world and the year that if necessary we will go it alone and we are capable of going to london and we could do a lot more the next time around them lobbing did the same thing i think we've also sent a signal that those type of escalation ultimately is going to involve the europeans and the arabs whether we like it or not but you just heard what congressman brown said he said this is going to further divide us from our european allies that it's gonna make it off even more of a hero perhaps among the law it may in the first instance creates and some streaked her support for gadhafi but i can tell you privately most moderate arab leaders are hoping that those strikes were very successful

now they may say something else in public privately they love and they want to see him remote nicely i don't think there's a problem because they have their own constituencies every the day in europe and the mideast has its own constituency they have to be careful about any see this isn't just a question of the role of more to go back to some point congress made the point is that gadhafi made some point in the future use nuclear weapons or rarity nas they have methods to conduct tires at that point we've got to understand that this is a global problem that if we don't take action no one's going to and that's it's warmer world to wish we could do it another way we've been arguing with the europeans now for years that we should use economic sanctions that we should boycott the libyans and every time they say no our economic interests out way that becomes a point we can't have it both ways

jeffrey can stay with us robin now some speculation is the impact of the impact today's events will have in libya from henry sure the director of energy and national security program at georgetown university's center for strategic and international studies it's been ten years in libya working at the us embassy and american oil companies operating there on friday night with us mr sure you were perhaps the most dubious is to be africa say of this kind of attack on libya how do you feel tonight well let me say that the commander in chief can decide whether the evidence is adequate whether the targets are appropriate and whether a surgical strike it was possible i will assumed that it was justified on the basis of the president made the correct decision but that is not going to achieve what must be our goal of isolating gadhafi and removing gadhafi having the libyan people remove gadhafi so having sent a signal that geoffrey kemp and hated and having solved our psyche needs to his congressman brown has indicated

we must still face the difficult questions of how do we bring about the removal of gadhafi by the libyan people now will this in the short run contribute to that since the eighties in that they are led by a person who's allowed their country to become vulnerable to us attacks are precipitated those attacks or will a rally and women tend to have to retreat and even further is a hero mike strong theory is that they will in fact rally around him i think that that's human nature whether it's libyan american or whatever and i think that get that he will emerge from the stronger i don't think any libyans thought that he could take on the superpower of the nine states so the fact that he has proven vulnerable does not seem to me to be something that is going to encourage them to to resist and i think that that they will rally round and that's why i mean i feel it's counterproductive what about other arab countries you just heard there are college every can't say that

privately many arab leaders would be very very happy to see him go but they will never say so publicly what what is going to be this situation in terms of arab solidarity in the immediate wake of this well i think that i would agree a hundred percent that they many of them with expects section of the office us on in syria and the ayatollah khomeini who of course not an era but the muslim middle eastern states are the rest of them will be a very happy to see a gadhafi removed but he has not been removed it is there and he has probably strengthened and i think that they will therefore come out in terms of arab solidarity now this short it's just lip service and it doesn't matter we can say it's lip service but what it does is permitted gadhafi to break out of the isolation that he puts himself into through his incursions in tunisian chad and sudan and so forth he isolates himself and these arab

leaders are prompted to come out and say that they stand united with gadhafi gadhafi plays that back to the libyan people and the isolation is a one minutes of the libyan people are are no longer prompted by that concern of being out of step with the rest of your world what apart from a temporary perhaps resurgence of libyan patriotism around gadhafi and the arabs paying lip service to their current this attack on and what harm if it has no edges all the terrorism problem about the problem what harmless attack about defending well those are the those are the two most important things we we must achieve is is undermining his support at home and and an increase in his isolation in the region are you suggesting headed by reporters saying that you would have been happier if the united states had actually gone for him personally as a target as secretary weinberger denied i suppose and frankly from a moral point of view if you're going after anybody anybody's life you're willing to take it doesn't much matter whether it's the leader or the end of the year

the innocent by will it frankly it's preferable to go for the leader than the innocent bystander and perhaps preferable to go for the leader to the to some lower ranking officers but i don't advocate death the military courts at all julie let's go back now to dan murphy retired navy admiral a former chief of staff to vice president bush and he just heard what this issue has said about he thinks the arabs agree to rally around colonel gadhafi as a hero well i think i take exception with the fuel and that's not just based on my own feelings i've talked to many arab and right here in washington and in his opinion among some of them that the libyan military will turn against gadhafi mainly because of the great humiliation that they have suffered in that the headquarters of cedar and now following these attacks on the bases within military systems are not working too well hope to god that are upon living gets back safely but their overall record has been disgraceful and there is an outside

chance that the military is going to say you have them enough to us to have the provider's with the tools that were taking an awful beating we've had and the full view and they are the only force in libya i don't think you would agree would show that could possibly turn against gadhafi but that's just never speculate as just hope on the part of these other arab that was nothing surer to be in world history it's the way this speculation but it's so i'd say a well informed speculation has been wrongly make you think there's a chance that something like that there is a chance that the in the history of the situation is it's unfortunate doesn't indicate the types of various projects the the phenomenon of rallying around the leader when he's under attack by this great superpower the worst enemy of all arabs seems to work in the opposite direction it seems to lead to stronger support for

gadhafi now i will confess that we could all be proven long tomorrows to what's going to happen in this situation and because once you unleash violence it's very difficult to predict the result my badge of can support a moment ago that that we're not just mean the level of what we're discussing here may be far more serious than davis realize at this point that at that at some point down the road get up and they've chosen to bring nuclear weapons into the wild we know about the us opted to get the runs by purchaser that whatever he may redouble his efforts and thirty one below them with a guided missile we'll probably put them in an old boat and deliver them to us no i think the chances of that association and what have the gadhafi getting a hold of a nuclear weapon is no sense of scaring the american people on your program the chances are so close to zero i don't you think that if you mention well be well protected

efforts to determine how well protected conduct by a cop and so there was a necessity i was in charge of that i have a good idea where the reports were that yes and we corrected reason i think is an unlimited dollars in correcting those are mine my point is not think about is about to get hold of a nuclear weapon but first that they're more more countries have nuclear weapons they're more available secondly there are many more elite is like about the grueling take steps to get hold of some point down the line we have to accept that terrorism could get worse and at that point you know we have we're going to have to take more draconian measures to have prevented or his control and that it was scary but he had all the something's evident but it's a very serious long term how far do you think the united states should be prepared to go to retaliate against any further paris review the new year for more attacks like this one i mean how much more should we be prepared

i think the secretary of state said it well when he said we want to give more to make portion of response and in response to my colleague and mine and the other gentleman who have said they were making a mistake by doing something militarily i think that we need to take a lesson from his role was his role initially bargain with terrorist negotiated with terrorists attempted to use a lesser means of dealing with them and when they would have a bus full of children held hostage one day and they would attempt to talk their way out of it and next week they might have to bust fools held hostage and ultimately they came to the conclusion that the only thing they could do was to react militarily the one thing the terrorists understand and i think the question a throwback to my colleague lester brown and the other gentleman is simply this we've tried economic sanctions i've been part of that that jerry's solomon not from new york then gilman many other members of congress i think mr brown has voted on those amendments himself and we have passed laws and we have tried to get the

the european community to rally around us that hasn't worked so i guess the question i would throw back to you is what would you do it we just simply allow mr gadhafi to openly at least from our intelligence reports order the killings of american citizens without taking action to show that let me make something absolutely because everybody makes the point that economic sanctions have been tried and failed they have not been tried there are five american companies in libya today producing oil paying hundreds of millions of dollars to gadhafi in taxes taking us tax credit by the way for their payments to gadhafi out but paying those taxes to gadhafi who then purchases the weapons to fire at american planes now you can't tell me economic sanctions have been tried when we permit five american companies to produce oil and countless others to assist gadhafi in the drilling of wells and every other week when we take care of

that and then we can go to the video as well as having sent an example we have not set an example at this point so to say that we have economic sanctions and they failed it simply rewards but i absolutely let me let me respond that we have in fact the president has ordered a bar of imports from libya and we have had absolutely no effect on the european community without any american interaction mr mr gadhafi has a very solid economic base steamy simply from our european allies and those are the same allies who will not allow us to fly our airplanes oh like a quick prediction about what happens next if the military strikes have been successful with that is to say few casualties both american and levy and i think we can say it's been successful everyone else was so it's been a fairly gentleman thank you operate with us congressman hunter congressman brown jeffrey camp henry schiller and admiral mark robben and summing up tonight's vance the united states carried out a series of air attacks against what it said were

terrorist targets in and around the libyan cities tripoli and then does a president reagan told the nation that was necessary in self defense and said that if necessary the us will do it again the libyans said three us planes were shot down in their pilots and crews killed by civilians on the ground defense secretary weinberger set only one us plane was unaccounted for the strikes were carried out by navy jets from two six three carriers and about aging air force f one elevens based in britain secretary of state showed said moscow had been assured that the operation was in no way a directed against the soviet union an injured in another special edition of the newshour will be back again tomorrow night i'm judy woodruff thank you and goodnight so will eighty injury whether it's telephone information systems long distance services computers at unseating funding also was provided by the station and other public television stations

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