Letter to The Honorable John D. Negroponte, Deputy Secretary of State

Letter

April 10, 2007

The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Deputy Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Deputy Secretary Negroponte:

The announcement that you will be traveling to Chad, Libya and Mauritania this week to focus on the crisis in Darfur is welcome news. This crisis has caused death and misery to hundreds of thousands of innocent Africans. Your engagement there will show that you are willing to use your considerable diplomatic prestige and that of the United States to help bring an end to this suffering.

While we understand that Darfur is the primary topic of your visit, we implore you to remember that there are other vital American concerns that should be addressed during your visit. As you know, Libya sponsored a variety of murderous terrorist attacks against American citizens during the past several decades. These attacks have caused unending pain and suffering for Americans.

Unfortunately, Libya has not yet resolved these issues. It has not fully paid the survivors of the 1988 Pam Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. In addition, it has reneged on a proposed settlement with the victims of the 1986 bombing of the LaBelle discotheque in Berlin, which killed two Americans and injured 90 U.S. service members. There are other outstanding cases as well, such as the 1985 Egypt Air Flight 648 and the 1985 Rome Airport Attack.

Libya must put its past crimes against American citizens behind it and settle these cases. Otherwise, we believe that the State Department's request for a new embassy in Tripoli, its request for economic and military aid for Libya, and its yet unfilled Ambassadorial post will be the subject of significant congressional concern.

Therefore, we urge you to use the opportunity your visit presents to send a strong message to Libya's President Qaddafi that he must settle the remaining terrorism cases against his country before he can have fully normalized diplomatic relations with the United States. Justice for all American victims of Libya's state-sponsored terrorism is long overdue and must be achieved. We hope you will take the opportunity that your visit to Libya presents to strongly state this message. We wish you well on your challenging mission.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Charles Schumer (D-NY)

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