Libya: Oops, Yes, We Are Mass-Murdering Terrorists

Libya today contradicted its nutty prime minister and admitted after all that, darn, it did blow up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 and kill the 270 people aboard.

A statement that appeared on the African country's Web site said Libya had helped bring two suspects to justice "and accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials."

The Libyan news agency Jamahiriya said "recent statements contradicting or casting doubt on these positions are inaccurate and regrettable."

Libya last August confessed in a letter to the U.N. Security Council that it had bombed the jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. The victims included 181 Americans.

But shortly before the White House planned this week to end a 23-year ban on travel to Libya, Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem told BBC that Moammar Gadhafi's dictatorship had agreed in December to pay the victims' families $2.7 billion merely to improve ties with the West and to get sanctions lifted.

Asked if the payment did not mean Libya had accepted guilt for its bombing, Ghanem replied, "I agree with that, and this is why I say we bought peace."

Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday called Ghanem's remarks "a bit of a disconnect" and "a momentary delay."

Now that Libya has complied with Powell's call for a clarification, Americans eager to tour the flyblown hellhole of sunny, sunny Tripoli can start making their travel plans.

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