CIA chief makes rare visit to Libya after suspected Lockerbie bombmaker extradited

Tripoli-based government, one of two rival administrations vying for control of country, says William Burns held talks with PM during trip

By AP 13 January 2023, 12:30 am Edit
This combination of pictures shows (L to R) Libya's Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah speaking in Tunisia's capital Tunis on November 30, 2022; and CIA director William Burns speaking during a visit to agency headquarters on the 75th anniversary of its founding in Langley, Virginia, on July 8, 2022. (Fethi Belaid and Samuel Corum/AFP)
This combination of pictures shows (L to R) Libya's Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah speaking in Tunisia's capital Tunis on November 30, 2022; and CIA director William Burns speaking during a visit to agency headquarters on the 75th anniversary of its founding in Langley, Virginia, on July 8, 2022. (Fethi Belaid and Samuel Corum/AFP)

TRIPOLI, Libya — The CIA chief has met with one of Libya’s rival prime ministers, the government in the country’s capital of Tripoli said Thursday. It was a rare visit by a senior US official to the war-torn country, currently split between two rival administrations.

The Tripoli-based government said CIA Director William Burns and Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah discussed cooperation, economic and security issues. It also posted a hand-shaking photo of the two on one of its social media pages.

The statement gave no indication as to when exactly the meeting took place. There was no immediate comment from Washington about Burns’s trip.

Burns’s visit followed the surprise extradition last month of a former Libyan intelligence officer accused of making the bomb that exploded on a commercial flight above Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people.

In December, Washington announced that Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, wanted by the United States for his role in bringing down the New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 since 2020, was in their custody and would face trial.

His handover by Dbeibah’s government raised questions of its legality inside Libya, which does not have a standing agreement on extradition with the United States. Dbeibah’s mandate remains highly contested after planned elections did not take place in late 2021.

Torn by civil war since a NATO-backed uprising against former autocratic ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has for years been divided between rival governments in the east and west, each backed by international patrons and numerous armed militias on the ground.

Militia groups have amassed great wealth and power from kidnappings and their involvement in Libya’s lucrative human trafficking trade. Amid the chaos, in 2012, a terrorist attack on the US Consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed four Americans, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens.

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