Talk about outsourcing...
Ha! Good one.
Thinking about it a bit it does make sense.
Remember we were keeping a very close eye on Iraq with the no-fly zones and so forth. Saddam does have a history of moving his stuff out of the country to keep it safe, think planes to Iran during Gulf War I. Of course he got badly burned on that one so it would be logical to turn to one of the Arab leaders who was like him. That would be Syria and Libya. Syria has the convenience of being right next door, of course being right next door also means that should they decide that you look tasty they have the means to take you down. So that would be a bad choice.
Qaddafi on the other hand is a brilliant choice. He is not pro-US but he is not especially religious. He is interested in becoming King of Africa rather then King of the Middle East and he has a long history or renting out his country for terror purposes.
It would really be the most brilliant alliance since Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan hooked up.
If this proves to be true then I am in awe and sweet heaven but we dodged a bullet.