The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Raid on Libya (4/14/1986) - Apr. 14th, 2003

GlobalSecurity ^

[SAMWolf]

Raid on Libya

On April 14, 1986 at 17:36 Greenwich Mean Time, twenty four F-111Fs of the USAF 48th Tactical Fighter Wing took off from the Royal Air Force base at Lakenheath, England. Twenty eight refueling tankers took to the air from bases at Mildenhall and Fairford, while five EF-111 Ravens equipped with high-tech jamming equipment soared skyward from a fourth base. Operation El Dorado Canyon was underway. The target: Libya. The American aircraft roaring through the English skies that evening were embarked on what would become the longest fighter combat mission in the history of military aviation, and the first major USAF combat mission in more than a decade.

The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, had been an enthusiastic sponsor of terrorist acts against the West for years. The son of a Bedouin shepherd, he became an officer in the Libyan army and in 1968 led a successful coup to overthrow King Idris. A self-proclaimed mystic and prophet of Islam, Gaddafi's grandiose vision was the creation of a Great Arab Nation encompassing all of North Africa, powerful enough to destroy Israel and punish the United States for its many sins against the Arab world. Purchasing over $12 billion worth of Soviet military hardware, Gaddafi in turn supported terrorists of all stripes -- the Irish Republican Army, Basque ETA separatists, Colombian M19 guerrillas -- maintaining as many as twenty terrorist training camps in Libya. He had given sanctuary to the Black September murderers of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics and to the Palestinian terrorist mastermind, Abi Nidal. It was Nidal who orchestrated Libyan-sponsored terrorist bloodbaths at the Rome and Vienna airports in December 1985 that left twenty people, four of them Americans, dead.

The U.S. and Libya had clashed before -- in 1981, when Gaddafi launched an air strike against provocative American naval maneuvers in the Gulf of Sidra, international waters that Gaddafi claimed for Libya. Two Soviet-built SU-22 fighters were shot down. That same year, U.S. intelligence learned that Libyan hit squads would be dispatched to assassinate Reagan and other government officials. Though some anti-terrorist experts suggested that a covert operation to kill Gaddafi was doable, this was not an alternative available to Reagan. He had promised to adhere to Executive Order No. 12333, issued in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, which banned the government from engaging in the assassination of world leaders.

In January 1986 Gaddafi proclaimed a "line of death" across the Gulf of Sidra, warning that if American ships or planes crossed that line they would be destroyed. In March the U.S. responded with Operation Prairie Fire, consisting of 45 ships and 200 planes. Aircraft from the Sixth Fleet's three carriers, Saratoga, Coral Sea and America, made forays across the "line of death." Then three surface vessels crossed the line, supported by planes overhead and Los Angeles-class attack submarines beneath the surface. On Monday, March 24, the Libyans fired several SA-5 surface-to-air missiles, but none came close to hitting an American target because they were diverted by jamming devices carried by EA-6B Prowler aircraft. Vice Admiral Frank Kelso, Sixth Fleet's commander, waited until dark to respond. A pair of A-6 Intruders from the America hit a Libyan attack boat with HARMs (high-speed anti-radiation missiles). Several more Libyan vessels venturing near the fleet the following morning were struck, with one confirmed destroyed. Reagan congratulated the airmen and sailors of the Sixth Fleet, some of whom wore "Terrorist Buster" t-shirts and buttons, for a job well done, and on Thursday, March 28, the naval "exercises" were concluded. There were no American casualties; 56 Libyans had been killed.

A Newsweek poll revealed that three out of every four Americans believed the U.S. attacks on Libyan boats and missile batteries were justified, while two-thirds feared that Gaddafi would retaliate. On March 25, Gaddafi ordered his embassies (or "people's bureaus") in East Berlin, Paris, Rome and Madrid to carry out terrorist action against Americans. At a mass rally in Tripoli, Gaddafi declared Libya to be in a state of war with the United States, and the crowd was entertained with the slaughtering of an ox with Reagan's name painted on its side. Less than a week later, 21-year-old Army Sergeant Kenneth Ford of Detroit was slain when a bomb blast ripped through Berlin's La Belle discotheque, a nightclub frequented by American servicemen.

The National Security Agency used high-tech eavesdropping equipment to intercept three secret messages between Tripoli and European-based Libyan agents. Libya's diplomatic code had been broken, and the messages made it clear that Gaddafi was behind the bombing of the Berlin disco. On April 7, Reagan met with his chief aides to discuss an appropriate response to the Libyan terrorist act. "The president had maps all over the floor of the Oval Office," recalled Edwin Meese III, U.S. Attorney General and Reagan's close friend, in order to select potential targets. These included airbases at Tripoli and Benine, naval bases at Taranbulas and Benghazi, a terrorist training camp at Sidi Balal, and the Bab al Azizia barracks where Gaddafi often stayed in a Bedouin tent equipped with telephones, heaters and a television set.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher signed off on the use of British bases in the operation, but Spain and France refused to grant American warplanes overflight permission; this meant the planes would have to fly 2,800 miles to reach their targets, and be refueled five times in the air. Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi spoke for many European leaders when he expressed concern that any American retaliation would simply trigger more terrorist acts in reprisal. But the Reagan administration was determined to act. It felt that someone had to take a stand against worldwide terrorism that had run rampant in the Eighties. Gaddafi and others like him, said the president, had to be given "incentives . . . to alter [their] criminal behavior."

Those "incentives" were provided on the evening of Monday, April 14, as the F-111s from the British bases joined a dozen A-6 strike aircraft launched from the carriers Coral Sea and America and thundered through Libyan anti-aircraft fire to drop more than 60 tons of laser-guided bombs on five targets. Five F-111s hit Gaddafi's barracks compound with sixteen 2,000-lb. Paveway II gravity bombs. Five more American warplanes struck the military sector of the Tripoli International Airport. Army barracks and an airfield at Benina and the naval port at Sidi Bilal were also bombed. The raid lasted eleven minutes. Four Libyan MIG-23 interceptors, five Il-76 transports and two Mi-8 Hip helicopters were destroyed. Libyan radio reported many casualties, including Gaddafi's 18-month-old adopted daughter Hana. An F-111 was destroyed by a Libyan SAM (surface-to-air missile); pilot Captain Fernando Ribas-Dominicci and weapons system officer Captain Paul Lorence were killed.

President Reagan made a televised address to the nation later that evening. "I said that we would act . . . to ensure that terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere," he said. "Tonight, we have." Polling showed the American people overwhelmingly approved of the raid, though there were some who concurred with former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski who complained that "we haven't really dealt a blow to terrorism; we've just made ourselves feel good." In Britain, Prime Minister Thatcher was roundly criticized for going against the advice of her cabinet and supporting the American strike. In the House of Commons she stood firm -- like a "lioness in a den of Daniels," said the London Times -- against shouts of disapproval from opposition members. The Iron Lady felt she owed Reagan for U.S. support during the Falklands War, and she knew Gaddafi was giving aid to the IRA.

There were repercussions; three hostages were executed by Arab Revolutionary Cell gunmen in Lebanon, two of them British teachers and the third an American, Peter Kilburn, while William Cokals, a U.S. embassy official, was shot down in the streets of Khartoum, Sudan. For a time there was widespread concern that terrorist revenge attacks would occur on American soil, and experts warned that the U.S. was woefully unprepared to deal with such a contingency. The attacks never came.

President Reagan in a briefing with National Security Council Staff on the Libya Raid (National Archives, Washington, D.C.)

The Soviet Union responded to the raid by canceling scheduled talks between Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and Secretary of State George Shultz that were intended to formalize plans for a summit meeting between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who promised Gaddafi that the USSR would help Libya strengthen its military defenses. But Gaddafi, described by Reagan as the "mad dog of the Middle East," was strangely subdued in the aftermath of the raid. According to Secretary Shultz, the administration's leading proponent of strong action against Libya, Gaddafi "retreated into the desert." An Arab diplomat told Donald Gregg, national security adviser to Vice-President George Bush, that when Gaddafi was seen "carrying the body of his dead child out of the wreckage, he lost all stature because it as shown that he couldn't protect his family." For whatever reason, Gaddafi acted with uncharacteristic restraint in the years that followed. According to a 1989 Department of State Bulletin, while terrorist activity continued on the rise in 1987 and 1988, Libyan-sponsored terrorist acts declined significantly.

Jason Manning

[SAMWolf]

In April 14, 1986, the US launched Operation El Dorado Canyon, a controversial but successful mission that hit Col. Muammar Qadafi squarely between the eyes. Working with carrier aircraft of the US Sixth Fleet, Air Force F-111s of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing flew what turned out to be the longest fighter combat mission in history. The crushing strikes caused a remarkable reduction in Libyan sponsored terrorist activity.

The mission was a long one. The aircraft's, departing from the United Kingdom, faced a long flight to Libya. The round trip required eight to twelve in-flights refuelings for each airplane. The difficulties of the mission were great. Most of the crews had never seen combat, but they did benefit from the presence of highly experienced flight leaders, many of them Vietnam combat veterans.

One aircraft was lost, almost certainly due to a SAM, as it was reported to be on fire in flight. Its identification number was 70-2389. Capt. Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci and Capt. Paul F. Lorence were killed. This site is a tribute to their memory.



Fernando Ribas Dominicci, who at the time of his death was a US Air Force Captain, was promoted posthumously to the rank of Major. He and his co pilot, Paul Lorence were lost at sea during the attack. After years of denying that they had the bodies of the two crew members, the Libyan authorities returned the remains of Fernando on request from the Pope. He was identified by dental records. Paul Lawrence has never been returned. Both men's names are engraved in the F-111 "Vark" Memorial Park, located in Clovis, NM. Fernando's name is engraved in "El Monumento de la Recordacion" (Memorial Monument) located in San Juan, PR.

Fernando was born in 1952 in the mountain town of Utuado, Puerto Rico. A graduate of the University of PR, Mayaguez Campus, he later joined the Air Force and became a pilot. He completed a Masters degree in Aeronautical Science at Embry-Ridle Aeronautical University in Bunnel, Florida in 1985. He was awarded the Air force Commendation Medal in 1983. When his body was returned for burial in his native soil, not only the town of Utuado, but all of Puerto Rico mourned him. The AFROTC building at the University of PR in Mayaguez dedicated an entire wall to his memory. Utuado honored him naming its principal avenue with his name and with a memorial site at the town's entrance. Also, the Aeropuerto Isla Grande in San Juan was named after Fernando.

Additional Sources:

www.geocities.com/alyrios.geo
www.afa.org
www.wvi.com
f-111.net
www.isn.ethz.ch
www.chembio.uoguelph.ca

[SAMWolf]

Address to the Nation on the United States Air Strike Against Libya April 14, 1986

My fellow Americans:

At 7 o'clock this evening eastern time air and naval forces of the United States launched a series of strikes against the headquarters, terrorist facilities, and military assets that support Mu`ammar Qadhafi's subversive activities. The attacks were concentrated and carefully targeted to minimize casualties among the Libyan people with whom we have no quarrel. From initial reports, our forces have succeeded in their mission.

Several weeks ago in New Orleans, I warned Colonel Qadhafi we would hold his regime accountable for any new terrorist attacks launched against American citizens. More recently I made it clear we would respond as soon as we determined conclusively who was responsible for such attacks. On April 5th in West Berlin a terrorist bomb exploded in a nightclub frequented by American servicemen. Sergeant Kenneth Ford and a young Turkish woman were killed and 230 others were wounded, among them some 50 American military personnel. This monstrous brutality is but the latest act in Colonel Qadhafi's reign of terror. The evidence is now conclusive that the terrorist bombing of La Belle discotheque was planned and executed under the direct orders of the Libyan regime. On March 25th, more than a week before the attack, orders were sent from Tripoli to the Libyan People's Bureau in East Berlin to conduct a terrorist attack against Americans to cause maximum and indiscriminate casualties. Libya's agents then planted the bomb. On April 4th the People's Bureau alerted Tripoli that the attack would be carried out the following morning. The next day they reported back to Tripoli on the great success of their mission.

Our evidence is direct; it is precise; it is irrefutable. We have solid evidence about other attacks Qadhafi has planned against the 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 aborted one such attack: a planned massacre, using grenades and small arms, of civilians waiting in line for visas at an American Embassy.

Colonel Qadhafi 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 known. He has ordered the murder of fellow Libyans in countless countries. He has 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. If necessary, we shall do it again. It gives me no pleasure to say that, and I wish it were otherwise. Before Qadhafi seized power in 1969, the people of Libya had 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 a 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 permanent gratitude of the American people. Europeans who 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 be no sanctuary for terror. And to sustain such a policy, free men and free nations must unite and work together. Sometimes it is said that by imposing sanctions against Colonel Qadhafi or by striking at his terrorist installations we only magnify the man's importance, that the proper way to deal with him is to ignore him. I do not agree.

Long before I came into this office, Colonel Qadhafi had engaged in acts of international terror, acts that put him outside the company of civilized men. For years, however, he suffered no economic or political or military sanction; and the atrocities mounted in number, as did the innocent dead and wounded. 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 in the world on the direct orders of a hostile regime, we will respond so long as I'm in this Oval Office. Self-defense is not only our right, it is our duty. It is the purpose behind the mission undertaken tonight, a mission fully consistent with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

We believe that this preemptive action against his terrorist installations will not only diminish Colonel Qadhafi's capacity to export terror, it will provide him with incentives and reasons to alter his criminal behavior. I have no illusion that tonight's action will ring down the curtain on Qadhafi's reign of terror. But this mission, violent though it was, can bring closer a safer and more secure world for decent men and women. 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 slow to anger. We always seek peaceful avenues before resorting to the use of force -- and we did. We tried quiet diplomacy, public condemnation, economic sanctions, and demonstrations of military force. None succeeded. Despite our repeated warnings, Qadhafi continued his reckless policy of intimidation, his relentless pursuit of terror. He counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong. I warned that there should be no place on Earth where terrorists can rest and train and practice their deadly skills. I meant it. I said that we would act with others, if possible, and alone if necessary to ensure that terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere. Tonight, we have.

Thank you, and God bless you.

-- President Ronald Reagan

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[Soaring Feather]

Good morning SAM! Everyone!

[Jen]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

To be removed from this list, please send me a blank private reply with "REMOVE" in the subject line! Thanks! Jen

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Q: What does LIBYA stand for?

A: Lakenheath Is Bombing Your A$$.

That was the joke going around SAC ( Strategic Air Command )in the Eighties after the raid.

[Jen]

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one!

[Jen]

Good morning!!!! I'm off to school today, but hope to be back in the Foxhole this evening.

[jriemer]

One look at this picture and one can see that France has not been contributing towards the War on Terrorism since well before 1986. They harbored "Carlos the Jackal" and other terrorists in their country along with making deals with terrorist factions in exchange for "safe passage" and protection of French intrests around the world.

The French had no intention to support the Coalition in Afghanistan, Iraq or beyond. They are a nation that coddles theives, bandits, brutes, thugs, assassins, murders, strong-men, dictators, and despots from around the world because it is their way of providing themselves protection from the very same vermin.

Rather than despising, arresting and prosecuting the global criminal and terrorist element, they have, in essence, accepted and embraced the very same as a means for their own national survival.

PS - If you don't believe me, I hear "Baby Doc" Duvalier is doing mighty fine on the French Riviera and still receives house guests from the likes of President Mugabe...

[SAMWolf]

Good morning Feather, Jen

[SAMWolf]

3 guesses where the Ayatollah Khomeni lived before the Fall of Iran.

[krb]

Planning was even further compounded when the French refused to grant authority to overfly France. This refusal increased...

It should also be noted that the French Embassy in Tripoli and several of the neighboring residential buildings also were bombed inadvertently during the raid

Hehehehe..... ;-)

[GailA]

Good Morning FRiends..today's graphic

[krb]

In fact, the total size of the force was criticized as excessive from various sources. All combined, the whole operation involved (to some degree) "more aircraft and combat ships than Britain employed during its entire campaign in the Falklands."

Hmmm, looks like the "Powell Doctrine" predates Powell's leadership of the Joint Chiefs. Perhaps it should be renamed the "Reagan Doctrine."

But seriously, the actions of doctrinal importance that come from this are the fact that the disco was bombed on the 5th of April, and before tax day had even come, we had carried out a massive mission to spank the aggressor.

We should have behaved this way towards Saddam in the 90's.

[krb]

He counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong. I warned that there should be no place on Earth where terrorists can rest and train and practice their deadly skills. I meant it. I said that we would act with others, if possible, and alone if necessary to ensure that terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere. Tonight, we have. --Ronald Reagan

Wow...you compare that part of Reagan's Libya attack speech to what Bush is having to do now, and you definitely see the similarities...