Using $45 million from the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which has helped rid the former Soviet Union of thousands of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War, the Pentagon and its Defense Threat Reduction Agency tapped the Parsons Corporation, a construction firm based in Pasadena, Calif., to work with Libya to oversee the rebuilding and safeguarding of the Libyan disposal site, which had been ransacked during the civil war.
Remarkably, the mustard agents stored in bulk containers at the site were untouched and their inspection seals unbroken, American and international officials said. These have all been destroyed, too.
Canada donated $6 million to help restore water, sewage service and electricity to the site, and to build living quarters for Western and Libyan contractors. Germany agreed to fly international inspectors to the site.
This is quite the story and it got very little attention. Libya apparently had some nasty stuff and thanks to some serious wheeling and dealing here, the west and their Libyan allies were able to collect it all and destroy it at this site. All this in a country that is still unstable with lots of folks that would love to get their hands on those weapons.
No word on who the guard force was and perhaps Parsons Corporation contracted that out to a local militia? Although I have to imagine that there was some adult supervision when it comes to the security for this site. Having worked on similar sites in Iraq that were tasked with destroying munitions, security is paramount. You always have the outer ring of security, and then you have the trusted security covering down on the client and living areas, and their movements around the site. Who knows how this was set up and if anyone was a part of this contract, I would love to add to the record on this.
Either way, good deal and I wouldn’t be surprised if Parsons Corporation applies this same model to Syria. I could also see the furnace that Dynasafe made will also be used in Syria. –Matt
Libya’s Cache of Toxic Arms All Destroyed
By ERIC SCHMITTFEB. 2, 2014
Even as the international effort to destroy Syria’s vast chemical weapons stockpile lags behind schedule, a similar American-backed campaign carried out under a cloak of secrecy ended successfully last week in another strife-torn country, Libya.
The United States and Libya in the past three months have discreetly destroyed what both sides say were the last remnants of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s lethal arsenal of chemical arms. They used a transportable oven technology to destroy hundreds of bombs and artillery rounds filled with deadly mustard agent, which American officials had feared could fall into the hands of terrorists. The effort also helped inspire the use of the technology in the much bigger disposal plan in Syria.
Related Coverage
Since November, Libyan contractors trained in Germany and Sweden have worked in bulky hazmat suits at a tightly guarded site in a remote corner of the Libyan desert, 400 miles southeast of Tripoli, racing to destroy the weapons in a region where extremists linked to Al Qaeda are gaining greater influence. The last artillery shell was destroyed on Jan. 26, officials said.