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In spite of the diplomatic debacle, Mitterrand appeared unruffled at a meeting at the Elysee Palace with West German Chancellor Kohl to discuss Kohl's trip to the U.S. and the entry of Spain and Portugal into the European Community. Asked about the presence of his name on Gaddafi's assassination list, Mitterrand said with an impatient smile, "If some thing happens, we will let you know." Said Kohl: "We will wait to see the developments [of the Egyptian inquiry], and we remain calm." One French official, referring to the arrest of the Libyan assassination team, down-played the Egyptian sting. Said he: "Don't you think that Mubarak is using the affair for his own ends? He has a special ax of his own to grind with Libya."
Mubarak was clearly elated over his triumph. In August the Egyptian President accused Gaddafi of mining the Red Sea and in October of plotting to blow up the Aswan Dam. In neither case, however, did he have solid evidence. But this time, said a Western diplomat in Cairo, "the Egyptians hooked him. He swallowed everything before they hauled him in." British officials are skeptical of the whole affair, and government sources in London have suggested that Egypt has gone slightly overboard in its version of what occurred.
Western analysts were puzzled as to exactly what Gaddafi had hoped to achieve by the assassination of Bakkush or the doublecrossing of France over the Chad pullout. Referring to Chad, Dominique Moïsi of the Institut Français des Relations Internationales, a Paris-based think tank, suggested, "It could be some thing as simple as Third World pride. He wanted to negotiate on his conditions. He had told the French that he wanted two months to evacuate [instead of the 45 days stipulated in the Franco-Libyan agreement that became effective on Sept. 25]. It looks like he's going to take his two months."
Gaddafi's motives are probably impossible to divine. Recently a team of editors from a major European periodical were granted a rare exclusive interview with the Libyan. The editors were ushered inside Gaddafi's baroque home at a military base outside Tripoli. The dictator was dressed in an all-white uniform and surrounded by a squad of armed bodyguards. But as the interview progressed, the journalists began to realize that their subject was not making sense. No sense at all. In fact, say the editors, the two-hour session was incoherent. Says one of the magazine's editors: "Personally, I think he's just gone ga-ga."
— By Jamie Murphy. Reported by John Borrell /Cairo and Johanna McGeary/ Washington
* Adding insult to Mitterrand's already injured political fortunes, the mayors of Strasbourg and Colmar last week boycotted his formal visit to Alsace in order to protest the transfer of a planned nuclear-research facility from the area to Grenoble.