SKETCHY

China Tried to Sell Arms to Gaddafi: Report

In the final days of his rule.

Where was Col. Muammar Gaddafi getting his weaponry during the final days of his power? Documents recently obtained by a Canadian journalist suggest Gaddafi and his security forces received ammunition from China—a country that opposed NATO’s intervention in Libya but supported an arms embargo by a United Nations resolution. The documents, which include a memo from Libyan security officials detailing a Beijing shopping trip, appear to show that state-controlled Chinese arms manufacturers were offering $200 million of rocket launchers, antitank missiles, portable surface-to-air missiles designed to bring down aircraft, and other weapons and munitions. The U.S. State Department said they were unaware of such documents and would have to analyze them, while a senior NATO official in Brussels said it was highly unlikely the documents were real—despite that officials said they were authentic. The rebels said they had been suspicious of a link.