THE REFORMATION ROLLS ON:

Rice Primed for Historic Visit to Libya (Glenn Kessler, 9/05/08, Washington Post)

Rice is scheduled to meet over dinner with Libya's strongman, Moammar Gaddafi, who has ruled the country since a coup in 1969, and hold meetings with other senior officials. Rice will be the most senior U.S. official ever to meet with Gaddafi, who once was labeled by former President Ronald Reagan as "this mad dog of the Middle East."

But in 2003 Gaddafi gave up his nascent programs to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and renounced support of international terrorism. Libya agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, and U.S. officials say its government has become helpful in thwarting the flow of foreign fighters from North Africa into Iraq.

Rice told reporters here that she was looking forward to her visit to Tripoli, which is scheduled to last about five hours. "It is a historic moment and it is one that has come after a lot of difficulty, the suffering of many people that will never be forgotten or assuaged, a lot of Americans in particular," Rice said. "Libya is a place that is changing, and I want to discuss how that change is taking place."