US Aide 'Sorry' for Dig at 'Senseless' Gadhafi

A State Department spokesman has apologized for making light of Moammar Gadhafi's call for a jihad against the Swiss and his rambling UN speech. Libya had threatened to take action against American business interests last month after PJ Crowley said the leader's anti-Swiss speech was like his UN address: "Lots of words and lots of papers flying all over the place, not necessarily a lot of sense."

Crowley said yesterday he realized his "personal comments were perceived as a personal attack," but that his statements "do not reflect US policy and were not intended to offend. I apologize if they were taken that way," he added. Jeffrey Feltman, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, will travel to Tripoli next week to in an effort defuse the dispute, CNN reports.
(More Moammar Gadhafi stories.)