The World - News from Jan. 29, 1988

The United States publicly protested Brazil’s planned $2-billion sale of missiles, tanks and other arms to Libya. The U.S. protest was also made privately last week by John C. Whitehead, deputy secretary of state, to Brazilian envoys in Washington. Brazil has defended the sale by saying it does not involve “arms of aggression.” But State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that the United States does not regard surface-to-surface missiles and tanks as defensive and that the sale of “any weapons of any kind” to Col. Moammar Kadafi is “inappropriate because of his support for international terrorism, subversion and aggression.”