Kadafi Says CIA Created, Spread AIDS

BEIRUT — Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi has told a conference on family issues that the CIA created the disease AIDS during germ warfare experiments.

The Libyan news agency JANA said Thursday that Kadafi made the comment in a speech opening the International Conference for the Arab and African Family, held Wednesday in the town of Benghazi.

JANA, monitored in Lebanon, quoted Kadafi as saying the U.S. intelligence agency tested an experimental virus on prisoners. The virus, which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, was spread around the world when the prisoners left jail, Kadafi said.

Researchers have not determined the origin of AIDS.