July 25, 2007
Gadhafi: Still A Menace?
Libya's release of six Bulgarian medics who had been sentenced to die has earned that country loads of goodwill from Europe and the U.S. France's pledge of $400 million in compensation for the families who allege the group infected their children with HIV helped secure the deal; meanwhile, the EU is now preparing a substantial aid package for the northern African nation. President Bush recently named the first U.S. ambassador to Libya in more than three decades, and today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she looked forward to paying Tripoli a visit soon.
It's an odd reversal for a nation once considered to be a sponsor of terrorism. In the 1980s, Moammar Gadhafi was right up there with the late Ayatollah Khomeini on America's enemies list. An alliance of conservatives and human rights groups whose memories stretch back to the 1980s aren't happy with the turnabout.
Gadhafi's decision to give up his nuclear weapons logically precipitated warmer relations with the West, but the Wall Street Journal balks: "The blackmail habit is hard to shake, and rewarding a dictator for hostage-taking is fraught with moral hazards." A director of U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights complained, "This is really an outrageous case, in which the lives of these nurses and medic were literally ransomed for $400 million.... There is nothing to prevent the future scapegoating of foreign health workers and holding them hostage in exchange for foreign aid."
Indeed, the West's embrace of Gadhafi comes as Taliban militants hold a South Korean church group hostage in Afghanistan. One was killed earlier today.
The six medics, who were jailed for eight years on trumped-up charges that they intentionally infected hundreds of children with HIV, have accused their captors of torture. Two of the five female nurses said they were raped.
Several of the medics were not well enough to attend their first press conference in Sofia today. Bulgarian prosecutors are preparing a lawsuit against the group's captors, but admit satisfaction from Tripoli is unlikely.
Libya continues to insist that the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian-born doctor are guilty, and have used the case in anti-Western propaganda. The families, who will receive about $1 million each in a financial settlement, are calling on Interpol to re-arrest them.
Nonetheless, the conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy rewarded Gadhafi with a visit today. The two are expected to sign cooperation agreements on defense and nuclear energy. Sarkozy is also eyeing an oil deal similar to one former Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in May with the oil-rich nation.
The White House is often criticized for refusing to talk directly to nations it considers bad actors, but the outrage over this make-up session may be chalked up to Libya not having quite proved that it has changed its ways. This is a nation that less than two decades ago was behind the PanAm bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, most of them Americans.
In 2004, Libya finally took responsibility for the bombing and handed the victims' families $10 million each in compensation. But that same year, Gadhafi appeared to mock the death of Ronald Reagan.
The State Department removed Libya from its terrorist sponsor list in 2006 but continues to advise Americans to take precautions while traveling there.
Posted at 7:23 PM
Posted to:
Africa, Bush Administration, Condoleezza Rice, Europe, France, Libya, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, Tony Blair, U.K.
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