Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Wall Street Journal - July 25, 2007
In a deal that includes a ransom payment of more than $400 million, medical aid and improved diplomatic relations, Libya extradited the prisoners yesterday to Bulgaria -- in theory so that they could serve their commuted life sentences there. Kudos to President Georgi Parvanov for immediately pardoning them -- including the Palestinian doctor, who had been granted citizenship so that he could be included in the release deal.
Yet Moammar Gadhafi, the medics' captor and self-styled "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution," walked away yesterday with the world at his feet. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso announced that the EU is ready to normalize its relations with Libya; it may even include the country in its Mediterranean trade bloc. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is scheduled to fly to Tripoli today to offer Libya the chance to "rejoin the international community."
Washington's response to Mr. Gadhafi's hostage-taking hasn't been much better. On June 12, the day the Libyan Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for the prisoners for a final time (in a move to up the ante in the blackmail scheme), the Bush Administration announced that it would nominate an ambassador to Tripoli for the first time since 1980.
The release of the medics is also a reminder that although Mr. Gadhafi may have given up his WMD quest and support for international terror -- in return for the lifting of diplomatic and economic sanctions -- the terror inside his country continues. Torture, arbitrary arrests and political oppression remain the hallmarks of Gadhafi's rule. It is still a place where political dissidents such as Fathi al-Jahmi are imprisoned indefinitely.
Mr. Gadhafi saw Saddam fall and wisely decided to get out of the nuclear and terror business. But the blackmail habit is hard to shake, and rewarding a dictator for hostage-taking is fraught with moral hazards. The message will not be lost, for example, on the Taliban, which, as we write, is holding 23 South Korean humanitarian workers hostage in Afghanistan. Representatives from Seoul were negotiating for the release of the workers -- mostly young women in their 20s -- at the same time the Buglarian nurses were being set free.
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