Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Now we discover what the Bulgarians are made of.

In 1999 five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were arrested in Benghazi, Libya and charged with deliberately infecting 426 children with the AIDS virus.

In 2004 a trial was held which, quite frankly, strained credulity to the breaking point. Evidence that showed the children were infected before the six accused came to Libya -- possibly years before -- was ignored.

Evidence that showed that the children were most probably infected due to non-existent hygiene standards and Third World sanitation conditions prior to the arrival of the accused was ignored.

The fact that some or all of the 'confessions' were extracted by way of torture was ignored.

The statement of Colonel/Brotherly-Leader-and-Guide-of-the-Revolution Khadaffi that the strain of AIDS the children were infected with was developed by either the CIA or MOSSAD and the accused gave it to the children as an experiment was -- apparently -- taken as Gospel.

Although he did generously offer to drop the charges for a sum of $10 million per infected child.

After the 'Guilty' verdict in 2004, the European Union, the USA and the United Nations threw a hissy-fit of Biblical proportions and threatened not to invite the Libyans to any more parties.

Since Khadaffi didn't see any money or other inducements heading his way, a re-trial was announced.

So. Last night the new trial -- again ignoring every bit of exculpatory evidence -- found the medicos 'Guilty' and sentenced them to death by firing squad.

The Bulgarian President and Prime Minister released a statement "rejecting the ruling and questioning the fairness of the trial."

Well, no [deleted], Sherlock.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini voiced “great disappointment” at the sentence and warned that it could harm Libya’s efforts to improve ties with Europe.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy deplored the court decision and urged the Libyan legal authorities to "show clemency".

The World Medical Association and International Council of Nurses is apparently "appalled by the ruling".


While we here at Rancho LawDog -- being more than familiar with the good Colonel -- are not in the least surprised by this new ruling, the sheer nutlessness of the international response is mildly annoying.

What the hell did you honyocks expect? Fairness and justice in a Libyan trial? Did you fall off the turnip truck last night, or was it early this morning?

Personally, I like my countries to be a bit more than "disappointed" in these kinds of cases. "Appalled" doesn't quite cut the mustard, either. "Angry" works, although "pissed-off", "enraged" and "furious" are more to my liking.

This must be the 'civilization' that the UN and the EU keep bleating about. A jumped-up tin-pot Third World Dictator with delusions of adequacy and a full-blown Napoleon complex jams up five of your folks with not one, but two kangaroo trials -- and you release a statement in which you question the fairness of the bushwa court proceedings.


This is why you have special forces units full of knuckle-dragging monsters.

Since the Bulgarian Special Forces are thoroughly grounded in the old USSR Spetsnaz doctrine and tactics, I would imagine they are perfectly capable of wandering into the Tripoli Central Prison at about 0400 local time and removing their nurses whilst leaving a bit of a message behind.

Emphasis on the "mess".

But, what do I know -- I'm just an uncivilized, uncultured, barbaric Texan.


Edit: It seems that I have erred in calling the inhabitants of Bulgaria "Bulgars". The error has been corrected.



Michael Llaneza said...


What Would The Spetsnaz Do ?

Good catch on the Warsaw Pact connection.

Matt G said...

LD, some assignments are dangerous. Some are incredibly foolhardy.

Some are heroic. To decide to take on medicine in Kadaffi's Lybia is perhaps admirable. Perhaps heroic. But it's dangerous, to be sure.

This is not the same kind of foolhardiness as those idjits who decided to scale that hard side of Mt. Hood in the winter before a major weather system came up, but it's pretty dangerous.

I hope the Bulgarians do right by them, but really, if you mess with a wasp nest, don't be surprised if you get stung a bit. :(

Anonymous said...

Oh dear. Does this mean the Iraq Study Group's plan for a New Diplomatic Offensive in Iraq won't work either?

AmbulanceDriver said...

Maybe the Bulgarians need to take a listen to the USMC's Battle Hymn?

"From the halls of Montezuma,
to the shores of Tripoli"

Anonymous said...

LD, post's like this make me wish you were in charge of the US armed forces.

Anonymous said...


"Saddling up" strikes me as the appropriate response.

cdh said...

"Since Khadaffi didn't see any money or other inducements heading his way, a re-trial was announced."

Reagan understood. Khadaffi understands when precision guided munitions come through his front door and little else. It doesn't even take many, just have good enough aim to finish the job this time...

Anonymous said...

I sort of think "Execute a single hostage and we blow up one of your cities." would be a good stance to take.

As far as a Special Operations mission, well CAG did rescue Kurt Muse from the jail in Panama but reports of the incident make it clear it wasn't exactly a cake walk -- and that was just one prisoner, and some of the best operators in the world. So I'd say it's possible but very very risky.


Anonymous said...

The Israeli raid on the airport at Entebbe, Uganda comes to mind too.

mustanger98 on THR

Dad29 said...


The Bulgars may take a little time to get things done right.

Patience, LawDog.

Glenmore said...

Ka-Daffy isn't afraid of the US anymore. Probably regrets shutting down his WMD program prematurely now too. The enemies of the US (and her allies) will perceive her uncertainty and internal dissent as weakness, and seek to exploit it.

The Raving Prophet said...

This is why nations have armed forces. Not for an all-out war, here, mind you. But to kick in the gates of that prison, blow a hole in the wall, and forcibly rescue their people.

A nation that will meekly stand by and do nothing more than send weak letters of protest while their citizens are unjustly executed is a nation that cannot be taken seriously for anything by anyone. There's time to talk, and then there's the time to take forcible action.

God help us, I fear that no national leaders today can correctly identify when the time has come to switch from speaking with your mouth to speaking with your rifles.

Mattexian said...

I think some Spetsnaz tactics applied thoroughly in Libya would work fine. I'm recalling Russia's ongoing battles with Islamic terrorists, and their succeses (and failure). If nothing else, it would be vicious and involve lots of dead Libyans, which is always a good thing (especially if they take out the Head).

kyrakai said...

Being a healthcare worker, and having lived in a third world country (Iran), I have a really good understanding of how dangerous it is just to BE in some of those countries. Being a healthcare worker in one, while occasionally lucrative, often soul fullfilling, is extremely dangerous, and I have some real concerns about the sanity of anyone who would willingly and knowingly place themselves in that situation.

I KNOW that there are people in need of healthcare and dying all over the world. There are people in this country in need of healthcare and dying. I feel for them, I pray for them, but I am just not sure that I would give my life for them. I think that my life is better spent being a long life, helping as many people as I can during that time.

I also think that those governments need to get off their extremely flat hind ends and let Libya know that this kind of behavior will NOT be tolerated.

I know, let's send the SuperNanny to put Khadaffi in the Naughty zone, preferably on something violently combustible.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the US recently put Khadaffi on their "good" dictator list.

Mark@C said...

Millions for defense, not one penny for tribute... Let us hope the Bulgars have the spine our ancestors did.

Can't see a downside to there not BEING a Libya anymore.

Ulises from Kalipornistan said...

Is the "Lend/lease Act" still in effect?

Methinks that the USS IOWA might be made available for this purpose. I would think that some target practice in Tripoli harbor would "get 'er done", as it were.

Perhaps a prisoner exchange: we give them Hillary, Feinstein, & Boxer & assorted other non-essential personnel & they give up the prisoners. World's a better place, then.

They may opt for the target practice,though.

Please move to CA: I can't change things by my lownsome.

Anonymous said...

Isn't this why we have B-2s?

K: Ready, Aim, Fire!

K: ?! Ready, Aim, Fire!

Anonymous said...

We need to make that the costliest trail in history.

Some air raids on Khadafi's Haciendas would proably be a good start

Anonymous said...

sorry "trial"

markm said...

"Isn't this why we have B-2s?", etc.

Have you guys forgotten that it's Bulgarians involved, not Americans? If the Bulgarians ask for help of the killing people and breaking things kind, I think we should give plenty of it - but it's their call, not ours.

Until they ask us to get involved, our response to this should be to warn all American citizens to stay out of Libya - we can't force them to stay out, but we can make it clear that, while we might bomb a city for every dead American civilian, not one Marine or SEAL is going to die going in on the ground to rescue a fool.

And if Libya wants American medics back, or if they need some Texan to extinguish a burning oil well - when our satellites can see Qaddafi's head on a pike, we'll talk about it.

Anonymous said...

It's ironic that Libya was elected (mostly by the African countries) to chair the UN Commission on Human Rights.

I don't have a dog in this fight since I don't have any relatives who are Bulgarian or Palestinian. Any outrage and action should come from those countries.

Hey! How come we don't see the usual bands of Palestinian youths burning Libyan flags and burning Khaddafi in effigy? Does this mean it's open season on Palestinian doctors?

markm said...

"Does this mean it's open season on Palestinian doctors?" Maybe the mobs aren't too keen on one of their own getting above them.

Anonymous said...

Hi all ... first i'll ask you to exuse my bad english ... i'm a Bulgarian citizen and 19 years old ... i read the comments and my country is called BULGARIA ... my fellow-citizens are BULGARIANS not "Bulgars"! From the things i'm hearing in the media here the things are going from bad to worse! We have gloriious history of wars but on the diplomatic table we allways fail. Here people are tolking about a military strikes, taking libyan hostages, paying the asked prize for the bulgarian nurses, declareing a war on Libya. But after all we live in the 21st sentury!!! The whole world is trying to keep the world peace and not to be a wars between countries! But if there's hapen to be a conflict i can tell you one thing ... libya will face the angry of our nation and regret the time they taked our sitizens for "hostiges" ... i sayed hostiges becouse this is what they are in the moment ... you can't take someone for prisoner on no evidence and torture it to make a false confessions!!! Libya proofed that theres no court of justice in their country!!! I can tell you that when we are united theres no battle that we can't win theres no goal that we can't achieve and our history proofs it. Read some history about my country and you will see why we are unique coulture! I love the history of my country! Its in our DNA to be 100% wariors and to wins wars!

Anonymous said...

"Now we discover what the Bulgars are made of." I'll ask the administrator of the blogger to change "Bulgars" with Bulgarians!!! So he won't see why are also famous with our hackers! :))))

LawDog said...

So he won't see why are also famous with our hackers!

All you need do is ask, lad, not threaten.

I deal with threats every day at work. Reading them on the Internet is nothing more than mildly irritating.

Anonymous said...

Threats vs. requests aside, I'm wondering if people outside the U.S. have ever heard of the saying about...

"Don't mess with Texas"

mustanger98 on THR

Anonymous said...

Hey LawDog i'm realy sorry ... i just wanted to sound like a joke but i thing i didn't express myself clear! And for the fast change ... you have my admirations and prespects!!!

Anonymous said...

Ya know, it is shite like this that really gets my blood boiling. If I were in charge of running things, the first thing I'd do is generate a list of people who needed to die. That list would include but is not limited to:
Mouqtada Al Sadar
Kim Jong Il
Bashar Assad
Raul Castro (Fidel is only pretending to breathe as yet)
Hugo Chavez
Others would be added as needed.

I would hand that list to the JCS and tell them they have two weeks to fill the butcher's bill or they lose thier jobs and I'd find a shooter that knew how to shoot instead of fill out staff reports and position papers.

as to how to handle Iraq, I'd pick the neighborhood or villiage with the highest level of violence. deploy every member of the military in country to blockade the area with nobody going in and out and then I'd have the B-52G's and B-1B's level it. then I'd issue an ultimatim. the next soldier that dies from an IED or a sniper will doom that neighborhood and village similarly. The bombing would continue until one of two things happen. Either the killings cease whereby reconstruction will be able to begin in earnest, or every square inch of the country will be one big pile of rubble.

Then I'd move on to Iran, Syria, and Palestine.

But then again I'm a known bastard too.

bob said...

As someone previously stated, it is upto the Bulgarians to settle this. But it seems to me that we have some B52's in the area that could be rented out at a reasonable price and loaded with JDAMS that could be sold for a similarly reasonable price. ("Reflagging" merchant ships is pretty common, why not airplanes?)

Repeat as needed.

Anonymous said...

Like most operations, it's not getting in that's the challenge.

It's getting out, once you've annoyed them.

IF these poor sods were Americans, or Brits, or French, or Russians it might work because not only can they get people in, and out, but once out they can put enough metal on the water and in the air to make the libyans think twice about getting uppity.

However, it's the Bulgarians diplomats own fault. On one side they want to help, I'm sure, but other they have nothing in the way of "or else" that's credible.

If they pull out & declared a state of hostilities the captives would simply be shot. So they stay and hope. And medical folks rot away in jail, for years.

I think the better solution is to take valuable hostages of their own, and arrange an exchange, but "international law" probably prevents such things.

_So do it "unofficially"_

Bulgarian Ambassador regretfully reports that 200 Libyans are being held by bulgarian extremists - cough - and will be turned into non halal sausage unless the hostages are released and offers his full assistance to resolve this delicate issue.