Obama Dodges Gaddhafi Endorsement

As Obama's acolytes work to separate their candidate from Hamas, Castro, Moore and Galloway (granted, a second-tier job compared to separating Obama from Wright, Ayres and Khalidi), they can breathe a sigh of relief: They got a near-miss endorsement, not a direct hit endorsement, from Moammar Gaddhafi.

Still, some damage control might be necessary:

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Wednesday U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would have an "inferiority complex" because he is black and if elected he might "behave worse than whites."

"We fear that Obama will feel that, because he is black with an inferiority complex, this will make him behave worse than the whites," Gaddafi told a rally at a former U.S. military base on the outskirts of the Libyan capital Tripoli. ...

Gaddafi said Obama should adopt a policy of supporting poor and weak peoples such as the Palestinians and be a friend of what he called free Arab peoples rather than U.S. "agents" in the Arab world who, he said, were hated by their own people.

It seems the Libyan top dog is assuming Obama will win the race, which is something of an endorsement, and that he sees in Obama greater potential for U.S. support of Palestinian terror over Israeli democracy.

Best of the Web's James Taranto (who gets a hat-tip for this find) refers to Gaddafi as "Libya's lunatic dictator." That may explain why Gaddafi is the only person on the planet to believe that Barack Obama has an inferiority complex.

$6 Billion Ruling Against Libya In Flight 772 Case

Eighteen years after a Libyan suitcase bomb exploded in the cargo hold of the French airline UTA's Flight 772 over the Tenere Desert in Niger, a U.S. Court has ruled Libya responsible and has assessed $6 billion in damages against Moammar's Desert Playground.

The bombing killed 170 people, 100 less than Libya's Lockerbie undertaking, but it was one of history's largest acts of aircraft terrorism nonetheless. Seven of the dead were Americans, including Bonnie Pugh, the wife of US ambassador to Chad Robert Pugh.

Yesterday's court order by U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy follows the judge's ruling last April, in which he found that Libya was directly responsible for the bombing. He based his decision on detailed and mostly undisputed evidence from both the French criminal case as well as information provided by the State Department.

A news release from the law firm winning the case said,

Stuart H. Newberger, the lead lawyer for the victim families and a senior partner at Crowell & Moring, said, “This award proves that the rule of law will always prevail over state-sponsored terrorism. At the end of the day, all 170 victims of UTA Flight 772 will be remembered and honored by this decision. Indeed, it is because of rulings like this that Libya has rejected terrorism and re-joined the civilized nations of the world.”

A complicated statement, that. Is there a bit of a Bush-dig in it? Anti-Bush warriors want the war on terror to be fought in the courts, not on the battlefield, so it's either an odd, or a deliberate, word selection. And I'm not at all sure it was legal decisions that got the Libyans to cower away from terror-sponsorship. I believe seeing us take after their former terrorist-in-residence Osama bin Laden had something to do with it as well.

But it's great news even if the news release isn't well worded, made possible by US law that strips state sponsors of terrorism from the protections normally afforded sovereign states.

If you're interested in Kennedy's 104-page ruling, you'll find it here.

Quote Of The Day: Gone From The Shores Of Tripoli Edition

"You know that hope dies last. We always had hope, although we were quite skeptical and were afraid to say it." -- Kristiana Valcheva

When exactly did Muammar Gaddafi stop being an International Man of Insanity and become someone the civilized world is eager to do business with?

There's only one answer to that question, and it's not "when he gave up his nuclear program." It's "He hasn't."

Take today's news of the release (finally!) of the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian/Bulgarian doctor Gaddafi held for eight years on phony charges that they deliberately gave AIDS to 438 Libyan children. It certainly is not evidence of a sane Libyan leader. It is, rather, evidence that Gaddafi has completed his diabolical plot successfully:

• He covered up the shameful condition he had allowed his nation's health care system to fall into because, frankly, he is a despotic egomaniac and could care less about "his people"
• He drummed up anti-western hatred and distrust among Libyans, many of whom apparently bought the insanely implausible story of the deliberate infections
• He blackmailed some nation or nations into giving him nearly half a billion dollars to secure the Bulgarians' release, and
  
• He feathered his nest in the process.

All in all, not bad. The only price paid was six innocent people scandalized and held unjustly for eight years ... and of course, 438 kids with AIDS.

Not that it mattered to Gaddafi, but the kids had AIDS before the Bulgarians ever got close to them, since Libyan doctors were still re-using needles long after most of the world had stopped. Gaddafi could have cared less because disposable needles would have cut into his disposable income.

Gaddafi couldn't tell the Libyan people the truth, and certainly no Libyan news outlet would cover the story. But still, he needed scapegoats, and he found them in well-meaning, good-hearted foreign health workers, who served well the dual purpose of creating a false enemy to deflect blame from Gaddafi and his useless government. That they helped flame Islamist paranoia and hatred only gilded the deal.

No EU nation will cop to paying off Gaddafi for the Bulgarians' freedom, but it's clear some deal was brokered through Qatar that involved something the Libyans are bragging to be $1 million for each of the infected kids, or half a billion dollars.

Here are the relevant quotes:

Mr Sarkozy [who, with his wife Cecelia, was instrumental in driving the release forward, fulfilling a campaign promise] and the EU denied making any financial payment to secure the medics' release.

However, the families of the 438 infected children reportedly agreed last week to a compensation deal worth $1m (£500,000) per child ....

Libya's foreign minister said both the EU and France had contributed to the fund, AFP reported. (BBC)

And:

Sarkozy "very warmly" thanked Qatar for its role in the early release of the prisoners but did not elaborate.

In response to a question about whether money had been paid to Libya for the release, Sarkozy said he wished to thank authorities of Qatar for their "mediation and their humanitarian intervention."

"It's up to them to say if they have anything to say on the subject" of their exact role, he said. (Daily Mail)

So that covers everything but the "feathering his nest" bit. That's easy enough ... follow the money. The $1 million per kid will be channeled through the Gaddafi Foundation, a "charity" run by Seif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son. Care to venture how much the kids will get?

So Gaddafi has further cemented his reputation as Islam's answer to Dr. Evil, capable of blackmailing the world in his sinister schemes. And in the process, he's sealed the EU's role of patsy, unable to deal with Islamic terror states. Now that Gaddafi has released his political prisoners, the EU is excited about trading with the terror state again ... one more reward for the bullying brat in Tripoli.

Meanwhile, the French focus their negativity not on the truly unrepentant evil of Gaddafi, but on Sarkozy. The rap? The "enlightened" French are angry that Cecelia Sarkozy stepped out of the traditional role of quiet first lady and was actively involved in brokering the Bulgarians' freedom.

Would they have been so offended is Socialist Segolene Royal had won and sent her long-time partner and father of their three (illegitimate) children, Francois Royale, to broker the deal?

Trick question. Royal wouldn't have done anything.