Bulgarian nurses, working under contract in Libya, are on trial, accused of infecting children with HIV at the clinic they worked in.
Outside experts claim the conditions causing the infections existed before the Bulgarians arrived.
The Libyans have tortured some of the nurses, and threaten everyone with the death penalty.
They are also demanding $4 billion American in compensation, citing the Lockerbie case as precedent.
Is this–[ul]
[li]A coverup, with the Bulgarians as scapegoats for Libyan Government incompetence?[/li][li]A shakedown for cash?[/li][li] Hi Opal! Can I borrow your 1920’s Style Death Ray?[/li][li]A misplaced attempt to hit back at Europe for the arm-twisting it dished out to Libya about Lockerbie?[/li][li]Kaddafi just acting up?[/li][/ul]
I wonder if it is just a coincidence that Bulgaria is a co-sponsor (with Britain) of the UN Security Council motion for lifting sanctions against Libya?
Bulgaria will be able to pony up US$4,000,000,000 about ten minutes before the sun explodes. Kaddafi Duck has been smoking his favorite camel’s tether rope again. To accuse nurses (one of the most respectable professions) of intentionally infecting children is more than a little laughable. Yes, there are incidents like this, but they are so rare as to make this whole incident yet another zany and loony Lybian laugh riot, except that these poor women are being tortured. I’d say that Lybia may be faced with another massive lawsuit in the near future.
I put my bets on #1 and/or #2, and/or possibly a variant nobody has suggested: that some children were infected, but that it was unintentional and/or because of lack of sterile equipment or improper use of sterilization procedures. TONS of kids (and adults, for that matter) were infected this way in the East Bloc when there were severe shortages of disposable syringes.
When I was in Russia, the Russians generally thought I was insane to willingly donate blood at home. They couldn’t conceive of the idea of one syringe = one use.