A Palestinian doctor and 5 Bulgarian nurses have been found guilty of intentionally spreading HIV to Libyan children and are slated for execution by the Libyan government. They have been jailed since 1999 on charges that they spread the HIV virus deliberately to more than 400 children at a Benghazi hospital. Western nations, themselves not always to be trusted when it comes to accusations against Muslim nations, blame the infections on unsanitary conditions at the hospital and believe Libya is using the nurses and doctors as scapegoats to avoid dealing with their own problems. In this case, the opinion of Western nations is not based on crap that Bush got from Chalabi, but is for once based on reality and Libya is guilty of ignoring reality.

This is not only a travesty of justice, but of science as well since all scientific evidence exonerates the Palestinian doctor and Bulgarian nurses. Libya is about to execute innocent people because they refuse to listen to science.

According to one of the world's most respected scientific journals, Nature, all scientific evidence shows the nurses are innocent. From the article:

In 1998, outbreaks of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were reported in children attending Al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi, Libya. Here we use molecular phylogenetic techniques to analyse new virus sequences from these outbreaks. We find that the HIV-1 and HCV strains were already circulating and prevalent in this hospital and its environs before the arrival in March 1998 of the foreign medical staff (five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor) who stand accused of transmitting the HIV strain to the children.

And from a related article:

an international team led by researchers from Oxford and Rome used the genetic sequences of the viruses isolated from the patients to reconstruct the exact phylogeny, or 'family tree', of the outbreak. Analysing the mutations that accumulated over time allowed the researchers to work out when different outbreaks occurred. They showed that the strain of HIV with which the children had been infected was already present and spreading locally in the mid-1990s, long before the medics arrived in Libya in 1998...

There was already a body of scientific evidence indicating that the outbreak was caused not by deliberate transmission, but by poor hygiene at the Al-Fateh hospital in Benghazi, where the outbreak took place (see Nature 443, 888–889; 2006). Analysis of hospital records suggested that the outbreak began before the medics arrived. And almost half of the HIV-infected children were also infected with hepatitis B or C, pointing to poor hospital practices as the cause.

The new results provide independent genetic confirmation of these findings.

Amnesty International also has info on this case.

Libya has ignored these scientific data in their desire to blame someone else for their own problems.

Lest we feel smug about Libya's stupid ignorance in this case, let's not forget our own countries willful ignorance when it comes to the scientific evidence for global warming, the toxicity of the WTC smoke plume, the decline in marine fisheries, etc. The United States under Bush is JUST AS WILLFULLY IGNORANT as Libya is being. It is just as disgusting when we do it as when Libya does it. Please find your closest Libyan embassy or consulate and write/call/visit them to tell them about the scientific evidence an the terribly image that this case is giving Libya as a backwards nation. You can also write Condolezza Rice and the Lybian government making the same points:

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

and

Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI
Leader of the Revolution
Office of the Leader of the Revolution
Tripoli
Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Email: info@algathafi.org