Organised crime link to Islamic terror exposed
by David Charter
Bulgaria’s Government was accused of high-level involvement with organised crime gangs yesterday, in a hard-hitting report that highlighted the failure of the ruling coalition to stamp out corruption or convict anyone for 150 gangland killings.
Government secrets were leaked to mafia figures involved in drug trafficking and a senior minister met alleged underworld bosses regularly, according to the investigation by MPs into corruption in the Interior Ministry. The profits of the drug trade were channelled to terrorist groups in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East.
“Bulgarian crime groups engaged in trafficking . . . drugs sometimes work together with Arab citizens linked to terrorist organisations,” the MPs said.
“We can make the conclusion that part of the money accumulated from drug trafficking is used to finance the work of terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Christian militias.”
The report came after Georgi Stoev, who wrote about the Bulgarian mafia, and Borislav Georgiev, the chief of a nuclear energy company, were murdered this week. It also follows a call from the European Commission for urgent action against corruption and organised crime, with €6.85 billion (£5.5 billion) of EU aid hanging in the balance.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Organised crime link to Islamic terror exposed
Showing posts with label Bulgaria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bulgaria. Show all posts
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM-BULGARIA: MARRY ME AFTER YOU INSPECT MY DOWRY DISPLAYED, FOR THE WORLD TO SEE, ON SUNNY SATURDAY MORNINGS
White-painted bride honours Bulgarian Muslim rite
Fikrie Sabrieva, 17, will marry with her eyes closed and her face painted white, dotted with bright sequins. She lives 'at the end of the world', tending a hardy Muslim culture in largely Christian Bulgaria.
Fikrie Sabrieva, 17, will marry with her eyes closed and her face painted white, dotted with bright sequins. She lives 'at the end of the world', tending a hardy Muslim culture in largely Christian Bulgaria.
The remote village of Ribnovo, set on a snowy mountainside in southwest Bulgaria, has kept its traditional winter marriage ceremony alive despite decades of Communist persecution, followed by poverty that forced many men to seek work abroad.
"Other nearby villages tried the traditional marriage after the ban was lifted, but then the custom somehow died away - women wanted to be modern," said Ali Mustafa Bushnak, 61, whose daughter came to watch Fikrie's wedding.
"Maybe we are at the end of the world. Or people in Ribnovo are very religious and proud of their traditions."
Some experts say clinging to the traditional wedding ceremony is Ribnovo's answer to the persecutions of the past.
Bulgaria is the only European Union nation where Muslims' share is as high as 12 percent. The communist regime, which did not tolerate any religious rituals, tried to forcibly integrate Muslims into Bulgaria's largely Christian Orthodox population, pressing them to abandon wearing their traditional outfits and adopt Slavonic names.
The wedding ritual was resurrected with vigour among the Pomaks - Slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule and now make up 2.5 percent of Bulgaria's 7.8 million population - after communism collapsed in 1989.
But today it is still performed only in the closed society of Ribnovo and one other village in the Balkan country. Young men return from abroad to the crisp mountain snows, just for the winter weddings.
People in Ribnovo identify themselves more by their religion, as Muslims, than by their ethnicity or nationality, and the wedding ceremony is an expression of their piety. The village has 10 clerics and two mosques for 3,500 inhabitants.
DOWRY ON DISPLAY
Fikrie's family have been laboriously piling up her dowry since she was born - mostly handmade knit-work, quilts, coverlets, sheets, aprons, socks, carpets and rugs.
On a sunny Saturday winter morning they hang the items on a wooden scaffolding, 50 meters long and three meters high, erected specially for the occasion on the steep, muddy road of scruffy two-storey houses that leads to her home.
Nearly everyone in the village comes to inspect the offerings: Fikrie's tiny homeyard has been turned into a showroom for the furniture and household appliances the bride has to provide for her new household.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) White-painted bride honours Bulgarian Muslim rite
Fikrie Sabrieva, 17, will marry with her eyes closed and her face painted white, dotted with bright sequins. She lives 'at the end of the world', tending a hardy Muslim culture in largely Christian Bulgaria.
Fikrie Sabrieva, 17, will marry with her eyes closed and her face painted white, dotted with bright sequins. She lives 'at the end of the world', tending a hardy Muslim culture in largely Christian Bulgaria.
The remote village of Ribnovo, set on a snowy mountainside in southwest Bulgaria, has kept its traditional winter marriage ceremony alive despite decades of Communist persecution, followed by poverty that forced many men to seek work abroad.
"Other nearby villages tried the traditional marriage after the ban was lifted, but then the custom somehow died away - women wanted to be modern," said Ali Mustafa Bushnak, 61, whose daughter came to watch Fikrie's wedding.
"Maybe we are at the end of the world. Or people in Ribnovo are very religious and proud of their traditions."
Some experts say clinging to the traditional wedding ceremony is Ribnovo's answer to the persecutions of the past.
Bulgaria is the only European Union nation where Muslims' share is as high as 12 percent. The communist regime, which did not tolerate any religious rituals, tried to forcibly integrate Muslims into Bulgaria's largely Christian Orthodox population, pressing them to abandon wearing their traditional outfits and adopt Slavonic names.
The wedding ritual was resurrected with vigour among the Pomaks - Slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule and now make up 2.5 percent of Bulgaria's 7.8 million population - after communism collapsed in 1989.
But today it is still performed only in the closed society of Ribnovo and one other village in the Balkan country. Young men return from abroad to the crisp mountain snows, just for the winter weddings.
People in Ribnovo identify themselves more by their religion, as Muslims, than by their ethnicity or nationality, and the wedding ceremony is an expression of their piety. The village has 10 clerics and two mosques for 3,500 inhabitants.
DOWRY ON DISPLAY
Fikrie's family have been laboriously piling up her dowry since she was born - mostly handmade knit-work, quilts, coverlets, sheets, aprons, socks, carpets and rugs.
On a sunny Saturday winter morning they hang the items on a wooden scaffolding, 50 meters long and three meters high, erected specially for the occasion on the steep, muddy road of scruffy two-storey houses that leads to her home.
Nearly everyone in the village comes to inspect the offerings: Fikrie's tiny homeyard has been turned into a showroom for the furniture and household appliances the bride has to provide for her new household.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) White-painted bride honours Bulgarian Muslim rite
Thursday, August 09, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BULGARIA/LIBYA: QADAFI'S SON ADMITS THAT THE BULGARIAN NURSES WERE TORTURED
Seif al-Islam Makes a Confession: Bulgaria's Nurses were Tortured
The son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi admitted that the Bulgarian nurses, who were freed last month after eight years of confinement in the North African country, have been tortured.
"Yes, they were jolted with electricity and were threatened that their families will be persecuted," Seif al-Islam told Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel in what comes as yet another frank confession following his former pariah state's nukes-for-Bulgarian nurses deal with France.
Seif al-Islam described once again the trial as politics of blackmail, but denied it was the Libyan side that started it. According to him Europe started the immoral game, while Libya just had scores to settle with the West and used the case with the medics to solve them in its favour.
He underlined that he believes in the impartiality of the Libyan judicial system and thanked Qatar for the key role that it played and its cooperation with France in bringing the case to an end.
Seif al-Islam ruled out the possibility of Libya being taken to court over the allegations of torturing the medics into confessions and denied as untrue the stories that the sixth medic, Palestinian-born Ashraf Al-Hadjudj, recounted from the times of his imprisonment.
The Bulgarian nurses have complained of severe torture during their police interrogation, saying they were jolted with electricity, beaten with sticks and repeatedly jumped on while strapped to their beds. Two of the women said they were raped.
During a two-hour interview for the New York Times Ashraf Al-Hadjudj recounted how he was kept in a room with three dogs and was also beaten. With his knees bent against his chest, he said, his hands and feet were tied around his legs. Then the police put the bar on a metal stand and spun him around "like a roasted chicken."
He said that for months he was forced to sleep with his hands tied behind his back, hanging from a wall. From that time on, Dr. Hazouz said, most of his perceptions of time became blurred. He could recall that the torture usually lasted until the morning call to prayer came from a nearby mosque. One of the more common tortures, he said, was to send electrical shocks to different parts of his body as he lay strapped naked to a bed.
Nine Libyan security officers and a doctor were charged and later acquitted of torturing the medics to extract confessions that they deliberately infected 426 children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS in a Benghazi hospital.
At the end of June 2006 a Libyan court rejected the appeal of the five Bulgarian medics on the acquittal of the Libyans, saying the evidence against the policemen was too weak to convict them.
Pertinent Links:
1) Seif al-Islam Makes a Confession: Bulgaria's Nurses were Tortured
The son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi admitted that the Bulgarian nurses, who were freed last month after eight years of confinement in the North African country, have been tortured.
"Yes, they were jolted with electricity and were threatened that their families will be persecuted," Seif al-Islam told Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel in what comes as yet another frank confession following his former pariah state's nukes-for-Bulgarian nurses deal with France.
Seif al-Islam described once again the trial as politics of blackmail, but denied it was the Libyan side that started it. According to him Europe started the immoral game, while Libya just had scores to settle with the West and used the case with the medics to solve them in its favour.
He underlined that he believes in the impartiality of the Libyan judicial system and thanked Qatar for the key role that it played and its cooperation with France in bringing the case to an end.
Seif al-Islam ruled out the possibility of Libya being taken to court over the allegations of torturing the medics into confessions and denied as untrue the stories that the sixth medic, Palestinian-born Ashraf Al-Hadjudj, recounted from the times of his imprisonment.
The Bulgarian nurses have complained of severe torture during their police interrogation, saying they were jolted with electricity, beaten with sticks and repeatedly jumped on while strapped to their beds. Two of the women said they were raped.
During a two-hour interview for the New York Times Ashraf Al-Hadjudj recounted how he was kept in a room with three dogs and was also beaten. With his knees bent against his chest, he said, his hands and feet were tied around his legs. Then the police put the bar on a metal stand and spun him around "like a roasted chicken."
He said that for months he was forced to sleep with his hands tied behind his back, hanging from a wall. From that time on, Dr. Hazouz said, most of his perceptions of time became blurred. He could recall that the torture usually lasted until the morning call to prayer came from a nearby mosque. One of the more common tortures, he said, was to send electrical shocks to different parts of his body as he lay strapped naked to a bed.
Nine Libyan security officers and a doctor were charged and later acquitted of torturing the medics to extract confessions that they deliberately infected 426 children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS in a Benghazi hospital.
At the end of June 2006 a Libyan court rejected the appeal of the five Bulgarian medics on the acquittal of the Libyans, saying the evidence against the policemen was too weak to convict them.
Pertinent Links:
1) Seif al-Islam Makes a Confession: Bulgaria's Nurses were Tortured
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BULGARIA/LIBYA: 'REAL' TORTURE
Read it if you have the stomach for it...
Medic Recalls Eight Years in Libyan Jail
Palestinian doctor Ashraf al-Hazouz after his release: "We will make you suffer until you confess."
What was the worst moment in more than eight years of torture, humiliation and the fear of death? It was the moment of our release.
When the guards entered my cell at 3:30 in the morning on July 24, they didn't jingle their keys or shout the way they normally did. Instead, they whispered: "Ashraf, Ashraf, wake up! You must prepare yourself for a visit."
I jumped up, looked at the clock and felt an ominous sense of doom. Who would visit me at this time of the night? The thought flashed through my mind that they were going to shoot me now, and that they would later claim that I had tried to run away.
A few minutes later I was standing in the office of the prison warden. I was told to apply my fingerprints to a piece of paper to confirm that I wanted to leave the country for Bulgaria. The process was videotaped. They took me to the part of the prison where the five Bulgarian nurses were kept, and then they took all of us to the airport.
There I was asked, once again, whether I wanted to stay in Libya or travel to Gaza. "I want to go to Bulgaria," I replied. "You have destroyed my life, my family's life and the lives of these nurses. I do not wish to remain in this sort of a country for another second." The official was livid. "You are witnesses," he barked at the Palestinian and Bulgarian envoys.
...
I was locked into a room with three dogs during the first few days. They ordered the animals to attack me. My leg is covered with scars from their bites. I had a large hole in my knee. I was served my meals in the bowl they used for the dogs. The five Bulgarian nurses were also being kept in this torture building. Every day our tormentors told us: "We will make you suffer until you confess." The torture periods were carried out between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.. This went on for months.
One of the things they did was to wrap bare wire around my penis. Then they would drag me around a room that was at least 40 by 40 meters. I screamed and cried.
One of the most excruciating things was their electric torture machine -- a manually operated box that works like a generator. They would attach the negative cable to a finger and the positive cable to one of my ears or my genitals. The most painful part of it wasn't the current but the fact that they could change the rate at which it was applied. When I became unconscious they would pour cold water on my naked body and continue the procedure.
During the torture with electrical shocks, they would show me the passports of the five Bulgarian nurses and say: These are Kristiana, Nasya, Valentina, Valya and Snezhana. The nurses suffered the same fate as I did. But we were unable to communicate with each other because I didn't speak Bulgarian yet.
Sometimes we were tortured in the same room. I saw them half-naked and they saw me completely naked when I was being given the electroshocks. We heard each other whimpering, crying and screeching. Kristiana was hung up on a window while they put me on an iron pallet and applied the electroshocks. I am ashamed to talk about all the things they did to the women. They were raped. Kristiana was forced to put a bottle in her vagina. At one point Nasya, who couldn't stand it anymore, broke off a piece of window glass and slit her wrist. They took her to the hospital, under a false name, and then they brought her back to our torture chamber.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Medic Recalls Eight Years in Libyan Jail
Medic Recalls Eight Years in Libyan Jail
Palestinian doctor Ashraf al-Hazouz after his release: "We will make you suffer until you confess."
What was the worst moment in more than eight years of torture, humiliation and the fear of death? It was the moment of our release.
When the guards entered my cell at 3:30 in the morning on July 24, they didn't jingle their keys or shout the way they normally did. Instead, they whispered: "Ashraf, Ashraf, wake up! You must prepare yourself for a visit."
I jumped up, looked at the clock and felt an ominous sense of doom. Who would visit me at this time of the night? The thought flashed through my mind that they were going to shoot me now, and that they would later claim that I had tried to run away.
A few minutes later I was standing in the office of the prison warden. I was told to apply my fingerprints to a piece of paper to confirm that I wanted to leave the country for Bulgaria. The process was videotaped. They took me to the part of the prison where the five Bulgarian nurses were kept, and then they took all of us to the airport.
There I was asked, once again, whether I wanted to stay in Libya or travel to Gaza. "I want to go to Bulgaria," I replied. "You have destroyed my life, my family's life and the lives of these nurses. I do not wish to remain in this sort of a country for another second." The official was livid. "You are witnesses," he barked at the Palestinian and Bulgarian envoys.
...
I was locked into a room with three dogs during the first few days. They ordered the animals to attack me. My leg is covered with scars from their bites. I had a large hole in my knee. I was served my meals in the bowl they used for the dogs. The five Bulgarian nurses were also being kept in this torture building. Every day our tormentors told us: "We will make you suffer until you confess." The torture periods were carried out between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.. This went on for months.
One of the things they did was to wrap bare wire around my penis. Then they would drag me around a room that was at least 40 by 40 meters. I screamed and cried.
One of the most excruciating things was their electric torture machine -- a manually operated box that works like a generator. They would attach the negative cable to a finger and the positive cable to one of my ears or my genitals. The most painful part of it wasn't the current but the fact that they could change the rate at which it was applied. When I became unconscious they would pour cold water on my naked body and continue the procedure.
During the torture with electrical shocks, they would show me the passports of the five Bulgarian nurses and say: These are Kristiana, Nasya, Valentina, Valya and Snezhana. The nurses suffered the same fate as I did. But we were unable to communicate with each other because I didn't speak Bulgarian yet.
Sometimes we were tortured in the same room. I saw them half-naked and they saw me completely naked when I was being given the electroshocks. We heard each other whimpering, crying and screeching. Kristiana was hung up on a window while they put me on an iron pallet and applied the electroshocks. I am ashamed to talk about all the things they did to the women. They were raped. Kristiana was forced to put a bottle in her vagina. At one point Nasya, who couldn't stand it anymore, broke off a piece of window glass and slit her wrist. They took her to the hospital, under a false name, and then they brought her back to our torture chamber.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Medic Recalls Eight Years in Libyan Jail
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - E.U./LIBYA: THE RELEASE OF BULGARIAN NURSES IS TIED THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER
Foreign medics deal was bound to Lockerbie case, says Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam
London. The deal with Great Britain that may lead to the extradition of sentenced Libyan citizen for Lockerbie attack was one of the keys for the solving of the case with the release of the sentenced Bulgarian medics, said Seif-al Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, cited by AFP.
Former secret agent of Libyan security services Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi who was sentenced in 1988 for having caused US passenger plane to explode above the sky of Scottish town Lockerbie obtained in June the right to appeal the sentence.
In an interview with French newspaper Monde Seif-al Islam said that Tripoli has bound Megrahi’s sentence to that of the five nurses and Palestinian doctor who were on death row for having deliberately infected Libyan children with HIV.
Gaddafi’s son voiced hopes for Megrahi's return to Libya.
Pertinent Links:
1) Foreign medics deal was bound to Lockerbie case, says Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam
London. The deal with Great Britain that may lead to the extradition of sentenced Libyan citizen for Lockerbie attack was one of the keys for the solving of the case with the release of the sentenced Bulgarian medics, said Seif-al Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, cited by AFP.
Former secret agent of Libyan security services Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi who was sentenced in 1988 for having caused US passenger plane to explode above the sky of Scottish town Lockerbie obtained in June the right to appeal the sentence.
In an interview with French newspaper Monde Seif-al Islam said that Tripoli has bound Megrahi’s sentence to that of the five nurses and Palestinian doctor who were on death row for having deliberately infected Libyan children with HIV.
Gaddafi’s son voiced hopes for Megrahi's return to Libya.
Pertinent Links:
1) Foreign medics deal was bound to Lockerbie case, says Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
DAR AL HARB - E.U./EUROPE/EURABIA: EURABIA'S PAPERS REACT TO THE 'BLOOD MONEY' PAID FOR 6 FOREIGN MEDICS
'Blood money' paid for foreign medics' release
PARIS -- Many European papers Wednesday slammed EU negotiators for folding to "blackmail" and paying "blood money" for Libya's release of six foreign medics, while others hailed France's intervention especially as an "unprecedented success."
In the Netherlands, NRC Handelsblad said that the release of the medics Tuesday after more than eight years in a Libyan jail was "a happy ending, but not that happy."
"Let's hope the European Union will remember ... that Libya is guilty of blackmail, of taking hostages, and of accepting blood money," the paper said.
Danish daily Berlingske Tidene meanwhile charged the EU with "compensating" Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for his crimes.
"Crime always pays, at least if your name is Muammar Gaddafi and you are the absolute ruler of a country with oil ... and with a potentially very promising market on the borders of the EU," it said.
"Libya is today being compensated for having destroyed nine years of the lives of six innocent people," Czech daily Dnes chimed in.
The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor had been given death sentences commuted to life imprisonment for allegedly infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood in a Libyan hospital.
The medics, who have always denied the charges and say that their confessions were extracted under torture, were flown to Bulgaria Tuesday under a deal with the European Union and with the intervention of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia.
Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias lamented Wednesday that the financial conditions behind the deal were "unclear."
Sarkozy claimed that Europe had not paid "the slightest financial compensation" for the release, but others said that both Paris and Brussels had contributed to the deal's bottom line.
Austrian daily Kurier spoke of "expensive freedom" for the medics, saying that their release had led to "joy in Sofia, grins in Tripoli."
"What remains is the bitter after-taste of tough negotiations conducted by the EU with a state that de facto held six people hostage - and will profit from their extradition enormously," Kurier wrote.
Der Standard meanwhile claimed that the deal showed "the EU and its member states can be blackmailed and did not pay a small ransom."
London's Daily Telegraph said "the deal marks an undoubted victory for Libya's tough negotiating tactics," while the Times pointed out that the release was likely to lead to "lucrative contracts for French companies with the oil-rich African state."
Britain's The Guardian also criticized France for arriving late at the negotiation table and then stealing all the credit. "The deal was negotiated by the EU but, in a bizarre twist to a sad tale, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Cecilia turned up in Tripoli to gatecrash the delivery of the nurses," it said in an editorial.
Cecilia Sarkozy accompanied EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner to Tripoli Sunday to push for the medics' release and brought the six to Sofia in a French government jet.
Italian Repubblica had similar doubts over the role of the French first couple. "President Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia, in many people's opinion, imposed themselves in the Libyan affair, demanding glory a posteriori, while in reality all the details had been decided at least two weeks earlier," it said.
Spain's largest daily, however, hailed the French president's wife with the headline: "Cecilia Sarkozy, mission accomplished."
And Belgium's Le Soir emphasized that "by introducing couple diplomacy, [President Sarkozy] reaped twice the political benefits. While he has boosted his international reputation with a resounding diplomatic victory, he also propelled his wife's status to that of humanitarian muse."
The Bulgarian media had nothing but praise for the French presidential couple and Ferrero-Waldner for brokering the medics' return.
"France's first lady Cecilia is definitely the French woman who will remain in Bulgarian history," the Trud daily wrote in a full-page profile of the first lady.
"Ferrero-Waldner, the woman armed with a broad, sincere, and disarming smile, took the fate of the medics as her personal cause," a similar profile of the EU official stated.
Leftist daily Sega meanwhile said "Sarkozy gave it his all and won," claiming that the deal was an "unprecedented success for the new French president."
Pertinent Links:
1) 'Blood money' paid for foreign medics' release
PARIS -- Many European papers Wednesday slammed EU negotiators for folding to "blackmail" and paying "blood money" for Libya's release of six foreign medics, while others hailed France's intervention especially as an "unprecedented success."
In the Netherlands, NRC Handelsblad said that the release of the medics Tuesday after more than eight years in a Libyan jail was "a happy ending, but not that happy."
"Let's hope the European Union will remember ... that Libya is guilty of blackmail, of taking hostages, and of accepting blood money," the paper said.
Danish daily Berlingske Tidene meanwhile charged the EU with "compensating" Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for his crimes.
"Crime always pays, at least if your name is Muammar Gaddafi and you are the absolute ruler of a country with oil ... and with a potentially very promising market on the borders of the EU," it said.
"Libya is today being compensated for having destroyed nine years of the lives of six innocent people," Czech daily Dnes chimed in.
The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor had been given death sentences commuted to life imprisonment for allegedly infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood in a Libyan hospital.
The medics, who have always denied the charges and say that their confessions were extracted under torture, were flown to Bulgaria Tuesday under a deal with the European Union and with the intervention of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia.
Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias lamented Wednesday that the financial conditions behind the deal were "unclear."
Sarkozy claimed that Europe had not paid "the slightest financial compensation" for the release, but others said that both Paris and Brussels had contributed to the deal's bottom line.
Austrian daily Kurier spoke of "expensive freedom" for the medics, saying that their release had led to "joy in Sofia, grins in Tripoli."
"What remains is the bitter after-taste of tough negotiations conducted by the EU with a state that de facto held six people hostage - and will profit from their extradition enormously," Kurier wrote.
Der Standard meanwhile claimed that the deal showed "the EU and its member states can be blackmailed and did not pay a small ransom."
London's Daily Telegraph said "the deal marks an undoubted victory for Libya's tough negotiating tactics," while the Times pointed out that the release was likely to lead to "lucrative contracts for French companies with the oil-rich African state."
Britain's The Guardian also criticized France for arriving late at the negotiation table and then stealing all the credit. "The deal was negotiated by the EU but, in a bizarre twist to a sad tale, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Cecilia turned up in Tripoli to gatecrash the delivery of the nurses," it said in an editorial.
Cecilia Sarkozy accompanied EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner to Tripoli Sunday to push for the medics' release and brought the six to Sofia in a French government jet.
Italian Repubblica had similar doubts over the role of the French first couple. "President Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia, in many people's opinion, imposed themselves in the Libyan affair, demanding glory a posteriori, while in reality all the details had been decided at least two weeks earlier," it said.
Spain's largest daily, however, hailed the French president's wife with the headline: "Cecilia Sarkozy, mission accomplished."
And Belgium's Le Soir emphasized that "by introducing couple diplomacy, [President Sarkozy] reaped twice the political benefits. While he has boosted his international reputation with a resounding diplomatic victory, he also propelled his wife's status to that of humanitarian muse."
The Bulgarian media had nothing but praise for the French presidential couple and Ferrero-Waldner for brokering the medics' return.
"France's first lady Cecilia is definitely the French woman who will remain in Bulgarian history," the Trud daily wrote in a full-page profile of the first lady.
"Ferrero-Waldner, the woman armed with a broad, sincere, and disarming smile, took the fate of the medics as her personal cause," a similar profile of the EU official stated.
Leftist daily Sega meanwhile said "Sarkozy gave it his all and won," claiming that the deal was an "unprecedented success for the new French president."
Pertinent Links:
1) 'Blood money' paid for foreign medics' release
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BULGARIA/LIBYA: BULGARIA'S PORTION OF THE TRIBUTE PAYMENT, FOR THE NURSES TO LIBYA, MAY BE IN THE FORM OF DEBT FORGIVENESS
Bulgaria may forgive Libya debt in HIV case
SOFIA, (Reuters) - Bulgaria is considering writing off Soviet-era debt it is owed by Libya to contribute to a deal that led to the release of six medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV.
After more than eight years in jail, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who recently took Bulgarian citizenship were freed on Tuesday under a cooperation accord between Tripoli and the European Union. "Undoubtedly, the issue of (forgiving) the Libyan debt is one of the possible ways for Bulgaria to contribute," Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told a news conference on Wednesday. "The debt amounts to about $54 million. We will look at other possibilities too ... because this is a humanitarian act, not a ransom." He did not elaborate.
If Sofia forgives the Libyan debt, accumulated for arms and technical deliveries during the communist era, the money would be recycled into an international fund set up to help the families of more than 400 HIV victims.
The six medics were flown to Sofia on a French jet after the EU, which Bulgaria joined in January, brokered a last-minute deal on medical aid and political ties with Libya.
Bulgaria and its western allies had said the medics were innocent and suggested that not freeing them would hurt Libya's efforts to emerge from decades of diplomatic isolation imposed for what the West called its support of terrorism.
The small Balkan country, whose people wore ribbons saying "You are not alone" to support the medics, rejoiced at their return. "Freedom!", "At Last!", "Bulgaria is relieved, the medics are back home" read front-page headlines on Wednesday. "I was so happy yesterday when I saw them coming back, I even cried. It is unbelievable things went so wonderfully well," said 80-year-old pensioner Slavka Ivanova.
The six, who will stay for the next few days in the presidential residency on the outskirts of Sofia and undergo medical checks, will give a news conference later.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Bulgaria may forgive Libya debt in HIV case
SOFIA, (Reuters) - Bulgaria is considering writing off Soviet-era debt it is owed by Libya to contribute to a deal that led to the release of six medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV.
After more than eight years in jail, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who recently took Bulgarian citizenship were freed on Tuesday under a cooperation accord between Tripoli and the European Union. "Undoubtedly, the issue of (forgiving) the Libyan debt is one of the possible ways for Bulgaria to contribute," Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told a news conference on Wednesday. "The debt amounts to about $54 million. We will look at other possibilities too ... because this is a humanitarian act, not a ransom." He did not elaborate.
If Sofia forgives the Libyan debt, accumulated for arms and technical deliveries during the communist era, the money would be recycled into an international fund set up to help the families of more than 400 HIV victims.
The six medics were flown to Sofia on a French jet after the EU, which Bulgaria joined in January, brokered a last-minute deal on medical aid and political ties with Libya.
Bulgaria and its western allies had said the medics were innocent and suggested that not freeing them would hurt Libya's efforts to emerge from decades of diplomatic isolation imposed for what the West called its support of terrorism.
The small Balkan country, whose people wore ribbons saying "You are not alone" to support the medics, rejoiced at their return. "Freedom!", "At Last!", "Bulgaria is relieved, the medics are back home" read front-page headlines on Wednesday. "I was so happy yesterday when I saw them coming back, I even cried. It is unbelievable things went so wonderfully well," said 80-year-old pensioner Slavka Ivanova.
The six, who will stay for the next few days in the presidential residency on the outskirts of Sofia and undergo medical checks, will give a news conference later.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Bulgaria may forgive Libya debt in HIV case
Thursday, May 03, 2007
DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - BULGARIA: PIGS HEADS HANGING FROM DOORS & FENCES AT TWO MOSQUES
Pig Heads Hanged on Two Mosques' Doors, Fences in Bulgaria
The police in Bulgaria's town of Silistra found several pig heads hanged on the front doors and the fences of two local mosques.
One of the mosques is a monument of culture, built in 16th century and the other one is still functioning.
There were four animal heads on the fence of Kurshumlu mosque as one of them was singed.
The local Deputy police head Dyanko Dyankov said it was an inadequate act of hooliganism.
The mosques' servants did not comment upon the case in order not to impede the investigation process.
Pertinent Links:
1) Pig Heads Hanged on Two Mosques' Doors, Fences in Bulgaria
The police in Bulgaria's town of Silistra found several pig heads hanged on the front doors and the fences of two local mosques.
One of the mosques is a monument of culture, built in 16th century and the other one is still functioning.
There were four animal heads on the fence of Kurshumlu mosque as one of them was singed.
The local Deputy police head Dyanko Dyankov said it was an inadequate act of hooliganism.
The mosques' servants did not comment upon the case in order not to impede the investigation process.
Pertinent Links:
1) Pig Heads Hanged on Two Mosques' Doors, Fences in Bulgaria
Friday, February 02, 2007
DAR AL HARB - FRANCE / LIBYA / BULGARIA: RELEASE THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER, WE WILL RELEASE THE 5 BULGARIAN NURSES
Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for nurses’ release is “immoral bargaining”: lawyer
Paris. French lawyer Emmanuel Altit, who defends the five Bulgarian nurses in Libya, said Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for their release was “immoral bargaining”, the French newspaper L'Humanité reported. The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafo proposed an exchange of the nurses’ release for the freedom of the Libyan convicted for the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. “The aim (of Libya) is to drive Europeans to the wall: if they refuse, they will be responsible for the failure”, the lawyer stated.Faced with such a parody of justice, the lawyers have only one thing in mind – to consider the case in the most serious way to show that it is neither a just trial, nor an impartial trial, and to propose a global strategy relying both on the media and politics”, Altit said.
People need to understand that islam & moslems have a different set of "morals" than residents of Christendom...
The earlier people come to that conclusion, the earlier Christendom can fight back, otherwise they are just going to continue stumbling to their demise...
Pertinent Links:
1) Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for nurses’ release is “immoral bargaining”: lawyer
Paris. French lawyer Emmanuel Altit, who defends the five Bulgarian nurses in Libya, said Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for their release was “immoral bargaining”, the French newspaper L'Humanité reported. The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafo proposed an exchange of the nurses’ release for the freedom of the Libyan convicted for the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. “The aim (of Libya) is to drive Europeans to the wall: if they refuse, they will be responsible for the failure”, the lawyer stated.Faced with such a parody of justice, the lawyers have only one thing in mind – to consider the case in the most serious way to show that it is neither a just trial, nor an impartial trial, and to propose a global strategy relying both on the media and politics”, Altit said.
People need to understand that islam & moslems have a different set of "morals" than residents of Christendom...
The earlier people come to that conclusion, the earlier Christendom can fight back, otherwise they are just going to continue stumbling to their demise...
Pertinent Links:
1) Seif al-Islam’s last proposal for nurses’ release is “immoral bargaining”: lawyer
Saturday, January 27, 2007
DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - BULGARIA / LIBYA: 5 BULGARIAN NURSES ARE TO BE SPARED, SO SAYS GADDAFI'S SON
Nurses to be spared execution: Gaddafi’s son
SOFIA - Five Bulgarian nurses who were sentenced to death in Libya for deliberately infecting children with the HIV virus will not be executed, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said Saturday.
Saif Al Islam Gaddafi guaranteed that the women would not be executed in an interview in Paris that was published in Bulgaria’s 24 Chassa newspaper.
The 33-year-old engineer runs the Gaddafi Humanitarian Foundation.
The women and a Palestinian doctor have been held in Libya for the past eight years.
The death sentences against the group were confirmed by a Libyan court shortly before Christmas 2006.
They are accused of deliberately infecting 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus in a hospital in the port city of Benghazi.
AIDS experts have said that the epidemic broke out before the Bulgarian nurses arrived at the children’s hospital.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Nurses to be spared execution: Gaddafi’s son
SOFIA - Five Bulgarian nurses who were sentenced to death in Libya for deliberately infecting children with the HIV virus will not be executed, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said Saturday.
Saif Al Islam Gaddafi guaranteed that the women would not be executed in an interview in Paris that was published in Bulgaria’s 24 Chassa newspaper.
The 33-year-old engineer runs the Gaddafi Humanitarian Foundation.
The women and a Palestinian doctor have been held in Libya for the past eight years.
The death sentences against the group were confirmed by a Libyan court shortly before Christmas 2006.
They are accused of deliberately infecting 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus in a hospital in the port city of Benghazi.
AIDS experts have said that the epidemic broke out before the Bulgarian nurses arrived at the children’s hospital.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Nurses to be spared execution: Gaddafi’s son
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