Six Imprisoned Health-Care Workers in Libya Are Pawns in a Far Larger Strategic Game

T he scientifi c community, AIDS activists, and the Libyan government would do well to recognize that the political and diplomatic import of the case of the Benghazi Six involves a great deal more than the lives of fi ve Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian physician. At stake are some of the most profound political issues of our time: terrorism, nuclear proliferation, the freedom of movement of health-care workers and scientists, and the Biological Weapons Convention. Although human rights advocates rightly decry the physical torture these individuals have been subjected to, and their death sentences, it is critical to recognize that the unfortunate Benghazi Six—Bulgarian Ahmed Ashraf Al Hadjudi—are pawns in a far larger game. In 2003 Colonel Muammar Gaddafi , the longtime leader of Libya, initiated discussions through American and European diplomatic channels signaling interest in placing Libya within the larger world community. Isolated under the labels of " rogue state " and " supporter of terrorism, " Libya was constrained by United Nations sanctions that, among other things, limited that country's ability to pump and sell its vast oil reserves or to purchase the vital electronics and equipment needed to modernize its oil fi elds. Breaking those constraints meant renouncing all ties to terrorism and admitting responsibility for the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103, the jet that crashed into Lockerbie after a bomb placed in the jet's cargo hold by Libyan operatives exploded, claiming the lives of 270 people. Gaddafi , after initially denying any Libyan responsibility for the international crime, in 1999 handed over one of his intelligence offi cers for trial in Scotland, where he remains in prison today. Pained by the sanctions, in 2003 Libya formally acknowledged to the United Nations Security Council responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, and began negotiations with representatives of the families of the Flight 103 victims. Libya ultimately paid the families US$2.16 billion in 2005; another US$540 million in promised payment was withdrawn by Libya because the United States Bush Administration maintained the country on its terrorism watch list. In addition, the Gaddafi government has quietly admitted to working with Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer (" A. Q. ") Khan. Libya has not only abandoned its nuclear weapons dreams, but has cooperated in international investigations of A. Q. Khan's dangerous spread of nuclear weapons–related knowledge and equipment to a laundry list of states. Libya is now …