Adventures in Ethics and Science

Bush administration’s State Department thinks it’s A-OK for Libya to execute innocent health care providers.

Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel on December 16, 2006
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Only a few days out from the 19 December verdict in the Tripoli 6 case, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that the Bush administration honestly couldn’t be bothered that Libya shows every sign of being ready to execute foreign healthcare workers who the scientific evidence indicates did not commit the crime with which they have been charged. Otherwise, you’d figure that the State Department spokesman, once questioned about the case, would bother to do his homework and figure out at least the bare facts of the situation. He did not.

So the lives of healthcare workers who went to Libya to help Libyans are dispensible? If saving them from an unjust sentence scores no political points, it’s not worth even considering? May I suggest, then, that the president’s draping himself in the mantle of the “culture of life” is so ironic that it may be raising the president’s risk of heart attack.

Absolutely appalling.

Revere has more.

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Comments

  1. #1 Thomas
    December 17, 2006

    USA is overstretched as it is and has decided that Libya at this point are among the “good guys”. If the US government can do nothing about stopping the execution it is better to ignore it rather than try and look impotent.

    I have always thought that the trial was a farce and would end with them being pardoned as a goodwill gesture by Ghadafi in exchange for some political reward. However, that requires that foreign governments show some interest. If there were such discussions under the table the US or EU governments ought to be more active in openly demanding their release so they could take credit afterwards.

    Here is an article that mentions some other political aspects of the case:
    http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1974040,00.html
    There seems to be elements of revenge against the unjust treatment of Libya after Lockerbie.

  2. #2 universal health
    December 17, 2006

    It’s beyond comprehension. I posted about the situation from a nursing perspective at http://universalhealth.wordpress.com/2006/12/13/libyan-nurses-and-physician-face-execution-suffer-ongoing-torture-and-rapes/. The international nursing community is devastated.

    May someone intervene in the last moment.

  3. #3 Danielle Grijalva
    December 18, 2006

    Hello from CSFES:

    Currently, there are approximately 30,000 exchange students from forty different countries in the US.

    In October of this year, Stanley David Schwartz was arrested in Rockville, Maryland for the lewd acts he committed on an exchange student from Kuwait. It has been reported that Schwartz has hosted approximately 30 exchange students. Student exchange organization: AYUSA International.

    Andrew T. Powers was arrested in 2005 in Rockville, Maryland for the lewd acts he committed on his exchange student. Student exchange organization: AYUSA International.

    This year, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams closed a case of sexual abuse of a minor exchange student who was sexually abused by his host mother. Ms. Abrams stated, “Insufficient evidence.” Not true. Detective Bob Horel of the Vacaville Police Department forwarded to the District Attorney emails containing strong sexual content by the host mother, along with other binding evidence — still the case was closed. The victim also sent an email to the Vacaville Police Department and the Solano County District Attorney’s office stating that he did want to step forward and return to the US to face his abuser and seek justice.

    Last year, a 16-year-old female Japanese exchange student was placed in the home of a convicted felon in Florida. When the Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students (CSFES) brought this to the attention of the US Department of State, Mr. Stanley Colvin’s response was to approve the placement.

    At present, a male exchange student from Turkey is residing in the home of a woman who killed two people with her vehicle last year when she failed to yield; killing them upon impact. When CSFES brought this to the attention of Ms. Elizabeth Dickerson of the US Department of State, Ms. Dickerson’s response was to approve the placement. The young man remains in the home as you read this email.

    During the 2003-2004 school year in Idaho, a female exchange student was placed in the home of a registered sex offender. CSFES has brought this to the attention of the US Department of State including the name of the exchange agency responsible for such a placement, International Student Exchange (ISE). Has ISE been sanctioned by the US Department of State for such a placement? “No response” from the US Department of State.

    Last year, two students from Brazil and Mexico were placed in Texarkana, Texas with a man who was arrested in 2003 for Domestic Violence against his own daughter. When CSFES filed a letter of concern with Senator Coryn, the Senator sent his own letter of concern to the US Department of State. Senator Coryn forwarded the Department of State’s response to CSFES, which stated, that there were no regulatory violations; Case Closed.

    There are hundreds of cases that we would like to share with you with a special request. Would your schedule permit writing a story on the vital importance of awareness about this issue to encourage your readers should they ever suspect neglect, abuse or maltreatment of an exchange student; to please contact local law enforcement and report.

    We would love to work together with you providing you any and all information you may need. Please visit our website http://www.csfes.org. You may be interested in knowing that March 19, 2007 is Timothy Jordan’s trial date in Sutherland Springs, Texas. You can read more about his story under Reports of Abuse on our website.

    For your interest Mr. Stanley Colvin can be reached at 202-203-7415 email: Colvinss@state.gov and Ms. Elizabeth Dickerson’s direct line is: 202-203-5192 email: Dickersoneb@state.gov.

    We look forward to hearing from you.

    Respectfully,

    Danielle Grijalva, Director
    Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students
    P.O. Box 6496 / Oceanside, CA 92052
    http://www.csfes.org / 760-414-1314

  4. #4 Shaun
    December 19, 2006

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6192599.stm

    “A Libyan court has sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for knowingly infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.”

  5. #5 JF, scientist
    December 19, 2006

    I can’t help but think if any of them had been from a wealthier country, the Libyan gov’t would have listened a little harder to the overwhelming scientific evidence.

    What really is the worst is how the parents believe the propaganda. “Justice has been done”? Tell that to the parents of the next five hundred children to die.