Samir Qasser was not the only Arab journalists murdered recently. A number of Arab papers and al-Jazeera are reporting on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Libyan journalist Dhayf al-Ghazzal al-Shahibi.
Dhayf al-Ghazzal disappeared several weeks ago after publishing an article strongly criticizing corruption inside the Libyan state. According to al-Jazeera, his body was found two days ago, and - according to a human rights organization which saw it - showed signs of torture, including several fingers cut off, before being riddled with bullets. His family is demanding an investigation by the Libyan authorities, and receiving ample publicity from the Arab media.
If Moammar Qaddafi is going to be drinking tea with Tony Blair, and celebrated in Washington for giving up his non-existent nuclear program in order to vindicate the invasion of Iraq, Libyan journalists who criticize official corruption shouldn't be showing up dead, riddled with bullets and their fingers cut off. If they do, perhaps London and Washington should reconsider.
"nonexistent"? That's a pretty stupid thing to say.
They had several tons of UF6, were assembling sufficient centrifuges to make several uranium bombs per year and had a complete 60s-era Chinese bomb design.
Posted by: ronb | June 07, 2005 at 03:44 AM
How about their fingers? Did they have all of their fingers, before or after being riddled with bullets and left in a ditch as a message for any other journalist stupid enough to ask questions about the government?
Or perhaps it's that a 60s era bomb design and some centrifuges are worth a few fingers here or there?
Posted by: aardvark | June 07, 2005 at 06:57 AM