Younger Gadhafi atoning for his father's sins

Published August 13, 2007 at midnight

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Now that the ransom in the form of millions of dollars in payments and debt forgiveness and a generous arms deal has been paid, Libya admits that it did in fact torture six foreign medical workers it falsely imprisoned for nine years.

The six - five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor - say they endured beating, electric shock, rape, sleep deprivation, dog attacks, being trussed up in unnatural positions and threats that they and their families would be killed.

Now Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son and heir apparent of Libya's ruling strongman, says in an interview on al-Jazeera television, "Yes, they were tortured by electricity, and they were threatened that their family members would be targeted."

The medical workers were charged with deliberately infecting over 400 Libyan children with HIV, ostensibly as part of some kind of AIDS experiment that went awry. Medical experts said the children became infected because of unsanitary conditions, but the Libyan regime wasn't about to take the rap. So the six workers were arrested and tortured into confessing.

Gadhafi, 36, seems intent on rebuilding ties to Europe and the West and perhaps realized that coming clean on the torture was essential to his credibility.

The barbaric treatment of those health workers, however, remains a repulsive chapter in the bizarre history of his father's regime.

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