Gadhafi's Ransom

July 25, 2007; Page A14

First the good news. The ordeal of the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor, incarcerated in Libya since 1999 on trumped-up charges of infecting more than 400 children with HIV, is finally over. The bad news is that the West wavered for eight long years while the nurses were sentenced twice to death only then to give in to Libya's blackmail to secure their release.

In a deal that includes a ransom payment of more than $400 million, medical aid and improved diplomatic relations, Libya extradited the prisoners yesterday to Bulgaria -- in theory so that they could serve their commuted life sentences there. Kudos to President Georgi Parvanov for immediately pardoning them -- including the Palestinian doctor, who had been granted citizenship so he could be included in the release deal.

Yet Moammar Gadhafi, the medics' captor and self-styled "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution," walked away yesterday with the world at his feet. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso announced that the EU is ready to normalize its relations with Libya; it may even include the country in its Mediterranean trade bloc. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is scheduled to fly to Tripoli today to offer Libya the chance to "rejoin the international community."

Mr. Gadhafi saw Saddam fall and wisely decided to get out of the nuclear and terror business. But the blackmail habit is hard to shake, and rewarding a dictator for hostage-taking is fraught with moral hazards. The message will not be lost, for example, on the Taliban, which, as we write, is holding 23 South Korean humanitarian workers hostage in Afghanistan. Representatives from Seoul were negotiating for the release of their citizens -- mostly young women in their 20s -- at the same time the Bulgarian nurses were being set free.

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