Man, if you have oil in them thar hills and are willing to throw wide your gates to the likes of Halliburton, Shell, and ExxonMobil, you can get away with just about anything. Take Bush's new international pal and business partner Muammar Gaddafi. Reuters reports. "The United States is investigating allegations Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ordered the assassination of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler. Washington raised its concerns directly with Gaddafi after an American Muslim in custody in the United States alleged last year that the leader instructed Libyan intelligence agents to kill Crown Prince Abdullah, U.S. officials said on Thursday. Libya denied the accusation." (hmmm....that sounds familiar!)

Bush's new best pal on the global block, Gaddaffi, hasn't changed much. He's still a small-scale Saddam Hussein. When a Palestinian doctor and team of nurses working as foreign aid workers complained about the miserable conditions of Libyan hospitals, Gaddaffi trumped up outrageous charges against them - everything from infecting children with AIDS on orders from the CIA to being an Israeli Mossad agent. He had the doctor tortured so badly that his own father could not recognize him. The arrests were made in 1999 but it was not until this week that Gaddaffi sentenced them to die.

Independent: "Muammar Gaddafi [the seventh different spelling we have seen in the media this week alone!], the Libyan leader who was once considered one of the world's most dangerous men, came to Europe for the first time in 15 years yesterday offering an olive branch and business deals, along with a veiled threat of a return to violence if provoked by 'evil' from the West." Yep, Bush is really tough on terrorism! In fact, he opens his doors wide for them, as long as they have easy-to-get-at oil. So how many Libyans will be working inside the US for oil companies by the time Gaddaffi gets annoyed and orders a wave of anti-US violence?

Iraqi oil is getting harder and harder to make a profit on -- or even to predict profits from. So now Bush has embraced fellow bloodthirsty dictator Ghadaffi, so his NeoCon pals can get on with their business of exploiting Third World nations. In fact, they apparently have been planning on it for some time. Ahmed el-Ghandour, professor of international economics at Cairo University says that while the Bush administration is calling for democracy in the Middle East, it is supporting Libya's authoritarian regime for economic reasons. "The only reason why the United States is taking this step toward Libya, and it is a favorable one as far as Libya and the regime is concerned, is that it has an interest, and in particular, an economic interest," said Ahmed el-Ghandour. Libya has already announced contracts will be signed in the next few days, and the first shipment of oil to the United States since 1986 will be on its way next month."

Boston Globe reports: "Amnesty International, given its first access to Libya in 15 years, has detailed a number of serious human rights violations, including the disappearance of prisoners and intolerance of political activity." The group reports that "while there have been minor improvements in Libya's human rights record, the situation 'remains problematic in many respects. We have people imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their views. We have a wide practice of holding people for years without being given access to their families and lawyers, with facilities of torture used often. We have the death penalty for a variety of offenses.'" But, says Bush, there's oil in them thar' Libyan hills, so who cares about human rights!

Youssef M. Ibrahim, a former NY Times Middle East correspondent writes "What has happened here? Is Libya not the country run by a ruthless, unbalanced dictator -- Moammar Gadhafi - the man who ordered the blowing up of two airplanes filled with innocent American and French civilians? Is he not the same person who imprisoned thousands of his own citizens? Unlike Syria or Iran, which are far more important geopolitically, Libya has virtually no influence and is a certified terrorist regime. Why seek its favor?" Easy: Oil. "America is running out of places where it has an assured supply of oil. The Saudis are growing distant. Iran is out of reach. The North Sea and Alaska, prime sources of oil supplies, are beginning to run dry." Although Iraq was seen as a "potential US gasoline pump..." things didn't quite work out that way." If Bush must choose between principles and oil - oil will always win, hands down.

What do Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan and Libya all have in common? Three things: 1. They are all countries in which Halliburton has a huge financial stake, 2. They are all countries that the Bush has intensely focused on to the exclusion of nearly all others, including North Korea, and 3. To facilitate Halliburton business, they must be either "conquered" or have their human rights violations ignored -- to appease Bush's "allies." So now the corrupt three: Bush, Blair and Berlusconi, are this week focused on Libya. Here's some insight: "Before Cheney's arrival, Halliburton was deeply involved in Libya, earning $44.7 million there in 1993. After sanctions on Libya were imposed, earnings dropped to $12.4 million in 1994. Halliburton continued doing business in Libya throughout Cheney's tenure. One Member of Congress accused the company 'of undermining American foreign policy to the full extent allowed by law.'"

On January 5, Bush signed an order continuing sanctions against Libya, despite that nation's efforts to comply with US requests to dismantle its fledgling nuclear weapons program and accept responsibility for the terrorist bomb that downed PanAm flight 103 over Locherbie Scotland. Yet in September, 2001, days after 9/11, Bush LIFTED SANCTIONS against Pakistan - a country still harboring Taliban resistance fighters, and the nation that has been trying to peddle nukes to a variety of other nations - including Libya. Can you believe this hypocrisy?