Comments on: Condi, Talk to Joe Before Chatting with “Brother Colonel”

By: Voices without Votes » Libya: Rice, Oil, Gas and Foreign Investment

Voices without Votes » Libya: Rice, Oil, Gas and Foreign Investment — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:33:20 +0000

[...] Mona Al Tahawy has another issue on her mind during this historic visit. She is concerned about the fate of a [...]

By: Mona Eltahawy

Mona Eltahawy — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:48:33 +0000

Thanks, Jason.

Glad to hear you’ve started your own blog. As you know from my talk, I’m a huge fan of blogs and bloggers.

Happy Blogging!

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:19:24 +0000

I just want to say that I enjoy reading your blog Mona. You inspired me to start my own blog when you spoke at Georgia State University a few weeks ago. Thank you.

By: lirun

lirun — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:11:36 +0000

i had a libyan friend through my blog who made me swear i would never mention his name in my blog.. didnt really understand it.. his name was a very generic muslim name and im sure there are many thousands of people with the same name..

in any event.. his terror from the regime did in fact surprise me.. i couldnt fathom what he had to fear.. or how he would even be recognisable..

By: kinzi

kinzi — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:35:24 +0000

WAYNik, ya binit?? Miss your stuff!

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:34:55 +0000

You don’t know who Fathi al-Jahmi is? Ask vice presidential candidate Joe Biden. In a statement to the Senate at the end of July, he called Jahmi “a courageous Libyan democracy advocate with serious health problems whose only crime was to speak truth to power.”

Don’t you find it interesting that Joe Biden is one of the leading proponents for restoring diplomatic relations with Iran? Doesn’t Joe Biden care about Iranian political prisoners?

Rice joins a slew of western leaders and officials trekking to Tripoli with eyes on deals aimed at tapping into Libya’s oil wealth. One after another they’ve donned rose-tinted glasses to see how Gadhafi has improvised his role as the dictator who came in from the cold.

And yet, that is exactly the same treatment that Joe Biden and a host of officials in the US State Department want for Iran as well. Main differences are:

1) Iran has a lot more political prisoners than Libya, and treats them a lot worse.

2) Iran has a lot more oil.

3) Libya actually engaged in sincere diplomacy, and honored commitments made to the “international community”. Iran has been yanking everyone’s chain for decades, and has never honored any commitment made – to anyone.

What am I missing here? Why should Libya be punished for trying to go legit, and Iran should be rewarded for being an unashamed pariah state? Or will you make a similar post if and when the US attempts to mend fences with Iran? If that’s the case and you don’t support Joe Biden’s position on Iran, why do you praise him for having the opposite position re: Libya?

I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you… I haven’t forgotten how the Bulgarian nurses were treated, among other fairly recent incidents… I’m just asking whether you hold the same standard for every country the US deals with, or if you want Libya to be treated worse than the rest.