Claudia Rosett has an excellent column in the Philadelphia Enquirer on the status of imprisoned Libyan dissident Fathi Eljahmi, who has been in solitary confinement for four years and at age 66 is reported to be dying. (H/T Pajamas Media)
“We know something of Eljahmi’s current condition because both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have recently issued calls for his release from prison on the humanitarian grounds that he is gravely ill and in urgent need of medical care.
“But there are bigger reasons than that to call for Eljahmi’s release, and it is not only human rights organizations, or private commentators, who should be doing so. It is time for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush himself to step up to the plate and redeem – with specific reference to Gadhafi’s abuse of Eljahmi – a vital pledge made more than five years ago, that “America will call evil by its name.”
