The manufactured rage of the Muslim street over the 12 cartoons is now being factored in and discounted by countries facing their own issues in the Muslim world.

Yesterday marked seven years since five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor were arrested and made scapegoats for "scandalous hygienic conditions and bad laboratory procedures practiced by Libyan officials" which led to over 400 Libyan children being infected with the HIV virus.

A spokesman for the Bulgarian foreign ministry, Dimitar Tsanchev, stated that Bulgaria should be ready for a Libyan backlash concerning a reprinting by Bulgarian media of the Muhammad cartoons.

It would be surprising if the Libyan government didn't use the cartoon wars as an excuse to further extort money and prolong the misery of "The Condemned Six of Benghazi."

Eric Schwappach   2 10 06