I came across a rather thought provoking article directed not at the question of Megrahi's guilt but at the wisdom (or not) of freeing him on compassionate grounds and at the hypocrisy of some of those who criticise this decision.
I tweeted a link to this "interesting" article and a number of fellow tweeters kindly re-tweeted my link. One re-tweeter, however, prefaced her re-tweet with the words: "The right decision". This is not a phrase I should necessarily go along with.
If I thought Megrahi were guilty beyond reasonable doubt of murdering 270 people, I think my feelings about releasing him on "compassionate" grounds would be (at the very least) equivocal - especially given his complete failure to exhibit any remorse or repentance.
The problem is, I am not convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Megrahi is guilty. Nor, I suspect, is Kenny MacAskill or anyone else in the higher echelons of the Scottish or British governments. Even if they are (or at one stage were) the impending second appeal - referred back by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission - must have been concentrating minds.
In a rather silly (for him) article and even sillier follow up comment, Michael White of the Guardian suggests that we should put our trust in the judges (NB not a "conviction by jury" as FBI chief Robert Mueller claims) who originally found Megrahi guilty and that anyone who suggests otherwise is some kind of conspiracy theorist.
In response to Michael White I think it should be pointed out that miscarriages of justice have (historically) been the rule rather than the exception in high profile UK terrorist trials (even going back to the days of the Angry Brigade trials after which one of those convicted said that at least, in his case, "they framed a guilty man") and that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission do not immediately strike me as being the sort of people who would concoct some kind of "it was all done by the CIA in league with the Martians" scenario.
As this article also argues, it is reasonable to assume that Megrahi was freed in order to avoid an appeal that. at the very least, would have raised serious questions over the Scottish justice system and the Lockerbie inquiry.
I tend to find that what politicians avoid talking about is more instructive than the things they do talk about. It is interesting that there is no mention whatsoever of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in Kenny MacAskill's statement on Megrahi.
Odd that, is it not?
Showing posts with label Lockerbie Megrahi Kenny MacAskill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lockerbie Megrahi Kenny MacAskill. Show all posts
2009-08-23
Lockerbie, Compassion, and Truth
On 1986 April 15, the USA bombed a number of targets in Libya killing 40 people (including Gaddafi's 15-month-old adopted daughter Hanna) and injuring many (including two of Gaddafi's sons). This attack was in retaliation for terrorists attacks such as the Achille Lauro hijacking of 1985 October 7, the Rome and Vienna airport attacks of 1985 December 27, and the 1986 April 5 bomb attack on a West Berlin disco, "La Belle", that killed two American servicemen and a Turkish woman and wounded 200 others. Libya (it was alleged, though this is denied by Libya) had a hand in each of these outrages (ref).
In 1993 October Margaret Thatcher (the UK prime minister from 1979 to 1990 and thus PM during the events related above) published her memoires: "The Downing Street Years". In this book she indicates her support for the bombing of Libya saying that, following this bombing raid "Libya never again mounted a serious attack on the West". Now this is a rather odd thing to say, because in 1988 December 21, flight Pan Am 103 was blown out of the sky half an hour after take-off by a suitcase-bomb (with - according to the "official" account - a long delay "Mebo" timer) allegedly sent from Malta to Frankfurt to London by Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. This action resulted in 270 deaths - including that of Jim Swire's eldest daughter, Flora.
When Dr Swire wrote to Margaret Thatcher to ask about this apparent contradiction in her book, he "got a pompous letter back saying she had nothing to add." (ref).
Why has Margaret Thatcher "nothing to add"? The only possible explanation is that she knows something that she is reluctant to talk about.
Since she will not tell us what she knows, we shall have to speculate.
I speculate that she knows that Libya was not behind the Lockerbie attack.
If she knows this, then, I further speculate, so does Gordon Brown.
Let's look at the curious choreography of events: The withdrawal of al-Megrahi's appeal - an appeal that could have continued in spite of al-Megrahi's compassionate release or (alternatively) al-Megrahi's death in custody - followed by al-Megrahi's compassionate release; followed by a deafening silence from Number 10.
Forget "compassion" for someone who supposedly murdered 270 people; forget "oil deals"; the British and Scottish governments (I submit) know al-Megrahi is innocent and they fear that the appeal would have established this - with all the embarrassing consequences that such an outcome would imply. They have chosen the "least-worst" way out.
(Anyone inclined to dismiss all this a some kind of nutty conspiracy theory needs to bear in mind that any skulduggery practised by British and US intelligence was not intended to frame al-Megrahi in a trial that nobody (at the time) thought would ever take place, it was simply intended make Libya look bad. This sort of thing - spreading misinformation for geopolitical ends - goes on all the time. You can read what the chap who played the main role in setting up the al-Megrahi's trail (Robert Black QC) now thinks about the whole thing here: THE LOCKERBIE CASE.)
In 1993 October Margaret Thatcher (the UK prime minister from 1979 to 1990 and thus PM during the events related above) published her memoires: "The Downing Street Years". In this book she indicates her support for the bombing of Libya saying that, following this bombing raid "Libya never again mounted a serious attack on the West". Now this is a rather odd thing to say, because in 1988 December 21, flight Pan Am 103 was blown out of the sky half an hour after take-off by a suitcase-bomb (with - according to the "official" account - a long delay "Mebo" timer) allegedly sent from Malta to Frankfurt to London by Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. This action resulted in 270 deaths - including that of Jim Swire's eldest daughter, Flora.
When Dr Swire wrote to Margaret Thatcher to ask about this apparent contradiction in her book, he "got a pompous letter back saying she had nothing to add." (ref).
Why has Margaret Thatcher "nothing to add"? The only possible explanation is that she knows something that she is reluctant to talk about.
Since she will not tell us what she knows, we shall have to speculate.
I speculate that she knows that Libya was not behind the Lockerbie attack.
If she knows this, then, I further speculate, so does Gordon Brown.
Let's look at the curious choreography of events: The withdrawal of al-Megrahi's appeal - an appeal that could have continued in spite of al-Megrahi's compassionate release or (alternatively) al-Megrahi's death in custody - followed by al-Megrahi's compassionate release; followed by a deafening silence from Number 10.
Forget "compassion" for someone who supposedly murdered 270 people; forget "oil deals"; the British and Scottish governments (I submit) know al-Megrahi is innocent and they fear that the appeal would have established this - with all the embarrassing consequences that such an outcome would imply. They have chosen the "least-worst" way out.
(Anyone inclined to dismiss all this a some kind of nutty conspiracy theory needs to bear in mind that any skulduggery practised by British and US intelligence was not intended to frame al-Megrahi in a trial that nobody (at the time) thought would ever take place, it was simply intended make Libya look bad. This sort of thing - spreading misinformation for geopolitical ends - goes on all the time. You can read what the chap who played the main role in setting up the al-Megrahi's trail (Robert Black QC) now thinks about the whole thing here: THE LOCKERBIE CASE.)
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