[This is the heading over a press release issued today by the SNP. It reads in part:]
The SNP called for the US Government to give its full co-operation to the Senate inquiry and to release the documents and any information over American discussions with Libya in relation to Abdelbasset Mohmed Al Megrahi.
Responding to revelations in todays newspapers of the content of US correspondence with the Scottish Government, reports of US negotiations over the Lockerbie bomber and campaign donations to the US senators involved in the inquiry from BP organizations SNP MSP Christine Grahame repeated her call for the US Government to allow the release of documents and for the Senate investigation to call the right witnesses:
“As a newspaper appears to have obtained this document it is ridiculous that the public and the US Senate Committee are unable to see it.
“At the very least the US Government must release its correspondence with the Scottish Government to its own Senate committee and lift the embargo on Scottish Government publication. Senator Menendez has asked for this document and the Obama administration must give permission for it to be released. The families of victims on both sides of the Atlantic deserve to know the full position of the US Government on this issue.
“If this senate inquiry is to be taken seriously it must ask the right questions of the right people and along with revisiting its failure to formally invite Tony Blair and his former adviser, now UK ambassador to the US Sir Nigel Sheinwald, they should ask the US government to set out what discussions it had with Libya over Mr Megrahi and if US officials were in contact or even accompanied UK officials in discussions around the deal in the desert.”
Commenting on the revelations of significant campaign donations by BP to US Senators and senior Democrats including President Obama and Hilary Clinton and by US oil companies drilling in and around Libya SNP MSP Michael Matheson said this exposed the pure politicking around what should be an incredibly serious issue.
Commenting on the revelations Mr Matheson said
"It's astonishing that after all the rhetoric and talk of BP funds as 'blood money' that those Senators attacking BP have benefited from their donations. It exposes some of the sheer political opportunism currently being played out over the tragic events at Lockerbie and in the Gulf."
If this senate inquiry is to be taken seriously it must ask the right questions...
ReplyDeleteSee Bernt Carlsson and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a number of pertinent questions that must be addressed.
I can address that question. The senate inquiry is not to be taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteMr Matheson should be ignored. So, on this occasion, should Christine Grahame who has sadly abandoned the path of truth in favour of Party politics. This is NOT about the SNP!!!!!! It is more important than all UK Political Parties put together. I'm sorry, but some people really need to get a grip. They should know better.
ReplyDeleteWell, she's right enough about the US document release, but indeed nobody should show up to this kangaroo court.
ReplyDeleteSorry Rolfe, all this stuff focusing on the release and nothing else drives me up the wall. It is about so much more than that and Christine Grahame more than most knows this.
ReplyDeleteChristine can be a bit ditzy sometimes. She has a researcher who is quite well up on it all though.
ReplyDeleteI've stopped being surprised by how people who should know better go running off at a tangent banging on about entirely spurious stuff. Did you hear Tam Dalyell yesterday, got on Any Answers, and after saying something vaguely sensible for about 15 seconds, went right back to his broken record of "I first came into the Lockerbie affair a couple of days after the crash, when a constituent came to me with concerns about the enormous number of Americans who were running all over the place tampering with the evidence, blah, blah, blah."
Sorry, Tam, you are not going to be able to explain a complicated LIHOP scenario where the dastardly Americans were fabricating evidence to point away from their complicity in the hours or days after the incident, in a couple of minutes live chat to Jonathan Dimbleby. Stick to the abandoned appeal and the SCCRC report.
Why do we elect these people?
Rolfe you mustn't get discouraged. We have to accept that the point about US people being at that scene so quickly has been raised before. But I know what you mean. My current fears are rooted in the same sort of frustration you're experiencing too. We see the main issue right in front of us and we know how to get to the whole truth: others, sadly those in a position to clear the path to the truth of the debris they've heaped there over the years, are still pretending the big issue isn't there.
ReplyDeleteMors and more commentators are however saying, look, he didn't do it anyway. And when they're challenged, pointing to the appeal.
ReplyDeleteThis is a positive development.
I agree. I think I posted a few days back that the Americans have shot themselves in the foot by outraging so many in the UK that newspaper Editorials are now calling for an investigation into the whole thing. The pressure must be kept up to get that outcome. There is no other acceptable solution.
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