Sunday 15 August 2010

Senators to issue whistleblower call over Megrahi

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of Scotland on Sunday. It reads in part:]

US senators will this week bypass the UK and Scottish governments to issue a public call for "whistleblowers" to come forward with fresh evidence about the Lockerbie case, a year on from the controversial release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

Scottish lawyers and doctors with knowledge of Megrahi's case are among those being urged to step forward by the team of four US senators conducting an inquiry into the release of the convicted bomber.

The team is also calling on insiders with knowledge of the UK Government's trade links to Libya - including arms deals with the Gaddafi regime - to reveal any evidence they were linked to Megrahi's return home.

The move was last night interpreted as another example of US interference in the decisions made by the Scottish Government, which allowed the 58-year-old Libyan intelligence officer to return home last summer after ministers received reports saying he had just three months to live.

One SNP source said: "This is all just about their own politics. They have their elections coming and they are just trying to show they're doing something."

Christine Grahame, an SNP MSP, said: "I would be much happier if, rather than doing this they [the senators] would simply call for a UN inquiry into all matters in Lockerbie, where all the evidence was laid out. That way the senators would sleep a lot better in their beds at night."

The internet appeal, to be made public later this week, comes with the bomber, who is suffering from prostate cancer, preparing to mark a year of freedom back in Libya. (...)

In further revelations today:

• SNP ministers say they would be happy to support an international inquiry into the Lockerbie case, amid fresh calls for a investigation into his conviction.

• Megrahi says he wants all papers relating to his aborted appeal to be made public and says he would have released his own documentation if the Crown Office in Scotland and police also agreed to do so.

• Senators have again asked Foreign Secretary William Hague to examine whether potentially lucrative arms deals between the UK and Libya played a factor in the UK's approach to Megrahi's case.

[The readers' comments that follow the story are well worth reading. I wonder whether the senators' whistleblowing call will be endorsed by Labour and Conservative politicians in Scotland? Given their shameful track-record on this issue, it really would not surprise me.

An editorial in Scotland on Sunday headed "A kooks' charter" contains the following:]

Scots will be bemused this week by the appeal by the four US senators conducting an inquiry into the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for whistleblowers to come forward and furnish information about the case.

This is an invitation to every conspiracy theorist to air his views; it is a kooks' charter - perhaps the senators should advertise in the Fortean Times. (...)

Asking for whistleblowers to divulge the UK intelligence community's perspective on Megrahi's release sounds like an attempt to suborn British security services personnel. How would the senators like it if a British parliamentary committee asked CIA staff to reveal sensitive information?

The undertaking that the source of any information will not be disclosed unless permission is given discredits the exercise. What kind of transparency does that bring to an inquiry? We should have been spared this farcical initiative by a group of US politicians who appear to be acting disingenuously. This is not the way to proceed.

14 comments:

  1. [just posted this on and earlier thread - so excuse duplication]
    "This newspaper can also disclose that American senators investigating Megrahi's release will this week launch an unprecedented request for British "whistle-blowers" to disclose details about the decision to free the Lockerbie bomber" - Telegraph
    If this is true, and surely it is not, then presumably they will suggest the whistle-blowers use Wikileaks, or similar. The irony of this, in a week where the US government has been getting heavy on it's own whistle-blowers, seems so evident.
    But then most Americans don't recognise irony - I wonder if they will even see it as duplicity?

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  2. Perhaps the Scotland on Sunday and the Scotsman should ask the Senators to speak to Marcello Mega?

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  3. Oh I'm sure it will be true Bloggy. And I think they will see the irony but they also function believing that laws are for other people and not for the United States of America.

    If this call does come to pass, Cameron and Hague must publicly condemn, with Salmond, the US for openly encouraging the leaking of confidential information by citizens of the UK and Scotland to them. Every opposition Leader should support that condemnation or explain why not.

    Eddie the time to even take these four senators seriously has passed. We should now be dealing direct with the US government and demanding answers from them. These four are breaking international protocol by even getting involved in this issue and appear about to go further still with an appeal to individuals here to break DP laws to give them information which they have no right to access.

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  4. "This Friday the Libyan regime will hold sickening celebrations giving thanks to Gordon Brown and Kenny MacAskill on the first anniversary of the return of a terrorist with British and... - Niles Gardiner Telegraph.
    Now this sentence is hyper-linked in his comment to a Daily Mail article by Nabila Ramdani which reads,
    "A spokesman for the Libyan leader said: ‘The celebrations this year will involve people giving thanks to God for Brother Al Megrahi’s release, and marking the event with their own quiet celebrations.’
    ...
    (mentions GB et al)
    ...
    ‘This is what the Brother Leader [Col Gaddafi] wants. He does not wish to cause offence in other parts of the world, especially in Britain and America.’
    Where is the sickening, or how is this sickening, that Niles Gardiner mentions? It sounds like a low key and private affair designed not to cause offence - because they are aware how it will be perceived.
    The UK journalists by pursuing their own local petty grievances are stoking the boilers on this whole story, by exaggeration, and in doing so, are doing the work of the Senate Committee's aides.

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  5. Oh, I agree absolutely Jo G. It is quite hypocritical and improper for the US senators to call for such information given the recent opinions and condemnation of wikileaks in the US, while it is also worth remembering the assertions and accusations, made in the US for many years, of those who did provide information which did challenge the official line on Megrahi's conviction as 'cranks'.

    However, I was merely highlighting the hypocrisy of the SoS editorial where they attribute the possibility that those who may well provide 'insider' information as being part of a "Kooks charter", when they themselves have published a raft of articles over the years suggesting impropriety in the investigation, trial and appeal application.

    I wouldn't attribute those writers as being party to a kooks charter, as the SoS now apparently ascribes.

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  6. I'm with you on the "kooks charter" Eddie. I'm sure we would all object vehemently to being put in such a category. And as you rightly point out their own writers have provided information and facts over a lengthy period about the issue at the centre of this. I wonder if they would describe the SCCRC as "kooks" too.

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  7. This new campaign should turn out awesomely stupid. I'm looking forward to it.

    Whistleblowers, please.

    In context, I took kooks/conspiracy theories to revolve around BP deals securing the release of Megrahi, and related flights of fancy. ?? Maybe not, I'm no Scot.

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  8. "Scots will be bemused this week by the appeal by the four US senators conducting an inquiry into the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for whistleblowers to come forward and furnish information about the case."

    Hi Caustic.
    Nope, I think its non-specific personally.

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  9. Perhaps the good Senators themselves are busy with a cover up. Senators Robert Menendes and Frank Lautenberg receive election campaign funds from Maurice Tempelsman who worked for the De Beers Diamond Cartel, now a criminal enterprise.De Beers stood to lose the most valuable diamond mining property in the world and monopoly control of the global diamond business if Lockerbie victim Bernt Carlsson reached New York and brought action against them as was his intent.

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  10. Bloggy, about those celebrations. Do you think its possible the bold Colonel G is himself keen to put more and more pressure on and increase calls - from the likes of ourselves and from more prominent individuals and even Newspaper Editors - for a full investigation into Lockerbie?

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  11. Jo G: "Do you think its possible the bold Colonel G is himself keen to put more and more pressure on and increase calls...investigation in Lockerbie?"
    I can't see what in it for him (i.e. Libya) any investigation - but this is a great question. It probably deserves its own thread to garner more opinions.
    [There never seems to be a peep from them, Libya, on that subject from what I can see - despite them probably monitoring this site - cf. the prof's wee flag counter at the top/right of this blog page :)]

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  12. Well, I don't believe Megrahi is guilty, right? Yet Libya was punished for years through crippling sanctions. The way out of those sanctions was for Gaddafi to take the blame and scatter money around which he did, all without ever stating Libya was behind the atrocity. Libya needed access to all sorts of things for its people and a route into the international arena again. He did what he had to do.

    Initially I believed he had instructed Megrahi to drop his appeal but I changed my mind about that quite soon after. I'm sure now that all the pressure to do that came on this side. I think Gaddafi would be happy to see Megrahi and Libya cleared.

    I've hated what the Americans have done lately in connecting their stupid oil spill with Megrahi and trade and all the rest. (That isn't to deny that Blair set the ball rolling on using Megrahi as a pawn in trading deals with Libya and setting up the PTA). But you know as the outrage started all over again lately the other side have hit back. We've had more in the media calling for an investigation and some politicians too. There is a new appetite to get these grounds investigated.

    Following clarification by the Professor in an older thread I know I felt quite exhilarated when I realised the appeal need not necessarily we dead so the fight to demand it could continue. That will involve shaming those politicians, who are hell bent on insisting its buried, into saying clearly why they wish it to remain so. This could run and run. There is simply nothing to lose.

    I think you're right that Gaddafi will be watching. I think its in his interests, and Libya's, to get the truth out and to prove a miscarriage of justice. I also hope I've not got the spelling of his name wrong again since, as Bunny pointed out, he can get my address! ; )

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  13. "I would be much happier if, rather than doing this they [the senators] would simply call for a UN inquiry into all matters in Lockerbie, where all the evidence was laid out. That way the senators would sleep a lot better in their beds at night". (Christine Grahame SNP)

    Actually Christine, I think they wouldn't sleep a wink and any sleep they did get would consist of serious nightmares.

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  14. Senator Robert Menendez has removed his "whistleblower" contact link on his website, it was there on 3rd November, gone by 4th November. I hope he still answers my questions.

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