[This is the headline over a news agency report from Associated Press. It reads in part:]
Swedish tabloid Expressen says Libya's ex-justice minister claims Moammar Gadhafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988.
Expressen on Wednesday quoted Mustafa Abdel-Jalil as telling their correspondent in Libya that "I have proof that Gadhafi gave the order about Lockerbie." He didn't describe the proof.
Abdel-Jalil stepped down as justice minister to protest the violence against anti-government demonstrations.
He told Expressen Gadhafi gave the order to Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.
"To hide it, he (Gadhafi) did everything in his power to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland," Abdel-Jalil was quoted as saying. (...)
Expressen spokeswoman Alexandra Forslund said its reporter, Kassem Hamade, interviewed the ex-justice minister at "a local parliament in a large city in Libya." She didn't want to name the city, citing security concerns. (...)
Bob Monetti, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, whose 20-year-old son Richard was killed in the bombing, said he's glad to hear a former official say what's been clear to him all along. He said officials and the media, especially in the U.K., have been denying that.
"Ever since the trial, which was held in a totally obscure location in Holland and was covered by nobody, there's been a drumbeat in the UK about how this is a trumped up thing and Libya had nothing to do with it," he said. "If you went to the trial, there was no question about who did it and why, and who ordered it."
Monetti said he's been following coverage of the Libyan uprising closely.
"I can't wait until we see pictures of Gadhafi hanging by his heels," he said.
[A news agency report from The Press Association contains the following:]
The Scottish Government says it "never doubted" the safety of the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber following reports that Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gaddafi ordered the attack. (...)
A Swedish newspaper reported that Col Gaddafi had personally ordered the bombing.
The Expressen said Libya's former justice secretary, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, told its correspondent in Libya: "I have proof that Gaddafi gave the order about Lockerbie.
"To hide it, he did everything in his power to get Megrahi back from Scotland." (...)
But the Scottish Government, which has repeatedly said Megrahi was only freed on compassionate grounds because of his terminal prostate cancer, said: "Ministers have never doubted the safety of the conviction."
[On this blog yesterday, the following was posted:]
What’s the betting that, sometime in the next few weeks, the following happens:
1. In the burned out ruins of a Libyan government building, someone finds definitive documentary ‘proof’ that Libya and Megrahi were responsible for Lockerbie, and/or
2. A Libyan official reveals, ‘we did it’.
The official case is now so thin that only such concoctions can save it (although it’s also crossed my mind that a prisoner will come forward who says ‘Megrahi confessed to me' – another hallmark of paper-thin cases).
I wonder how many different spellings there are of Gaddafi's name.
ReplyDeleteVery prescient of you, Robert, to post that piece yesterday.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I'm waiting for press reports from Libya of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi confessing on his deathbed that he was guilty all along, before being executed by an out-of-control crazed anti-Gaddafi protester (or Western intelligence agent - take your pick).
Worldwide condemnation of Megrahi's execution would then ensue, led by former British Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
Patrick Haseldine
There are at least 37 different spellings of his name, Jo G.
ReplyDeleteMuammar Gaddafi is the spelling used by TIME magazine, BBC News, the majority of the British press and by the English service of Al-Jazeera.
(I was the main author of this section of Wikipedia's Gaddafi biography, and can therefore claim some credit for the - almost - standardised spelling of his name in the media.)
MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011, doc. nr.1058.rtf, google translation german/english:
ReplyDeleteAn interesting purposeful *ASSERTION at the right time, from the Former Libyan Justice Minister Mohamed Mustafa Abud Al Jeleil.
Thus, there must not be a problem for the Scottish Parliament and the First Minister Alex Salmond, to open the secret documents of the Scottish Criminal Cases Reappeal Commission (SCCRC) and the document under National Security (PII) ?
The world waiting on clean evidence --- or does it mean that this *ASSERTION with a new deal was completed with a unknown "Security Service" ...?
+++
Eine interessante gezielte *Behauptung zur richtigen Zeit, von "Former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Mohamed Abud Al Jeleil".
Somit muss es für das "Scottish Parliament" und "First Minister Alex Salmond" kein Problem sein, die geheimen Dokumente der "Scottish Criminal Cases Reappeal Commission" (SCCRC) und das Dokument unter "National Security" (PII) offen zulegen ?
Die Welt warted auf saubere Beweise --- oder bedeuted das, dass mit dieser *BEHAUPTUNG bereits ein neuer Deal mit einem "Security Service" ausgehandelt. wurde...?
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch
Thank you Patrick.
ReplyDeleteHave you read the tabloid article being quoted world-wide uncritically tonight? It consists solely of the minister claiming to have proof, next to other 'scoops' such as "Clooney: I have had sex with too many". The full forty minute interview will be published in print tommorow but obviously won't contain the 'proof' itself or that would have been mentioned today. An English language Swedish newspaper, The Local, quotes Aron Lund of yet another Swedish newspaper, Upsala Nya Tidning, who also writes for the Middle East for Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
ReplyDelete"At the same, considering Al Jeleil just left the regime, there may be a credibility issue. It could be that these sorts of leaks from former members of the regimes are more about distancing themselves from Gadaffi as than revealing the truth."
Given the millions of dollars paid to dodgy witnesses during the trial, the tampering of evidence during the investigation, and bearing in mind the recent unrepent confession of 'Curveball' in manufacturing evidence to overthrow Saddam Hussien, it seems quite a smart move by Gaddafi's 'Justice Minister' to claim to have 'proof' of Al Megrahi's guilt. Any such evidence though only accenuates the need for an independent international investigation to examine it impartially. We don't need proof that Gaddafi is a cold-blooded killer, a fact that must only be surprising to the Peter Mandelsons, Tony Blairs and Nat Rothchilds of this English high society, but we do need proof of involvement in this case, and we need a credible panel to examine it.
The operative word there being credible Danny. I've just heard the late news announcing there is now proof Gaddafi ordered the atrocity at Lockerbie. This will just grow arms and legs.
ReplyDeleteI agree Jo, in the eyes of the world it is now established fact that Gaddafi was the bomber's commander, regardless that the witness has been doling out 'justice' for Gaddafi until his position became untenable in the past few days.
ReplyDeleteYet there has been no evidence, let alone proof, in the Swedish tabloid, nor will there be tommorow.
I think it is extremely dubious that the newly reformed minister claims that Gaddafi did all he could to free Al Megrahi - which he did -to protect himself. Al Megrhai was appealling his conviction, and thus protecting Gaddifi if the allegation is true, in the face of cancer and the Scottish prison system until he was forced to drop the appeal. If Megrahi was the agent of Gaddafi then he was an unbelieveably loyal agent who was sacrificing his own best interests for his dictator.
In short, I think Al Megrahi is more credible than Al Jeleil judging from their actions over the past few years.
The other thing is Danny, that the case at Zeist centred on Megrahi, not Gaddafi and there is a report here in Scotland by the SCCRC which raises 6 grounds suggesting a miscarriage of justice could have occurred during the trial. Isn't it frightening that the UK press are willing to (again) set those issues aside in favour of one very scared man's claims regarding a leader he has served for how long?
ReplyDeleteThe other picture I grow increasingly sick of in recent days is one involving various UK politicians taking the moral high ground over foreign leaders not behaving democratically. The Tories were the first Party to block off access to Downing Street. Blair continued the practice. I'm wondering how Cameron would react to several million British citizens assembling in London demanding that he cancels his vile attacks on the poor of this country in the face of recession and goes for the bankers instead. Would he call that the democratic will of the people and cave in? I don't think so.
And now on QT Blair has been forgiven for becoming friends with Gadaffi again because he persuaded him to turn away from developing nuclear weapons. Suddenly Blair is Mother Teresa!
ReplyDeleteJo, thanks for pointing that out. I doubt our Prsident Obama would just step aside for the will of the people if some Tea Party revolution was trying to force him to, even non-violently. I think the military would be called in, just after another diktat to a third world bad guy to step aside peacefully.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to excuse anyone, of course.
And of course Mr. Jalil is almost certainly full of it, another Giaka for a different time. He might even have a piece of paper to back up his story, and oh boy will that be proof tenfold for most people. But his supposed evidence of a 3-D world order goes against the evidence of the 3-D attack while fusing nicely with the paper version so cherished by his desired new protectors.