[What follows is a paragraph from an editorial in yesterday's edition of Scotland on Sunday:]
Why has Gaddafi suddenly become Britain's public enemy number one? Historically, he clearly merited that title by arming the IRA. Gaddafi's Semtex was used in the Harrods bombing in 1983, the Enniskillen bomb in 1987 and the Omagh outrage as recently as 1998; those attacks killed 46 people. Nearer home, the Lockerbie bombing murdered 270 innocent travellers, crew and Scottish residents. Yet at no point did Britain try to overthrow or kill Gaddafi. Appeasement was the order of the day, as when Scottish justice was put through the pantomime of setting up an offshore court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, at a cost to taxpayers of £60m, to try Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, later released to Tripoli in a similar climate of conciliation.
[There's really nothing like journalistic oversimplification, is there? It's clearly not just the Scottish criminal justice system that's in need of rigorous overhaul.]
Why has Gaddafi suddenly become Britain's public enemy number one?
ReplyDeletePrime Minister David Cameron must answer that question but my guess is that it's because Gaddafi's semtex was used in an attempt by the IRA to kill his idol Margaret Thatcher.
Extract from Wikipedia:
The Brighton hotel bombing happened on 12 October 1984 at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. The bomb was planted by Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Patrick Magee, with the intention of assassinating UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet, who were staying at the hotel for the Conservative Party conference.
Libya's alleged responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing is irrelevant, as far as Cameron is concerned. He simply wants Gaddafi killed without trial.
When Parliament reassembles on Thursday 2 June 2011, David Cameron should be put on the spot with a number of incisive questions, including: why has Gaddafi suddenly become Britain's public enemy number one?
I don't think its anything to do with Thatcher. Why would France care about her? Why would the Security Council?
ReplyDeleteMISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011:
ReplyDeleteThe £ 60m Camp Zeist theater was a game with willful and malicious allegations and manipulated evidences ...
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch
I'm no fan of the Scottish mainstream press, but aren't they making a valid point here? Of course it's staggering nonsense to claim that there were no previous attempts to kill Gaddafi - the bombers were launched from UK airstrips. But the recent all-out attack on Libya and the Gaddafi regime has little more justification now than it would have had back then - so why now? It looks like the old German technique in WW2 - create disorder, then invade to restore order.
ReplyDeleteThere is of course a recent history of the US and Britain bombing the hell out of Libya to kill Gaddafi.
ReplyDeleteWhich helps to explain why Gaddafi has suddenly become David Cameron's public enemy number one!