Friday 1 July 2011

First the Syrians then the Iranians then the Libyans were the expedient culprits

[This is the headline over an article by Robert Fisk published today on The Independent website. It reads in part:]

At first, it was the horrible Syrians. Since the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri wanted the remainder of Syria's military rabble – around 20,000 men, although the news agencies claimed 44,000 – out of Lebanon, it must have been the Syrians who did it. Syria's "friends" in Lebanon – security agents who should have been able to keep Hariri alive if they had wanted to – were arrested. (...)

Memories. When Pan Am crashed on Lockerbie, we were all told it was the Iranians, supported by the Syrians, but then the press were encouraged to blame the Libyans and so we had the saga of a certain Mr Megrahi who may – or may not – tell us more when the Libyan rebels and the SAS ring his door bell in a year or two's time.

What had changed, of course, was that we needed the Syrian army to defend Saudi Arabia from Iraq after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. So the Syrians became the good guys and the Libyans became the bad guys and everything went fine until Gaddafi kissed Blair and Blair kissed Gaddafi and Gaddafi decided to kill all his Senoussi enemies. Well, at least we can still blame Gaddafi for Lockerbie.

7 comments:

  1. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011:

    Well planned, that in a Miscarriage of Justice in favor of Al Megrahi and Libya, after opening the 'SCCRC' files, the return trip to Syria is open ...
    +++
    Gut geplant, dass bei einem "Miscarriage of Justice" (Justiz-Irrtum) zugunsten Al Megrahi und Libyen, nach Öffnung der SCCRC- Akten, der Rückweg nach Syria offen steht...
    by ebol

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  2. I'm not going to argue with someone so eminent, they even have a verb named after them...fisking (btw - not the other verb that sounds phonetically similar), but I don't remember Syria defending Saudi Arabia in either Gulf War (I must have been out those days).
    Self preservation being the better part of valour - I thought they merely agreed to hold the bully's coat while their erstwhile friend, Iraq, took a royal kicking, thus sparing themselves a similar fate.

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  3. Usual twaddle from Robert Fisk. The surprise indictment of the two Libyans came eight months after the end of the first Gulf War.

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  4. And the fragment of the timer PCB which was used to link the operation to Libya was there in the chain of evidence by September 1989, which was almost a year before Saddam invaded Kuwait.

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  5. And now Gaddafi is threatening to carry out acts of terrorism in Europe, for real - by, most likely, supplying matériel to others to do the dirty work.
    This is what happens when you goad someone you've caged with a pointy stick and don't let up.

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  6. Libya: Muammar Gaddafi threatens Europe

    Casus belli is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. Casus means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while belli means bellic ("of war"). It is usually distinguished from casus foederis, with casus belli being used to refer to offences or threats directly against a nation, and casus foederis to refer to offences or threats to another, allied, nation with which the justifying nation is engaged in a mutual defence treaty, such as NATO.

    From here on in, therefore, any incident that takes place in Europe that can remotely be pinned on Libya will be treated as a "casus belli/casus foederis", and American ground troops will be ordered in by President Obama to depose Gaddafi and sequestrate Libya's assets.

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  7. And (Rolfe) if the Malta clothing evidence is not evidence of Megrahi's guilt then it is evidence of an attempt to frame Megrahi (or someone similar)in advance of the bombing! (Gauci's claim that the purchaser was Libyan was based solely on the fact he spoke English).

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