The fall of Gaddafi...

...and the assassination of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi

[This is the headline over an article by Kevin Williamson posted today on the Bella Caledonia website. It reads as follows:]

As opposition forces move into Tripoli the final chapter of the Gaddafi regime seems about to be writ large, and in blood. This time there seems little chance of yet another miraculous reprieve for The Colonel, his parasitical family, his henchmen and assorted hangers-on.

Future narratives are limited as this stage. The CIA will have been working hard behind the scenes to smooth the transition towards democracy; consorting with and advising rebel commanders, and identifying those sympathetic to US strategic objectives.

A new “democratic” “populist” “leader” may soon emerge, as if from nowhere. A US-compliant provisional government could soon take the place of the old regime and elections will be planned, some distance down the line. Once the US, of course, has had a chance to vet all the suitable candidates.

If the Libyan people think that their country’s vast oil reserves will end up in the hands of the people, working for the common good, then they are in for another great betrayal. Compliant tribal warlords turned politicians in suits will ensure that global oil corporations will assume control. It’ll be business as usual.

Then there is the troublesome figure of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, who now lives under the protection of the Gaddafi regime. What will the CIA do with him? Do they return him to a Scottish prison? And risk a resumption of his appeal procedure – a legal process which may clear him of the bombing and stir up an international hornet’s nest? Implement a rendition process to put al-Megrahi in the hands of the same organisations who may have framed him in the first place? Or will they take the tried-and-tested CIA option and simply put a bullet in his head. Case closed. Time to move on.

Let’s put it this way. If al-Megrahi is found dead at any point in the next few weeks – irrespective of the convoluted official explanations of how he died – then we can take it as read that a) it was a premeditated strike by agents acting on behalf of the CIA, b) he was assassinated for the same reasons he was released with such haste: because he was innocent of the Lockerbie bombing and a legal appeal had to be stopped at all costs, c) the Scottish legal system was complicit in this framing, and d) those responsible for framing him, like those who actually carried out the worst mass murder in Scottish history, remain at liberty.

If al-Megrahi is not assassinated then let him return to Scotland – under house arrest if need be – and resume his judicial appeal. The SCCRC have collated the evidence that formed the basis of al-Megrahi’s appeal. It’s about time it saw the light of day. Irrespective of the repercussions, the Lockerbie victims’ families need justice and resolution. That will never happen if al-Megrahi is assassinated by the CIA or if a rendition process places him into the hands of those who were instrumental in the framing.