Saturday 19 January 2013

Lockerbie, too?

[The following are excerpts from an article by Mark Lawson in today’s edition of The Guardian:]

In an early scene of the new Channel 4 drama series Utopia, an academic rejects a student's proposal for a PhD on conspiracy theories with the clincher: "I mean, conspiracies aren't very now, are they?" The line is winking inwardly because Utopia is the second conspiracy thriller in a row on this network, following Secret State – with a third, Complicit, soon to come.

So conspiracies are very now, and about to become even more so with the return of the genre's dark lord and author of what is more or less the bible of the form, The Da Vinci Code or, as it is known to non-believers, The Bad Book. Dan Brown revealed this week that his new novel, Inferno, will be published on 14 May. (...)

Although Brown's books frequently present religion as an agent of conspiracy, his literary career has benefited from a general western decline in faith. The human instinct to see a shape to our days, which once drove people to the Bible and Dante's Inferno, now sends them to The Da Vinci Code and Brown's Inferno. In frightened, sceptical times, conspiracy theories flourish.

And those who question official histories have recently received vindication, though not in the areas they hoped. While no truth has ever been proved in the favourite fantasies of conspiracy theorists – that, for example, the Apollo moon landings were faked, Princess Diana was murdered or President Obama is not an American – numerous grave conspiracies have been exposed.

The work of Bishop James Jones's commission of inquiry has exposed that the circumstances and causes of the deaths of 96 football supporters at Hillsborough were hidden by the police and other authorities in establishment machinations far more concrete and shocking than those long summoned up in sceptics' seances over the Kennedy assassination or the moonshots.

During much of the same period of British history, the activities of Sir Jimmy Savile and Sir Cyril Smith benefited from at the very least a conspiracy of silence, if no greater collusion, among some of those in the circles in which they moved. And, at a lesser level of human suffering, it is now established that intrigues and cabals existed in the banking sector to fix the Libor lending rate and seems likely that other collusions contributed to the wider banking collapse. And who knows what secret deals may be revealed by the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war if (after a delay that is itself the subject of conspiracy theories) it is eventually published?

We also now know that the private lives of the well known and those thrown into the news by tragedy or grief were routinely suffering intrusion from a conspiracy of journalists. (...)

The biggest conspiracies are to be found not in fiction about the far past, but in the facts of the present.

5 comments:

  1. You might want to avail yourself of this:

    http://reidfoundation.org/submit-your-question-to-first-minister-alex-salmond/

    ReplyDelete
  2. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2013 - (google translation, german/english):

    By new evaluations different documents in the "Lockerbie Affair" opens up, (supported on Ing Lumpert's affidavit) that the unauthorized transfer of a used wrongly in possession of MST-13 timer circuit boards (prototype) and the granting of a questionable Swiss legal assistance to Lord Advocate of Scotland, which refers to facts propped negligently audited and are therefore also responsible that Libya could become involved with the PanAm 103 bombing ...

    Details: By note of October 1, 1990, the British Embassy sent to the Swiss Federal Office of Police (BAP), a request for assistance from 19 September 1990, by Lord Advocate of Scotland about the crash of PanAm 103 over Scotland.
    In rogatory there is no allusion to Libya, although after visiting the Swiss police (BUPO) at MEBO Ltd., since early 1990, it was known that the timer fragment MST-13 (PT/35) was resemblance with the 20 pieces of MST-13 timers delivered to Libya.

    Since May 1990 Scottish officials repeatedly 'BUPO' in Bern visited, may include be assumed that the Scottish Police was also known that MEBO Ltd., had sold 20 pieces MST-13 timer (1985/86) to the Libya military procurement.
    Scotland could, for lack of ratification of the European Convention on Mutual Assistance by Great Britain, not rely on the European Convention on Mutual Assistance and therefore gave the Swiss (BAP) on 25 Sept. 1990 in a letter, the granting of reciprocity within the meaning of Art. 8 IRSG, which still has validity as a result of ongoing investigations.

    Furthermore, it is striking that the Swiss legal assistance commitment from any collusive reasons - was not considered politically motivated revengeact ?
    The objection to a political nature of Switzerland was also rejected because text: "The Bombing of PanAm103, appears as particularly reprehensible and the perpetrator killed 270 people.
    (Interpretation: Art. 3 para 2 lit. b IRSG.)".

    By this standpoint could the previously announced and later "serve" first as a political revenge by Iran, in countermove for shooting down the IranAir-flight 655 by the USS wahrship Vincennes over the Persian Gulf on 3 July 1988 (290 deaths) are irrevocably blocked.

    Thus, nothing more stood in the way the official Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Libya for the Act of terrorism responsible to make...

    by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Telecommunication, Switzerland: URL: www.lockerbie.ch

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  3. The Government and media use the term conspiracy theorist as a term of abuse to describe opponents of Government cover-ups and secrecy.

    But why, when conspiracies are common place and when the Government’s own explanation of an event is often a conspiracy theory!

    Is it a case of ‘double-think’ in which a conspiracy theory is only a term of abuse when promoted by campaign groups rather than by Government itself?

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  4. Thanks to Vronsky for the link.


    The Inaugural Jimmy Reid Memorial Lecture will be given by First Minister Alex Salmond on the theme “Addressing Alienation – the Opportunity of Independence”


    Whether questions will go through is of course uncertain, but right, why not try?

    The issue is serious enough to stick in Askill's nose every time he appears anywhere. The guy is seriously failing his duties, and needs to be helped onto the right track.

    I wrote the following, but did not submit it, as I think such a request must be signed by a Scottish citizen to have any chance.

    If not done already, maybe a friend of JfM would consider posting something along these lines?

    - - -

    Dear Mr. Askill

    In a famous speech Jimmy Reid said:
    "...it is our responsibility to conduct ourselves with responsibility, and with dignity, and with maturity."

    I assume that you agree with these words.

    Now, 270 people died in the Lockerbie tragedy. Among these were dozens of citizens of Scotland and United Kingdom.

    SCCRC has pointed to the possibility of a miscarriage of justice in the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

    The Scottish police and legal system have, on basis of compelling evidence, been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

    These are absolutely fundamental forces in a democracy and any independent nation. Are there any greater basis for 'Alienation' than injustice?

    How is it possible, that you still remain defiant regarding the need for a public inquiry into the conduct of our legal system in the Lockerbie case?

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  5. Did I write "Askill"? How on earth did that happen? If I had to be wrong I'd rather have written "MacSalmond"...

    ReplyDelete