Saturday, 16 March 2013
Geoffrey Robertson QC on Megrahi’s right to silence
This is the heading over an item posted yesterday on John Ashton’s website Megrahi: You are my Jury. Mr Ashton’s comments on Geoffrey Robertson’s views are worth reading, even if Mr Robertson’s views are not. The eccentricity of Geoffrey Robertson’s stated position on Lockerbie and Megrahi can be readily seen by inserting his name into this blog’s search facility.
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There are a lot of interesting and pertinent points in John's reply, but one point Robertson made struck me as particularly interesting.
ReplyDeleteBut if the bomb was loaded in Malta, the circumstantial case against him remains, without a credible answer.
If the bomb was loaded in Malta, then someone at Malta that morning was involved, probably several someones. However, the Lockerbie investigators never found any evidence there of how that was accomplished, or even that it was done at all. They didn't even have a working theory of how it could have had been done, beyond a vague and unexpressed inference that virtually the entire Maltese staff of Luqa airport had been subverted by Libya to facilitate a cover-up, and nobody in that devoutly Roman Catholic country had ever broken ranks and spilled the beans.
So, if the bomb was loaded in Malta, the investigation failed comprehensively and spectacularly. Is it enough simply to look at one person who happened to be at the airport at the time, with a suspicious background, and declare him guilty beyond reasonable doubt? This is conviction by default.
One might feel suspicious as regards Megrahi's presence at Luqa airport that morning, if that was the scene of the crime, but to claim that constitutes proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt is preposterous.
More telling would be the "what if" Megrahi had bought the clothes. If that had been the case, I'd be right there in line demanding the key be thrown away (OK not literally, I support compassionate release of terminally ill prisoners even when they're guilty). Whoever bought these clothes was part of the plot, and deserved to be brought to justice for it. The only problem is, the SCCRC shot the idea that Megrahi was that person down in flames in 2007.
However, to get back to the point, Mr. Robertson seems to have missed a particular loop in the circular reasoning that was the Zeist judgement. The judges decided that despite the lack of evidence for the bomb at Malta, it had actually been loaded there, because the man who bought the clothes had been at the airport at the time. So if Megrahi didn't buy the clothes, where does that leave the argument?
To get even nearer to the point, there is incontrovertible and irrefutable evidence that the bomb was actually loaded at Heathrow. What will Mr. Robertson say when he finds out about that?
"To get even nearer to the point, there is incontrovertible and irrefutable evidence that the bomb was actually loaded at Heathrow. What will Mr. Robertson say when he finds out about that?"
ReplyDeleteWe know, don't we?
We already have a timer fragment with a type of tinning layer that MEBO never used.
A man like Robertson has the opinion he wants to have. Never for a second should we believe that he - as little as Duggan or the Crown's reps - would go into a discussion about the evidence that more than suggests otherwise.
Even if Colin Boyd signed a confession that he lied, that Thurman signed one that he faked the fragment, and Gauci signed one that he all the time knew that the buyer was not Megrahi, it would not make any difference to them. You wouldn't see it in WP or NYT. You still hear "The conviction was safe" and "we are still investigating".
All it takes is to be sure that Megrahi was guilty (or having the need to defend the view), and use this as a basis for anything you do or say about the case.
Easy!
I don't think it's quite as easy as that. (I hope it isn't, anyway.)
ReplyDeleteThe timer discrepancy is an absolute doozie as regards showing that the conviction was flawed. It however doesn't prove Megrahi innocent all by itself. It merely introduces even more doubt. All we know about that PCB fragment is that it seems to be a bootleg or cheap knock-off of a circuit board from an MST-13 timer, but it is not one of the 20 Thuring-manufactured items MEBO supplied to Libya.
That doesn't prove Megrahi innocent, if he bought the clothes and if he was at the airport when the bomb was loaded on the aircraft. And in Robertson's own words, it is that last bit that is the important part.
As I said above, proving he didn't buy the clothes should be enough to do it, because by the judgement of the court itself, the finding that the bomb was loaded at Malta was dependent on the man who bought the clothes having been at the airport at the crucial time. It was an essential part of the circumstantial evidence used to derive that inference. However, this seems to be a bit too subtle for most people to follow, and Megrahi's mere presence at the airport, false passport and Libyan nationality in hand, is enough to judge him guilty in some people's eyes. Geoffrey Robertson's, for one.
However, if it can be shown by independent evidence that the bomb was not loaded at Malta but in fact was loaded at Heathrow, and shown conclusively, I think even Robertson will have to change his tune a bit.
It can be shown that the bomb was introduced at Heathrow. Not just that it might have been, that it was introduced there. Forgive me, but I think that's a game-changer.
I’m sure Geoffrey Robertson’s eccentric comments on Megrahi were made to promote his other dangerous views to supplant genuine international law with ‘R2P’!
ReplyDeleteThe promotion of international law is both a noble idea and a threat to humanity.
Noble if it is used to resolve national conflicts through negotiation and the UN, but a threat to humanity if misused as a pretext for imperialism.
The difference between the two depends on whether those promoting international law recognise national sovereignty.
National sovereignty restrains what can be done in the name of international law, but if this restraint is removed you end up with no genuine international law.
You end up with a return to ‘might is right’ with those who control the imperial power enforcing their self-interest in the name of international law.
And you end up with ‘R2P’double-speak, which spins the destruction of defenceless countries as ‘humanitarian intervention’.
I googled for R2P and Geoffrey Robertson. Yes, there is a clear link to the Megrahi case in the sense that peope busy with correcting the world can spend much time looking in the mirror. And don't.
ReplyDeleteHere he mentions Lockerbie as a reason for an attack on Libya.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/geoffrey-robertson-this-evil-despot-must-be-brought-to-justice-2222908.html
Anyone believing that this man could ever afford to take an open-minded look at Lockerbie evidence is blessed with an optimism I wish I had.
Not that GR is particularly bad.
The prominent figures being willing to seriously discuss evidence today is 100% identical to those believing that Megrahi was wrongly convicted.
Newcomers to that group, from among those who earlier spoke against Megrahi are never seen.
"All we know about that PCB fragment is that it seems to be a bootleg or cheap knock-off of a circuit board from an MST-13 timer, but it is not one of the 20 Thuring-manufactured items MEBO supplied to Libya." But Rolfe, whoever "bootlegged" the timer would have had to have access to a Thuring circuit board or at least its template or an actual MST-13 timer. If a bomb maker was just wanting to make a timer, surely it's unlikely he would have made a copy of that actual board unless he had a Thuring, MEBO or Libyan connection. I don't think that fits any scenario I've heard. Timers are/were pretty easy for electronic hobbyists to make so I doubt terrorists would have to go to a lot of trouble to make their own. If we are saying that there was a Heathrow entry and no Libyan connection then it is hard to conclude that a fragment of a bootleg copy of an MST-13 timer in a charred Maltese shirt collar, found near Lockerbie after the bombing, is anything other than a plant to incriminate Libya. Are we absolutely sure that the fragment had to come from an MST-13? Did anyone do a comprehensive search after Thurman's miraculous discovery?
ReplyDelete.....unless it was copied from one of the timers which Edwin didn't make and sell....
ReplyDelete"All we know about that PCB fragment is that it seems to be a bootleg or cheap knock-off of a circuit board from an MST-13 timer, but it is not one of the 20 Thuring-manufactured items MEBO supplied to Libya."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. That is ALL we know. With an emphasis on the word "seems".
But Rolfe, whoever "bootlegged" the timer would have had to have access to a Thuring circuit board or at least its template or an actual MST-13 timer.
If it was indeed a bootlegged MST-13, yes.
If a bomb maker was just wanting to make a timer, surely it's unlikely he would have made a copy of that actual board unless he had a Thuring, MEBO or Libyan connection. I don't think that fits any scenario I've heard.
The obvious scenario is that when the Libyans had (almost) run out of the MEBO timers, they got someone to run off some more, using one of the last remaining ones as a template. I'm not saying that happened, I'm just saying it's a possibility.
It's also possible some other military or militant group who got hold of some of the MEBO items from Libya thought they were pretty neat and ran off some copies in a similar manner.
Timers are/were pretty easy for electronic hobbyists to make so I doubt terrorists would have to go to a lot of trouble to make their own.
A bootleg of an MST-13 they already had an example of would be one easy way to do it though.
If we are saying that there was a Heathrow entry and no Libyan connection then it is hard to conclude that a fragment of a bootleg copy of an MST-13 timer in a charred Maltese shirt collar, found near Lockerbie after the bombing, is anything other than a plant to incriminate Libya.
All I'm saying is that there was a Heathrow entry. I have no idea whether there was a Libyan connection or not. I merely note that the timer fragment is really the only evidence of such a connection, and that's hellish suspect.
I also note, that a digital countdown timer has no business to exist in the same narrative as a 38-minute explosion of a plane with a 7-hour flight time which departed on time. Not in the same universe where Marwan Khreesat was making his speciality devices.
Are we absolutely sure that the fragment had to come from an MST-13? Did anyone do a comprehensive search after Thurman's miraculous discovery?
It has been suggested that there might be other instruments using the same corner design, but nobody has ever come up with one. Nobody managed to find anything similar despite a pretty wide search in 1990, before the MEBO connection was established.
There are quite a lot of possibilities. I'm not backing any particular one at the moment.
One thing to note however is that the fragment was a very close match for the real Thuring boards in every way but the tinning. Same 9-ply fibreglass laminate, same copper tracking, same pointless solder mask on the reverse side, said to be cosmetic. Just the tinning.
Another thing to note is that this is something our mutual friend Mr. Ebola has never said a single word about.