Saturday, 14 December 2013
Aljazeera documentary "If not Megrahi, then who?" postponed
Reliable sources inform me that the Aljazeera documentary If not Megrahi, then who? will not now be broadcast on Sunday, 15 December and the following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Amongst other reasons for postponement, are (a) the fact that important new material has come to light which must be incorporated into the film and (b) Aljazeera’s decision that the programme should be made available in more geographical areas than was originally planned, including the USA and the Middle East. It is hoped that the documentary can still be shown on or before the 25th anniversary of the Pan Am 103 disaster on 21 December.
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All,
ReplyDeletePerhaps they, Aljazeera, should be concentrating on the validity of the conviction based on the parlous Crown case instead of attempting to point the finger of blame. Simple. Don't try to do the work of D&G, the FBI and the Crown Office for them. If our Scottish authorities wish to get themselves out of the deep freeze that they dug themselves into in 2001 and then sit there in the hope that the weather will improve, forget it. They can use the same pick-axes that they employed to get themselves into it in the first place. Let them find their own way out. They certainly aren't going to be getting any assistance from JFM, so why is Aljazeera speculating? We don't, for very good reasons.
Pip, pip,
Robert Forrester (JFM)
Aljazeera is based in Qatar, a state deeply involved in fomenting sectarian war in the Middle East as part of an unholy coalition including US/UK, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
ReplyDelete‘If not Megrahi then who’ has probably been postponed to be re-edited as ‘if not Megrahi then Iran’!
But like Rolfe’s book it may be just too late as an excuse to start WWIII before a nuclear deal with Iran is achieved.
Dave, whoever you are,
ReplyDeleteYeah, yeah. Heard it all before and it doesn't wash.
Listen buddy, I don't mean to pull rank here but, what the hell, I'll do it anyway.
My home for two years was Teheran (opposite Evin Prison, by the way). Moreover, I love the place and its people. I only hope that one of these fine days they will see fit to grant me a visa again once we have cleared all this stramash up.
I also lived for 6 months in Afghanistan when we, the West, were laying the groundwork that went so horribly wrong and led to the invasion from the USSR and, ultimately the Taliban.
I spent hectic times with missiles flying over my head in Beruit in the mid 70s. Not to mention the odd wee sojourn etc in Damascus and Egypt.
So don't bloody lecture me on what it feels like to have guns pointed in your effin face!
Given your last post, like the Crown Office, it appears that, apparently, you have read the book. How did you get a copy then? You wouldn't last 2 seconds in a war zone matey.
JFM does not point fingers at anyone. End of. Go back to your cocoa and you imagination.
Pip, pip.
Dear Quincey Riddle, my comment was not directed at you and I am impressed by your struggle and sacrifice on behalf of JfM.
ReplyDeleteI was just making the point that Aljazeera is not an impartial broadcaster and will like our own BBC act as an agent of government on certain issues.
Heathrow break-in... The news of the break-in itself only became public on the very day of the 9/11 disaster in New York, thus hugely diminishing for the public the potential significance of the break-in. http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/ World Trade Center Demolition http://wtcdemolition.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteHere's a thing.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time I took a taxi ride from Beruit to Damascus. During said journey, I had the first and only meaningful history lesson that I have ever had. Call it an epiphany if you will. It changed my life.
It occurred shortly after the Falange (Christian Nazis) had decided to shoot up a bus full of quite innocent Muslim Arabs: men, women and children going about their daily business of delivering their kids to school, shopping and attending to earning a meaningful living. Following this assault, Lebanon, Beruit in particular (previously regarded as the Jewel of the Middle East), has been a man made disaster zone.
I do not, and nor will I ever, accept that I have no blood on my hands. Do you?
We, in the West created this. Are you so blind, Dave et al?
I was born in 1953. That was the year that was the year that Churchill (later represented by Eden, who filled in the blanks) and Eisenhower overthrew Mohammed Moussadeq. Go read the history books.
Iran owes us nothing. If they want nukes, well, who exactly planted the notion in the first instance? Never mind the Iraq wars of late. This is an old story of modern times.
We simply can't be shagged to deal with our problem. We got ourselves hooked into oil to fire a convenient economic bubble at the start of the 20th century and we couldn't actually give a toss.
I've never seen so many 4x4s on the road in the UK as I see now! And for what? Pop down the bloody supermarket?
Once heard a brilliant one liner from a Brazilian student to a German judge (also a student of mine). Said wonderful Brazilian student said, having listened to the usual sanctimonious guff about how we should be looking after the environment from aforementioned judge: "Bugger off (you see, I taught them well), You lot have had your fun. Now it's our turn.!"
I like that. Let's all burn in Hell.
Pip, pip.
Dear Dave,
ReplyDeleteApologies.
Got into rant mode when I saw what you wrote. Feel confident you are a splendid chap. The fact is that I get a wee bit sensitive when folk start talking about the Middle East and Central Asia and I reckon, probably because I am making assumptions of my own, that they have little or no experience of the regions.
You have my most profuse and sincere apologies for having taken the issue thus far.
Yours,
Robert.
Quincey Riddle, you're back.
ReplyDeleteI think Dave does have a valid point if we're to coldly asses the dynamics of the M.E. It is noteable that Al Jazeera is become more and more influenced by Qatari Sunni political factors. The once fairly unbiased broadcaster has been transformed into and instrument of the state. They have been hemorrhaging the more fairer journalists out of protest at the sudden swing.
As a Sunni state they have been supplying rebels in Syria with weapons via Turkey with Russian Tupolevs. To the very enemies of relatively secular Syria and Assad and by implication also Iran.
So it has hardly surprised me that Al Jazeera is now coming forward with very professionally made documentaries, with albeit a glancing blow to Iran each time.
Dear msadams,
ReplyDeleteYup, don't know what came over me yesterday. Guess I just felt like having a rant. You are right to suggest that I rather went over the top blowing my whistle.
We are a bit of a weird bunch at JFM. Speaking for myself, I am a forgiving sort of cove. I have never agreed with retribution. Hell, I would even have sat down with Heydrich until I'd reformed him. Retribution simply perpetuates the problem and reduces us all to the level of the perpetrator of any given crime. Goodness, look at the recidivism that results from 'the punishment fitting the crime'!
If Iran did it. Fine. Let's have someone qualified to say so come out and say so. That's all I want to hear. Afterwhich we talk, we talk and we talk again.
My experience of Iran is that I have never encountered the degree of hospitality that was availed me there. Ever. I am quite sure that if an Iranian arrived here, they would not be afforded the like.
When in Afghanistan, I journeyed from Kunduz to Faizabad (on my way to the Pamirand the Chinese border - I'm a Silk Road freak). Upon climbing out of the truck after a truly hair raising, Indiana Jones like experience en-route, I was approached by a police colonel, who informed me that foreigners were not permitted in that particular province and that he would be providing me with an armed guard for the duration of my stay. Later that evening, I entered the local hostelry for nourishment, comatose guard in tow, to be confronted by aforementioned colonel in the company of a delightful German 'surveying' chap and a particularly notorious SAS officer operating out of the UK's embassy in Teheran and supplying the Islamic Fundamentalists in he north with 'support'. Needless to say, it was a most engaging evening.
The point is that we done it all for oil. When junkies get desperate they do all sorts. Kabul had its own home grown revolution (no Soviet involvement whatsoever - and that came from Cyrus Vance, by the way). This put the jitters up us because we had the USSR to the north and Iran was becoming increasingly unstable after 20 to 30 years of being viciously imposed upon to satisfy our interests. So, we fomented Islamic revolt against Kabul. Result? the Soviets blundered in to try to shore up a socialist government on its borders. They collapse and we end up with the Taliban. Funny old world.
It's layer upon layer, always has been. And, you don't find out until you find out. Around 80% of the news is coloured for the purposes of selling rags and ideology. But, the old adage still holds: follow the money.
I have no notion of what Aljazeera is up to but I can imagine.
Pip, pip.
PS
May continue this below with a brief rant I had on Facebook last night.
Cont.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that Iran doesn't really need nukes.
The US navy is not as gigantic as it is for nothing. Furthermore, we all depend on it and the input of the US tax payer. The UK, for instance, has cut its military budget back so far now that almost all it has left are the sea borne nukes. Call it managed decline, if you will. Do the maths. 80 to 90% of world trade goes along the planet's sea lanes. Iran can bring the whole house of cards to its knees in minutes by closing the Straits of Hormuz. Disruption of just a few days, hours even, would be sufficient to have stock marketeers jumping from their office windows. Result? Ultimately, you are looking at the possibility of Teheran being nuked by the only power that has employed the weapon in anger (twice). But that wouldn't happen. Not with the Russians and Chinese, the Indians and the Pakistanis in the neighbourhood. and let's not forget Israel = bit of a mess. Therefore most unlikely. Better to get the Iranians to spend their hard earned on a hiding to nothing by blustering over their nuke programme. Oh, and, by the way, Iran hasn't actually contravened any UN resolutions on proliferation, so why the sanctions? It's typical of the UN gentleman's club. Forever the US's lackey.
Therefore, Lockerbiewise, detract from Iran and place blame on mad dog Gaddafi and some nowhere island in the middle of the Med. You don't mess with Iran. They are governed by loopheads of our creation, yes our creation, who have finally decided, quite rightly in my view, that enough is enough and they owe us bugger all. Actually, personally speaking, if they want a nuke, good luck to them. Who laid the foundations for this casino after all?
Anyway, back to Lockerbie. Who is going to dare to question a recently privatised Heathrow with a massive reputation to lose - not to mention further privatisations and the entire UK Government's Thatcherite economic dogma on the line - by comparison to kicking some hick runway on Malta in the teeth? We call it contingencies. Well, I do.
Thank you, Robert, for always very interesting reading, along with Orolferacle and at times some impressive things from infrequent posters.
ReplyDeleteThe Bomb, I recall reading that both before Aljadimehads election (to and from the throne)(I know his name is wrongly spelled but Dave has shown the way: we should not be slaves of Google, there is something cheap over it) I recall reading that you might be for him or against him, but the majority supported that bomb thing.
Surprisingly, one of the columnists at NYT said something like: "They might rather get the bomb, than we start a new war." Klugman, maybe. I totally agree, of course.
Dear SM,
ReplyDeleteLove you. Hell. If you can afford one, flaunt it! The buggers only have a shelf-life of about four years anyway, so better use em quick! Good luck to that! Every home should have one. That's what I say. A silo in every back yard!
Pip, pip.
By the way, just discovered (so don't hold me to it till I've checked it out), whereas we spent about a tad over 5%, did you know that the USSR spent around 50% of its GDP on defence? God. That's really a crying shame in my book. And I'm not even a member of the Lenin fan club. Hey ho.
My own view is that it would be far far better simply to keep rubbing the authorities' noses in the fact that the bomb was introduced at Heathrow, and demand that they acknowledge this and take appropriate action. Running ahead of oneself to try to solve the case in its entirety could prove counterproductive by calling the entire endeavour into disrepute.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is that these Aljazeera-linked investigators based their efforts on trying to track Talb to Heathrow, and so prove their hypothesis that way. They didn't know about the suitcase jigsaw until a couple of months ago, and that aspect isn't really what they're about.
Of course, simply showing that the investigation and the prosecution got it all wrong doesn't seem to be enough for most media outlets these days. Nobody's interested unless you're prepared to say who you think actually did it, and that's a huge step into the unknown.
We can all have our thoughts about who we think was responsible, but when going public it's vitally important to stick to what the evidence shows, no further.
My sentiments entirely, Rolfe. Selecting and twisting evidence and ignoring or concealing inconvenient contrary evidence resulted in the conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi. We should be punctilious about avoiding committing the same faults when considering any other person or country as potentially culpable.
ReplyDeleteIf the task is to overturn the extraordinary miscarriage of justice rather than apportion blame then even the Heathrow theory becomes a step too far.
ReplyDeleteBecause, Megrahi’s conviction was debunked on the day it was delivered by the Judges themselves who basically said ‘we don’t know how you did it or even how the IED was allegedly loaded at Luqa, but you’re guilty and your co-conspirator is innocent’!
And this show trial verdict has been promoted by the state media as the evidence of his guilt and under which the US/UK political establishments have sheltered.
In other words citing the Judge’s comments and the absence of evidence for ‘ingestion’ at Luqa is enough to debunk the verdict.
*
The problem with the question of ‘if not Megrahi, then who’ is,
•Unless you say Iran, the pro-war neo-cons aren’t interested.
•If you say ‘another Muslim’ then the public aren’t bothered because ‘they all look the same’.
•If you say ‘not a Muslim, but someone else' the response will be ‘not a Muslim, are you mad’.
And
•If you say ‘not who, but what’ then the mere thought will be suppressed for the same reason a public enquiry wasn’t held!
And that, indeed, is what Megrahi himself said. He said that as he had been wrongly accused, he did not want to be responsible for wrongly accusing someone else.
ReplyDeleteI know who I think did it, in general terms. However, that's not something from my own knowledge, but something based on the writings of others. I'm entitled to my opinion, but I'm not entitled to accuse anyone on that basis. It could be that the consensus of the commentators is wrong.
So I kind of wish people would stop asking me who I think did it. I have no particular expertise or insight into that. I have seen no evidence and made no investigation on my own behalf.
I do know where it was done. I know that from my own knowledge, because I have seen plenty evidence and made a detailed investigation for myself. I can substantiate that with detailed evidence, reasoning and pictures. That doesn't give me any better insight into who did it than enyone else has.
That last was of course a reply to Prof. Black.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Dave's latest flight of fantasy is concerned, I wish him luck in going to the SCCRC with the Opinion of the Court and submitting that it debunks itself. I'm sure they'll overturn the verdict immediately! Oh wait, they won't.
The bomb was in a brown/maroon Samsonite hardshell suitcase placed in the front left-hand side of container AVE4041, on the floor more or less flat but with the left-hand side elevated into the overhang. The radio containing the Semtex was packed down the side of the case that was pushed into the overhang.
This is absolutely incontrovertible, from an examination of the descriptions and photographs of the recovered debris. Fantasy-football scenarios suggesting a different cause for the disaster need to explain this evidence. Hint. They can't.
The issue is simple. MacLean, Sutherland and Coulsfield became distracted by a the Crown's contorted presentation of a case based on a phantom that they claimed went from Malta to Heathrow via Frankfurt (unfortunately for Kurt Maier, poor bloke). We, JFM, have the evidence to disprove this and we will use it.
ReplyDeleteRobert Forester.