Lockerbie victim's father, Jim Swire, advises Donald Trump to 'educate himself' on disaster

[This is the headline over an article published today on the UK website of The Huffington Post.  It reads in part:]

After Donald Trump compared the development of wind farms in Scotland to the Lockerbie disaster, the father of one victim has spoken out. (...)

"Even the most casual observer would agree that the crashing of an aircraft onto the people and town of Lockerbie was a terrible disaster for Scotland," Dr Swire said in a letter sent to the Huffington Post UK.

"But it would at the least be insensitive to compare failure to achieve his aims over a golf course to the loss of all those innocent lives," he added, referring to Trump's comments.

In yet another attack on green energy schemes, Trump said “wind farms are a disaster for Scotland, like Pan Am 103." (...)

Dr Swire advised Trump to educate himself on the truth behind the 1988 incident, saying: "Loss of life cannot be measured in terms of money, nor can its loss be compensated for through money."

Since the day his daughter was killed, Dr Swire has been battling the official version of events, which held that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who died last year after returning to Libya from Scotland, was the guilty man.

Dr Swire is convinced that Megrahi was innocent, and describes the case against him as "rubbish", a course that has pitted him against many of the other relatives who hold the Libyan responsible.

The retired GP said he would be happy to help the billionaire tycoon become more informed. 

[Here is the full text of Dr Swire’s letter:]

Mr Trump's remarks are made against frustration at Scotland's refusal to agree to his demands over his golf course project.

This must of course be a project designed to make money for Mr Trump, that is how capitalism works, and few can be more efficient in the use of capitalist ideology than our American cousins.

But it is at the least insensitive to compare failure to achieve his aims to the loss of 270 innocent lives at Lockerbie.

Loss of life cannot be measured in terms of money, nor can its loss be compensated for through money.

However if Mr Trump wishes to look into the truth behind the Lockerbie disaster, which has I believe been obscured by Scotland's handling of the case against the Late Baset al-Megrahi, I would be happy to put his people in touch with those who have studied  that situation most closely and come to the conclusion that Scots law has failed on this issue.

Mr Trump's team might feel that the title of a recent book by John Ashton Scotland's Shame (Birlinn, Edinburgh) was of interest. They will find this book provides evidence of a major failure of our Scottish legal system, which we have yet to address.

Mr Trump needs to be careful however because his country the USA still believes that the late Baset al Megrahi and his country Libya, were responsible for the cruel slaughter at Lockerbie. If he will objectively research the issue I feel sure he will find that unfortunately we in Scotland got that horribly wrong and have yet to address our failure even all these years later.