[This is the headline over an article by Lucy Adams in today's edition of The Herald. It reads in part:]
A convicted killer who many believe is the real Lockerbie bomber has been freed from prison in Sweden, prompting calls for a new investigation into Palestinian links to the atrocity.
Mohammed Abu Talb, who was serving a life sentence for other terror attacks in Copenhagen and Amsterdam using explosive devices, was the original suspect for the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 until 1990, when attention switched to Libya.
The Egyptian-born militant then served as a prosecution witness at the trial of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, when he denied defence claims that he was the killer of the 270 people at Lockerbie in 1988.
However, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is understood to have uncovered new evidence that strengthens the case against Talb, who was allegedly funded by Iran to blow up the plane in revenge for the American cruiser USS Vincennes shooting an Iran Air flight out of the sky on July 3, 1988, killing 290 people.
On the first anniversary of Megrahi’s release yesterday, Swedish authorities confirmed publicly for the first time that Talb had been released from Malmo prison after serving 20 years.
Because his whereabouts is now unknown, and he is widely thought to have returned to the Middle East, campaigners who believe Megrahi has been unjustly treated are concerned that a key chance to interview Talb has been lost.
The Herald has previously revealed that Talb could be tried if Megrahi were to be formally cleared. An appeal against Megrahi’s conviction could still be mounted even after the death of the Libyan, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer.
Eddie MacKechnie, Megrahi’s solicitor from 2001-2006, said it was now time to refocus on what really happened, rather than obsessing about Megrahi’s early release. “There was more evidence at the time to implicate Talb and his associates than Megrahi,” he said. “I know that many police officers at the time were concerned that the investigation shifted to Libya when there was no evidence of Libyan involvement.
“The relatives deserve to know whether there has been a cover-up of any kind. We need to have a full and independent inquiry into what happened, and it needs to look at the Palestinian connection.”
Professor Robert Black, QC, the architect of the Lockerbie trial, said: “I support Mr MacKechnie 100%. Clearly the Palestinian connection deserves to be looked at and a full inquiry needs to be held.”
A leading CIA figure also called for the Palestinian connection to be reinvestigated. Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer assigned to the Middle East, told The Herald that an appeal or public inquiry was now needed. “I talked to the SCCRC and they were very clearly focussed on the Palestinians and the Iranian connection,” he said.
“There is no doubt that Abu Talb was an asset controlled by the Iranians and questions need to be asked about how he ended up as a prosecution witness. He was definitely not a reliable witness and what we need now is what the SCCRC report says, what intelligence there was, and what the connections were.”
The SCCRC report refers to the recovery of official records from various organisations in Italy. These are thought to relate to Talb, who travelled between Cyprus, Rome, Malta, and Frankfurt in the run-up to the bombing.
Evidence not heard at the Lockerbie trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands has revealed that the CIA thought Talb was the man responsible, and that police found clothes, including a blue babygro similar to one found at Lockerbie, when they raided his flat in Germany.
Police also found a calendar with the date “21 December” circled. In addition, Talb’s wife was recorded in a wiretapped telephone call warning another unidentified Palestinian to “get rid of the clothes immediately”.
In May 1989, Talb was arrested in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. At Camp Zeist, defence counsel alleged the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, and the lesser-known Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, were responsible for the Lockerbie bombing. They said Talb was linked to both terrorist groups.
In his testimony, Talb told the court that he ended “all activities relating to Palestine at the end of 1982”. He was jailed along with three other men for the bombings in Denmark and the Netherlands, which killed one man and injured many others, but his life sentence was later commuted to 20 years.
[The release of Abu Talb from prison in Sweden was first reported on 18 October 2009 by Marcello Mega in an article in The Mail on Sunday.]
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Visiting time ...
This is the heading given by Martin Rowson to his cartoon in today's edition of The Guardian. It can be viewed here. The readers' comments that follow it are worth reading.
Friday, 20 August 2010
Salmond: 'nothing to hide' on Megrahi release
[This is the headline over a report on the Channel 4 News website. It reads in part:]
First Minister Alex Salmond told Channel 4 News that Scotland had "nothing to hide" in the 22-year period since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, when a US plane blew up over the Scottish town, killing 270 people.
He also defended the decision, taken one year ago, to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. (...)
Mr Salmond said that he had received a letter from four US senators today which raised the issue again of commercial interests motivating al-Megrahi's release. (...)
Mr Salmond said: "I had a letter today which, despite all the evidence to the contrary, despite everyone knowing the Scottish government's vigorous public and private opposition to the prisoner transfer agreement with Tony Blair and Colonel Gaddafi and all of that stuff, claims of deals with BP and the rest of it...to get a letter from people who suggest that we were somehow involved in that is simply incredible." (...)
The US senators want to hold their own inquiry amid concerns that al-Megrahi's release was tied to a BP oil deal with Libya - a suggestion that has been strongly denied by all parties involved.
There have also been renewed calls for an inquiry into the 2001 conviction itself, with pressure group Justice for Megrahi claiming he may have been the victim of a "spectacular miscarriage of justice."
Mr Salmond said that, if there were to be any international inquiry into the al-Megrahi case by an independent authority such as the United Nations, his country and his government would co-operate fully.
"If there was to be an international inquiry into this case, then of course the Scottish government would fully co-operate. We have nothing to fear and nothing to hide in the way we have conducted this case under Scottish jurisdiction over the last 20 years," he said.
He also backed the original decision of Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, based on the medical report from Dr Andrew Fraser, to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.
"Any doctor can only judge the patient in front of him," he said. "Al-Megrahi is suffering from terminal prostate cancer and he will die of that condition...Most people will know from their own experience of people who have contracted cancer where they have exceeded their life expectancy prognosis, and lived for longer."
First Minister Alex Salmond told Channel 4 News that Scotland had "nothing to hide" in the 22-year period since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, when a US plane blew up over the Scottish town, killing 270 people.
He also defended the decision, taken one year ago, to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. (...)
Mr Salmond said that he had received a letter from four US senators today which raised the issue again of commercial interests motivating al-Megrahi's release. (...)
Mr Salmond said: "I had a letter today which, despite all the evidence to the contrary, despite everyone knowing the Scottish government's vigorous public and private opposition to the prisoner transfer agreement with Tony Blair and Colonel Gaddafi and all of that stuff, claims of deals with BP and the rest of it...to get a letter from people who suggest that we were somehow involved in that is simply incredible." (...)
The US senators want to hold their own inquiry amid concerns that al-Megrahi's release was tied to a BP oil deal with Libya - a suggestion that has been strongly denied by all parties involved.
There have also been renewed calls for an inquiry into the 2001 conviction itself, with pressure group Justice for Megrahi claiming he may have been the victim of a "spectacular miscarriage of justice."
Mr Salmond said that, if there were to be any international inquiry into the al-Megrahi case by an independent authority such as the United Nations, his country and his government would co-operate fully.
"If there was to be an international inquiry into this case, then of course the Scottish government would fully co-operate. We have nothing to fear and nothing to hide in the way we have conducted this case under Scottish jurisdiction over the last 20 years," he said.
He also backed the original decision of Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, based on the medical report from Dr Andrew Fraser, to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.
"Any doctor can only judge the patient in front of him," he said. "Al-Megrahi is suffering from terminal prostate cancer and he will die of that condition...Most people will know from their own experience of people who have contracted cancer where they have exceeded their life expectancy prognosis, and lived for longer."
They're still at it!
A group of US senators says a "cloud of suspicion" still hangs over the release a year ago of the man responsible for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Senator Robert Menendez called on Britain and Scotland to answer a number of "outstanding questions" over the case of Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi. (...)
Mr Menendez said that one year on, there was "anger and frustration" in the US that Megrahi was "still very much alive and very much free".
The BBC's Matthew Price, in New York, says the senators want "more information on the medical opinions that led to the conclusion that Megrahi had just three months to live and details on communications between BP and the British government".
Their move follows an earlier decision by the Scottish government not to send officials to a hearing in Washington.
[From a report on the BBC News website. A fuller report by The Press Association news agency can be read here.
Justice for Megrahi at the end of July invited the four senators to lend their support to a full inquiry into the Lockerbie case -- the circumstances in which Abdelbaset Megrahi was convicted as well as the circumstances in which he was released. Answer came there none.
The Scottish Government has up to now responded to these grandstanding clowns with impeccable -- if somewhat strained -- courtesy. The gloves should now come off.
A press release from the Scottish National Party headed "Questions for US Senate over Libya deal" provides details of major US oil companies' lobbying of the US Senate in relation to the treatment of Libya. Christine Grahame MSP is qoted as saying:
"I do not doubt the Senators care and concern for the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing and I share their desire to get to the truth over the bombing but would urge them to join me in backing a full international inquiry into the atrocity. Their hypocrisy in making allegations against the Scottish Government when they themselves have acted in favour of US oil and Libyan Government lobbying is deeply distasteful."]
Senator Robert Menendez called on Britain and Scotland to answer a number of "outstanding questions" over the case of Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi. (...)
Mr Menendez said that one year on, there was "anger and frustration" in the US that Megrahi was "still very much alive and very much free".
The BBC's Matthew Price, in New York, says the senators want "more information on the medical opinions that led to the conclusion that Megrahi had just three months to live and details on communications between BP and the British government".
Their move follows an earlier decision by the Scottish government not to send officials to a hearing in Washington.
[From a report on the BBC News website. A fuller report by The Press Association news agency can be read here.
Justice for Megrahi at the end of July invited the four senators to lend their support to a full inquiry into the Lockerbie case -- the circumstances in which Abdelbaset Megrahi was convicted as well as the circumstances in which he was released. Answer came there none.
The Scottish Government has up to now responded to these grandstanding clowns with impeccable -- if somewhat strained -- courtesy. The gloves should now come off.
A press release from the Scottish National Party headed "Questions for US Senate over Libya deal" provides details of major US oil companies' lobbying of the US Senate in relation to the treatment of Libya. Christine Grahame MSP is qoted as saying:
"I do not doubt the Senators care and concern for the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing and I share their desire to get to the truth over the bombing but would urge them to join me in backing a full international inquiry into the atrocity. Their hypocrisy in making allegations against the Scottish Government when they themselves have acted in favour of US oil and Libyan Government lobbying is deeply distasteful."]
Five questions about the Lockerbie bomber's release
[This is the headline over an article just published on the website of Time magazine. The last three questions are as follows:]
Did Scottish officials persuade Al-Megrahi to drop his legal appeal before going home?
With no explanation, Al-Megrahi dropped his appeal against his conviction shortly before he was freed. Some relatives of Lockerbie victims suspect Scottish officials might have persuaded Al-Megrahi to end his appeal — possibly in exchange for a smoother release — perhaps to avoid raising potentially embarrassing questions about the original trial, held in Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001 and 2002. "Most of us [relatives of Lockerbie victims] here feel that there is something extremely murky, which the US and British governments don't want to come out," John Mosey, a British pastor whose 19-year-old daughter died aboard the Pan Am plane, tells Time. Jim Swire, whose 24-year-old daughter was killed in the Lockerbie attack, says Scotland's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill did something "very unwise. He went to see Al-Megrahi in prison ... then Al-Megrahi dropped his appeal, and then MacAskill decided to send him home." Swire, who has fought a long campaign to reveal the truth behind the Lockerbie attack, says that suggests possible persuasion. But, so far, there's no proof of any.
Could Al-Megrahi have been innocent?
US Senators are not aiming for a retrial, but they might focus on the controversies surrounding Al-Megrahi's imprisonment. Swire, Mosey, and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy to the Lockerbie trial, Austrian law professor Hans Köchler, are among those who have long argued that the trial leading to Al-Megrahi's conviction was deeply flawed. In 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, a publicly funded body that investigates possible wrongful convictions, issued an 800-page report listing several grounds for an appeal by Al-Megrahi, including inconsistencies in the testimony of the key prosecution witness and the existence of CIA documents about the Swiss-made timer for the bomb, which defense lawyers had not seen. So far, the full report has not been released publicly.
How is Al-Megrahi still alive?
This is hardly something on which the US Senate will focus, but at least one survivor of the Lockerbie victims is curious as to how Libya's doctors have kept Al-Megrahi alive in Tripoli. Swire, a British medical doctor, says he studied survival rates for cancer patients with conditions similar to Al-Megrahi's and concluded that only about 10% of them could live this long. "He was regarded as hopeless," he says. Al-Megrahi's survival suggests that Libya might have used start-of-the-art medicine on him. "If there is some new technology which has been offered to him it would be good to know," he says. "It is very, very encouraging in terms of medicine." Although surely not so encouraging for those who, predicting his quick demise, sent him home one year ago.
Did Scottish officials persuade Al-Megrahi to drop his legal appeal before going home?
With no explanation, Al-Megrahi dropped his appeal against his conviction shortly before he was freed. Some relatives of Lockerbie victims suspect Scottish officials might have persuaded Al-Megrahi to end his appeal — possibly in exchange for a smoother release — perhaps to avoid raising potentially embarrassing questions about the original trial, held in Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001 and 2002. "Most of us [relatives of Lockerbie victims] here feel that there is something extremely murky, which the US and British governments don't want to come out," John Mosey, a British pastor whose 19-year-old daughter died aboard the Pan Am plane, tells Time. Jim Swire, whose 24-year-old daughter was killed in the Lockerbie attack, says Scotland's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill did something "very unwise. He went to see Al-Megrahi in prison ... then Al-Megrahi dropped his appeal, and then MacAskill decided to send him home." Swire, who has fought a long campaign to reveal the truth behind the Lockerbie attack, says that suggests possible persuasion. But, so far, there's no proof of any.
Could Al-Megrahi have been innocent?
US Senators are not aiming for a retrial, but they might focus on the controversies surrounding Al-Megrahi's imprisonment. Swire, Mosey, and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy to the Lockerbie trial, Austrian law professor Hans Köchler, are among those who have long argued that the trial leading to Al-Megrahi's conviction was deeply flawed. In 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, a publicly funded body that investigates possible wrongful convictions, issued an 800-page report listing several grounds for an appeal by Al-Megrahi, including inconsistencies in the testimony of the key prosecution witness and the existence of CIA documents about the Swiss-made timer for the bomb, which defense lawyers had not seen. So far, the full report has not been released publicly.
How is Al-Megrahi still alive?
This is hardly something on which the US Senate will focus, but at least one survivor of the Lockerbie victims is curious as to how Libya's doctors have kept Al-Megrahi alive in Tripoli. Swire, a British medical doctor, says he studied survival rates for cancer patients with conditions similar to Al-Megrahi's and concluded that only about 10% of them could live this long. "He was regarded as hopeless," he says. Al-Megrahi's survival suggests that Libya might have used start-of-the-art medicine on him. "If there is some new technology which has been offered to him it would be good to know," he says. "It is very, very encouraging in terms of medicine." Although surely not so encouraging for those who, predicting his quick demise, sent him home one year ago.
'Lockerbie: Unfinished Business' shortlisted for Amnesty Freedom of Expression award
Amnesty International today added Roadkill and Lockerbie: Unfinished Business to the shortlist for its Freedom of Expression Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. The award, given to an outstanding play carrying a human rights message, will be presented on Thursday 26 August. (...)
Lockerbie: Unfinished Business, written & performed by David Benson and directed by Hannah Eidinov, is also based on a true story, this time of Jim Swire, father and justice campaigner. Performed at the Gilded Balloon Teviot, the play follows his quest for the truth after the death of his daughter in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Freedom of Expression Award judge Stephanie Knight said of Lockerbie: Unfinished Business:
“David Benson gives a well-crafted, commanding performance which has powerful moments of intensity as the audience awaits each development and discovery of Jim Swire’s. It is a thoroughly researched piece that underscores the integrity of a father and justice campaigner whose intelligent reasoning leads to the conclusion that justice is yet to be achieved.”
[From a report on the Amnesty International website.
A stellar review of the play can be read here on the Edinburgh Guide website.]
Lockerbie: Unfinished Business, written & performed by David Benson and directed by Hannah Eidinov, is also based on a true story, this time of Jim Swire, father and justice campaigner. Performed at the Gilded Balloon Teviot, the play follows his quest for the truth after the death of his daughter in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Freedom of Expression Award judge Stephanie Knight said of Lockerbie: Unfinished Business:
“David Benson gives a well-crafted, commanding performance which has powerful moments of intensity as the audience awaits each development and discovery of Jim Swire’s. It is a thoroughly researched piece that underscores the integrity of a father and justice campaigner whose intelligent reasoning leads to the conclusion that justice is yet to be achieved.”
[From a report on the Amnesty International website.
A stellar review of the play can be read here on the Edinburgh Guide website.]
Scottish MP takes Air Malta’s side in Lockerbie bomb case
[This is the headline over a report published today on the website of the Maltese newspaper The Times. It refers to the SNP's Christine Grahame who is, of course, a MSP not a MP. The article reads in part:]
A Scottish television documentary alleging the Lockerbie bomb was loaded in an unaccompanied luggage in Malta was “biased” and “deeply misleading”, Scottish MP Christine Grahame insists.
Ms Grahame, a Scottish National Party representative in the Scottish Parliament, wrote to STV’s chief executive officer Rob Woodward expressing concern at the allegations repeated in the documentary broadcast earlier this month.
She said Air Malta had won a significant out-of-court settlement against Granada TV in 1993 when the same “unfounded allegations” about the airline’s involvement in the Lockerbie story had been made.
The documentary claimed the bomb was loaded in Malta on an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt, something that has always been denied by the airline and the government.
The unaccompanied luggage then purportedly made its way to Heathrow where it eventually found its way onto Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish village of Lockerbie killing 270 people in December 1988.
“There were a number of misleading statements made in the film but I think the most worrying from STV’s perspective will be the unfounded allegation that the baggage alleged to have carried the bomb was transported, unaccompanied, on an Air Malta flight,” Ms Grahame said.
She insisted Air Malta was able to prove that all 55 bags loaded onto the flight to Frankfurt were ascribed to passengers.
“To this day, not a single shred of evidence has ever been produced showing the bomb was on the Air Malta flight,” Ms Grahame said, insisting she was extremely disappointed with the way the STV documentary recounted the events surrounding the atrocity in “a one-sided and biased manner”.
Air Malta yesterday stood by its initial reaction last week, insisting it was following developments closely. An airline spokesman said the company had nothing to add when asked whether it had instructed its lawyers to initiate legal action against STV. (...)
Concerns over the Scottish documentary were also raised by the father of one of the victims, Jim Swire, who asked the broadcaster to apologise and correct the wrong impression given about Malta.
“I wrote to STV because, being a seeker of truth myself, I do not like to see lies promulgated in public. It simply isn’t true that the Lockerbie bomb was carried by Air Malta. Indeed, it is not true that the bomb started its awful journey from Malta at all,” Dr Swire said.
Dr Swire and other Lockerbie investigators developed a theory that the bomb was most probably introduced on the fatal flight through a break-in that occurred the night before the bombing at Heathrow airport allowing access for an untraced person to the baggage loading area for Pan Am and the facility allocated in those days to Iran Air.
“Why would a state terrorist choose to risk two changes of aircraft and set his timer so that the final plane only cleared Heathrow by 38 minutes when his digital timer would have allowed him to set it to go off over the mid-Atlantic? What a crazy plot,” the embittered father said of the prosecution’s theory that pinned the blame on Mr al-Megrahi, who, at the time, was a secret service agent for the Libyan government stationed in Malta with Libyan Arab Airlines.
“How much simpler to break into Heathrow and leave a case with the explosive device for the Iranians to put into a Pan Am container at the next available opportunity,” Dr Swire said, insisting Iran had the strongest motive to retaliate after an Iran Air Airbus was shot down six months earlier by a US warship in the Persian Gulf , killing all 290 passengers. According to the US government, the crew mistakenly identified the Iranian airliner as an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter.
“I did not want the viewers in Scotland to believe a fallacy of that magnitude, now re-broadcast by STV,” Dr Swire said of his Air Malta defence. (...)
Malta has always denied the bomb was loaded at Luqa airport.
A Scottish television documentary alleging the Lockerbie bomb was loaded in an unaccompanied luggage in Malta was “biased” and “deeply misleading”, Scottish MP Christine Grahame insists.
Ms Grahame, a Scottish National Party representative in the Scottish Parliament, wrote to STV’s chief executive officer Rob Woodward expressing concern at the allegations repeated in the documentary broadcast earlier this month.
She said Air Malta had won a significant out-of-court settlement against Granada TV in 1993 when the same “unfounded allegations” about the airline’s involvement in the Lockerbie story had been made.
The documentary claimed the bomb was loaded in Malta on an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt, something that has always been denied by the airline and the government.
The unaccompanied luggage then purportedly made its way to Heathrow where it eventually found its way onto Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish village of Lockerbie killing 270 people in December 1988.
“There were a number of misleading statements made in the film but I think the most worrying from STV’s perspective will be the unfounded allegation that the baggage alleged to have carried the bomb was transported, unaccompanied, on an Air Malta flight,” Ms Grahame said.
She insisted Air Malta was able to prove that all 55 bags loaded onto the flight to Frankfurt were ascribed to passengers.
“To this day, not a single shred of evidence has ever been produced showing the bomb was on the Air Malta flight,” Ms Grahame said, insisting she was extremely disappointed with the way the STV documentary recounted the events surrounding the atrocity in “a one-sided and biased manner”.
Air Malta yesterday stood by its initial reaction last week, insisting it was following developments closely. An airline spokesman said the company had nothing to add when asked whether it had instructed its lawyers to initiate legal action against STV. (...)
Concerns over the Scottish documentary were also raised by the father of one of the victims, Jim Swire, who asked the broadcaster to apologise and correct the wrong impression given about Malta.
“I wrote to STV because, being a seeker of truth myself, I do not like to see lies promulgated in public. It simply isn’t true that the Lockerbie bomb was carried by Air Malta. Indeed, it is not true that the bomb started its awful journey from Malta at all,” Dr Swire said.
Dr Swire and other Lockerbie investigators developed a theory that the bomb was most probably introduced on the fatal flight through a break-in that occurred the night before the bombing at Heathrow airport allowing access for an untraced person to the baggage loading area for Pan Am and the facility allocated in those days to Iran Air.
“Why would a state terrorist choose to risk two changes of aircraft and set his timer so that the final plane only cleared Heathrow by 38 minutes when his digital timer would have allowed him to set it to go off over the mid-Atlantic? What a crazy plot,” the embittered father said of the prosecution’s theory that pinned the blame on Mr al-Megrahi, who, at the time, was a secret service agent for the Libyan government stationed in Malta with Libyan Arab Airlines.
“How much simpler to break into Heathrow and leave a case with the explosive device for the Iranians to put into a Pan Am container at the next available opportunity,” Dr Swire said, insisting Iran had the strongest motive to retaliate after an Iran Air Airbus was shot down six months earlier by a US warship in the Persian Gulf , killing all 290 passengers. According to the US government, the crew mistakenly identified the Iranian airliner as an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter.
“I did not want the viewers in Scotland to believe a fallacy of that magnitude, now re-broadcast by STV,” Dr Swire said of his Air Malta defence. (...)
Malta has always denied the bomb was loaded at Luqa airport.
UK Lockerbie families call US senators to Scotland
[This is the headline over a news agency report from The Associated Press. It reads in part:]
Some families of the British victims of the Lockerbie bombing have challenged four US senators to speak to them about their take on the 1988 terror attack.
Although the American relatives of those who died in the attack have largely focused on the controversy surrounding the release of former Libyan agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of playing any role in the atrocity, many here in the UK harbor lingering doubts about his guilt — and want the US to know it.
"The senators should not be asking why Mr. al-Megrahi was released, but why he was convicted in the first place," said Rev. John Mosey, whose daughter Helga, 19, was among those who perished in the attack. "This is not about one man, but about the 270 people who died."
Lawyers for al-Megrahi have long argued that the attack was actually the result of an Iranian-financed Palestinian plot, and that authorities in Britain and the United States tampered with evidence, disregarded witness statements and steered investigators toward the conclusion that Libya, not Iran, was to blame.
Libya accepted responsibility and pay compensation for the Lockerbie bombing, the argument goes, as a quick and easy way to shake off its pariah status.
The theory remains a matter of debate in Scotland. Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Henderson, who helped link al-Megrahi to the bombing, recently told Scottish television that the idea that anyone would attempt to frame al-Megrahi was ridiculous. (...)
Mosey said that US officials needed to change their focus.
"Instead of hounding the doctors and Scottish politicians in the case, I would like them to come over to speak to us, the UK families of Flight 103," he said. "We are not in uniform agreement, but I think they need to hear our voices.
"We have not learned the truth about Lockerbie."
Still, it does have some traction and Mosey and others have called for a public inquiry into the case.
Some families of the British victims of the Lockerbie bombing have challenged four US senators to speak to them about their take on the 1988 terror attack.
Although the American relatives of those who died in the attack have largely focused on the controversy surrounding the release of former Libyan agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of playing any role in the atrocity, many here in the UK harbor lingering doubts about his guilt — and want the US to know it.
"The senators should not be asking why Mr. al-Megrahi was released, but why he was convicted in the first place," said Rev. John Mosey, whose daughter Helga, 19, was among those who perished in the attack. "This is not about one man, but about the 270 people who died."
Lawyers for al-Megrahi have long argued that the attack was actually the result of an Iranian-financed Palestinian plot, and that authorities in Britain and the United States tampered with evidence, disregarded witness statements and steered investigators toward the conclusion that Libya, not Iran, was to blame.
Libya accepted responsibility and pay compensation for the Lockerbie bombing, the argument goes, as a quick and easy way to shake off its pariah status.
The theory remains a matter of debate in Scotland. Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Henderson, who helped link al-Megrahi to the bombing, recently told Scottish television that the idea that anyone would attempt to frame al-Megrahi was ridiculous. (...)
Mosey said that US officials needed to change their focus.
"Instead of hounding the doctors and Scottish politicians in the case, I would like them to come over to speak to us, the UK families of Flight 103," he said. "We are not in uniform agreement, but I think they need to hear our voices.
"We have not learned the truth about Lockerbie."
Still, it does have some traction and Mosey and others have called for a public inquiry into the case.
Call for public inquiry into bombing
[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Herald. It reads as follows:]
Dignitaries and campaigners including Desmond Tutu have called for the Scottish Government to launch a public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing.
In an open letter, some 24 signatories including relatives of the victims, such as Dr Jim Swire and Jean Berkley, today call for a full and open inquiry.
The letter questions recent moves by the Scottish Government “to abrogate its responsibility and pass the buck to London” in relation to calls for a public inquiry.
First Minister Alex Salmond and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill have said that Scotland has neither the power nor the resources to hold an investigation.
The letter states: “When it came to granting compassionate release to Mr Megrahi, the Scottish Government was adamant that the matter fell under Scottish jurisdiction and would brook no interference in the nation’s affairs.
“When it comes to the establishment of an inquiry, why does Edinburgh appear so keen to abrogate its responsibility and pass the buck?
“One cannot have one’s cake and eat it. The excuse frequently offered is that a Scottish inquiry would not possess the requisite power of subpoena when it comes to requiring evidence to be produced.
“This same argument not only applies to Westminster but to the General Assembly of the United Nations Organisation also. In fact, the only body with the powers that Mr Salmond is looking for is the Security Council of the UN.
“In other words, given this, and the fact that the General Assembly appears to be reluctant to take the bull by the horns, it is down to individual nation states.
“The Scottish Government should not be allowed to shirk its duties and responsibilities to the bereaved and its electorate by expecting other, foreign, authorities to pick up the gauntlet.”
The letter, sent to ministers to coincide with the anniversary of Megrahi’s release, makes the point that Holyrood should be fully able to assess the details of what happened because the case was investigated by Scottish police, the trial was conducted under Scots law, and Megrahi was held in a Scottish prison and released on compassionate grounds by a Scottish minister.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “On the broader questions of inquiry, the Scottish Government does not doubt the safety of the conviction of Mr Megrahi. [Note by RB: Another instance of the SCCRC's conclusion that, on six grounds, the conviction might have been a miscarriage of justice, being blithely swept under the carpet.] Nevertheless, there remain concerns to some on the wider issues of the atrocity.
“The questions to be asked and answered in any such inquiry would be beyond the jurisdiction of Scots law and the remit of the Scottish Government, and such an inquiry would therefore need to be initiated by those with the required power and authority to deal with an issue, international in its nature.”
Scots back Salmond on US inquiry decision
Almost three-quarters of Scots believe First Minister Alex Salmond was correct to snub requests to appear before a US inquiry.
The SNP-commissioned YouGov poll of 1212 people showed 72% agreed they were right not to attend and said the Scottish Government is accountable to itself, not US politicians.
A total of 14% think lobbying by BP played a part in Megrahi’s release, while 54% agreed with the Scottish Government that he was released “solely in line with Scots law”.
And 76% said it was proper that the decision on whether to release Megrahi was made by the Scottish Justice Secretary, not a minister in the UK Government.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “This poll demonstrates overwhelmingly that the people of Scotland believe that the Justice Secretary took the decision for the right reasons, that it was right for the Scottish Government and no one else to take the decision, and that it was right not to answer to a US Senate hearing on the issue.”
[The Scotsman publishes a long series of articles on the anniversary of Megrahi's release. The main one is tendentiously headlined "Freeing Megrahi 'will cost SNP the election'". It contains links to the other pieces and can be read here.]
Dignitaries and campaigners including Desmond Tutu have called for the Scottish Government to launch a public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing.
In an open letter, some 24 signatories including relatives of the victims, such as Dr Jim Swire and Jean Berkley, today call for a full and open inquiry.
The letter questions recent moves by the Scottish Government “to abrogate its responsibility and pass the buck to London” in relation to calls for a public inquiry.
First Minister Alex Salmond and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill have said that Scotland has neither the power nor the resources to hold an investigation.
The letter states: “When it came to granting compassionate release to Mr Megrahi, the Scottish Government was adamant that the matter fell under Scottish jurisdiction and would brook no interference in the nation’s affairs.
“When it comes to the establishment of an inquiry, why does Edinburgh appear so keen to abrogate its responsibility and pass the buck?
“One cannot have one’s cake and eat it. The excuse frequently offered is that a Scottish inquiry would not possess the requisite power of subpoena when it comes to requiring evidence to be produced.
“This same argument not only applies to Westminster but to the General Assembly of the United Nations Organisation also. In fact, the only body with the powers that Mr Salmond is looking for is the Security Council of the UN.
“In other words, given this, and the fact that the General Assembly appears to be reluctant to take the bull by the horns, it is down to individual nation states.
“The Scottish Government should not be allowed to shirk its duties and responsibilities to the bereaved and its electorate by expecting other, foreign, authorities to pick up the gauntlet.”
The letter, sent to ministers to coincide with the anniversary of Megrahi’s release, makes the point that Holyrood should be fully able to assess the details of what happened because the case was investigated by Scottish police, the trial was conducted under Scots law, and Megrahi was held in a Scottish prison and released on compassionate grounds by a Scottish minister.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “On the broader questions of inquiry, the Scottish Government does not doubt the safety of the conviction of Mr Megrahi. [Note by RB: Another instance of the SCCRC's conclusion that, on six grounds, the conviction might have been a miscarriage of justice, being blithely swept under the carpet.] Nevertheless, there remain concerns to some on the wider issues of the atrocity.
“The questions to be asked and answered in any such inquiry would be beyond the jurisdiction of Scots law and the remit of the Scottish Government, and such an inquiry would therefore need to be initiated by those with the required power and authority to deal with an issue, international in its nature.”
Scots back Salmond on US inquiry decision
Almost three-quarters of Scots believe First Minister Alex Salmond was correct to snub requests to appear before a US inquiry.
The SNP-commissioned YouGov poll of 1212 people showed 72% agreed they were right not to attend and said the Scottish Government is accountable to itself, not US politicians.
A total of 14% think lobbying by BP played a part in Megrahi’s release, while 54% agreed with the Scottish Government that he was released “solely in line with Scots law”.
And 76% said it was proper that the decision on whether to release Megrahi was made by the Scottish Justice Secretary, not a minister in the UK Government.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “This poll demonstrates overwhelmingly that the people of Scotland believe that the Justice Secretary took the decision for the right reasons, that it was right for the Scottish Government and no one else to take the decision, and that it was right not to answer to a US Senate hearing on the issue.”
[The Scotsman publishes a long series of articles on the anniversary of Megrahi's release. The main one is tendentiously headlined "Freeing Megrahi 'will cost SNP the election'". It contains links to the other pieces and can be read here.]
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Lockerbie bombing 'should be investigated by independent inquiry'
[This is the headline over a report just published on The Guardian website. It reads in part:]
A senior human rights lawyer has called for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing as controversy intensifies over the convicted bomber's early release on medical grounds.
Professor Alan Miller, the head of the Scottish human rights commission, said there were still significant doubts about the guilt of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi after an independent investigation uncovered new evidence that undermined the conviction.
Miller told The Guardian that the UK government should release a secret intelligence report that the Scottish criminal cases review commission said could – on its own – have been enough to have freed Megrahi on appeal. It was withheld at his trial.
The document is believed to cast serious doubts on prosecution claims that Megrahi used a specific Swiss timer for the bomb. The release of the document was banned in 2008 by David Miliband, the then foreign secretary, leading to a lengthy legal battle by Megrahi's lawyers which ended when the Libyan abandoned his appeal because of his terminal cancer. (...)
Miller said the row over Megrahi's medical status was an "undignified and unhelpful distraction" from the more important issue of addressing unresolved questions about his guilt.
It has emerged that Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Noam Chomsky are among the signatories of a petition calling for an inquiry into the case.
[The list of signatories can be seen here. Kate Adie has just written to Justice for Megrahi asking that her name be added to the list.
Unsurprisingly, the Tory-supporting Telegraph website is running an editorial headed "Lockerbie bomber: MacAskill should resign". The Tories have minimal electoral support in Scotland.]
A senior human rights lawyer has called for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing as controversy intensifies over the convicted bomber's early release on medical grounds.
Professor Alan Miller, the head of the Scottish human rights commission, said there were still significant doubts about the guilt of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi after an independent investigation uncovered new evidence that undermined the conviction.
Miller told The Guardian that the UK government should release a secret intelligence report that the Scottish criminal cases review commission said could – on its own – have been enough to have freed Megrahi on appeal. It was withheld at his trial.
The document is believed to cast serious doubts on prosecution claims that Megrahi used a specific Swiss timer for the bomb. The release of the document was banned in 2008 by David Miliband, the then foreign secretary, leading to a lengthy legal battle by Megrahi's lawyers which ended when the Libyan abandoned his appeal because of his terminal cancer. (...)
Miller said the row over Megrahi's medical status was an "undignified and unhelpful distraction" from the more important issue of addressing unresolved questions about his guilt.
It has emerged that Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Noam Chomsky are among the signatories of a petition calling for an inquiry into the case.
[The list of signatories can be seen here. Kate Adie has just written to Justice for Megrahi asking that her name be added to the list.
Unsurprisingly, the Tory-supporting Telegraph website is running an editorial headed "Lockerbie bomber: MacAskill should resign". The Tories have minimal electoral support in Scotland.]
Media comment on the eve of the anniversary
The Middle East Online website runs an article headed "A year later, freed Lockerbie bomber lives in seclusion". It contains quotes from a Libyan doctor and from Shukri Ghanem (head of Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation and a former Prime Minister).
The website of The Sydney Morning Herald contains an Agence France Presse news agency report headlined "Doctor defends Lockerbie bomber decision". It reads in part:
'The decision to free Megrahi was taken by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
'"As an external adviser, I was involved in discussions leading up to the point where Mr Megrahi was considered for release on medical grounds," [Dr Grahame] Howard said in a statement.
'"The background medical portion of that application is a fair reflection of the specialist advice available at the time.
'"The final assessment of prognosis was made by Dr Andrew Fraser taking into account the deterioration in his clinical condition."'
A more detailed report of the statement by consultant oncologist Dr Grahame Howard now appears on The Scotsman website.
A Reuters news agency report headed "A year on, Lockerbie bomber casts a long shadow" contains the following:
'Retired British doctor Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the bombing, said he was delighted that Megrahi was alive.
'"We should be rejoicing about the fact that this guy has survived a year," Swire, who believes that Megrahi was framed, told Reuters.
'"I'm satisfied that this man was not responsible in any way for the murder of my daughter," he said.
'Swire urged the Libyan authorities to reveal what treatment Megrahi has been receiving in the hope that it might help other prostate cancer sufferers.
'He has also called on Libya to use its oil wealth to fund a research agency for cancer treatment.'
The Guardian website features an article by Middle East editor Ian Black headlined "Lockerbie bomber: Britain warns Libya over celebrating anniversary". It quotes a Foreign Office spokesman as saying:
"The celebrations that greeted Megrahi's return to Libya a year ago were insensitive and deeply distressing to the [Lockerbie bombing] victims' families. Any repetition of these celebrations this year would be completely unacceptable. Megrahi remains a convicted terrorist responsible for the worst act of terrorism in British history."
The article also states:
'Megrahi has not been seen in public since last September. But he has been reported to be undergoing new treatment, likely to be chemotherapy, which may further prolong his life expectancy.
'Ashour Shamis, editor of the Akhbar Libya website, said: "They are looking after him very well. He has 24-hour care in his home and wherever he goes he has doctors with him. I have been told by someone reliable that a medical source in Tripoli says Megrahi could live for up to seven years."'
The Newsnet Scotland website contains an article headlined "Labour in complete disarray over Megrahi release". The headline says it all (and is completely justified by the text that follows).
A review by Joyce McMillan of Lockerbie: Unfinished Business on the Edinburgh Festivals website contains the following:
'There is nothing fancy about Benson's show: it's delivered in the style of a brusque, forensic lecture, with projected images, about the state of the evidence.
'But Swire's grief and anger over his daughter's death is not suppressed in this version of the story - the character Benson creates is far too intelligent a man not to recognise that his long campaign is in part a way of coping with the crushing agony of Flora's loss, and the show uses some desperately poignant real-life recordings of Flora as a child, over images of her short life.
'The heart of the show, though, lies in Swire's rage at the abject failure of British - and Scottish - justice even to try to expose the truth about the bombings. In meticulous detail, Benson's script stacks up the detail which suggests that the story of Libyan involvement in the bombing was fabricated, that the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was a shocking miscarriage of justice - Swire actually fainted when he heard the guilty verdict - and that the men who probably did murder his daughter have never been brought to justice.
'And although the play occasionally loses pace and dramatic edge, and could perhaps be five minutes shorter, there is no denying its stunning final impact, which combines a respectful, subtle and profoundly moving performance with a mighty and unanswerable indictment of cover-up and injustice, in a show that every thinking citizen of this country should see, and act upon.'
The website of The Sydney Morning Herald contains an Agence France Presse news agency report headlined "Doctor defends Lockerbie bomber decision". It reads in part:
'The decision to free Megrahi was taken by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
'"As an external adviser, I was involved in discussions leading up to the point where Mr Megrahi was considered for release on medical grounds," [Dr Grahame] Howard said in a statement.
'"The background medical portion of that application is a fair reflection of the specialist advice available at the time.
'"The final assessment of prognosis was made by Dr Andrew Fraser taking into account the deterioration in his clinical condition."'
A more detailed report of the statement by consultant oncologist Dr Grahame Howard now appears on The Scotsman website.
A Reuters news agency report headed "A year on, Lockerbie bomber casts a long shadow" contains the following:
'Retired British doctor Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the bombing, said he was delighted that Megrahi was alive.
'"We should be rejoicing about the fact that this guy has survived a year," Swire, who believes that Megrahi was framed, told Reuters.
'"I'm satisfied that this man was not responsible in any way for the murder of my daughter," he said.
'Swire urged the Libyan authorities to reveal what treatment Megrahi has been receiving in the hope that it might help other prostate cancer sufferers.
'He has also called on Libya to use its oil wealth to fund a research agency for cancer treatment.'
The Guardian website features an article by Middle East editor Ian Black headlined "Lockerbie bomber: Britain warns Libya over celebrating anniversary". It quotes a Foreign Office spokesman as saying:
"The celebrations that greeted Megrahi's return to Libya a year ago were insensitive and deeply distressing to the [Lockerbie bombing] victims' families. Any repetition of these celebrations this year would be completely unacceptable. Megrahi remains a convicted terrorist responsible for the worst act of terrorism in British history."
The article also states:
'Megrahi has not been seen in public since last September. But he has been reported to be undergoing new treatment, likely to be chemotherapy, which may further prolong his life expectancy.
'Ashour Shamis, editor of the Akhbar Libya website, said: "They are looking after him very well. He has 24-hour care in his home and wherever he goes he has doctors with him. I have been told by someone reliable that a medical source in Tripoli says Megrahi could live for up to seven years."'
The Newsnet Scotland website contains an article headlined "Labour in complete disarray over Megrahi release". The headline says it all (and is completely justified by the text that follows).
A review by Joyce McMillan of Lockerbie: Unfinished Business on the Edinburgh Festivals website contains the following:
'There is nothing fancy about Benson's show: it's delivered in the style of a brusque, forensic lecture, with projected images, about the state of the evidence.
'But Swire's grief and anger over his daughter's death is not suppressed in this version of the story - the character Benson creates is far too intelligent a man not to recognise that his long campaign is in part a way of coping with the crushing agony of Flora's loss, and the show uses some desperately poignant real-life recordings of Flora as a child, over images of her short life.
'The heart of the show, though, lies in Swire's rage at the abject failure of British - and Scottish - justice even to try to expose the truth about the bombings. In meticulous detail, Benson's script stacks up the detail which suggests that the story of Libyan involvement in the bombing was fabricated, that the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was a shocking miscarriage of justice - Swire actually fainted when he heard the guilty verdict - and that the men who probably did murder his daughter have never been brought to justice.
'And although the play occasionally loses pace and dramatic edge, and could perhaps be five minutes shorter, there is no denying its stunning final impact, which combines a respectful, subtle and profoundly moving performance with a mighty and unanswerable indictment of cover-up and injustice, in a show that every thinking citizen of this country should see, and act upon.'
Would Scottish Government be ‘not concerned’ if there were whistleblowers in the SCCRC?
[This is the heading over a letter from Thomas McLaughlin in today's edition of The Herald. It reads as follows:]
Just when you waved goodbye to that busted flush, New Labour, as the nadir in political show, along comes a bunch of electioneering US senators. First came their impertinent summons to ministers answerable to parliaments other than the United States Congress over the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.
Now they incite UK citizens to break the law by disclosing confidential patient information. More extraordinary than this bid by US lawmakers to make law-breakers out of Scottish doctors and nurses is the response of the Scottish Government (“Nothing to fear over US call for Megrahi ‘informers’”, The Herald, August 16). So, ministers are “not concerned” about the call for whistleblowers?
They will not worry, then, if I now appeal for whistleblowers to leak papers from the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC). Then we can all inspect Brian Quail’s “monstrous pachyderm in the living room – the manifestly unjust nature of the original verdict” (Letters, August 17).
Come along now, potential SCCRC whistleblowers. You have the green light from a “not concerned” Scottish Government. Join the ranks of the University of East Anglia “climategate” beans-spiller and Julian Assange of Wikileaks who dished the dirt on Afghanistan. The redemption of your country’s honour depends on you.
[A letter from Neil Robertson in today's edition of The Scotsman reads in part:]
George Foulkes's enthusiasm for full disclosure in the Lockerbie bombing case does, I hope, extend to making publicly available all the evidence reviewed by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission - along with all intelligence reports withheld by the US and UK.
As a senior member of the parliamentary committee charged with oversight of the security services, his voice would certainly add weight to that of Jim Swire and the Lockerbie relatives.
His call for publication of "the full medical evidence" in respect of the decision by the Scottish justice secretary (Kenny MacAskill) to release Mr Megrahi risks being seen, however, as more contentious - and indeed partisan.
It was not the SNP government in Scotland, after all, that was trying hard to negotiate a Libyan prisoner transfer deal in the Libyan desert but George's old friend, Tony Blair.
Just when you waved goodbye to that busted flush, New Labour, as the nadir in political show, along comes a bunch of electioneering US senators. First came their impertinent summons to ministers answerable to parliaments other than the United States Congress over the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.
Now they incite UK citizens to break the law by disclosing confidential patient information. More extraordinary than this bid by US lawmakers to make law-breakers out of Scottish doctors and nurses is the response of the Scottish Government (“Nothing to fear over US call for Megrahi ‘informers’”, The Herald, August 16). So, ministers are “not concerned” about the call for whistleblowers?
They will not worry, then, if I now appeal for whistleblowers to leak papers from the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC). Then we can all inspect Brian Quail’s “monstrous pachyderm in the living room – the manifestly unjust nature of the original verdict” (Letters, August 17).
Come along now, potential SCCRC whistleblowers. You have the green light from a “not concerned” Scottish Government. Join the ranks of the University of East Anglia “climategate” beans-spiller and Julian Assange of Wikileaks who dished the dirt on Afghanistan. The redemption of your country’s honour depends on you.
[A letter from Neil Robertson in today's edition of The Scotsman reads in part:]
George Foulkes's enthusiasm for full disclosure in the Lockerbie bombing case does, I hope, extend to making publicly available all the evidence reviewed by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission - along with all intelligence reports withheld by the US and UK.
As a senior member of the parliamentary committee charged with oversight of the security services, his voice would certainly add weight to that of Jim Swire and the Lockerbie relatives.
His call for publication of "the full medical evidence" in respect of the decision by the Scottish justice secretary (Kenny MacAskill) to release Mr Megrahi risks being seen, however, as more contentious - and indeed partisan.
It was not the SNP government in Scotland, after all, that was trying hard to negotiate a Libyan prisoner transfer deal in the Libyan desert but George's old friend, Tony Blair.
Abbott: releasing Megrahi was right
[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Herald. It reads in part:]
Diane Abbott has backed the Scottish Government’s decision to release the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing – in sharp contrast to another high-profile Labour leadership contender.
Ms Abbott, the only woman in the race to succeed Gordon Brown, said she had “every confidence” that the move by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill was the right one.
She made her comments on the eve of a 10-day visit to Scotland, and ahead of the first anniversary tomorrow of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi’s release on compassionate grounds.
David Miliband, one of her rivals for the Labour leadership, last month condemned the decision to release Mr Megrahi, saying it was “clearly wrong, because it was done on the basis he had less than three months to live”.
But Ms Abbott argued that such predictions were not exact and that many cancer patients lived longer than expected.
In an exclusive interview with The Herald, she said: “It is not for me to second-guess the Scottish Government but I have every confidence that they made the best decision, the right decision, under Scottish law in relation to the evidence that they had before them.
“We all know of cancer patients who have lived longer than was expected, or lived for less time.
“He has got terminal cancer. He will die. The fact that he has lived a little bit longer than people thought ... he did go home and see his family.” (...)
Ms Abbott said: “I am not going to criticise the Scottish Government or Scottish ministers, and I felt very strongly that they should not go before a senate committee. British ministers are not accountable to American senators.” (...)
A spokesman for First Minister Alex Salmond said: “Diane Abbott’s position is both welcome and consistent, in contrast to the ridiculous about-turn by David Miliband. Last October, he told the House of Commons the UK Government did not want Megrahi to die in a Scottish prison.”
[Regrettably, Diane Abbott is very much an outsider in the UK Labour leadership race.]
Diane Abbott has backed the Scottish Government’s decision to release the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing – in sharp contrast to another high-profile Labour leadership contender.
Ms Abbott, the only woman in the race to succeed Gordon Brown, said she had “every confidence” that the move by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill was the right one.
She made her comments on the eve of a 10-day visit to Scotland, and ahead of the first anniversary tomorrow of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi’s release on compassionate grounds.
David Miliband, one of her rivals for the Labour leadership, last month condemned the decision to release Mr Megrahi, saying it was “clearly wrong, because it was done on the basis he had less than three months to live”.
But Ms Abbott argued that such predictions were not exact and that many cancer patients lived longer than expected.
In an exclusive interview with The Herald, she said: “It is not for me to second-guess the Scottish Government but I have every confidence that they made the best decision, the right decision, under Scottish law in relation to the evidence that they had before them.
“We all know of cancer patients who have lived longer than was expected, or lived for less time.
“He has got terminal cancer. He will die. The fact that he has lived a little bit longer than people thought ... he did go home and see his family.” (...)
Ms Abbott said: “I am not going to criticise the Scottish Government or Scottish ministers, and I felt very strongly that they should not go before a senate committee. British ministers are not accountable to American senators.” (...)
A spokesman for First Minister Alex Salmond said: “Diane Abbott’s position is both welcome and consistent, in contrast to the ridiculous about-turn by David Miliband. Last October, he told the House of Commons the UK Government did not want Megrahi to die in a Scottish prison.”
[Regrettably, Diane Abbott is very much an outsider in the UK Labour leadership race.]
Year since bomber freed, Lockerbie tries to move on
[This is the headline over an Agence France Presse news agency report. It reads in part:]
The quiet Scottish town of Lockerbie is determined to play down Friday's one-year anniversary of the freeing of the Libyan man convicted of blowing up an airliner over its skies.
The Scottish government released Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi from jail on compassionate grounds on August 20, 2009, allowing him to return to Libya to die from terminal prostate cancer.
A year on, Megrahi is still alive, a fact fuelling anger in the United States -- where most of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 were from -- at Scotland's decision to free him.
On December 21, 1988, Sherwood Crescent in Lockerbie was nearly wiped out when the wings of the jumbo jet fell from the sky and burst into a fireball.
Now rabbits nibble at the grass covering what was once a huge crater.
Eleven of the street's residents died, along with 259 passengers and crew on the jet travelling from London to New York when it was blown up. (...)
Across Lockerbie, people want to move on -- but that does not mean forgetting what happened 22 years ago.
One man who, like many in the town, was wary of giving his name said Megrahi should have ended his life behind bars in Scotland. (...)
But the lawmaker who represents Lockerbie in the Scottish Parliament, Elaine Murray, said most people in the town want to forget about the furore.
"People in Lockerbie are still affected by the tragedy but like most communities which are affected by disaster, people move on and do their best to put it behind them," said Murray, of the centre-left Labour Party.
"Mostly residents of Lockerbie want to move on and would prefer that the town was known for more than where Pan Am 103 came down."
For others, though, there are more questions to be answered before this can happen.
Father Patrick Keegans was the town's priest at the time of the bombing and lived in the only house on Sherwood Crescent not gutted by the fireball.
Despite his graphic memories, he believes there is "severe doubt" about the safety of Megrahi's conviction in 2001 by Scottish judges in a special court in the Netherlands.
"My strongest memory was the crash happening -- the noise of the jet engine seeming to hit the top of my roof, the sound of the explosion," Keegans, 64, recalled.
"I couldn't believe what I was looking at when I opened the front door. The whole street was just burning."
Keegans, now on the committee of a campaign group called Justice For Megrahi, said people's memories of the attack would not be laid to rest until there was a full review of the case.
"There's never, never going to be any peace in people's minds and hearts until this whole thing is resolved," he said.
"As I said at the time, this won't stand up to any scrutiny and that's proving to be the case. Constantly Lockerbie is coming up -- you would think this would have gone away after 20 years.
"Until the full truth is known, people can't lay this to rest because the truth allows us to deal with things and then reconstruct our lives".
The quiet Scottish town of Lockerbie is determined to play down Friday's one-year anniversary of the freeing of the Libyan man convicted of blowing up an airliner over its skies.
The Scottish government released Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi from jail on compassionate grounds on August 20, 2009, allowing him to return to Libya to die from terminal prostate cancer.
A year on, Megrahi is still alive, a fact fuelling anger in the United States -- where most of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 were from -- at Scotland's decision to free him.
On December 21, 1988, Sherwood Crescent in Lockerbie was nearly wiped out when the wings of the jumbo jet fell from the sky and burst into a fireball.
Now rabbits nibble at the grass covering what was once a huge crater.
Eleven of the street's residents died, along with 259 passengers and crew on the jet travelling from London to New York when it was blown up. (...)
Across Lockerbie, people want to move on -- but that does not mean forgetting what happened 22 years ago.
One man who, like many in the town, was wary of giving his name said Megrahi should have ended his life behind bars in Scotland. (...)
But the lawmaker who represents Lockerbie in the Scottish Parliament, Elaine Murray, said most people in the town want to forget about the furore.
"People in Lockerbie are still affected by the tragedy but like most communities which are affected by disaster, people move on and do their best to put it behind them," said Murray, of the centre-left Labour Party.
"Mostly residents of Lockerbie want to move on and would prefer that the town was known for more than where Pan Am 103 came down."
For others, though, there are more questions to be answered before this can happen.
Father Patrick Keegans was the town's priest at the time of the bombing and lived in the only house on Sherwood Crescent not gutted by the fireball.
Despite his graphic memories, he believes there is "severe doubt" about the safety of Megrahi's conviction in 2001 by Scottish judges in a special court in the Netherlands.
"My strongest memory was the crash happening -- the noise of the jet engine seeming to hit the top of my roof, the sound of the explosion," Keegans, 64, recalled.
"I couldn't believe what I was looking at when I opened the front door. The whole street was just burning."
Keegans, now on the committee of a campaign group called Justice For Megrahi, said people's memories of the attack would not be laid to rest until there was a full review of the case.
"There's never, never going to be any peace in people's minds and hearts until this whole thing is resolved," he said.
"As I said at the time, this won't stand up to any scrutiny and that's proving to be the case. Constantly Lockerbie is coming up -- you would think this would have gone away after 20 years.
"Until the full truth is known, people can't lay this to rest because the truth allows us to deal with things and then reconstruct our lives".
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Salmond defends the early release of Megrahi
The head of Scotland's government said Wednesday that he stands by his country's decision a year ago to release a man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing from prison on compassionate grounds despite new questions about his prognosis.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said in an interview with The Associated Press that "everything we've done on the Lockerbie case over the last 20 years...has been done following the precepts of Scottish jurisdiction and Scots law." (...)
He said his government clearly stated, in announcing its decision to release al-Megrahi, that "this is an estimate, that Mr Megrahi may live shorter than three months, he may live longer than three months."
"Everybody knows from their own experience of friends and family that it's extraordinarily difficult to be precise over the exact term of life of somebody with a terminal illness," Salmond said. "Our doctors made a reasonable estimate at the time, and our ministers followed that medical advice."
He spoke to the AP in Oslo, Norway, where he was attending bilateral meetings on economic and energy ties between Scotland and the oil-rich Nordic country.
Scotland will not seek the return of al-Megrahi, Salmond said, noting that, in past instances, prisoners released on compassionate grounds were not returned to prison even if they lived longer than expected.
Last week, four Democratic US senators — Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, of New York, and Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, of New Jersey — sent a letter to Salmond asking that al-Megrahi's full medical records be disclosed. (...)
"Clearly, we've made the point that the Scottish government...is not answerable to the United States Senate, nor is the American government answerable to the Scottish Parliament," Salmond said. "But we've tried to co-operate to answer all of the questions."
He said he'd responded to the letter, but that there was no more information to share since Scotland has "already published, and did last year, all relevant information because we have nothing to fear from the scrutiny and from the examination of anybody, domestically or internationally."
"The point I've made is that there's only one medical report" that informed Scotland's decision, he said.
That report — by Scottish Prison Service's medical chief, Andrew Fraser — shows Fraser was advised by four specialists at the time of al-Megrahi's release. The report describes the three-month prognosis for al-Megrahi as "reasonable," but confirms that none of those consulted ruled out that al-Megrahi might live longer.
Salmond categorically denied allegations that any outside influence — such as claims that oil giant BP pressured Scotland to free al-Megrahi so it could win access to Libyan oil reserves — affected Scotland's decision.
[From a report by The Associated Press news agency on the website of The Canadian Press.]
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said in an interview with The Associated Press that "everything we've done on the Lockerbie case over the last 20 years...has been done following the precepts of Scottish jurisdiction and Scots law." (...)
He said his government clearly stated, in announcing its decision to release al-Megrahi, that "this is an estimate, that Mr Megrahi may live shorter than three months, he may live longer than three months."
"Everybody knows from their own experience of friends and family that it's extraordinarily difficult to be precise over the exact term of life of somebody with a terminal illness," Salmond said. "Our doctors made a reasonable estimate at the time, and our ministers followed that medical advice."
He spoke to the AP in Oslo, Norway, where he was attending bilateral meetings on economic and energy ties between Scotland and the oil-rich Nordic country.
Scotland will not seek the return of al-Megrahi, Salmond said, noting that, in past instances, prisoners released on compassionate grounds were not returned to prison even if they lived longer than expected.
Last week, four Democratic US senators — Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, of New York, and Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, of New Jersey — sent a letter to Salmond asking that al-Megrahi's full medical records be disclosed. (...)
"Clearly, we've made the point that the Scottish government...is not answerable to the United States Senate, nor is the American government answerable to the Scottish Parliament," Salmond said. "But we've tried to co-operate to answer all of the questions."
He said he'd responded to the letter, but that there was no more information to share since Scotland has "already published, and did last year, all relevant information because we have nothing to fear from the scrutiny and from the examination of anybody, domestically or internationally."
"The point I've made is that there's only one medical report" that informed Scotland's decision, he said.
That report — by Scottish Prison Service's medical chief, Andrew Fraser — shows Fraser was advised by four specialists at the time of al-Megrahi's release. The report describes the three-month prognosis for al-Megrahi as "reasonable," but confirms that none of those consulted ruled out that al-Megrahi might live longer.
Salmond categorically denied allegations that any outside influence — such as claims that oil giant BP pressured Scotland to free al-Megrahi so it could win access to Libyan oil reserves — affected Scotland's decision.
[From a report by The Associated Press news agency on the website of The Canadian Press.]
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