Wall Street waffle

[This is the heading over a post by The Herald's Chief Scottish Political Correspondent, Robbie Dinwoodie, on the Parcel of Rogues blog on the heraldscotland website. It reads in part:]

Last Thursday the main press aide to Annabel Goldie was in the Black and White corridor off the Holyrood debating chamber handing out the documentation on which the Tory leader had just based her attack on Alex Salmond at FMQs.

Pages one and two were mainly extracts from Libya-related minutes and correspondence which we had all written about since the Government released its first big batch of Megrahi material. Then there was a two-page letter from Alex Salmond to Qatar’s UK ambassador. After reading this I turned to the spin doctor and said: “Doesn’t this rather knock down your whole story?”

In what way, he asked. Well, I replied, in this letter the FM is repeatedly at pains to say he can’t discuss the Megrahi issue and refers the Qataris to Kenny MacAskill who will deal with it according to due process and strictly on judicial grounds. The spin doctor continued to demur so I asked straight out: “What exactly is Annabel Goldie alleging?”

Back came the response: “Oh, we’re not alleging anything – we’re simply asking questions.”

But here is what Ms Goldie said, employing assertions rather than questions: “I am afraid that there are suspicions — and facts. Fact: The First Minister is seeking money for his Scottish Futures Trust from Arab states. Fact: on 11 June 2009, he met the Qatari Government and discussed trade and Mr al-Megrahi’s release at the same time. Fact: on 17 July 2009, the Qatari Government wrote to the Scottish Government, supporting compassionate release. Fact: One week later, Mr al-Megrahi applied for compassionate release. That does not look good.”

Later, the Government pointed out that the Scottish Futures Trust has made no such pitch for Arab money, and at the meeting with the Qataris the minutes showed the FM determined not to conflate talk of trade with the issue of Megrahi. As to the Qatar/Arab League support for compassionate release and Megrahi’s application under the 1993 legislation, neither was down to Ministers. But never mind, as long as it “does not look good” Ms Goldie had managed to throw some mud in the hope that some would stick.

But five days on, should Ms Goldie have joined in the latest attempt at mud-slinging, this time by the Wall Street Journal? Here’s what the WSJ said: “Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who recently released the Lockerbie bomber, has a brother who is an energy-industry executive and who has worked at firms that have pitched for oil business in Libya.

“The Scottish government, which has said that it made full disclosure of facts relevant to the decision, didn’t disclose this relationship, and opposition politicians on Monday criticized this.”

Note the tenses – has worked at firms that have pitched for Libya business. When would that be: Read on and you discover that Allan MacAskill worked for for 20 years for BP, who have had Libyan links, but that he left the company in 1998 (...) MacAskill fils then joined Canadian firm Talisman, a firm which the WSJ tells us “has been looking the past few years to get a foothold in Libya, but has yet to establish a position.”

So, one company he worked for has known Libyan links but he left that company more than a decade ago, while the one he joined next has never had any contracts with Libya. As for the company he joined last year? SeaEnergy are into offshore windfarms and conduct no business with Libya whatsoever. All of which may explain why the Scottish Government did not see fit to “disclose this relationship” since to call it tenuous would be charitable.

Still it let Ms Goldie get in on the act again: “If any part of the Scottish Government has any connections to Libyan businesses then they need to come clean. The SNP Scottish Government need to be open and transparent once and for all and stop this constant drip drip of information which only serves to undermine Scotland and the UK.”

If she lends her name to anything further that is as tenuous as this, then the only thing dripping away will be Ms Goldie’s credibility.