Tuesday, 27 July 2010
The frame-up of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi
This is the heading over an article on the US website Veterans Today. It is by Alexander Cockburn and incorporates the work on Lockerbie done by his brother, Andrew. I draw attention to it, not simply for its content which is well-known to those who have taken the trouble to follow the Lockerbie saga, but because of the website that has published it. Normally in the United States the only places that will even think of publishing anything other than strict Lockerbie orthodoxy, US-style, are left-wing, radical, pinko, liberal, weirdo, counterculture sites. Veterans Today does not fall into this category.
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Normally in the United States the only places that will even think of publishing anything other than strict Lockerbie orthodoxy, US-style, are left-wing, radical, pinko, liberal, weirdo, counterculture sites. Veterans Today does not fall into this category.
ReplyDeleteActually, Prof... the sidebar "top news"suggests it's a little kooky, and big on suspecting Israel of things. Est 2003, so it was for Iraq war vets, was presumably anti-war, etc. - enough veteran related generic stories to keep people coming in, don't know who determines the content.
Sadly, I think the pattern you cite still holds for now. Thanks for keeping your eye out for the sea change. I think it will come.
That's a good article, which I hadn't read before.
ReplyDeleteI understand the USA did pay some compensation to the victims of IA655, and make some generic sympathy noises, but indeed their conduct in that affair was shocking.
The point about the frame-up of the Libyans being a primarily US-orchestrated exercise is well made. It's something we would do well to remember, in the middle of all this US-generated fuss.
I also liked the absence of accusations of fabricated evidence. I'm extremely open to the possibility of at least two and possibly three pieces of evidence in the case perhaps being fabricated. However, this is a side-show. Even if the MST-13 timer fragment and the radio-cassette manual page and tray B8849 on the Erac printout are all completely kosher, there is simply no credible case against Megrahi.
I thought that the Cockburns were radical, left-wing pinkos!
ReplyDeleteThe article was a bit simplistic and the idea that the trial Judges "panicked" or "were given their marching orders from on high in London" was ridiculous.
Megrahi's trial and rather freakish conviction was simply a consequence of the central objective - blaming Libya as a pretext for the imposition of UN sanctions.
The Judges were quite free to acquit both defendants and in a regular trial they may have been acquitted. It wouldn't have made any difference. He would just have "got away with it".
The Judges took W.C.Fields' sage advice "never give a sucker an even break" determined that Mr Al-Megrahi would not benefit from negotiating the form of gribunal before which he would agree to appear. In the 20 years since "Camp Zeist" remains a one-off.
You're psychic then, Baz?
ReplyDeleteI prefer Prof. Black's take on that, expressed in a comment post a little way down this page.
It mentions the Widgery inquiry. I hope we don't have to wait a similar length of time for the authorities to declare Megrahi innocent.
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