Tuesday 1 March 2011

Lockerbie, Guilt & Gaddafi

[This is the heading over a post published yesterday on Ian Bell's blog. It reads in part:]

Mustafa Abdel-Jalil is quick on his feet, if nothing else. From senior functionary in a despised and brutish regime to freedom-loving “head of the provisional government” in under a fortnight is smart work indeed.

It is reassuring, too, that Gaddafi’s former justice minister has been “chosen”, in the Scotsman’s words, “to head new regime”. Alternatively – the Sky News version – Abdel-Jalil has been “elected... president of Libya’s newly-formed National Council”.

As it turns out, the born-again democrat appears to have done all the electing and choosing himself, backed by the overwhelming support of persons named Abdel-Jalil. (...)

He calculates, no doubt, that his access to the world’s media will bolster his status in a post-Gaddafi Libya. Name recognition, they call it. But to pull off that trick, Abdel-Jalil must first tell the western press what the western press wants to hear, and bet – a safe enough bet – that reporters will not think beyond the headlines. Over the weekend, he made excellent use of his brief spell as Mr President.

So here’s Murdoch’s Sunday Times, a paper to which the phrase “once great” attaches itself like a faded obituary. “Gaddafi ordered the Lockerbie bombing” was done and dusted by the weekend. A new line was required. Any ideas?

The Lockerbie bomber blackmailed Colonel Gaddafi into securing his re­lease from a Scottish prison by threatening to expose the dictator’s role in Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity, a former senior Libyan official [guess who] has claimed.

Now, let’s keep this simple. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was handed over to Scot­tish police on April 5, 1999, and released on compassionate grounds on August 20, 2009. Clearly, this was the most patient blackmailer the world has seen. If we believe a word, the man nursed his threat to exact “revenge” for over a decade, until terminal cancer intervened. As you do.

According to Abdel-Jalil and the Sunday Times, nevertheless, “Megrahi’s ploy led to a £50,000-a-month slush fund being set up to spend on legal fees and lobbying to bring him back to Tripoli”. Since the entire Libyan exchequer was Gaddafi’s per­sonal slush fund, the sum seems niggardly. If vastly more was not spent on the case, I’d be astonished. And why wouldn’t it be spent? Wasn't Megrahi threatening to “spill the beans”?

But here Abdel-Jalil pulls out another of his plums. Again, he provides noth­ing resembling the whiff of proof. Al-Megrahi “was not the man who carried out the planning and execution of the bombing, but he was ‘nevertheless involved in facili­tating things for those who did’”.

So where does that leave us? Megrahi – what with “planning and execution” omitted – didn’t do it. Another sensation. Or is that revelation perhaps designed to solve several tiny issues raised by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) and others over a miscarriage of justice and sundry associated issues?

Never fear: Gaddafi certainly did do it. That’s “on the record”, placed there by the erstwhile “head of the provisional government”, no less. So what then of “plan­ning and execution”; what of “those who did”? Yet again, Abdel-Jalil doesn’t say. Why not?

Smoke and mirrors is a cliché, God knows. You only wish they would polish the mirrors occasionally, and puff up some properly thick smoke. But why bother? It works. First: make sure that “everyone knows” Gaddafi did it. Secondly, as though inferentially, throw in a few details based on a “fact” established by hearsay and mere assertion. This is how you build a lie.

What happened – what is established by the evidence as having happened – matters less than perception and belief. Gaddafi, with his multifarious actual crimes, is now the handiest scapegoat imaginable. Perhaps he should complain to Tony Blair.

Or perhaps he should get himself to the Hague, and to a proper court. It would do the dictator no good, but it might do wonders, even now, for the reputation of Scottish justice. I put the chances of that at zero.

[Also published yesterday was a Libya piece on Peter Hitchens's blog on the Mail on Sunday website. It reads in part:]

But how ridiculous it all is. Supposedly we are now terribly moral about the wicked Libyan regime, denying diplomatic immunity to its leaders, freezing its assets, refusing to print its banknotes. Tough, eh? This Libyan wickedness does not seem to have troubled the existing British government (or its predecessor) at all until about two weeks ago, or why was a British firm printing those banknotes and why were there so many British personnel in Libya in the first place?

By the way, please don't go on at me about the supposed 'Lockerbie Bomber'. There is absolutely no evidence that the Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi had anything to do with the Lockerbie bombing, almost certainly carried out by terrorists under Syrian control, at the behest of Iran.

The truth is that Colonel Gadaffi's government is being punished not because it is wicked (so is Syria's, for instance, as I keep needing to mention) but because it is weak and tottering. How embarrassing all this will be if the Gadaffi family manage somehow to regain control of the country. Terribly sorry, your colonelship, sir. Hope you understand we were only going through the motions? Can we have our printing contract back? No hard feelings, eh?

5 comments:

  1. Its a good point. On the strength of what he revealed The Times headline should have thundered; Abdel-Jalil: "Megrahi not The Lockerbie Bomber!"

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  2. MISSION LOCKERBIE 2011-- 'SOLSTICE'

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants Lockerbie Bombing Inquiry opened.
    This is the path to truth. Many thanks to Hillary Clinton.

    Some of the Scottish Officials are the true criminals in the Lockerbie Affair are responsible for manipulating evidence in the Lockerbie Affair and are still protected by the Scottish Justice !
    (They are not involved in the PanAm 103 bombing, but responsible for the conspiracy against Libya).

    Notices: the words from ex FBI Task Force chief Richard Marquise, cordinator between FBI and CIA in the "Lockerbie-Affair": If someone manipulated evidence, if somebody didn't invesitgate something that should have been investigated, if somebody twisted it to fit up up Megrahi, or Fimah or Libya, then that person will go to jail. I mean that sincerely, that person should be prosecuted for that!
    Please watch now the full documentary film "Lockerbie revisited" by Regisseur Gideon Levy, shown to Scottish members of Parliament about important facts concerning the conspiracy against Libya.

    http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=593392

    by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland.
    URL: www.lockerbie.ch

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  3. MISSION LOCKERBIE 2011, doc. nr.1065.rtf. :

    Incidentally since March 2003, Britain's Foreign Office and the MI6 intelligence service have received in addition to their knowledge, in an second attention from an *trustworthy CONTACT, that Abdelbaset Al Megrahi (ESO member "CARA/F4") with the crash of Pan Am 103, can not be linked !

    *Mr. Musa Kusa, the former head of Libya's intelligenc agency, gave the facts for Al Megrahi's exoneration and its word of honour, on 21st of March 2003 around PM15:00, in a confidential meeting in Britain's Foreign Office and MI6 inelligence service.
    An strong Global Relief Story in favor for Libya at compile and remains provisionally stand by.
    NOW its the right time: Justice for Megrahi and apology of the libyan people...
    by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch

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  4. Well all I can say is I hope all those CIA agents busy sewing up the new Libyan flags got their fingers pricked.

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  5. MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011, doc. nr.1067.rtf:
    Vision: Did colonel Muammar Gaddafi order the "PanAm-103 bombing" over Lockerbie ? The following article is coming soon in english language:
    Facts and current status (2011) in the 'Lockerbie Affair' (Pan Am-103 attack), according to the latest investigation results of MEBO:

    1.) Der 2001, durch ein schottisches Gericht als schuldig verurteilte libysche Offizielle Mr. Abdelbaset Al Megrahi ist laut der 'Scottish Criminal Cases Reappeal Commission' (SCCRC) in 6 Punkten, einem "Miscarriage of Justice" zum Opfer gefallen; Al Megrahi ist unschuldig !

    2.) Durch MEBO's vertrauliche, zuverlässige Hintergrund Informationen kann Al Megrahi als "PanAm Bomber" absolut ausgeschlossen werden, da er durch eine Geheimdienst Panne in diese Position gedrängt wurde;

    3.) Nachweislich wurden massgebendes Beweismaterial durch "Scottish Officials", für die Anklage im Indizien-Prozess am Gericht in Kamp van Zeist (2000-2001) nachweislich manipuliert bezw. gefälscht (wissenschaftlicher forensicher Nachweis);

    4.) The "crucial evidence" (PT/35) das Fingernagel grosse Fragment eines MEBO Timers Typ MST-13, welches als einziger Beweis Libyen mit der "Lockerbie-Tragödie" in Verbindung bringt, wurde manipuliert und stammt nicht von einem funktionsfähigen MST-13 Timer ab. (Affidavit (Official Certification) 18th July, 2007, from Eng. Ulrich Lumpert and new forensic Proofs);

    5.) Kronzeugenaussagen von "Shopkeeper's" Tony und Paul Gauci, in Malta, wurden durch grosse Geldzahlungen, zu ungunsten Mr. Al Megrahi's beeinflusst;

    6.) Der Transport und spätere Transfer eines "Bomb-Bag" von AirMalta mit Flug KM-180 (Malta--Frankfurt) auf PanAm 103/b, muss aus entlastenden Fakts heute ausgeschossen werden;

    7.) Das Urteil im Lockerbie-Fall muss somit, heute (2011) nachweislich als "Miscarriage of Justice" eingestuft werden, d.h. Abdelbaset Al Megrahi und der Libysche Staat können nicht für die "PanAm 103 Tragödie" verantwortlich gemacht werden. Justice for Megrahi and apology of the libyan people...

    8.) Bleibt Secretary of State Hillary Clinton die Antwort schuldig, zubeweisen ob ein neues Gerücht der Wahrheit entspricht, dass Colonel Gaddafi 1988 (wem?) einen Auftrag gegeben hatte ein US Airplain "explodieren" zulassen; als *Revanche für das US-Bombing 1986 auf sein Militär Camp in Tripoli ???
    *The conspiracy of 1986, against the leader of Libya, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (US air strike of Libya, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon).
    In 1986, Colonel Gaddafi rushed out of their residence in the Bab al Aziziya compound moments before the bombs dropped. Colonel Gaddafi escaped the assassination. The air strike killed 45 Libyan soldiers and government officials, and 15 civilians. Colonel Gaddafi escaped injury but his 15-month-old adopted daughter Hanna was killed, and two of his sons were injured...

    by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch

    ReplyDelete