UK and US politicians' attitudes on Lockerbie

The most recent post on Caustic Logic's blog The Lockerbie Divide compares and contrasts the stance taken by elected politicians in the United Kingdom and the United States in relation to the Lockerbie case and the conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi. This interesting piece can be read here.

"Lockerbie Revisited" to be broadcast again

I am grateful to Bo Adam for informing me that Gideon Levy's documentary Lockerbie Revisited is to be broadcast on Saturday 22 May on the French-German TV channel ARTE. Further details are available here, here and here.

There has still, as far as I am aware, been no broadcast on any UK or US channel. The film can be viewed here, through the ARTE website. I am grateful to Ursula Funke, the sister of one of the Pan Am 103 victims, for this information.

Twentieth anniversary of report of Presidential Commission

[The following account is taken from the Wikipedia article Pan Am Flight 103.]

On 29 September 1989, President [George H W] Bush appointed Ann McLaughlin Korologos, former Secretary of Labor, as chairwoman of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST) to review and report on aviation security policy in the light of the sabotage of flight PA103. Oliver "Buck" Revell, the FBI's Executive Assistant Director, was assigned to advise and assist PCAST in their task. Mrs Korologos and the PCAST team (Senator Alfonse D'Amato, Senator Frank Lautenberg, Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt, Representative James Oberstar, General Thomas Richards, deputy commander of US forces in West Germany, and Edward Hidalgo, former Secretary of the US Navy) submitted their report, with its 64 recommendations, on 15 May 1990. The PCAST chairman also handed a sealed envelope to the President which was widely believed to apportion blame for the PA103 bombing. Extensively covered in The Guardian the next day, the PCAST report concluded:

"National will and the moral courage to exercise it are the ultimate means of defeating terrorism. The Commission recommends a more vigorous policy that not only pursues and punishes terrorists, but also makes state sponsors of terrorism pay a price for their actions."

Before submitting their report, the PCAST members met a group of British PA103 relatives at the US embassy in London on 12 February 1990. Twelve years later, on 11 July 2002, Scottish MP Tam Dalyell reminded the House of Commons of a controversial statement made at that 1990 embassy meeting by a PCAST member to one of the British relatives, Martin Cadman: "Your government and ours know exactly what happened. But they're never going to tell." The statement first came to public attention in the 1994 documentary film The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie and was published in both The Guardian of 29 July 1995, and a special report from Private Eye magazine entitled "Lockerbie, the flight from justice" May/June 2001. Dalyell asserted in Parliament that the statement had never been refuted.

[And the following account is from the Canadian Attic blog.]

A US presidential commission issued a report on the December 1988 of a Pan American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland that had killed all 259 people aboard and 11 more on the ground. The commission said that it was not certain how the bomb was smuggled aboard the plane, but cited evidence that it was an unaccompanied suitcase loaded in Frankfurt, West Germany. The report said that the security system for US civil aviation "is seriously flawed and has failed to provide the proper level of protection to the traveling public." The commission called for greatly increased security at US airports, the creation of the post of assistant secretary of transportation for security and intelligence, and establishment of a national system for warning passengers of credible threats against airlines or flights.

A soldier's account of the immediate aftermath

One soldier's moving account of his experiences at Lockerbie in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of Pan Am 103 has just been published on The Tartan Hippie blog. It can be read here.

Management buy-out of The Firm

Today - May 6 2010 - Steven Raeburn, the editor of Scottish legal magazine, The Firm, announced he had led a management buyout of the title from The Carnyx Group, publishers of The Drum media and marketing magazine.

1. Is this your first venture into publishing? Have you previously worked only as a journalist?

I worked in residential and commercial conveyancing for nine years first, and drifted into journalism as a freelancer for a few years, before making the switch full-time. So my background was in law. Journalism happened gradually, but quickly took over. I've been doing it now for seven years. It seems to be what suits me best. (...)

6. The Firm attracted its own headlines recently, for an article which the Lord Advocate appeared to take exception to, including complaining to the Press Complaints Commission (complaint not upheld). To what extent was that a factor in your decision to proceed with a buy-out?

It had no connection. I was delighted at the time (the issue arose in November last year) to have been backed and supported so fully by Carnyx, and I was proud of them for having the conviction to maintain their principled position against a pretty intimidating situation. But Carnyx and I stood united in that particular challenge, and I had full confidence in the stance of The Firm. The Firm will continue to probe the difficult issues when they arise.

7. So, you will remain editing the magazine. Any other recognisable names involved in the buy-out?

I am staying in post as editor, and I am lucky to be able to have a team supporting me in the key production, advertising and printing roles, as well as the other areas, but I am the sole participant in the MBO itself. (...)

9. Proudest journalistic moment?

It's hard to say. In many ways, the things I am proudest of in this job don't get published. The Firm has taken a solid stance to back trainees in law firms if they are vulnerable, for example, and I have been humbled by some of the private feedback we have had from that. Journalism is only words, but words can change things. That kind of response tells you that you've done something right. Recently, the UN Lockerbie observer singled out The Firm's coverage of the ongoing Pan Am 103 issues for praise, which is certainly something.

[From a report on the allmediascotland website.]

"We have solved this."

SPIEGEL: How are your relations with the US?

Gadhafi: Outstanding.

SPIEGEL: What exactly prompted you to make your surprising turnaround with the Americans?

Gadhafi: The big problem between us was Lockerbie …

SPIEGEL: The bomb attack on an American Boeing 747, which a former agent of the Libyan intelligence service was found guilty of carrying out.

Gadhafi: … but we have solved this.

SPIEGEL: That was back under former US President George W. Bush.

[From an interview with Colonel Gaddafi published on the website of Der Spiegel.]

Juval Aviv and the truth about Lockerbie

The above is an English translation of the title of a lengthy post, in Spanish, on the El Mossad blog. Michael Scharf, Jim Swire and I are quoted but, since Spanish is not one of my languages, I am unable to comment further on the piece. For more on Juval Aviv, click here.

Sister of US Lockerbie victim wants to meet Megrahi

The grieving sister of one of the Lockerbie bomber's victims last night vowed to confront the freed killer - and FORGIVE him.

But lawyer Lisa Gibson is locked in a desperate race against time as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi lies close to dying of prostate cancer.

She wants Megrahi to know how much she misses her brother Kenneth, one of the 270 who died when Flight 103 was blown up, BUT also that she won't judge him.

Single Lisa, 39, below, of Colorado Springs, told us: "After Megrahi was convicted, I wrote and told him only God knows if he is responsible.

"Going to see him is the next stage in the process, to let him know how hard it's been without Kenneth and offer my forgiveness."

Lisa added: "If Megrahi survives the next few weeks, then the plan is to visit him at home.

"It will be very emotional, but I want to look him in the eye and make sure he knows our pain.

"Even he has said that if he is responsible, God will judge him, and I believe that." (...)

The devout Christian explained: "One of the things I feel personally called to do is to actually forgive Megrahi for the attack. That is motivated by my faith."

She sparked controversy last September when she met Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi - just weeks after Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill ordered Megrahi to be freed from Greenock Prison due to his medical condition. (...)

And despite criticism of the Justice Secretary's decision, Lisa insists he was right to free the bomber.

She added: "Megrahi was shown a tremendous amout of compassion being allowed to go home to die with dignity.

"That's more than we could ever expect from Libya if the tables were turned."

[From a report in the Scottish edition of the tabloid Sunday newspaper News of the World.]

Salmond on the difference between Megrahi and Hamilton

[The following are excerpts from the report on the BBC News website on today's session of First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament.]

When later asked by Tory leader Ms [Annabel] Goldie, in keeping with convention, when he will next meet the prime minister, Mr [Alex] Salmond quipped: "As far as I can judge, the prime minister doesn't seem to be in a mood to meet anyone at the present moment."

Mr Salmond was asked by Ms Goldie to "explain the difference between the mass murderer Thomas Hamilton and the mass murderer al-Megrahi".

Hamilton was responsible for murdering 16 schoolchildren and their teacher at Dunblane Primary School in 1996, while Lockerbie bomber Megrahi was freed last year on compassionate grounds after developing terminal cancer.

Mr Salmond told a televised Scottish leaders debate on Sunday that Hamilton would not have been freed on compassionate grounds if he had survived the massacre and later been diagnosed with a terminal illness. [See this blog post.]

Ms Goldie put it to the first minister: "The point is that the first minister has publicly stated two irreconcilable and totally contradictory positions in relation to two mass murderers.

"How does he justify that contradiction - how can he support the release of one mass murderer and totally oppose the release of another?"

Mr Salmond said Hamilton would not have passed the "first principle" of guidance for release on compassionate grounds, that the offender's release should not create the risk of re-offending or endanger public safety.

He added: "Whatever may be said about the release of Mr al-Megrahi, nobody seriously believes that his release would put the safety of the Scottish public at risk."

[The Times's report on the exchange between Ms Goldie and Mr Salmond can be read here.

In the course of a blog post headed "Playing politics with the Dunblane Massacre: have we really stooped this low?" well-known Scottish journalist Joan McAlpine says the following:]

I wrote a lot about the Dunblane massacre in its immediate aftermath, mainly columns that supported the campaign for a ban on handguns (...)

I tried, in my own work, to ensure that [the murderer] slipped into the obscurity from whence he came. So it was quite shocking to hear the killer's name spoken, quite unexpectedly, in a question from a viewer on the Sky Scottish Leaders debate on Sunday. The purpose of the question was to ask Alex Salmond whether, if the Dunblane murderer had lived and contracted terminal cancer, would he be released on compassionate grounds - ie like the man charged with the Lorckerbie bombing. Salmond said he would not.

No sooner was the Sky programme finished than the Labour party had adopted Dunblane v Lockerbie as their attack strategy for the day. David Cairns on the Politics Show, in an interview conducted immediately after the debate had ended, started talking about Salmond's insult re Lockerbie/Dunblane. The Scottish leader Iain Gray echoed this line, which lead the BBC Scotland radio bulletin on Sunday and was given extensive coverage in the scottish press, including The Scotsman and The Times the next day. All lead with Labour's condemnation of Salmond's answer.

Using the hypothetical scenario of the Dunblane killer surviving the massacre for public entertainment and political advantage is unacceptable. Dunblane was an event that united the whole of Scotland in grief. Labour's George Robertson, the shadow Scottish Secretary who happened to live in Dunblane, worked closely with Michael Forsyth, the Conservative Scottish Secretary who was the local MP. There was no point scoring from either man, nor indeed from SNP nor Liberal Democrats. Dunblane was just too terrible for that...it was completely off limits.

The decision of Labour to take this tasteless line of attack is also inexplicable given the party's duplicity on the release of Al-Megrahi. Brown notably failed to comment on the Scottish government's decision to release Megrahi ... because he wanted the prisoner released without having to take any political flak himself. Foreign Office papers later revealed that his government was keen that Megrahi did not die in prison, so as not to damage the UK's relationship with oil rich Libya and its leader Colonel Gadaffi. Remember, that if Megrahi's conviction is sound and he is the bomber, he was sent on his deadly mission by Gadaffi, who is now on hand-shaking terms with British PMs. For more on Lockerbie, see Lockerbie and hypocrisy.

Shell drafted letter Tony Blair sent to Gaddafi while Prime Minister

[This is the headline over a report published on 27 April 2010 on the website of The Times. It reads in part:]

Tony Blair lobbied Colonel Muammar Gaddafi on behalf of Shell in a letter written for him in draft form by the oil company, documents obtained by The Times reveal.

The correspondence, written while Mr Blair was Prime Minister, bears a striking resemblance to a briefing note by Royal Dutch Shell weeks earlier promoting a $500 million (£325 million) deal it was trying to clinch in Libya.

While it is common for government ministers to champion British interests abroad, Shell’s draft reveals an unusual assurance in its ability to dictate Mr Blair’s conversation with the Libyan leader. It also raises questions about the motives behind Britain’s improved relations with Libya and the subsequent release of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber. Lockerbie victims have claimed that the Government paved the way for al-Megrahi’s release as part of a deal with Libya to give British companies access to Libya’s lucrative oil and gas industry.

In the draft, Shell tells Mr Blair to discuss positive progress on weapons of mass destruction as well as the investigation into the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984. (...)

The Cabinet Office would release only a part of Mr Blair’s official letter but the section on Shell sounds very similar to the draft. “I understand that the necessary technical discussions with the relevant authorities in Libya have been completed satisfactorily,” it states. “All that is needed now are final decisions by the [Libyan] General People’s Committee to go ahead.” The Libyan Cabinet agreed the Shell deal shortly after this letter was written and the contract was signed in May 2005.

Both letters were released after a lengthy Freedom of Information process. The Times first asked for them after al-Megrahi was released last August on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Government, which said that he had only months to live.

Al-Megrahi, who killed 270 people on board Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, celebrated his 58th birthday in Tripoli last month. There was speculation that his release was part of a deal struck between Britain and Libya to improve diplomatic ties between the countries.

The Government denied this, although it emerged that Britain and Libya had signed a prisoner transfer deal in 2007 that included al-Megrahi. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary at the time, said that al-Megrahi had been included in the transfer deal “in view of the overwhelming interests of the UK”. (...)

Last September The Times requested all communication between the Department for Business and these companies. A limited number were released in December. One was an email from Shell to UK Trade & Investment dated September 2004 complaining of slow progress with its Libyan deal. Just months earlier Mr Blair and Colonel Gaddafi had met in a tent outside Tripoli to end Libya’s diplomatic isolation.

Salmond defends decision to release the Lockerbie bomber

First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday defended the decision to free the Lockerbie bomber – although he said Dunblane killer Thomas Hamilton would not have been released under the same circumstances.

The SNP leader was questioned on the issue as he went head-to-head with Labour’s Jim Murphy, Scottish Conservative David Mundell and Liberal Democrat Scottish spokesman Alistair Carmichael in a live TV clash.

It was the Scotland’s second TV election debate of the general election campaign, and it saw the four politicians pressed on issues including benefits, the war in Iraq and the Pope’s visit to Britain.

The controversial release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was also discussed during the 90-minute debate, broadcast across the UK on Sky News.

A questioner asked if the Dunblane killer, had he lived and been sentenced to life in a Scottish jail, would have been released from prison if he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Mr Salmond, whose cabinet colleague Kenny MacAskill made the decision to release Megrahi, said: “No, Thomas Hamilton shouldn’t and wouldn’t have been released.” He also insisted that Megrahi’s release was “made for the right reasons”.

Mr Mundell said, however, the decision to release Megrahi back to Libya was a “bad decision, badly made”.

Mr Carmichael further criticised Mr MacAskill for visiting the Libyan in prison before he made the decision to free him.

Meanwhile, Mr Murphy said his “personal reflection” was that if Hamilton was terminally ill in prison he should not be released “because his actions and the slaughter of those innocent children were just so vile”.

[From a report published on 26 April on the website of The Press and Journal, a daily newspaper circulating mainly in Aberdeen and the North-East of Scotland. The report of the interchange in The Times can be read here and that in The Scotsman can be read here.

Because of telephone line problems affecting most of the Northern Cape, I have been unable to access the internet from my Middelpos base since last Saturday. For the foreseeable future, I may be able to service this blog only during my weekly visits to Calvinia, where there is an internet cafe.]

A Time to Betray called a CIA plot by Iran’s fanatics

[This is the heading over a post on the Gather website by Reza Khalili. It reads in part:]

The Iranian government, through its daily paper, Aftab, published an article about me and my book, calling it, “A plot against the Islamic regime of Iran by the CIA.”

The paper starts with a lengthy headline:

"In a new scenario designed to create psychological warfare against Iran, the CIA has authorized a person who claims to have been a member of the Revolutionary Guards and to have spied for 10 years for the CIA to publish a book clearly named as a betrayal A Time to Betray by someone named Reza Kahlili."

The paper then goes on to attempt to refute some of the facts in my book:

"This person claims that the former President of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, ordered the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie. He says this despite the fact that Libyan TV has repeatedly shown Libyan leader, Muoamar Gaddafi, greeting al-Megrahi upon his return to Libya and that Megrahi was the only one indicted and sentenced for life for the bombing."

The paper fails to point out that I got my information from one of the regime’s own intelligence agents. This agent told me that the bombing was in retaliation for the downing of an Iranian commercial airliner by the US Navy.

[Reza Khalili's book, and Richard Marquise's reaction to it, is mentioned on this blog here.]

My Lai and Lockerbie Reconsidered

[This is the headline over a long article, dated 31 August 2009 but which has only just come to my attention, by Nick Turse in The Nation. It reads in part:]

A week ago, two convicted mass murderers leaped back into public consciousness as news coverage of their stories briefly intersected. One was freed from prison, continuing to proclaim his innocence, and his release was vehemently denounced in the United States as were the well-wishers who welcomed him home. The other expressed his contrition, after almost 35 years living in his country in a state of freedom, and few commented.

When Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Libyan sentenced in 2001 to twenty-seven years in prison for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was released from incarceration by the Scottish government on "compassionate grounds," a furor erupted. On August 22nd, ABC World News with Charles Gibson featured a segment on outrage over the Libyan's release. It was aired shortly before a report on an apology offered by William Calley, who, in 1971 as a young lieutenant, was sentenced to life in prison for the massacre of civilians in the Vietnamese village of My Lai.

After al-Megrahi, who served eight years in prison, arrived home to a hero's welcome in Libya, officials in Washington expressed their dismay. To White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, it was "outrageous and disgusting"; to President Barrack Obama, "highly objectionable." Calley, who admitted at trial to killing Vietnamese civilians personally, but served only three years of house arrest following an intervention by President Richard Nixon, received a standing ovation from the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, Georgia, the city where he lived for years following the war. (He now resides in Atlanta.) For him, there was no such uproar, and no one, apparently, thought to ask either Gibbs or the president for comment, despite the eerie confluence of the two men and their fates.

Part of the difference in treatment was certainly the passage of time and Calley's contrition, however many decades delayed, regarding the infamous massacre of more than 500 civilians. "There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai," the Vietnam veteran told his audience. "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry." For his part, al-Megrahi, now dying of cancer, accepted that relatives of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie bombing "have hatred for me. It's natural to behave like this...They believe I'm guilty, which in reality I'm not. One day the truth won't be hiding as it is now. We have an Arab saying: 'The truth never dies.'"

Calley was charged in the deaths of more than 100 civilians and convicted in the murder of twenty-two in one village, while al-Megrahi was convicted of the murder of 270 civilians aboard one airplane. Almost everyone, it seems, found it perverse, outrageous, or "gross and callous" that the Scottish government allowed a convicted mass murderer to return to a homeland where he was greeted with open arms. No one seemingly thought it odd that another mass murderer had lived freely in his home country for so long. The families of the Lockerbie victims were widely interviewed. As the Calley story broke, no American reporter apparently thought it worth the bother to look for the families of the My Lai victims, let alone ask them what they thought of the apology of the long-free officer who had presided over, and personally taken part in the killing of, their loved ones.

Lockerbie bomber's medical file 'should be made public'

[This is the headline over a report published yesterday on The Scotsman website. The following are excerpts. By far the most significant part is the last two paragraphs.]

The Scottish Government has faced fresh calls for the Lockerbie bomber's medical reports to be released.

Labour and the Tories both pressed justice secretary Kenny MacAskill on the matter, more than eight months after Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was granted compassionate release. (...)

Yesterday, Labour's Lord Foulkes said there had been reports the bomber's health had improved to the extent that he was writing his autobiography.

The Lothians MSP raised the matter with Mr MacAskill in the Scottish Parliament, asking: "Does the cabinet secretary realise it is now eight months since he released al-Megrahi on the basis he had less than three months to live?

"And has he seen reports that al-Megrahi's health is improving, that he is working on his autobiography and he has welcomed over 30,000 visitors to his home?"

However, the justice secretary said: "In this country medical reports are private and confidential. That applies to people who have committed serious offences.

"These are not available to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, to members of the press or indeed to political parties."

SNP MSP Christine Grahame raised the issue of a public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing, saying the case for this was now "overwhelming".

Mr MacAskill said there were "still lingering questions that people feel need to be answered". He said the Scottish Government would "fully co-operate with any inquiry".

The Herald wins newspaper of the year award

The Herald was named Newspaper of the Year during a night of success for Herald & Times Group at the prestigious Scottish Press Awards last night.

Chief reporter Lucy Adams won Journalist of the Year and Reporter of the Year ...

Ms Adams’s double success is recognition for the way she led the story of the Scottish Government’s controversial decision to release cancer-stricken Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, on compassionate grounds so that he could return home to Libya in August.

She was the first UK journalist to interview Megrahi at his home in Tripoli. Under the headline "Truth never dies", Lucy reported his demands for a far-reaching public inquiry into the atrocity and his 10-year fight with the Scottish legal system to clear his name.

Donald Martin, editor-in-chief of Herald & Times Group and chair of the Scottish Newspaper Society’s Editors’ Committee, said: "(...) I am really delighted for our winners tonight, and nominees. It’s testimony to their talent, hard work and dedication. At the end of the day it’s quality that counts and, across all three titles, we have that in abundance.”

He added that Lucy “thoroughly deserves” her awards.

He said: “Lucy is a fantastic journalist, a real asset who impresses everyone she meets and works with. I am so pleased for her.”

[From a report posted on Friday on the heraldscotland website. Lucy Adams's Lockerbie stories (some of the most important ones written with Ian Ferguson) can be read here.]