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Special Report
The Other Lockerbies
It’s fine for senators to grandstand on the UK’s and BP’s alleged roles in releasing a murdering terrorist to Libya. But why are they silent about other terrorists released to foreign governments?
Senators Menendez and Lautenberg of New Jersey took to the microphone this week to express disappointment that witnesses from the British government and BP — including outgoing CEO Tony Hayword — were unavailable to appear before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing convened last week. The purpose of the hearing was to explore BP’s alleged role in the release last year by the Scottish government of the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan-Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people lost their lives.
The slights from these witnesses are highly troubling because, technically, in calling for an investigation of BP’s role in last year’s decision by the British government to allow Scotland to release the convicted terrorist, the Senators representing New Jersey and New York are doing the right thing.
But a more troubling picture emerges when one considers whether these Senators are applying their outrage to other instances where foreign governments have released terrorists who have targeted — and continue to target — Americans. Indeed, when one looks at who is attacking Marines in Afghanistan and elsewhere today, it is hard not to characterize these Senators’ efforts on Lockerbie as an example of doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
Senators Menendez and Lautenberg, along with Senators Schumer and Gillibrand of New York, had recently asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to investigate the U.K.’s release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi last year, and the role that BP may have played in pushing the arrangement through. Al-Megrahi – convicted in 2001 of the 1988 bombing of a Pan-Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, was released last year from Scottish custody on “compassionate” grounds. Scottish authorities at the time cited their impression that al-Megrahi, diagnosed with terminal cancer, had only three months or so to live. A year later, al-Megrahi is still alive in Libya — reports indicate that one of the doctors who previously diagnosed him as terminal now says he could live another decade.
These Senators are right to want to take a serious look at the extent to which BP’s interest in securing oil deals in Libya may have contributed to the outrageous decision to release al-Megrahi. But if there is any doubt as to whether Menendez and his colleagues are primarily motivated by seeking justice for victims of terrorism — as opposed to, say, further sticking it to a serious offender in one of the country’s most hated industries at a time when millions of gallons of oil have been spewed into the Gulf of Mexico — that doubt is validated when looking at other situations where foreign governments have released terrorists who have targeted Americans, and continue to do so.
Take our friends, the Saudis. Tom Joscelyn reports at the Long War Journal:
On Saturday, June 19 [2010], Saudi officials told reporters that about 25 former Guantanamo detainees, or approximately 20 percent of the 120 detainees who have been repatriated to Saudi Arabia, have returned to terrorism since being transferred. All of the recidivists had been enrolled in a rehabilitation program established by the Saudi government.
And as the Associated Press reported with respect to Afghanistan in March, 2009:
Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, formerly Guantanamo prisoner No. 008, was among 13 Afghan prisoners released to the Afghan government in December 2007. Rasoul is now known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a nom de guerre that Pentagon and intelligence officials say is used by a Taliban leader who is in charge of operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan.
J.D. Gordon, former Pentagon Spokesman for the Western Hemisphere, stated in a recent interview:
At last count earlier this year, the U.S. intelligence community estimated that roughly 20% of all detainees released from Guantanamo, all of which have been transferred to foreign governments, have been confirmed or are suspected of having returned to terrorism. This includes Taliban leadership fighting against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber who struck in Iraq, and coincidentally a “terminally ill” man who became one of Afghanistan’s most prolific IED makers when he left Guantanamo on humanitarian grounds.
So where have Senators Schumer, Gillibrand, Lautenberg and Menendez been while these foreign governments have released terrorists who continue to target Americans? Where are their calls for investigations and hearings into these incidents?
The fact that there was no high-profile, deeply unpopular oil company implicated in the release of these terrorists from Gitmo may go a long way in explaining the silence. Perhaps the Senators are also reluctant to point out the short-sightedness of one of President Obama’s first acts in office: issuing the Executive Order to close Gitmo.
Reports indicate that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will attempt to convene a hearing on Lockerbie again in September. If these four Senators want to send a clear, consistent signal between now and then about seeking justice and closure for terrorism victims, they hopefully will take their call for an al-Megrahi investigation as an opportunity to rise above partisanship and get to the bottom of all incidents in which foreign governments have released known terrorists.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (60) | Leave a comment
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David| 8.3.10 @ 7:24AM
The British government didn't let the Scottish Government release Megrahi. The UK Govt had no say on what the Scottish Govt does in terms of releasing prisoners on compassionate grounds as the UK Govt has no authority in this area. This power is devolved to the Scottish Govt at Holyrood and the UK Govt in Westminster is constitutionally bound not to interfere in any devloved decision.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.4.10 @ 9:58AM
Those specious assertions remain untested, pending investigation. Nice job parrotting the SNP talking points.
The jury is still out on MacAskill's culpability.
Your bias is showing.
David| 8.4.10 @ 12:14PM
Bias? Hardly son. Just a knowledge of how the devolution settlement works.
FYI they have been investigated and all papers released, apart from those involving the US govt who refuse to release them.
Go figure.
Or will your bias show?
Anti-idiotarian| 8.4.10 @ 1:03PM
The investigation by our Senators is pending, little Davie.
So, why won't Scots release all the documents if they're so independent of US influence?
Sit on that and devolve.
David| 8.5.10 @ 7:46AM
You really are ignorant of diplomatic process aren't you my underling.
Established protocol is that one govt doesn't release the documents of another govt without prior permission. The US govt hasn't given that permission to the Scottish Executive, hence no papers involving the US have been released.
Get back under your rock eh, you clearly haven't got any idea about international relations.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.5.10 @ 8:05AM
"protocol"? That's all you've got? pffl...
The Scottish executive knows what's in these documents, right? If it was exculpatory, does anyone imagine the "independent" MacAskill wouldn't refer the Senator's to those documents and demand the Senators subpoena our Executive?
Congessional investigations target political corruption-- they don't genuflect to executive privilege. You really don't know much about legislative oversight do you?
That silly diplo-speake game is a mighty thin fig leaf. Try harder.
/weak
Sen. Chuck Schumer | 8.5.10 @ 8:46AM
"BP should face criminal probe for its role in freeing Lockerbie bomber, Sen. Chuck Schumer says"
http://www.nydailynews.com/new....._deal.html
BP should face a criminal investigation into its role in freeing the Lockerbie bomber, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
Schumer and victims' relatives called on Attorney General Eric Holder to look into whether the oil giant broke federal laws by lobbying the British government to free Libyan terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi to help them close a $900 million oil deal with Libya.
"No matter how powerful the corporation, how important the foreign government, a blood money deal is a blood money deal," Schumer said.
The Foreign Corrupt Services Act makes it a crime for a corporation to give anything of value to a foreign government in order to influence its actions.
BP has admitted lobbying the British government to speed up a prisoner exchange with Libya, though it denied specifically pushing for al-Megrahi's release.
David| 8.6.10 @ 8:09AM
All I've got? LOL. What a doofus you are.
BTW, they already have referred to the documents.
Do keep up.
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.4.10 @ 10:02AM
The sober Scottish Lords– who patiently heard the evidence and convicted Megrahi– sat beneath the ancient Scottish motto “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit” which roughly translates as “Don’t cut at me and expect to get away with it.”
Last year, in a fit of delusional sentimentalism (or alcoholic dementia– or both), one stinking drunk and disorderly ‘Justice’ Minister tossed centuries of Scottish principle down the filthiest toilet in Edinburgh.
No amount of magesterial posturing will whitewash this disgraceful blood money for BP oil deal.
Billion Euro Q: How many BP shares are owned by Blair, MacAskill, Straw, Salmond, et.al.?
/Kaddafi delenda est
David| 8.4.10 @ 12:16PM
Compassionate release is part of Scots law and has been for long beofre MEgrahi was even born.
There are strict criteria and if a person meets these then the Justice Minister is duty bound to grant release.
You should read Scots law rather than US media to get your information.
Anti-Quisling| 8.4.10 @ 1:07PM
Quislings don’t confront real evil; and hate those who do. You can see this on almost any school playground. The kid who confronts the school bully is often resented more than the bully. Whether out of guilt over their own cowardice or out of fear that the one who confronted the bully will provoke the bully to lash out more, those who refuse to confront the bully often resent the one who does.
Today, Euro-Quislings express that cowardly contempt for those of us who take a hard line with Qaddafi. It’s ever our fault (you see) for provoking the bully. Better to remain supine while Q satisfies himself prison-raping EU nurses; tormenting American widows and orphans; parading his murderous henchmen triumphantly.
The Quisling answer: Just display some false "compassion", stay quiet, and hope the crocs eat you last.
There’s a word for that: Qowardice.
Own it, Quislings.
bobob| 8.3.10 @ 7:34AM
Quite frankly I think it is time for the US to back off on this. Yes you've been upset by the BP oil spill, but it is time to get your hysteria under control and calm down.
I'm British rather than Scottish, but I agree with the Scottish government that their ministers are in no way required to testify before a foreign legislature. Especially when the foreign legislature in question is going through a major bout of populist posturing.
SAS| 8.3.10 @ 4:25PM
Speaking of Brits being "required" to serve foreign governments, anyone know if the UK still forces SAS troops to train Kaddafi’s goon squads?
Telegraph (UK): SAS trains Libyan troops http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....roops.html
SAS soldier: “The IRA was our greatest adversary now we are training their backers. There was a weary rolling of the eyes when we were told about this”… Robin Horsfall, a former SAS soldier who took part in the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 and fought the IRA in Northern Ireland, said: “There is a long list of British soldiers who have died because of Gaddafi funding terrorists. “The SAS is being ordered to do something it knows is morally wrong.’’
/shameful
Alan | 8.3.10 @ 7:44AM
David
Whilst I agree with your sentiment I would like to correct you. Scotland has always had a separate legal system. At no stage since the act of union in 1707 has Scotlands legal system been subject to English or British law. Therefore Scots law was not devolved from Westminster as it was never evolved in the first place.
Richard Thomson| 8.3.10 @ 8:22AM
The report from Professor Sikora which has been widely mis-quoted as saying that Megrahi could live for another ten years, including in the article above, in fact estimated the chances of this happening as being less than 1%. See:
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/18.....-comments/
In the event, the content of Prof. Sikora's report is completely irrelevant, as it was not considered by the Scottish Government at any stage in the decision to grant compassionate release.
Louis Jenkins| 8.3.10 @ 8:23AM
No small suprise that released prisoners from Gitmo and other places have returned to the fold. I say to heck with the gesturing of all parties and get real. These terrorist will not rest until all of us are dead, or Muslim. That's the problem with political types, their cohorts, and the terrorists. Can't see the forest for the trees.
David| 8.3.10 @ 8:42AM
Alan,
I think you are wrong here. Yes, Scots law has always been independent (I know, I live in Scotland) but until devolution any compassionate release decision would have been made by the Secretary of State for Scotland, a Westminster position. This is now a decision for the Justice Secretary at Holyrood.
Therefore I am correct.
shame on Scotland| 8.5.10 @ 7:40AM
FLASHBACK 2009: The Church of Scotland intervened in the case of the Lockerbie bomber, urging the government to free the man convicted of the worst terrorist atrocity in British history. http://news.scotsman.com/scotl.....kerbie-...
Bob Monetti of New Jersey, whose son Rick was among the victims of the bombing, said: “This is nonsense. This is the first word I have ever heard from the Church of Scotland in 21 years. They didn’t send us any condolences, they didn’t send us any support.
“The reason the United States has separation of church and state is because church people usually get it wrong. I’d like to be compassionate but this man may die next week or he may live 10 years.”
/shame on Scotland
Will| 8.3.10 @ 9:14AM
I don't really see what all the fuss is about re the release of al-Megrahi. Most Bush Administration foreign policy was a disaster, but one great success was detente with Libya. Powell and Rice wooed a dictatorial regime headed by an evil man, a state sponser of terror and a former threat to the USA. Libya, formerly a terrible headache that had to be bombed by Clinton, is now relativelz docile and eager to play a part on the world stage as a responsible actor. We negotiated with a terrorist, so why should'nt the British negotiate as well. And if the price for peace with Libya is one released terrorist, who really cares. The world of diplomacy and foreign policy is dirty, nasty and cynical, and it always has been. We ought not begrudge the British their oil deal.
JohnW| 8.3.10 @ 9:28AM
Perhaps the British Government should hold an inquiry into the funding of terrorists in Northern Ireland over a period of 25 years through Noraid. Then the British Government could invite those prominent members (of both the Senate & Congress) who actively supported this to answer questions at this inquiry!
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.3.10 @ 4:21PM
The irony (apparently lost on Scots) is that Kaddafi was the IRA. Kaddafi financed, supported, directed, trained and armed the IRA for decades. They were among his favorite Marxist hired goons.
Up to 6,000 innocents were killed or injured with Libyan supplied guns and explosives. And many IRA bombs employed the same Semtex that sent what was left of Clipper Maid of the Seas crashing into Christmas dinner tables in tiny Lockerbie (incinerating 11 Scots on the ground). Kaddafi has accepted liability and responsibility for both IRA terrorism AND Lockerbie terrorism– along with many other mass murders of innocents orchestrated by his terror-state.
Kaddafi’s IRA proxies might still be in business if not for the tireless efforts of the Victims of Pan Am 103 to sanction and isolate Libya. But (apparently) no good deed goes unpunished– at least among the cheap Scotch-adled SNP brains of Kenny MacAskill fans.
IRA and Lockerbie bombing victims properly hold Kaddafi responsible for his bloody atrocities. They can no longer afford to ignore the kabuki theatre of Libyan state-sponsored terrorism.
Deluded Londonistani-dhimmis can blame America all they want-- meanwhile the jihadists continue their demographic conquest of your quaint little island. Good luck with that, Quislings.
David| 8.4.10 @ 7:26AM
The IRA didn't commit any acts of terrorism in Scotland so no irony to be lost on the Scots.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.4.10 @ 8:37AM
Many Scots were killed by IRA while working in the Army. The memory of brave Scotsmen (mercilessly slaughtered by Kaddafi's IRA henchmen) is lionized in the poem Liogenel.
http://www.scottishloyalists.com/three.htm
Don't be a smug apologist for Kaddafi's IRA henchmen your whole life, David.
David| 8.4.10 @ 11:19AM
Apologist for the IRA? You are kidding right?
As a Scottish Conservative I despise them.
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.4.10 @ 1:11PM
...despise them? Yet MacAskill toadies applaud rewarding the IRA's puppet master-- Kaddafi.
Hypocrisy on stilts.
DAvid| 8.5.10 @ 7:48AM
Which toadies would these be?
The US govt? They dropped the sanctions, not Macaskill.
Hypocrisy? You betcha. US all the way.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.5.10 @ 8:13AM
The Scottish toadies who noisely parrot MacAskill "who-me?" talking points.
The UN dropped the Libyan sanctions regime under pressure from assorted Euro-Quislings (chiefly Jack Straw). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3102342.stm
More (illogical) tu quoque? ...weak
Try harder to stay on topic.
Billion Euro Q: How many BP shares are owned by Blair, MacAskill, Straw, Salmond, et.al.?
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.5.10 @ 8:35AM
Which toadies? That would be the MacAskill toadies who applaud his obsequious 'quid pro quo' to the IRA's kingpin-- Kaddafi.
Hypocrisy? For a' that, an' a' that, It's comin yet for a' that...
Ye see yon birkie ca'd 'a lord',
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that?
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a cuif for a' that,
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that,
The man o' independent mind,
He looks an' laughs at a' that.
Dan F| 8.3.10 @ 10:27AM
The Saudis compare their recidivisism rate of twenty per cent vs the regular American recidivism rate of 50 per cent. It is unreal to expect a zero rate.
Joe D.| 8.3.10 @ 12:13PM
Though you may be right, David. We do not know what went on behind the closed doors. Britain and BP could have sent inducements to get this to happen. In either case, it was a travesty of Justice.
David| 8.4.10 @ 7:29AM
Considering the SNP and Labour parties absolutely detest each other, especially the leaders I doubt that Salmond would do the bidding of Blair or Brown. In fact, SNP tried to have a clause put into the PTA that Megrahi was to be excluded from it. UK govt at westminster refused for this clause to be included.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.4.10 @ 9:50AM
Billion Euro Q: How many BP shares are owned by Blair, MacAskill, Straw, Salmond, et.al.?
In Foggy Bottom, this games is called the old Potomac two-step (see Tom Clancy).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potomac_two-step
Scots and Brits may dance different jigs but their BP piper still plays the same tune.
Let's not play coy.
Jack Ryan| 8.4.10 @ 9:53AM
"I'm sorry, Mr. President, I don't dance."
Jack Ryan| 8.5.10 @ 8:49AM
The odious game of playing footsie with terrorists is finally coming to a close.
BREAKING: Former Congressman Pleads Guilty to Obstructing Justice, Acting as Unregistered Foreign Agent
http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojp.....070710.htm
A former congressman and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations pleaded guilty in federal court today to obstruction of justice and to acting as an unregistered foreign agent related to his work for an Islamic charity with ties to international terrorism, announced Beth Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri...
[Those puckering sounds you hear are the tightening sphincters of UK politicians and BP lobbyists who facilitated this terrorist-for-oil deal.]
David| 8.3.10 @ 3:29PM
To David, Hey buddy, I have been posting on this site for quite a while using the name David. Could you please change up your's in some manner so readers don't confuse you with me? Maybe David2 or something.
David| 8.4.10 @ 7:31AM
Single issue poster here so won't be on any other threads.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.4.10 @ 9:54AM
One trick pony.
How many shares of BP does David own?
David| 8.4.10 @ 11:24AM
Are you a total muppet or just a complete one?
Probably quite a few in my pension scheme.
Directly? None. So trot on eh.
This whole issue stinks of US oil looking to shaft it's foreign competitors by lobbying all and sundry on capitol hill and boy didn't the democrats latch on to it.
Typical US reaction - blame anyone but themselves and hype it to the max.
You can bet that the damages won't be reduced like it was for Exxon. BP aren't considered 'merikun enough.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.4.10 @ 1:20PM
Here we learn that what's good for his pension is fine with David-- gilty conscience.
That's why Scots consistently wins the Olympic gold metal for cheapness.
Typical Euro-Quisling tantrum-- blame America first.
/shameless
Ret. Marine| 8.3.10 @ 4:10PM
Don't need to read the article for the answer, they are all morally bankrupt and cowards to the truth.
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.3.10 @ 4:13PM
Thousands of IRA bombing victims in the UK are also being betrayed by corrupt BP lobbyists’ oily deal with Kaddafi.
=====
IRA victims killed with Libyan semtex to get £2bn in compensation from Colonel Gaddafi
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....emtex.html
=====
Kaddafi openly admitted responsibility and liability for mass murdering UK and US victims… and crooked corruptocrats slurp up his blood money for BP oil deals like good little dhimmis.
Just imagine if Obama released Khalid Sheik Mohammed for “humanitarian” reasons (afterall he’ll surely die otherwise) in open exchange for oil deals with the bin Laden family. That’s what we’re essentially witnessing with this sordid al-Megrahi affaire.
/Kaddafi delenda est
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.3.10 @ 4:13PM
MacAskill’s “compassionate release” lie was a thin veil for a much larger ‘quid pro quo.’ The Lockerbie bomber’s release was yet another payment on Kaddafi’s terrorist sextortion demands that secured release of his prison raped and tortured EU nurse hostages.
=====
FLASHBACK 2007: Qaddafi Wants Money and Lockerbie Attacker for Nurses’ Release
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=75328
"Muammar Qaddafi has officially stated his conditions for the release of the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya, a website of the Libyan opposition claims. Cited by the Bulgarian national radio, the site claims that Qaddafi has sent an official note to the EU country members and the US, requesting compensations for the families of the HIV-infected children and the release of the terrorist from Lockerbie…
"The UK should help with the release of the Lockerbie bomber, the note also says. He could be released because he has already served his sentence, or he could receive amnesty, or be extradited to Libya, Qaddafi suggests."
=====
This bald-faced hostage extortion payoff does not bode well for Iran’s UC-Berkeley student hostages.
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.3.10 @ 4:14PM
Here is the awful account of the EU nurse torture ordeals from Human Rights Watch.
http://www.hrw.org/english/doc.....a12013.htm
=====
Bulgarian defendant, Kristiana Valceva, said interrogators used a small machine with cables and a handle that produced electricity. “During the shocks and torture they asked me where the AIDS came from and what is your role,” she told Human Rights Watch. She said that Libyan interrogators subjected her to electric shocks on her breasts and genitals. “My confession was all in Arabic without translation,” she said. “We were ready to sign anything just to stop the torture.”
=====
Read it all. This was the stick the newly “rehabilitated” Kaddafi used to great effect (along with his oil carrots) to castrate the West.
Westerners can backbite each other (Bush lied, Obama lied, Blair lied, MacAskill lied) until we’re blue in the face.
Meanwhile Kaddafi and his terrorist co-conspirators laugh their way to the bank laden with jizya booty.
National will (and the moral courage to exercise it) that united and motivated our post-9/11 actions has been eroded by appeasement Quislings. That is the pox on all our houses of government.
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.3.10 @ 4:15PM
The Scots and Obama shouldn’t feel alone in being pubicly castrated by Kaddafi. The Swiss had the same experience this year when they paid off Kaddafi to release his Swiss hostages.
=====
Merz “acted like a Sarkozy” over Libya
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Ho.....p;rss=true
...Switzerland has already transferred a compensation payment into a blocked account for the publication of the police photos of Hannibal Gaddafi.
=====
America fought our first overseas war against Tripolitan pirates who used hostage extortion to secure huge annual jizya payments from Western nation treasuries. Kaddafi now has that racket back in business. Are Americans prepared to do anything about it?
/Kaddafi delenda est
Joerg Haider | 8.4.10 @ 10:16AM
What do neo-Nazis and the SNP have in common?
Apparently, they're both in Kaddafi's pocket.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ddafi.html
What was MacAskill's price for releasing Megrahi?
David| 8.4.10 @ 11:26AM
Not having a martys shrine in Scotland.
That'll do me nicely.
At least Megrahi got convicted - unlike the Captain of the Vincennes who got promoted.
So much for US justice.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.4.10 @ 3:31PM
So, Davie wants Captain Rogers' convicted? Bring on the indictment! It would be helpful to relearn why the Iran airbus corpses didn't sink.
On September 22, 1988, the Vincennes rescued 26 Vietnamese boat people adrift in the South China Sea. Please enlighten us regarding Megrahi's record of humanitarianism.
At least Megrahi's wife didn't have a pipe bomb explode under her van on the way to work-- unlike Captain Rogers.
Reduced to flinging tu quoque feces and igniting silly strawmen?
Don't be a terrorist cheerleader your whole miserable life, Davie.
/pathetic twit
David| 8.5.10 @ 7:51AM
Pathetic insults show you really have lost the argument.
Indictment? how about a simple court martial for gross negligence? Simple. Instead he gets PROMOTED?
For killing several hundred civilians? And you have the red neck to criticise the UK.
Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.5.10 @ 8:24AM
The silly MacAskill toady flings "muppet" feces through the bars of its cage, then has the temerity to climb up on its hind legs to howl about "pathetic insults"?
Physician, heal thyself.
Chase that wild goose with a red herring around your silly Vincennes strawman all day-- it still doesn't address the issue.
Billion Euro Q: How many BP shares are owned by Blair, MacAskill, Straw, Salmond, et.al.?
Try harder. Your intellectual bankruptcy is showing.
David| 8.6.10 @ 8:12AM
If you want to find out look at either a) the register of interests of Salmond et al or go through the list of BP shareholders.
Easy peasy.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.6.10 @ 9:22AM
Do all Scots accept these self-certifications at face value?
I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
David| 8.17.10 @ 11:50AM
Plenty of investigative press to check if they are lying.
Simple act of cross referencing.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.4.10 @ 1:23PM
Too late-- there's already a martyr's shrine for 270 innocents in Lockerbie... and MacAskill's cowardly "compassion" descrecrated their memories.
/shame, shame, shame
Abu Talb| 8.5.10 @ 6:27AM
You've obviously never heard of Abu Talb - the actual bomber - and not the US picked 'patsy' Megrahi. Will the senators ever mention Abu Talb in this farcical investigation of theirs? Don't think so.
Anti-idiotarian| 8.5.10 @ 7:38AM
Here we go again. Another idiotarian drools illiterate conspiracy theory-- aping the discredited nonsense of fantasist, Juval Aziz (author of Spielberg's "Munich" whitewash of Kaddafi's Black September massacre).
Even Steven Spielberg dropped plans to translate Aziz's warped historical revisionist narrative on Lockerbie into film.
Look morons. The Iranians, Syrians and their terrorist proxies have plenty of innocent blood on their own hands without Westerners white-washing Kaddafi's murderous culpability for Black September, Rome/Vienna airport massacres, La Belle disco, Pan Am 103, UTA flight 772, PIRA, Abu Nidal, Abu Sayyaf, etc., ad nauseum.
Don't be a demonstrably ignorant apologist for Kaddafi's terrorist mass murders your whole miserable life.
David| 8.17.10 @ 11:48AM
Why would there be a martyrs shrine in Lockerbie when no one was martyred there?
Bob| 8.5.10 @ 6:11AM
You do realise the doctor that said ten years came out a few days later to say he was astonished he had been misquoted and that the "highly unlikely" part was deliberately omitted?
That doctor also played no part either in the decision.
You do realise the UK ambassador to the US wrote to the senators and said their letter was based on "unture" media reports that led them to these erroneous beliefs?
These have went unreported by the mainstream media. Ask yourself why? Stick to Newsnet Scotland. It blows anything out of the water.
I will say the US reports and opinion appear to be many years out of date with that of the UK. A lot of stuff going unreported such as US intelligence documents blaming Iran and not Libya.
It is pretty much regarded Megrahi would of been cleared on appeal and this release was a way to save face of the US cover-up. Again this is no where on the US media radar for good reason.
Kaddafi delenda est| 8.5.10 @ 7:47AM
You do realize that the physicians' prognosis was imperically demonstrated as wrong, wrong, WRONG! Much like the squawking here of MacAskill's silly parrots, Megrahi himself has detonated their credibility.
Moreover, Megrahi's criminal indictment specifically cites "did conspire together and with others." If idiotarians want to pretend a Libyan conspiracy never existed to destroy Clipper Maid of the Seas, then their problem is with the mountains of evidence that convicted Megrahi; which was also upheld upon appeal.
Don't be a morally and intellectually bankrupt apologist for Kaddafi's mass murders your whole life.
/Kaddafi delenda est