There is nothing wrong with devolution by delegating power to local authorities. There is also nothing wrong with compassion. Like all things in life it is a matter of balance and degree. British authorities shirked responsibility in the Megrahi disgrace by claiming that the semi-autonomous Scottish government, which can take decisions independently of London on justice matters but not foreign affairs. The idea is preposterous.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted Friday that Britain had left the decision solely to Scotland. If that is so Miliband should be fired or resign for being an ass. Libya clearly recognized the political impact of the release and took full advantage including handing out Scottish flags for the hero's welcome. The only thing missing was Megrahi in a kilt.
Kadhafi himself thanked Queen Elizabeth and Gordon Brown. What bullshit is being served from London.
If a country allows an internal entity to make decisions that have external political implications it has ceded sovereignty. To suggest otherwise is false. Just as false as the absurd idea of compassion that a convicted mass murderer needs to go home because he has cancer. Megrahi is a cancer, a human tumor that should have been dead years ago.
The only person convicted for the murders of 270 people in the bombing of an airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 is free. Britain deserves scorn and shame.
I will try very hard to make this the last post on this subject.
ReplyDelete...but no promises either.
ReplyDeleteAug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Scottish government’s decision to release Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi makes a “mockery of the rule of law” and gives comfort to terrorists around the world, FBI Director Robert Mueller said.
ReplyDelete“I am outraged at your decision,” Mueller said in a letter to Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill dated Aug. 21 and posted on the FBI’s Web site. “Your action rewards a terrorist even though he never admitted to his role in this act of mass murder.”
“You have given the family members of those who died continued grief and frustration,” Mueller wrote. “You have given those who sought to assure that the persons responsible would be held accountable the back of your hand.”
ReplyDeleteMacAskill couldn’t have spent much time with the victims’ families and “could not have visited the small wooden warehouse where the personal items of those who perished were gathered for identification -- the single sneaker belonging to a teenager; the Syracuse sweatshirt never again to be worn by a college student returning home for the holidays; the toys in a suitcase of a businessman looking forward to spending Christmas with his wife and children,” Mueller wrote.
Mueller’s letter noted that he was the assistant attorney general in charge of the investigation and indictment of al- Megrahi in 1991, saying that “although the FBI and Scottish police, and prosecutors in both countries, worked exceptionally closely to hold those responsible accountable, you never once sought our opinion.”
The LETTER
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Secretary:
Over the years I have been a prosecutor, and recently as the Director of the FBI, I have made it a practice not to comment on the actions of other prosecutors, since only the prosecutor handling the case has all the facts and the law before him in reaching the appropriate decision.
Your decision to release Megrahi causes me to abandon that practice in this case. I do so because I am familiar with the facts, and the law, having been the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the investigation and indictment of Megrahi in 1991. And I do so because I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of "compassion."
Your action in releasing Megrahi is as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law. Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world who now believe that regardless of the quality of the investigation, the conviction by jury after the defendant is given all due process, and sentence appropriate to the crime, the terrorist will be freed by one man's exercise of "compassion." Your action rewards a terrorist even though he never admitted to his role in this act of mass murder and even though neither he nor the government of Libya ever disclosed the names and roles of others who were responsible.
Your action makes a mockery of the emotions, passions and pathos of all those affected by the Lockerbie tragedy: the medical personnel who first faced the horror of 270 bodies strewn in the fields around Lockerbie, and in the town of Lockerbie itself; the hundreds of volunteers who walked the fields of Lockerbie to retrieve any piece of debris related to the breakup of the plane; the hundreds of FBI agents and Scottish police who undertook an unprecedented global investigation to identify those responsible; the prosecutors who worked for years--in some cases a full career--to see justice done.
But most importantly, your action makes a mockery of the grief of the families who lost their own on December 21, 1988. You could not have spent much time with the families, certainly not as much time as others involved in the investigation and prosecution. You could not have visited the small wooden warehouse where the personal items of those who perished were gathered for identification--the single sneaker belonging to a teenager; the Syracuse sweatshirt never again to be worn by a college student returning home for the holidays; the toys in a suitcase of a businessman looking forward to spending Christmas with his wife and children.
You apparently made this decision without regard to the views of your partners in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the Lockerbie tragedy. Although the FBI and Scottish police, and prosecutors in both countries, worked exceptionally closely to hold those responsible accountable, you never once sought our opinion, preferring to keep your own counsel and hiding behind opaque references to "the need for compassion."
You have given the family members of those who died continued grief and frustration. You have given those who sought to assure that the persons responsible would be held accountable the back of your hand. You have given Megrahi a "jubilant welcome" in Tripoli, according to the reporting. Where, I ask, is the justice?
Sincerely yours,
Robert S. Mueller, III
Director
The Scott's are getting testy with US criticisms.
ReplyDeleteDown and down we go.
ReplyDeletelet's be fair...
ReplyDeleteamerica released 75 iraqi terrorists last week with american blood on their hands...
WHY NO OUTRAGE ABOUT THAT?
Let's be fair...
We're using the Justice Systems of our proxies, then bitch when they do not toe the US line?
ReplyDeleteA line we cannot toe, ourselves.
There is at least detainee that the US cannot try and convict, but that we KNOW is guilty.
Creating a quandary for the Government, first that of Mr Bush and now for Obamamerica.
Let's see how that is handled.
Mr Bush punted ...
Obama yet to tell, there's a lot of time left on the clock.
Even though he is dying,he should not be trusted and he should still be monitored.
ReplyDeleteMonitored by whom?
ReplyDeleteHe is in Libya, now, Col Gadaffi is the hall monitor, there.
The question is that now that Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi has returned to the desert, will he develop spontaneous remission?
Not as fast as Mueller is going to announce his candidacy for the Senate.
ReplyDeleteWhere does he live, and does he have a chance?
BTW, we have 75,000 Troops "Guarding the Poppy Fields."
ReplyDeleteHow many Americans will that "Crop" kill?
Ethanol/biodiesel - any questions?
I knew there was more to this story. All the BS coming from London about this being a Scottish matter. This could be a government breaker:
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown has been urged to come clean over the British government’s role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber after the Foreign Office was accused of putting pressure on Scotland to set him free.
Ivan Lewis, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Libya, is said to have written to the Scottish government, encouraging officials to send home Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
Megrahi, the only man convicted of Britain’s worst terrorist attack which killed 270 people, received a hero’s welcome on his return to Tripoli amid claims that his release was linked to a lucrative trade deal between the UK and Libya
Read this
ReplyDeleteThis should be ciao Gordon.
ReplyDeleteLibya has the largest oil reserves in Africa. The U.K. is in a world of shit, evergy-wise.
ReplyDeleteOh, that "Canadian" oil we import. It's made possible by the fact that Canada imports a million barrels/day, or so, from, mostly, Africa.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the minister had made the right decision for the "right reasons" on the basis of due process, clear evidence, and recommendations from the parole board and prison governor.
ReplyDeleteHe said: "Compassionate release is not part of the US justice system but it is part of Scotland's.
Times Online -
ReplyDeleteMatthew Campbell -
24 minutes ago.
They are expecting a magnificent party in Tripoli on Tuesday when Libya marks the 40th year in power of Muammar Gadaffi and pays tribute to the deft diplomatic footwork of Saif al-Islam, his son.
Illicit drugs, of all types accounted for 17,000 deaths in 2000, not including "Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs", which account for 32,000 dead.
ReplyDeleteSource: Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan. 19, 2005, Vol. 293, No. 3, p. 298.)
I don't believe a word of what this British government is saying about the entire affair.
ReplyDeleteDaily Times - 12 minutes ago
ReplyDeleteBy Hasbanullah Khan KHAR:
Denying any differences within the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a senior Taliban leader on Saturday named Hakeemullah Mehsud as the successor of Baitullah Mehsud who was “killed” on August 5 to South Waziristan.
The London elitists are laying it on the Scots, thick and heavy.
ReplyDeleteBBC News - 35 minutes ago
The release of the Lockerbie bomber has damaged the reputation of Scotland across the globe, former Labour first minister Jack McConnell has warned.
A strong line of Ministerial defense has been set. Wonder if it'll crack under the strain of the truth?
Ivan Lewis, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Libya, is said to have written to the Scottish government, encouraging officials to send home Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
ReplyDeleteMegrahi, the only man convicted of Britain’s worst terrorist attack which killed 270 people, received a hero’s welcome on his return to Tripoli amid claims that his release was linked to a lucrative trade deal between the UK and Libya.
Minister Ivan Lewis ‘urged’ Lockerbie release.
Anyone up for a bet that the Brown government falls? They are lying through their teeth.
ReplyDeleteWhy are British troops being blown up in Afghanistan, in their shitty inadequate vehicles, if the government that sent them there is prepared to free terrorists because they have a pecker-wrecker cancer? WTF?
ReplyDeleteThese foreign encounters and the cultural exchanges in Libya and Afpakistan are considered to be separate, local affairs, deuce.
ReplyDeleteBoth in DC and in London.
Have been for a while now.
Lewis wrote to MacAskill that there was no legal reason not to accede to Libya’s request to transfer Megrahi into its custody under the terms of a treaty agreed between Tony Blair and Colonel Gadaffi, the Libyan leader, in 2007.
ReplyDeleteA UK government source who saw the letter said Lewis added: “I hope on this basis you will now feel able to consider the Libyan application in accordance with the provisions of the prisoner transfer agreement.” The Scottish government interpreted it as an attempt to influence MacAskill’s decision.
A source close to MacAskill said: “That clearly means, ‘I hope on this basis you will feel able to approve the Libyan application’. That’s the only conclusion you can take from it.”
MacAskill eventually decided to free Megrahi last Thursday on compassionate grounds because he has prostate cancer.
Lewis wrote to MacAskill on August 3 after Libyan officials allegedly threatened to cut diplomatic ties which could have disrupted Britain’s commercial interests in the country.
Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya, said Libyan officials had used “very strong alarmist language about the consequences if Mr Megrahi died in jail and I think that included mention of breach of diplomatic relations”.
A source close to the Scottish government said: “The Libyans were furious with the Foreign Office because it was not panning out as they were told it would [and] threatened to withdraw diplomatic relations.”
"Gordon Brown faced fresh questions tonight after it emerged that he discussed with Colonel Gaddafi detailed conditions for the Lockerbie bomber's return nearly six weeks ago, while senior Labour figures warned of an economic backlash from angry Americans "costing our country dear".
ReplyDelete-Guardian
1) The section of the King David Hotel attacked was a military target.
ReplyDelete2) The government of Israel was not a party to the bombing.
3) Not less than three warnings were given to the British 30 minutes prior to the blast. All were ignored.
The comparison of this bombing to the murders at Lockerbie is sophomorically silly.
The portions of the hotel that were damaged extended beyond the military target.
ReplyDeleteThere was no government of Israel, acknowledged by the Brits, at the time. The leader of the Irgun, at the time of the terrorist attack, Menachem Begin.
Who grew into the role of Peacemaker, later in life. Because his terrorist acts were overlooked by te United States.
Just as the Libyans were also redeemed by the British, or rather the Scots.
But you can peddle your revisionist history, elsewhere, or keep slugging it out here, for the "big guy". That will not change the reality that the Irgun staged a terrorist attack against the legitimate police headquarters and it was a terrorist attack, just as the bombings outside Government and Security installations in Iraq and Afpakistan are, today.
The terrorists wore no uniforms.
They disguised themselves as civilians, to kill civilian policemen.
Terrorists to the core.
But redeemed, later in life.
Menachem Begin, being from Brest, in what was then Russian Empire, and now is in Belarus, was not even a native insurrectionist, but an international terrorist.
ReplyDeleteCrossing borders to promote revolution, in the Levant.
Just as aQ sent operatives to Iraq to disrupt the legitimate international disposition of Iraq.
The equivalency is anything but silly.
dr,, I see your back to your bullshit again...
ReplyDeletecongrats
better check your closet for joos...
btw...
the BRITISH were infact, occupiers of Jerusalem...
maybe they should have gone back to england from where they came from...
They did, eventually, wi"o".
ReplyDeleteThat does not change the reality of the Irgun and the fact they were terrorists.
And that those of the Irgun were redeemed in the eyes of the civil world, just as the Libyans have been.
ReplyDeleteIt may taste a tad bitter, but it is all good, in the end...
Comparing apples and ardvaarks does disservice to the innocents killed at Lockerbie. But I guess no shameful behavior is beyond the Pale in the quest to smear the Jews.
ReplyDeleteWiO,
ReplyDeleteRe: King David attack et al
It was the purpose of Irgun to embarrass the British government by taking out its military headquarters. It was NOT the intention of Irgun to kill either legitimate military targets or inflict collateral casualties – hence, three pre-blast warnings of the impending demolition of the building.
Moreover, to argue that the infliction of collateral damage makes the attacker a “terrorist” would make the United States Marine Corps a terrorist organization. That is not only nonsense but an insult to all Americans having ever served in any war in the nation’s history.
Finally, Irgun was not controlled by any government. The Lockerbie bomber most certainly was, making his attack on a civilian aircraft over the UK an unprovoked, cowardly act of war.
The Sons of the Aryan Nation need to revise their data bases. Their conspiratorial drivel concerning the King David and Liberty are threadbare and paranoid.
Intent does not change reality.
ReplyDeleteThe intent of the Irgun was to kill policemen.
That is the reality of the attack on the King David Hotel. The attackers were foreigners, not born to the land.
Just like aQ. Sectarians attacking civilian targets, claiming military purpose.
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
ReplyDelete___Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Making the distinction is a sign of maturity.
Intent is motive, we'd all agree.
ReplyDeleteallen admits to the Irgun using terrorist tactics, but argues their intent was pure, in mitigation of their behaviour.
Perhaps that is why Mr Begin was able to find redemption.
But it does not alter the fact that the Irgun used terrorism as a tactic in their war of sectarian domination of the Levant.
...shaking his head in wonder at the audacity of disrepute...He repeats:
ReplyDelete“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
___Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Making the distinction is a sign of maturity.
You will grow up some day, I'm sure, allen
ReplyDeleteLearning that one fellows' freedom fighter is the other fellows' terrorist.
ReplyDeleteMaintaining the same standards of judgment is the greater part of maturity, more so than quoting the dead.
Terrorism is a tactic, not a cause.
The foreign expatriate revolutionaries, in the Levant, the Irgun, used terror to their benefit.
They later were offered and accepted redemption from their British victims, though their crimes and their guilt remain, regardless.
Just as with the Libyan.
Eleven years of Irgun terror, documented by date and event.
ReplyDeleteKilling innocent Arabs, bombing markets and attacking a village that had negotiated a separate truce with the Zionists, which the Irgun ignored, to further terrorize the Arab civilians. Letting them know they were not safe, in their own homes, despite pledges of safety from the Haganah.
The attack upon Deir Yassin exemplary of Israeli tactics of terror, dislocation and appropriation of property from the Arab civilian population.
The Irgun's "Rap Sheet", a long and not so impressive list of attacks upon civilians and policemen.
ReplyDeleteNever in a stand up fight.
Not in uniform
Terrorists.
The Irgun killing many more than 270 innocent Arabs.
ReplyDeleteYet their redemption is celebrated as civilized, their leader becoming an acknowledged Peacemaker.
On the same path that the Libyans are treading, now, again with the Great Britians as the guide.
The British do have a long history of leaving destruction and turmoil in the wake.
ReplyDeleteCertainly true in India/Pakistan, true across Africa, especially in Rhodesia.
Everywhere those of their own tribe did not come to majority status in the population, there came social dislocation when the Brits moved on. Even Ireland.
Yikes!
ReplyDeleteThis Puppy's got Problems. 41% Strongly Dissaprove, only 27% strongly approve
...continuing shaking his head in wonder at the audacity of disrepute...He repeats:
ReplyDelete“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
___Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Making the distinction is a sign of maturity.
“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”
ReplyDelete___Adolph Hitler
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it…the truth is the enemy of the state.”
___Joseph Goebbels
“Intellectual activity is a danger to the building of character.”
___Joseph Goebbels
...now off to rid the yard of vermin...
Don't forget your boonie hat, allen.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv87T1CQF8E
trish,
ReplyDelete;-D)
...superior firepower and superior intelligence...Right...
rat quick...
ReplyDeletethere are joos under your bed...