As you know, the Libyan Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was freed from a Scottish prison on 'compassionate grounds' in August 2009 because a doctor's report paid for by the Libyan government said he had three months at most to live.
He was flown home to a hero's welcome, greeted at the airport personally by Libyan dictator Moamar Ghaddaffi and ensconced in a luxury villa overlooking the Mediterranean.
Coincidentally, British Petroleum signed a deal to pay out almost $1 billion to Ghadaffi in exchange for access to Libya's oil just before al-Magrahi's release. Tony Blair is supposed to have been instrumental in inking the deal.
Almost a year later, al-Megrahi is doing just fine, and this murderer essentially has escaped justice.
At the time this corrupt deal went down, the Obama Administration claimed to have been taken by surprise and voiced opposition to the deal.
As recently as last week when the news came out that al-Megrahi was doing fine healthwise and could live for decades, President Barack Hussein Obama claimed that all Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry."
As it turns out, this was sheer bolshoi and kabuki outrage.
According to The Australian, the Obama Administration was not only fully informed of what was going on but actually had Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London lobby for the 'compassionate release' a week before Megrahi was freed.
In a letter, sent on August 12 last year to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and justice officials, LeBaron wrote that "if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that al-Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose."
The Scots ( especially since there was that juicy oil deal pending) chose to interpret the lukewarm US response to keeping al-Megrahi in custody and the remarks on how the US favored 'compassionate release' as tacit approval.By the way, this violated an agreement between Britain and the US ( the Brits were concerned we;'d hang this murderer) that anyone convicted of the bombing would serve out their sentence in a Scottish prison.
The Obama Administration has apparently tried to keep the letter secret, and refused permission to the Scottish authorities to publish it on the grounds it would prevent future "frank and open communications". But apparently it leaked out.
Senate foreign relations committee launched a probe on the al-Megrahi release after it was revealed that far from being at death's door, he was doing just fine.
The committee had asked a number of Scottish politicians - including Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and former justice secretary Jack Straw - to appear before the Senate committee to answer questions at the hearing next week about al-Megrahi's release.
They refused. But perhaps President Obama could be persuaded to appear.There are 270 innocent dead, most of them Americans and the ones they left behind who deserve some candor.
Just to make a refreshing change.
i guess you're going to have to explain this to me.
ReplyDeleteas i see it the guy killed 270 innocent americans.
and hussein was directly involved in the plan in getting him released.
so why is hussein wanting this kept hush hush?
the guy did kill americans, did he not?
i don't understand why hussein would want his involvement in the release kept quiet?
i thought he'd be screaming it from the truman balcony.
wouldn't this make his polling numbers go up with a certain segment of the american society?
please explain?
This is actually quite simple why everyone would be so eager to get this man released in what ever way possible. Libya is an up and coming major world power with vast oil reserves. The United States is a declining power and is deemed expendable by Britian. If Britian wishes to survive and thrive it will need to have some what cordial relations with countries like Libya. As for the United States, its survival will depend upon forging cordial relations of some type with countries like this as well.
ReplyDeleteWe don't like this but these are the geopolitical realities. We might be able to change them if we develop more of our own oil and gas reserves and build more refineries.
As it stands now, BP takes the rap for this action should it be necessary for someone to take a fall for this. With the damages caused by the Deep Water Horizon oil well explosion BP is for all intents and purposes out of business. This is just some thing else that can be hung around BP's neck. Simply have BP take the entire blame even though others played roles as well. Nice, simple, and neat. At least for the powers that be in Britian and the United States.
Meanwhile the victims of the Lockerbie bombing and their families are having justice denied to them. Of course people find it generally easy to deny justice to Americans. After all "America had it coming." At least this is the conventional wisdom. Only with a very focused and determine public relations campaign on the part of the American government would their be any hope of changing the conventional wisdom.