The murky business of pleasing Col Gaddafi - The...
Rated • 1 review • politics, world, world affairs • dailyrecord.co.uk
From the page: The murky business of pleasing Col Gaddafi
By George Galloway on Aug 24, 09 06:29 AM in
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi was innocent anyway. I said so from the start.
I have never met Colonel Gaddafi, nor his sons. I have nothing to do with his regime, which I do not support. But Libya was framed for the horrific crime at Lockerbie, and Megrahi was merely a fall guy.
I've always been close to the Palestinian cause, so I know what I'm talking about when I say the Pan Am airliner was downed by a Palestinian splinter-group, the PFLP - General Command, led by Ahmed Jibril, an ex-air force officer based in Damascus, Syria.
The crime was committed in retaliation for the American shooting down of a civilian Iranian Airbus in the Persian Gulf, which cost the lives of hundreds of men, women and children and for which the terrorists - in the US navy - were given medals by President Ronald Reagan.
I work for Press TV, a station owned by Iran.Yet I say, as I have always said, that logic dictates the view that the funding for the crime at Lockerbie came from Iranian sources, probably the Revolutionary Guard.
All this has long been known by the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic.
The "trial" at Camp Zeist, without a jury and before three Scottish judges, was a farce. It was a political show trial in which one defendant was found not guilty, though he faced exactly the same "evidence" as Megrahi.
Like Iraq later, Libya was an international outcast state at the time. Gaddafi, before Saddam, but after Nasser, was the "Mad Dog" of his day, the "new Hitler".
Following a previous framing involving a bomb aimed at US military personnel in a Berlin club, Libya had been bombarded by the US on the orders of President Reagan. Gaddafi's house was hit by missiles that killed, among others, his daughter.
Now all the tables have turned. Gaddafi is courted by the West and must be pleased.
Why?Well as Mrs Merton said to Debbie McGee: "Tell me, what first attracted you to multi-millionaire magician Paul Daniels?" And so, finally, all the ducks were in the right row. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Board had, unprecedentedly, allowed Megrahi to launch a new appeal, in which not only his innocence would have been clear but the guilt of those who framed him. This was a day in court to be avoided.
Megrahi's prostate cancer was so advanced a "compassionate" case for his release could plausibly be advanced.
Brown and Mandelson had met Gaddafi and his son, BP and others were increasingly profitably buzzing around the honey pot.
The SNP had a chance to appear on the international stage as the "government" (sic) of Scotland and show what independence - not least from the US - could look like.
The much lampooned Kenny MacAskill was brought out looking like the Manchurian Candidate. Blinking into the limelight, he creaked open Megrahi's unjustly closed cell door.
The rest, as they say, is the future. Glasgow Springburn will be an early test of the public's appreciation or otherwise. Let the games begin.
By George Galloway on Aug 24, 09 06:29 AM in
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi was innocent anyway. I said so from the start.
I have never met Colonel Gaddafi, nor his sons. I have nothing to do with his regime, which I do not support. But Libya was framed for the horrific crime at Lockerbie, and Megrahi was merely a fall guy.
I've always been close to the Palestinian cause, so I know what I'm talking about when I say the Pan Am airliner was downed by a Palestinian splinter-group, the PFLP - General Command, led by Ahmed Jibril, an ex-air force officer based in Damascus, Syria.
The crime was committed in retaliation for the American shooting down of a civilian Iranian Airbus in the Persian Gulf, which cost the lives of hundreds of men, women and children and for which the terrorists - in the US navy - were given medals by President Ronald Reagan.
I work for Press TV, a station owned by Iran.Yet I say, as I have always said, that logic dictates the view that the funding for the crime at Lockerbie came from Iranian sources, probably the Revolutionary Guard.
All this has long been known by the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic.
The "trial" at Camp Zeist, without a jury and before three Scottish judges, was a farce. It was a political show trial in which one defendant was found not guilty, though he faced exactly the same "evidence" as Megrahi.
Like Iraq later, Libya was an international outcast state at the time. Gaddafi, before Saddam, but after Nasser, was the "Mad Dog" of his day, the "new Hitler".
Following a previous framing involving a bomb aimed at US military personnel in a Berlin club, Libya had been bombarded by the US on the orders of President Reagan. Gaddafi's house was hit by missiles that killed, among others, his daughter.
Now all the tables have turned. Gaddafi is courted by the West and must be pleased.
Why?Well as Mrs Merton said to Debbie McGee: "Tell me, what first attracted you to multi-millionaire magician Paul Daniels?" And so, finally, all the ducks were in the right row. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Board had, unprecedentedly, allowed Megrahi to launch a new appeal, in which not only his innocence would have been clear but the guilt of those who framed him. This was a day in court to be avoided.
Megrahi's prostate cancer was so advanced a "compassionate" case for his release could plausibly be advanced.
Brown and Mandelson had met Gaddafi and his son, BP and others were increasingly profitably buzzing around the honey pot.
The SNP had a chance to appear on the international stage as the "government" (sic) of Scotland and show what independence - not least from the US - could look like.
The much lampooned Kenny MacAskill was brought out looking like the Manchurian Candidate. Blinking into the limelight, he creaked open Megrahi's unjustly closed cell door.
The rest, as they say, is the future. Glasgow Springburn will be an early test of the public's appreciation or otherwise. Let the games begin.
