Lockerbie bomber release stirs diplomatic dispute

Saturday 22nd August, 06:04 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 32 Total Comments Show All

dreamdrifter at 12:20 PM JST - 22nd August

@ ChrisBiggins

The Americans may not have a right to interfere, but they certainly have the right to voice their opinions about it. Which is all they have done in this instance.
spudman at 12:38 PM JST - 22nd August

Voicing threats is surely interfering. Opinions go ahead, threats back off.
shinjukuboy at 12:46 PM JST - 22nd August

Americans always interfere fair and square!
tigris at 03:31 PM JST - 22nd August

it's not revenge, it's justice. A civilised country has a judicial system where the punishment meets the crime. [...] So in retrospect, compassion was shown towards this man who was convicted of the deaths of 189 people

270 people were killed. You only count 189 people - the Americans. As usual. Where is your justice when the US shoots a civilian airliner out of the sky killing 290. Oh I forgot, they are not people, but mere "oriental human beings".
Madverts at 04:06 PM JST - 22nd August

Bah.

Loads of inocent people were killed a long time ago, only one person became the scapegoat face of the attrocity, and the evidence that convicted him was shaky.....

I don't have a problem showing compassion that the terrorists don't even understand or posess.

To many people get hung up with revenge - knowing how to move on from any hopeless situation is far more intelligent if you ask me.
Madverts at 04:07 PM JST - 22nd August

That said, Ghadafi is an ass for making this high-profile. It's not fa from a hero's welcome. He should have been whisked away to snuff it in private.
DeepAir65 at 04:15 PM JST - 22nd August

They guy is dying why make the British tax payer pay for his medical care when he can go home and receive none?

I am pretty sure he would have been more comfortable (medically speaking) in the UK than in Libya.

The thing that surprises me most is that the US gets on it's high horse about being a Christian country yet very rarely displays any Christian values when it comes to things like compassion. Double standards I say.

The thing that upset me the most was what a bore that minister was extending his 15 minutes of fame.
lostrune2 at 05:16 PM JST - 22nd August

Just remember, if any of youz or your countrymen ever get caught by one of the US' "stupid" laws, don't expect your country to interfere. (Some of those "stupid" laws do extend beyond borders.) ;-)
lunchmeat at 10:28 PM JST - 22nd August

Those who are merciful to the cruel will be cruel to the merciful.
LIBERTAS at 02:23 AM JST - 23rd August

The "convicted" Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, says that he will prove his innocence in the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland that killed 270 people.

Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, said that he has sufficient evidence that would exonerate him from any involvement in the bombing.

"If there is justice in (Britain) I would be acquitted or the verdict would be quashed because it was unsafe. There was a miscarriage of justice," said Megrahi.

I, for one, am prepared to hear that evidence. "Convicted" doesn't necessarily mean he did it. Nor does "believed to have done it." Take L.H. Oswald for example.... Surely we can apply science and let the evidence tell us what really happened over Lockerbie, and by whom it was done.
LIBERTAS at 03:16 AM JST - 23rd August

And, let's look at how the BBC reported the Lockerbie investigation, and its possible authors way back in 2000: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/777974.stm These folks are hardly given to fantastic conspiracy theories, are they? The Beeb? The MotherCorp herself?

Pan Am's own internal investigation is believed to have concluded that the Lockerbie bomb was targeted specifically to kill a small band of US Defence Intelligence Agency operatives (including Major Charles McKee) who had uncovered a drugs ring run by a CIA unit in Lebanon. According to Time Magazine, Charles McKee's mother suspects that it was a government action that indirectly led to her only son's death.

Beulah McKee is quoted as saying: "For three years, I've had a feeling that if Chuck hadn't been on that plane, it wouldn't have been bombed... I've never been satisfied at all by what the people in Washington told me."

In Beirut, McKee was a military attache assigned to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

In his book, Lockerbie: The Tragedy of Flight 103, Scottish radio reporter David Johnston described how CIA agents helicoptered into Lockerbie shortly after the crash. They were looking for McKee's suitcase.

"Having found part of their quarry," Johnston wrote, "the CIA had no intention of following the exacting rules of evidence employed by the Scottish police. They took the suitcase and its contents into the chopper and flew with it to an unknown destination."

The drugs-ring is said to have been set up by Israeli Mossad agents.

Reportedly, the drugs ring involved 'CIA-asset' Monzer al-Kassar, a Syrian with links to the brother of Syria's President Assad.

Reportedly Monzer al-Kassar was involved with Lt-Colonel Oliver North, of Iran-Contra fame.

Victor Marchetti, former executive assistant to the CIA's deputy director, and co-author of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, said of the plot against PanAm 103: "The Mossad knew about it and didn't give proper warning."

Anyone who thinks that some (now prostate-cancered) geezer blew this plane up on a whim, of for Mo G. in Tripoli, needs to do more homework.
urufuls at 08:10 AM JST - 23rd August

tigris - you are correct the article does state 270 people. My post was in reply to another poster where they mention 189 Americans. I misread and misinterpreted this.

What I don't think I misinterpret is you having a slight if not full out bias against the Americans? I did not mention anything in my post about Americans, just a number. What is the meaning to bring out racist comments such as "mere oriental human beings"? I believe you are pulling out meanings that do not exist in this discussion.

Back on topic, again, I would like to investigate the topics leading up to the conviction of this man.
tigris at 08:54 AM JST - 23rd August

urufuls

I wrote ...mere "oriental human beings" not "mere oriental human beings". Visually easy to overlook but big difference. I suggest that you google "oriental human beings" to learn where this phrase comes from. Don't forget to include the quotation marks. The origin of this phrase also explains my "slight if not full out bias" when Americans count non-American victims of terrorism and war - if they count them at all.
tigris at 09:18 AM JST - 23rd August

My posts are on topic. The underlining suggestion is that there wouldn't be such a big dispute or fuzz if all victims were non-Americans. History shows that there is no such thing as "justice for all" in the American psyche.
urufuls at 10:40 AM JST - 23rd August

tigris - while I will not get into a battle regarding punctuation with you, I will say that what you suggest, (that there wouldn't be such a big dispute if all victims were non-Americans), does have some basis. But only because of this is a sweeping generalisation that only Americans get upset and demand justice when their fellow Americans are the victims of terrorism. Why would ****only Americans be upset? This is something that the American media hypes up, much to the chagrin of the rest of the world. Were the surviving families of other nationalities just merely non-plussed by this terrorist act? Your first comment to me suggests that I favour one nation over another in this context, which I do not.

Moderator: Back on topic please.