Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is still alive
Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is still alive and still giving interviews. He's also still claiming his innocence - or at least that reports of his guilt are exaggerated.
Let's go to the videotape.
This guy is becoming the antidote to 'Generalisimo Franco is still dead.'And every time he appears on television like this, he makes the British and Scottish authorities who released him look like even bigger fools.
One of the worst moments of the last years of Muammar Gadhafi's reign was the return to Libya of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset al-Megrahi.
Al-Megrahi was released from prison on 'compassionate' grounds by Scotland. Those compassionate grounds turned out to have more to do with British oil interests than with how much time al-Megrahi had left to live. Al-Megrahi, who allegedly had less than three months left, is still alive two years later, and appeared on television with Gadhafi at a rally last month.
Here's US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) in December 2010, talking about the false pretenses that led to al-Megrahi's release.
A US Congressional inquiry into the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset al-Megrahi says there was strong political pressure on the Scottish government to free him.
It also casts doubt on the competence of the doctors who examined Megrahi.
"Commercial and economic considerations trumped... our global fight against terrorism," said Senator Bob Menendez.
...
The senators' report states that Scottish authorities examining the former Libyan intelligence officer relied on "false" and "flawed" medical prognosis that may have been influenced by a doctor hired by the Libyan government.
Mr Menendez, along with three other senators, launched the investigation after officials from Scotland, the UK and BP did not testify at a Senate foreign relations committee hearing, he was scheduled to chair in July.
"This was a case in which commercial and economic considerations trumped the message of our global fight against terrorism," said Mr Menendez.
He added: "We have to make it impossible that anything like this injustice takes place again."
Mr Menendez is set to unveil the report - Justice Undone: The Release of the Lockerbie Bomber - at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.
There's a different video at that link which I could not embed. But here's a Scottish video that discusses the story.
Let's go to the videotape.
Today, with Gadhafi having been deposed, Michael Rubin says it's time to put Megrahi back where he belongs.
Well, Megrahi is still alive, in a wheelchair but well enough to have been shown on Libyan television attending a pro-Qaddafi rally just last month. If Obama was sincere in his regret [of Megrahi's release], perhaps the time is right to seize Megrahi and finally win justice for the American victims of Lockerbie.
The odds of Obama ordering Megrahi's arrest without the consent of both Britain and NATO (if not the UN as well) are not good. But if we're really lucky, maybe he'll ask the British or the Scottish to do the job for him. That's leading from behind.
Libyan ex-minister: Gadhafi ordered the Lockerbie bombing
Libya's ex-Justice Minister has told the Swedish newspaper Expressen that Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, former justice minister Mustapha Abdeljalil told Swedish daily Expressen, the paper reported on its website Wednesday.
"I have proof that Kadhafi gave the order on Lockerbie," said the minister, who stepped down Monday to protest the ongoing violence in Libya.
Libyan national Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was in 2001 convicted of the bombing of Pan AM Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 that killed 270 people, most of them Americans.
But Scottish authorities, who have power over their own judicial affairs, released Megrahi, 58, on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after doctors said he was suffering from terminal cancer and had three months to live.
His release and subsequent hero's return to Tripoli drew a furious response from many, and outrage in the United States has been stoked by the fact that he remains alive almost a year and a half after his release.
According to Abdeljalil, Kadhafi "ordered Megrahi to do it (the bombing)," and had worked hard to secure his release to ensure that his role in the plot remained secret.
"To hide it, he did everything in his power to get Megrahi back from Scotland," the former minister said.
Expressen said its reporter Kassem Hamade, who is currently in Libya, had conducted a 40-minute interview with Abdeljalil at "the local parliament in a large city."
After what's gone on in Libya for the past week, does anyone doubt that Gadhafi is capable of ordering a plane blown up?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
