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Lockerbie Bomber


Bigsby

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I'm still trying to get my head round this.

Yes, I know it's a political rather than a genuinely compassionate move on our part, but I struggle to see what political benefits Scotland could ever get from Libya to justify it. Surely, it must cause as many problems as it solves...it's clearly pissing off the US no end.

Morally, it's utterly reprehensible. Whether you believe in his complicity in the bombing or not, he was convicted of the worst terrorist atrocity in our history, and his medical condition while unfortunate, makes no difference to the fact that he should die in jail.

Disgusted.

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This decision is a complete and utter joke. It's made a mockery of our justice system and if I'm being quite honest, I'd like to see MacAskill walk for this, but it's never going to happen.

At this moment and time, the man is still a convicted mass murderer, so where's the need for compassion. Ronnie Biggs had a fucking harder time than this getting out.

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Out of interest have any of the Lockerbie families spoken out about the release?

Seems most of the British families don't think he did it anyway and are therefore pleased he's been released. But the Yank families seem to be outraged.

I bet MacAskill felt like a bit of a cunt when al Megrahi got a "Beatles-at-JFK" welcome from the crowd at the airport after being given an assurance from the Libyans that his arrival would be "low key".

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Seems most of the British families don't think he did it anyway and are therefore pleased he's been released. But the Yank families seem to be outraged.

I bet MacAskill felt like a bit of a cunt when al Megrahi got a "Beatles-at-JFK" welcome from the crowd at the airport after being given an assurance from the Libyans that his arrival would be "low key".

The Americans families can swing, they'd be outraged at anything. I rest my case. The UK families have never been convinced that it was him. Some of them were even backing his appeal.

It was a bit of a kick in the slit but what do folks expect? Almost everyone bar the joke of a court that was just looking for someone to pin blame on doesn't think he did it so why wouldn't folks expect a fanfare for (in their eyes) an innocent man that's been released.

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I'm always happy to piss off the septics, but I can't help feeling Scotland has been totally shafted here. I'm glad he's out, but only because he didn't do it. The down side is that he has dropped his appeal which was possibly the only chance we had of getting close to the truth of what happened. What seems most likely though, is that the Pan Am bomb was carried out by Syrian terrorists, on the orders of Iran in retaliation for the shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet by a US warship in 1988. Immediately after Lockerbie this was widely recognised as being the reason, and investigations were proceeding well in that direction. They even identified and named a Syrian terrorist cell who were making bombs hidden in Toshiba radios exactly the same as the Lockerbie one.

Then suddenly in April 89 President Bush Snr ordered Britain to stop this investigation into Syria. Less than a year later the US attacked Saddam Hussein's forces in Kuwait, with the assistance of... Syria.

In 1991 an extremely dodgy case was cobbled together against Libya, which the Scottish Courts actually initially rejected as being bollocks. But Megrahi (and an 'accomplice who was found innocent) was offered as a scapegoat and Libya eventually 'apologised' for the bombing and paid out millions in compensation. Suddenly, previous long-standing sanctions against Libya were lifted and billions of dollars of trade flowed between Libya, UK and US.

Libya got their trade back, US got their bogeyman for the public to hate and be proud of their government for catching him. And the truth about what really happened was conveniently swept under the carpet.

But unfortunately the scapegoat always protested his innocence, stories started to emerge and calls for a full inquiry got louder. Megrahi's appeal could have brought up some very awkward questions. Luckily for everyone except Megrahi, he got cancer. This gave a good reason to offer his freedom, with the bonus that he could only get out if he dropped his appeal.

It seems quite likely that despite what the US administration are saying in public, they must be delighted that this appeal will now never happen and quite possibly arranged the release deal for this reason. Sure, the public will be annoyed that Megrahi got out, but hey, that's Scotland's fault, isn't it. So let's never buy their whisky again...

Paul Foot: Lockerbie's dirty secret | UK news | The Guardian

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The Americans families can swing, they'd be outraged at anything. I rest my case. The UK families have never been convinced that it was him. Some of them were even backing his appeal.

It was a bit of a kick in the slit but what do folks expect? Almost everyone bar the joke of a court that was just looking for someone to pin blame on doesn't think he did it so why wouldn't folks expect a fanfare for (in their eyes) an innocent man that's been released.

Spot-on. The impassioned "it's a disgrace!" responses are quite understandable but there is a lot of very convincing evidence to suggest that he didn't do it in the first place. One of the real shames of this whole situation is the fact that we're now highly unlikely to find out whether or not they'd jailed the right man in the first place. Listening to a lot of opinions on the radio this morning, a lot of folk seem to believe that we have a completely flawless legal system in this country and that every decision made in Scottish courts is 100% fair and correct. This is simply not the case, especially in such a politically-charged situation as this.

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I'm always happy to piss off the septics, but I can't help feeling Scotland has been totally shafted here. I'm glad he's out, but only because he didn't do it. The down side is that he has dropped his appeal which was possibly the only chance we had of getting close to the truth of what happened. What seems most likely though, is that the Pan Am bomb was carried out by Syrian terrorists, on the orders of Iran in retaliation for the shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet by a US warship in 1988. Immediately after Lockerbie this was widely recognised as being the reason, and investigations were proceeding well in that direction. They even identified and named a Syrian terrorist cell who were making bombs hidden in Toshiba radios exactly the same as the Lockerbie one.

Then suddenly in April 89 President Bush Snr ordered Britain to stop this investigation into Syria. Less than a year later the US attacked Saddam Hussein's forces in Kuwait, with the assistance of... Syria.

In 1991 an extremely dodgy case was cobbled together against Libya, which the Scottish Courts actually initially rejected as being bollocks. But Megrahi (and an 'accomplice who was found innocent) was offered as a scapegoat and Libya eventually 'apologised' for the bombing and paid out millions in compensation. Suddenly, previous long-standing sanctions against Libya were lifted and billions of dollars of trade flowed between Libya, UK and US.

Libya got their trade back, US got their bogeyman for the public to hate and be proud of their government for catching him. And the truth about what really happened was conveniently swept under the carpet.

But unfortunately the scapegoat always protested his innocence, stories started to emerge and calls for a full inquiry got louder. Megrahi's appeal could have brought up some very awkward questions. Luckily for everyone except Megrahi, he got cancer. This gave a good reason to offer his freedom, with the bonus that he could only get out if he dropped his appeal.

It seems quite likely that despite what the US administration are saying in public, they must be delighted that this appeal will now never happen and quite possibly arranged the release deal for this reason. Sure, the public will be annoyed that Megrahi got out, but hey, that's Scotland's fault, isn't it. So let's never buy their whisky again...

Paul Foot: Lockerbie's dirty secret | UK news | The Guardian

whats the deal behind this Iranian passenger jet downing in 1988?

but yeah. lybia still got shit from the states ever after they offered the guys up for trial. libya were open to a trail in another country under an international court but the states STILL wanted to the trial to happen in the US (or Scotland). and the sanctions - the UN sanctions etc..., were stopped immediately yeah, but the US ones continued for a decent amount of time i think!

did anyone see MacAskill on newsnight last night? "how does it feel to know that you'll forever be known as the man that released a mass murderer?". he must be having an awful time. he's a lightweight though, as much of the scottish parliament is. westminster probably wanted the release but have stepped waaaay back for any of the proceedings...leaving scotland in the tall grass, really. i know its a scottish issue, but its international nature and all that... anyway; i was flicking the news channels last night to see the reaction and came across the sky news coverage (who actually watches this, i mean, jeez!) where the women said something along the lines of, "well, the scots probably thought it would be another ronnie biggs and go away quickly....they don't appreciate the relationship between the US/UK/libya...blah blah." scotland are probably have their head at water level just now but there's no need for that!

also. those images of the megrahi celebrations in libya etc..., probably weren't a good idea. didn't look that good!

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Do You Agree With Decision to Release Lockerbie Bomber? - FOXNews.com

callmewhatuwill

Ohio

Hopefully he doesn't become a suicide bomber, knowing that he doesn't have much time left anyways.

Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 3:31 PM

woody1

Michigan

Any wonder why Scottland has the highest crime rate in the world? And a lot of 'em (the Liberal and naive) are proud of it!!

Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 4:41 PM

bob62

New York

I am so very upset that they would let this KILLER out of JAIL. If I were planning on going to Ireland, I am not going ever now.

Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 4:23 PM

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On another website i frequest one of the lads was saying the ammount of boycotte scotland wbsites and discussions on the web due to this is mental.......I mean what the fuck has it got to do with us mere civilians whom our government allows disallows into our jails........I wasnt going to go to america this year and im defo not going now . . . .

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America do make me laugh, I still remember not that long ago large scale fundraisers on behalf of the IRA in Boston and Chicago in particular. Some of it was pretty shockingly open with a lot of heavyweight backing from some American politicions. There used to be a guy with a bucket outside the hotel I was in stopping people in the street for cash donations for the IRA, mental.

As for this release malarky, I am pretty sure the Americans are pleased the appeal documents are being sealed and everything swept under the carpet. There was so much "chaff" and disinformation around this case it got a tad ridiculous and when you throw in the DEA side of things and their investigation in CIA run drug ops from the middle east and it gets even murkier. Libya was a useful bogeyman as the usual bogeymen had their uses at the time. The case was very very shaky and under normal circumstances I would be amazed it would get to trial but someone had to be caught, especially for Joe Public in the States. Interestingly the shooting down of the Iranian airliner and subsequent follow up was very small news in the USA and most of the public there were unaware of the situation and possible link to the Pan Am flight. Speaking to guys who work in the radar business, how an Airbus A300 on a commercial flight path which was in constant contact with local air traffic control can be "mistaken" as an F14 is a joke unless complete incompetence is taken into the equation (not impossible). Even if it had been an F14, what was the issue with the ship, it's not as it it could be attacked (Iranian F14's only had air to air capability and at that time had no data buses or compatible pylons for any kind of surface attack weaponry).

I feel Scotland is being shafted here, caught in the middle of all this and once again America is playing Mr Outraged while as usual has fingers in every murky pie around.

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To be fair, it's hardly made the news in the States.

One upshot of the whole thing is the raised awareness of Scotland around the world. I've got a mate who's in Palestine at the moment and he says for the past week he's had people come up to him saying how great a country Scotland is because we let a dieing man die with his family. The same people had never heard of our country a couple weeks ago. Even where I'm living in France a lot of people literally have no clue that Scotland is a country, they think it's an English county or something. The media coverage has made it clear to the world we're an autonomous country capable of making bold decisions on our own. I have no opinion on the actual decision however.

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