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The Lockerbie Bombing (Pan Am Flight 103; December 1988)

Conspiracy?

This is just a case for the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious!

a) They needed a scapegoat from Lybia
b) They got a scapegoat from Lybia
c) Political affiliations in the Middle East change
d) They wanted oil from Lybia
e) They got oil from Lybia
f) Megrahi walks

Case solved.
 
Zilch5 said:
Conspiracy?

This is just a case for the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious!

a) They needed a scapegoat from Lybia
b) They got a scapegoat from Lybia
c) Political affiliations in the Middle East change
d) They wanted oil from Lybia
e) They got oil from Lybia
f) Megrahi walks

Case solved.
Tin foil hat accusations: file under 'X for Conspiracy Theories' Dot Dot Dot :?
 
Revealed: Prison doctor who played key role in release of the Lockerbie bomber had no specialist cancer knowledge
The prison doctor who played a key role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber is a GP with no specialist cancer knowledge, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Dr Peter Kay, who until now has only been identified by the Scottish Government as an unnamed "primary care physician" of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi's, provided a crucial medical report which led to the conclusion that the prisoner was likely to have three months, or less, to live.

The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time or less to live.

...

Dr Kay, the prison doctor, when approached at his home in Scotland, initially denied that he was formerly the doctor at HM Prison Greenock, where Megrahi was serving his life sentence. However, he later said: "You'll be aware of the hypocratic oath [on patient confidentiality]? I just can't say anything."

The GP was a key contributor to medical evidence supplied to Dr Andrew Fraser, the director of health and care of the Scottish Prison Service, who in turn drew up the report upon which Mr MacAskill's decision was reached.

Dr Kay trained at Glasgow University and became a qualified doctor in 1998. During his time at Greenock Prison, which ended earlier this year, he is understood to have combined his role as the part-time prison doctor with work as a local GP.

According to the General Medical Council, which contains information on all qualified doctors, he has been registered as a GP since 2006 and he is not on any specialist register.

The disclosure led to immediate calls in the United States that the Senate committee scrutinising Megrahi's release should be allowed to interview Dr Kay. The committee has been angered by the Scottish Government's refusal to co-operate with its investigation.

Senator Chuck Schumer said this weekend: "The Scottish authorities should not muzzle this physician. If there is nothing to hide, they should not only allow, but encourage, this doctor to explain and defend a prognosis that helped facilitate the unjust release of a terrorist."

Nearly a year ago The Sunday Telegraph revealed that Professor Karol Sikora, a leading cancer expert, had also come up with the estimate that Megrahi had three months to live after he and two others doctors were paid by the Libyan Government to carry out an assessment of the Libyan in prison. As well as Professor Sikora, a Libyan doctor also estimated Megrahi had three months to live while a third expert would say only that he had a short time to live.

Ever since the disclosure, the Scottish Government has tried to distance itself from this Libyan-financed medical assessment. Only last week a statement from the Scottish Government stressed "their examinations formed no part of the expert advice considered".

The patient assessment by the three doctors took place at HM Prison on July 28, 2009. This was only four days after Megrahi first applied to be released on compassionate grounds and 17 days before Dr Fraser submitted his report to Mr MacAskill on August 14, 2009 - a week before the bomber won his freedom.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government refused to confirm that Dr Kay was the prison doctor involved in the assessment. However, he said: "It was Dr Andrew Fraser, Director of Health and Care of the Scottish Prison Service, who concluded in his report to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice that his clinical assessment was that a three month prognosis was a reasonable estimate.

"Dr Fraser is a professional of unimpeachable integrity. It was his professional responsibility to provide the clinical assessment of al-Megrahi's condition, and his report, which has been published by the Scottish Government, was the only medical report submitted to the Justice Secretary – along with the reports of the Parole Board and Prison Governor, which also supported a compassionate release decision.

"Dr Fraser drew on expert advice from a number of cancer specialists in coming to his clinical assessment that a three month prognosis was a reasonable estimate for al-Megrahi – it was not based on the opinion of any one doctor.

"These specialists included two consultant oncologists, two consultant urologists and a number of other specialists, including a palliative care team, and Mr al-Megrahi's primary care physician."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... ledge.html
 
Kondoru said:
So now they are setting up the GP as a target?

I'll say. If I were him, I wouldn't go for lonely walks in the woods... :roll:
 
I wonder how the British and American public will react to this:

The son of Libyan dictator Colonel Gadaffi is to celebrate the first anniversary of the Lockerbie bomber's release by giving a party for him.

Saif Gadaffi, whose friends include Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson, will attend the revelry for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi in his two-storey house in Tripoli.

He will foot the bill for food and drink, following a day's fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

...

Yesterday Professor Karol Sikora, who was paid by the Libyan government for his medical opinion, said he felt uncomfortable with how his advice had been used by politicians.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0wj58dgML
 
"You'll be aware of the hypocratic oath [on patient confidentiality]? I just can't say anything."

Odd comment for a GP to make, given that doctors do not take the "hypocratic" (sic) oath in the UK. Also, it's the "Hippocratic oath".

Surprised to see such p*ss poor proofreading at the Torygraph, especially in view of their usual rants about the decline of educational standards...
 
WikiLeaks cables: Lockerbie bomber freed after Gaddafi's 'thuggish' threats

Megrahi case led to threats against UK's Libyan interests, while Scots who released him had turned down 'a parade of treats'

The British government's deep fears that Libya would take "harsh and immediate" action against UK interests if the convicted Lockerbie bomber died in a Scottish prison are revealed in secret US embassy cables which show London's full support for the early release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, made explicit and "thuggish" threats to halt all trade deals with Britain and harass embassy staff if Megrahi remained in jail, the cables show. At the same time "a parade of treats" was offered by Libya to the Scottish devolved administration if it agreed to let him go, though the cable says they were turned down.

continues

Link
 
Were Labour not all over this at the time saying it was entirely a decision made by the Scottish Govment...
 
McAvennie_ said:
Were Labour not all over this at the time saying it was entirely a decision made by the Scottish Govment...

Yip. By all accounts it was.

Jack Straw probably thought it was his birthday when Holyrood declared for compassion.
 
Can anyone seriously imagine a western govt being threatened by a Libyan trade embargo? :sceptic:
 
AngelAlice said:
Can anyone seriously imagine a western govt being threatened by a Libyan trade embargo? :sceptic:

Hmmm, largest oil reserves in Africa, if I recall correctly - so I'd have to say yes.
 
And now, official confirmation of what most of us suspected all along:

Labour government did 'all it could to secure release of Lockerbie bomber'

Sir Gus O'Donnell says policy was to facilitate Libyan appeal over Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

The last Labour government did "all it could" to help release the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to secure a BP oil deal and strengthen its political ties with Libya, an official review has found.

The study of hundreds of confidential government papers by the Cabinet Office has concluded there was an "underlying desire" by the UK government to see Megrahi released early from his life sentence to further UK-Libyan relations.

That included briefing the Libyans on how to approach the Scottish government to seek Megrahi's release under a prisoner transfer treaty and on compassionate grounds – briefings sanctioned by ministers in Edinburgh.

But Sir Gus O'Donnell, the head of the civil service, said ministers in London "took great efforts" not to overtly pressurise the Scottish government into releasing Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

The report says Jack Straw, the then UK justice secretary, and Des Browne, then secretary of state for Scotland, knew that releasing Megrahi was solely a matter for ministers in Edinburgh, and they feared directly and overtly lobbying the Scottish nationalist government would backfire.

However, O'Donnell's inquiry has also found that at an early stage, Scottish government ministers in Edinburgh tried to trade Megrahi for concessions on two controversial policies controlled by the UK government, on air guns and compensation payments for prison inmates.

The UK government's records said that Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice minister, was prepared to shelve his government's fierce objections to including Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya in return for concessions.

It was "clear" that ministers in London believed that allowing Megrahi to be included in the deal "might be acceptable to the Scottish government" if ministers in Edinburgh were given new powers to limit compensation payments to prisoners and new powers to control air guns, O'Donnell said.

In the event, those requests were rejected by the UK government, and Scottish ministers made no further attempt to link Megrahi to policy concessions.

The disclosures are made in more than 120 pages of memos, letters and briefing notes dating from 25 July 2007 to 20 August 2009 released today by the Cabinet Office.

The review was ordered by David Cameron, the prime minister, last July after further controversy over Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds in August 2010 was sparked by a US congressional inquiry into BP, provoked by the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, and by Megrahi's survival at home in Libya.

Cameron will make a statement on the case in the Commons later today.

Megrahi was freed after it emerged he was terminally ill with inoperable prostate cancer. MacAskill said the Libyan was likely to die within three months; he is still alive after receiving further treatment.

The 123 pages of documentation confirm previous releases of UK and Scottish government papers that Libya put British ministers under intense pressure over Megrahi, and forced the UK into making concessions.

During 2007, the Libyans repeatedly delayed signing the BP oil deal until the UK government signed a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) which included Megrahi. Straw had originally refused to include Megrahi in the treaty but was forced to do so to save the oil deal and protect strengthening links with Tripoli on diplomatic, security and political fronts.

Pressure from Gaddafi's regime for Megrahi's release intensified greatly after the terminal cancer diagnosis was made in early October 2008.

O'Donnell said those threats were made to both Scottish and Foreign Office civil servants at a meeting on 27 October 2008: "The Libyans made clear Megrahi's death in custody would be seen as a death sentence without recourse to court and would have very serious implications to UK/Libya relations.

"As a result, ministers now agreed that a swift conclusion to the PTA [prisoner transfer] agreement was of pressing interest to the UK." It was signed three weeks later.

O'Donnell concluded that from 2008, the UK government's policy was that it "should do all it could, whilst respecting devolved competencies, to facilitate an appeal by the Libyans to the Scottish government for Mr Megrahi's transfer under the PTA or release on compassionate grounds".

That involved ratifying the agreement; briefing the Libyans on how to apply for Megrahi's release under the agreement and compassionate grounds and telling the Scottish government there were no legal barriers to his release under the PTA.

The Scottish government said today these documents supported their consistent claims that they followed Scottish procedures to the letter.

"They confirm that Scottish ministers followed the due process of Scots law and practice throughout the entire period, without regard to foreign policy, economic or any other considerations," the Scottish government statement said.

MacAskill eventually sanctioned Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds in August 2009 because he was suffering from cancer and said to have only a few months left to live.

Megrahi – the only man convicted over the 1988 bombing which killed 271 people – is still alive in Tripoli.

Speaking to BBC News, the first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, said the UK government was entitled to change its policy on Libya.

"I suppose the issue I would raise is when Mr Megrahi was released according to due process in Scotland, not regarding any of these matters but on judicial principles, Gordon Brown was absolutely silent and the Labour party in Scotland mounted a series of vicious attacks on the SNP government.

"It seems to me the biggest example of organised political hypocrisy that I've ever seen in my time in politics ... My point is the extraordinary position of the Labour party in Scotland attacking the SNP government for doing according to judicial principles what the Labour government in London were wanting to do, if not saying it openly, for economic and political reasons."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011 ... er-release
 
David Cameron should have stood up in the commons yesterday and started his speech by apologising on behalf of his office that the former Prime Minister deliberately lied to the country and the house. That would have set the cat among the pigeons and forced Brown out of hiding.

And while retaining my position of wishing death on nobody, I still can't help noticing that he is still alive. He may well have been terminally ill, but it may have been more reasonable to release him when his illness entered the final stage.
 
Gaddafi ordered Lockerbie bombing - ex-minister

Recently resigned justice minister tells Swedish paper Libyan leader was personally responsible for downing of Pan Am 103

Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988, according to his recently resigned justice minister.

The claim, if it can be corroborated, would mark a sensational development in the long and tangled story of the downing of Pan Am flight 103, in which 270 people died over the Scottish Lowlands town in the worst act of terrorism in UK history.

"I have proof that Gaddafi gave the order about Lockerbie," Mustafa Abdel-Jalil told the Swedish tabloid Expressen, but he did not describe the proof. Libya accepted responsibility for the atrocity, for which intelligence agent Abdel-Basset al-Megrahi was convicted. It also paid billions of dollars in compensation. But it has never admitted carrying the bombing out - let alone that it was on Gaddafi's direct orders. Abdel-Jalil stepped down in protest against the brutal clampdown on anti-government protests. He made the claim during an interview with the newspaper at the local parliament of an unidentified large city in Libya.

The Lockerbie affair continues to generate heated controversy, most recently when Megrahi was granted a compassionate release from a Scottish prison in August 2009 on the grounds that he was suffering from prostate cancer and would die soon. He is still alive in Tripoli.

Libya's involvement is still questioned by those who argue that the US plane was downed not by Libyan intelligence but by a Palestinian faction acting in concert with Iran, probably in retaliation for the shooting down by the USS Vincennes in 1988 of an Iranian airliner over the Gulf.

"To hide it he [Gaddafi] did everything in his power to get Megrahi back from Scotland," Abdel-Jalil was quoted as saying.

continues

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/2 ... ster-libya

Not sure about the validity of the claim but if true it doesn't look good for Gaddafi. On a more positive note for the Colonel, however, Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill has just declared that his regime has only three months left.
 
Hm - As far as I know the Expressen isn't exactly known as a quality paper and the guy just might be looking for a nice deal after the regime he served for so long is about to cave in.

But - who knows? It's one of those things that we may never be able to sort out properly. There are too many people involved who obviously do not want the sordid details out in the open.
 
LOCKERBIE BOMBER 'TAKEN TO SAFETY'

Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has been moved out of his home in Tripoli.
The 58-year-old has been regarded as a hero since his release from jail in 2009.
A Libyan government source reportedly said: ‘We know targets are already being worked out by the West, and Brother al-Megrahi is certain to be high on the list.’

Yesterday police and armed soldiers were still visible around al-Megrahi’s home in the New Damascus district of Tripoli, but neighbours confirmed he had been moved.

‘The government does not want him here – it is too dangerous,’ said one. Al-Megrahi is the only man to have been convicted over the bombing, which killed all 259 passengers and crew on board the New York-bound Boeing 747 and 11 people in Lockerbie in December 1998.

He was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds when he was said to have just months to live with prostate cancer.
His longevity has been a source of embarrassment to the Scottish government since.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1HE7EkAuA

It would be an irony if the 'Lockerbie Bomber' was killed in an explosion.
It would be an even grimmer irony if he was in fact an innocent fall guy for the real bomber(s)...
 
Whether he was innocent, or not he was always the fall guy for the others involved in the plot. It was expedient for Gaddafi to throw him to the wolves at the time.
 
Lockerbie bomber Megrahi's survival attributed to pills

A leading cancer specialist has said it is likely that the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is being kept alive by pills not available in the UK.
Prof Roger Kirby said a new hormone-based therapy may explain why he is alive two years after he was given three months to live.
He also said his release from prison was based on flawed medical advice.

The Scottish government said the decision was made in good faith and on the best information available.
Megrahi, who had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, was freed from Greenock Prison on 20 August 2009.
He had been jailed in 2001 for the atrocity which claimed 270 lives in 1988.

As the second anniversary of his release from prison approached, Prof Kirby, of The Prostate Centre in London, said he believed the Lockerbie bomber was "almost certainly" being kept alive by a drug called abiraterone.
The hormone-based therapy has been passed for use in the US, but is not yet available to patients in Britain.

Prof Kirby told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "They said he was incurable, write him off, he's only got three months to live, that was their genuine belief, the doctors who advised [Justice Secretary] Kenny MacAskill and the Scottish government.
"Unfortunately I don't think they were aware of these new treatments - such as abiraterone which is transforming the prospects for patients with advanced prostate cancer, they just are living longer and longer."

Prof Kirby said it was foolhardy to put a three-month prognosis on Megrahi's survival because advances in cancer treatment could keep him alive for a while yet - maybe even several more years.
He said: "It's unknown how long this man will live and with extra additional new treatments it could have been predicted that he might be alive, here we are 24 months after his release, and I could be on this programme next year, 36 months, and he's still alive."

The Scottish government said its decision to release Megrahi was taken in good faith and based on medical advice from Dr Andrew Fraser, the director of health and care of the Scottish Prison Service.
They described him as a professional of impeccable integrity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... d-14580118
 
ps, those English riots were another tipping point.

Never in my life have I watched the BBC news about UK goings on and realised that I was watching other places' problems.

England is a different country/nation/can of worms.
 
And every time I hear about the release of the Lockerbie bomber (and the fact that he's seemingly the most hardy terminally ill terrorist ever), i wish you all the luck in the world with the SNP goverment of clowns you crave so much, Scunner; you're going to need it. We give terrorists... Freeeeeedom!
 
theyithian said:
And every time I hear about the release of the Lockerbie bomber (and the fact that he's seemingly the most hardy terminally ill terrorist ever), i wish you all the luck in the world with the SNP goverment of clowns you crave so much, Scunner; you're going to need it. We give terrorists... Freeeeeedom!

Well.
There is one school of thought that say he was innocent anyway.
There is another school of thought that says releasing him saved a lot of pointless money being spent as he posed no danger.
There is another school of thought that we took Scotland off of some terrorist's wish list.
Clearly there is another school that you subscribe to that we should have jailed him for longer than the IRA killers that England released.

Live well with you government who has no idea of common sense and bring on the baton charges to your kidsssssssss.
I hope you have Freeeeeeeeeeeeddom to go to the local estate shop tonight. I do.
 
There is one school of thought that say he was innocent anyway.

Not relevant - if the conviction was unsafe then that should have been addressed. That wasn't why he was released.

There is another school of thought that says releasing him saved a lot of pointless money being spent as he posed no danger.

By that argument there are thousands of criminals who should be released from jail, regardless of the gravity of their crimes...

There is another school of thought that we took Scotland off of some terrorist's wish list.

That's a pretty appalling "school of thought" - not jailing terrorists in case their mates decide to have another go.

Megrahi's crime was very, very grave indeed - the worst act of terrorism the UK has seen. I see no reason why he should have been released.
 
At the end of the day this was an act of terrorism that happened on Scots soil. We have dealt with it.
And we have got over it.
Scotland has no aggressive or imperial pretentions to any other nation.
Just stop tarring us with your Brit imperial brush I guess.
We don't need revenge like you guys
 
Tell that to that Scottish football fans when they sing "stand up if you hate the English" Hate and fear, great things to base your political views on.
 
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