Is Schumer 'Shrooming? Return Megrahi to Jail?

July 13 2010

In the unfolding brouhaha over some nonsense spouted by quack doctor Karol Sikora, one headline that popped up: U.S. senators demand Lockerbie bomber is sent back to jail. Nothing in the article actually said that, but it mentioned the activities of four US Senators: Charles Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, Robert Menendez, and Kirsten Gilibrand - all four of the Senators from New York and New Jersey, all Democrat, all united in fury to hear some stuff.

They wrote a letter to the UK's ambassador in Washington, Nigel Scheinwald, who said he'd pass on their questions to the proper Scottish authorities, who would answer. After being denied by those officials, Mr. Schumer and Menendez got fed up and just yesterday made an open call for just what that headline said. Press Release from the office of Senator Schumer:

AFTER SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT REFUSES TO REINVESTIGATE EARLY RELEASE OF LOCKERBIE BOMBER:

SCHUMER, MENENDEZ CALL ON STATE DEPARTMENT TO PRESSURE LONDON TO RETURN LOCKERBIE BOMBER TO PRISON; AL-MEGRAHI WAS GIVEN 'THREE MONTHS TO LIVE' - REPORTS SAY TERRORIST COULD LIVE ANOTHER TEN

http://schumer.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=326309&

Dear Mr.Schumer and Mr. Menendez (and/or Lautenberg, Gilibrand, others):

Oh boy, guys, the wrongness is just so thick with this headline and with the text beneath it ... where to begin? Well, most glaringly, as always, you neglect completely to consider the mountains of available evidence that Megrahi was framed by your own government. Loyalty to on high be damned; if you care about the families and justice, you know you'd look into even a slight chance that we got the wrong man. If the real killer of your constituents' relatives may still be at large in, for example, Reston VA, maybe with his kids attending the same school as some younger PA103 relatives, you'd want to know. If witnesses were paid millions and still never really made an identification, wouldn't that be pretty weak for the single direct connection to the bomb? What if there were legitimate concerns that at least two important pieces of physical evidence were planted? There's well more than a slight chance of these and other possibilities, and you show no sign of caring in the least. Can either of you explain this?

Next, "Reports" of a ten year life span (it was "ten or even 20," by the way) is misleading. "Reports" sounds possibly medical, but really what's concerned you is news media repetition of a hypothetical musing from a man of little repute to begin with, Dr. Karol Sikora.

Schumer and Menendez noted the release of al-Megrahi was predicated on his only have [sic] three months to live, yet the doctor who examined him now suggests the bomber of Pan Am flight 103 may well live for another ten years.

He said there was "always a chance" of this, but it is "unusual" and, by extension, highly unlikely. Megrahi has cancer of the pelvis now too, among other things, and no medicine but a morphine drip. That's a real-world sign of the end, compared to words from an apparent charlatan. The Senators have chosen, and have set about making it noisy.

Like so many, the Senators are badly confused in thinking Dr. Sikora, who was paid by Megrahi's Libyan team (I'm not sure by whom exactly), was the sole doctor who examined the prisoner. But that examination is mentioned here to bolster the irrelevant musing cited; Sikora knows Megrahi's health and says he'll live a decade. Like so many, you guys are using Sikora to debunk Sikora, besides confusing that loop with the actual release decision.

"[T]he Scottish government on Friday rejected reinvestigating al-Megrahi’s release, claiming due process had been followed and there was no further need to investigate the decision any further. The senators are demanding the US State Department pressure London to have him returned to prison immediately."

This has been suggested before by you, Mr. Schumer, in November 2009. Now you're back on it backed with Sikora's well-timed Fourth of July words, with Mr. Menendez alongside, and, near the end of the PR, it again looks like Sens. Lautenberg and Gilibrand signed the letter to State:

"In their letter to Secretary Clinton, Schumer, Menendez, Gillibrand, and Lauenberg stated the US Government must do everything in its power to pressure London to put a facilitate a return of this convicted mass murderer of 270 people, 189 of whom were Americans, to Scotland to serve out the remainder of his prison sentence."

Wow. How far should this one go, guys? To the shores of Tripoli itself? Again, please recall that you are still strangely ignorant of the high likelihood that you're flat wrong and deceived about how PA 103 was destroyed. And please consider that before pushing this nonsense any further.

The overriding reasons given for the Obama administration to demand such a return trip are "for the families whose loved ones were murdered, for national security, and for fundamental justice." These are all excellent reasons to look into this confused mess of a release, but only after a thorough review of the original case. Sure, Megrahi decided to drop his own appeal, but why take that as a free ticket to avoid a review, unless you’re afraid of a review? I urge the Senators to pressure the UK and in fact Scotland itself, if they can be bothered, to revive the appeal themselves and look it over in the wide open. You wouldn’t fear that, would you, good Senators?

"The families of the 270 people who were murdered have already once lived through an unthinkable, real-life horror story. It’s as if they now are being forced to live through a sequel. They believed that justice had found the man who killed their loved ones, only to see that the system was rigged and that this terrorist is having the last laugh. This is outrageous and cruel."

With the edits above I could agree with you guys here. The bandage placed over their wound had to come off, and the justice-starved scar was left raw and exposed again. To heal it right will require another painful re-living yet. You're helping stall that, you know. At the rate we're going, only their great-grandkids will finally get to know the truth. Please – you’ve become encrusted with the need to uphold an artificial status quo. Just step aside and stop prolonging the inevitable. Or, get involved in a useful way.

To Senator Chuck in particular: I know it can be frightening to confront the possibility that you’ve been lied to and deceived by a conspiracy so huge. It’s okay to ask advice and draw on the courage of others. I suggest you ring up your "old friends, Joe and Eileen Bailey." They’re imaginary, and so are another part of you, of course. But that kind of externalization can help you scrape up the courage to look long and hard at the facts that are available at, for example, this site.

- Caustic Logic, 13 July 2010
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