"Justice Undone"

Comments on the U.S. Senate Report
December 21 2010
last update December 23

I've been not posting much here in recent days, but being the 22nd anniversary of the destruction of Pan Am 103, it's a day to say something. I didn't know what until I just saw this report from MSNBC regarding the long-awaited U.S. Senate report on al-Megrahi's release. This was issued today, to mark the anniversary for maximum effect. Senator Memendez and crew are playing hardball here, with the title also meant to be punchy: Justice Undone: The Release of the Lockerbie Bomber. (report PDF link)

I'll have to read the report before critiquing it (space reserved below for a later update). But the release of Megrahi was not "Jusice undone." Even if you call the verdict "justice," which might be legally true if not really, the legal technicality of his conviction still stands and serves its key purpose for U.S. foreign policy of keeping the real truth legally barred from beiing followed up on.

Justice was undone many years ago, when at an unclear date (sometime in 1989) a decision was made to deny the truth of the attack and pursue strange new clues that started appearing. The injustice of framing a different nation, nd two men within it in particular, was set in stone in November 1991 with indictments against al-Megrahi and "accomplice" Fhimah - charges laced with what we now know are lies (brown suitcase on Malta, explosives at the airport, 1986 report on bombing a plane, at least, all legally dismissed). The final nail in Justice's coffin was hammered in a decade later at Camp Zeist, when the judges accepteed enough of the bogus case to convict one of the two accused.

Commentary
For now I'll just pass on my comment at the MSNBC article, modified slightly for better effect

"Unrepentant terrorist" is apparently code for someone who maintains his innocence, which is in turn strongly supported, not by the verdict, but by the facts - both the ones before the judges and withheld from them.

Megrahi is an "unrepentant terrorist" not on Malta November 23, the day the clothes in the bomb suitcase were purchased there by man 4 inches taller and 14 years older and of different appearance from himself (so says Tony Gauci's only reliable evidence). Only one questionable scrap of paper, with no corroboration and contradicted by everything else, even suggests there was a bomb on Malta Dec 21, while Megrahi was there under an alias. If one accepts the court's judgment on Megrahi's guilt, why ignore their ruling that he had no legally accepted accomplice, when one was clearly needed? There was a dismissed star witness (Giaka) with a handful of juicy clues found "unreliable," and a back-up star witness (Gauci) whose stories changed in all key regards by trial (since the suspect changed). There are questions over the most crucial physical evidence, at least two multi-million-dollar pay-outs to liars, and a string of bollocks stories from Bollier. And finally, a heap of clues still pointing to an Iranian hand, not a Libyan one, behind the attack and to an English, not Maltese, point of departure for the bomb. (see around the site for details on these underreported facts)

If legal technicalities of conviction or acquittal were all that mattered here, I could see being upset by the early release. But knowing what I do of the actual facts, and that the release only happened after his appeal was safely surrendered, I'm still too mad about other things.

Menendez: ""God forbid there should be another terrorist attack."

Hey, dummy! Megrahi had just gotten in jail when 9/11 happened (ironic side-note - with Libya the first nation, even before this, to target bin Laden and al Qaeda as a dangerous element). Megrahi's accepted guilt stops nothing except the truth about Lockerbie coming out (so far). You of all people are probably aware of that, and hence will never stop your crusade to keep the hex on Libya. Unless...

Mad that a convicted terrorist is free? Then help us revive that appeal and clear his name so an innocent man can die in peace and his family can move out from under that shadow. Sound good?

Review of the report
forthcoming...

No, never mind. I'm too busy to read through this piece of crap. I'll let a few others speak on it, via these articles linked on Professor Black's blog The Lockerbie Case.
This Lockerbie bomber nonsense shows US senators have lost the plot
excerpt:

...the cause of the bereaved would have been served better had the senators steered clear of this elaborate conspiracy theory.

'Bonkers' US claim on bomber
excerpt:

[SNP] MSP Stewart Maxwell said: "It is bonkers. It is an absolute work of ill-informed fiction.

"They started off making wild claims about BP lobbying for the release of Megrahi and end up making the most bizarre allegations about the Sainsbury's buyout.

"This report is a piece of politically motivated propaganda that lets down all those who worked long and hard to see justice done in the Lockerbie case."

And "Blogiston's" comment from the second one:

Having now read the report - the subtext is really, ageing imperialist nation on the verge of bankruptcy accuses small friendly nation of corrupt practices and attempts to override its internal judicial process.
Meanwhile, it is impotent to curtail a real and growing threat from emerging east Asian countries with global ambitions who ARE making corrupt deals, refusing to acknowledge human rights, ignoring undemocratic regimes, disregarding environmental issues, on EVERY continent.
American foreign policy (which is governed solely by its own domestic expediency including global commercial interests) does not project overseas to become local domestic policy, anymore - but they ain't assimilating the new data yet, are they?
We should just ignore them now, and move on, because they would hate that - but internal cat-fighting locally will stop that happening, of course.

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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