Lockerbie hearing invite declined

[dipsydoodle]

MacAskill will not attend US hearing on bomber release.

Scottish ministers and officials will not attend a US Senate hearing about the circumstances surrounding the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

The foreign relations committee wanted Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and the Scottish Prison Service's medical chief, Dr Andrew Fraser, to be present.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-10727266

To recap in general :

Second appeal

On 28 June 2007 the SCCRC concluded its four-year review and, having uncovered evidence that a miscarriage of justice could have occurred, the Commission granted Megrahi leave to appeal against his Lockerbie bombing conviction for a second time.<31> The second appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal was abandoned in August 2009, as an impediment to the legal power to release him to Libya under the Prisoner Transfer Scheme then operating in the United Kingdom. Ultimately, he was not released under this scheme, rather, on compassionate grounds due to his ill health. There was in the event, no requirement to drop his appeal against conviction.

New information casting fresh doubts about Megrahi's conviction was examined at a procedural hearing at the Judicial Appeal Court (Court of Session building) in Edinburgh on 11 October 2007:

1. His lawyers claimed that vital documents, which emanated from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and related to the Mebo timer that allegedly detonated the Lockerbie bomb, were withheld from the trial defence team.<32>
2. Tony Gauci, chief prosecution witness at the trial, was alleged to have been paid $2 million for testifying against Megrahi.<33><34>
3. Mebo's owner, Edwin Bollier, claimed that in 1991 the FBI offered him $4 million to testify that the timer fragment found near the scene of the crash was part of a Mebo MST-13 timer supplied to Libya.<35>
4. Former employee of Mebo, Ulrich Lumpert, swore an affidavit in July 2007 that he had stolen a prototype MST-13 timer in 1989, and had handed it over to "a person officially investigating the Lockerbie case".<36>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdelbaset_Ali_Mohmed_Al_Megrahi

5,4,3,2,1 before some comedian posts in LBN.

[dipsydoodle]

1. How Megrahi and Libya were framed for Lockerbie

Amid all the bellowing about the release on compassionate grounds of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted of the bombing of PanAm flight 103 in 1988, all current commentary ignores the hippo in the room - which is the powerful evidence that Megrahi was innocent, framed by the US and British security services and originally found guilty because Scottish judges had their arms brutally twisted by Westminster. The conviction was one of the great judicial scandals of the 20th Century.

The original Lockerbie trial took place in 2000, in Zeist, Holland. It was presided over by three Scottish judges who travelled to the Netherlands courthouse, convicting Megrahi and acquitting his colleague, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah.

In a trenchant early criticism of the verdict, Hans Koechler, a distinguished Austrian philosopher appointed as one of five international observers at the trial by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, issued a well-merited denunciation of the judges' bizarre conclusion.

"In my opinion," Koechler said, "there seemed to be considerable political influence on the judges and the verdict." Koechler queried the active involvement of senior US Justice Department officials as part of the Scotch prosecution team "in a supervisory role".

Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/66187,news-comment,news-politics,how-abdelbaset-al-megrahi-and-libya-were-framed-for-lockerbie-bombing#ixzz0uVRiuoeC

[luxoid]

2. Jack Straw also refuses to appear

I'm a Brit living in the UK.I agree that no UK politician should attend the senate hearings on the basis that the UK is a sovereign nation and OUR political representatives are not accountable to the US senate.I think if one reads the evidence around the trial the conviction is at best tenuous and likely wrong.There is a beginning campaign over here to quash his conviction supported by Jim Swire,a Brit whose daughter was on Pan Am103.As an obsever from th eother side of the pond,it does look like this is motivated primarily by an attempt to stuff BP,a sentiment with which I entirely agree,but this is the wrong way to do it.I'd suggest that BP is co nationalised by the US and UK governments and it's profits used for social need.

[SydneyDundee]

3. Whilst I agree with luxoid on the point...

that it is wrong for the US to assume that they have any right to overreach and act as if the sovereignty of Scottish and/or UK governments do not matter on this, by "inviting" government officials to these senate charades. Incidentally, we all know how that went before one on a previous occasion at the US Senate (be careful what you wish for, George Galloway's appearance didn't go to plan - remember?). I am not sure that co-nationalising any company would advance or safeguard us from future "BP style events". I am afraid this is a as good as it gets with the balance between multinational and business concerns being "controlled or regulated" by governments......for one simple reason, western liberal democracy (ahem) is to well interleaved with western commercial interest - the whole political balance of power is tensioned by the money that flows from commerce into political parties....sorry..

[fedsron2us]

4. Megrahi was released for the very good reason that the British and US governments

did not want his conviction to got to Appeal because lots of inconvenient truths might have been revealed (the main one being that Libya either had either little to do with the atrocity or at most was a bit part player). Sending him home on compassionate grounds because he was 'terminally ill' was a good way of removing that problem. Now that Megrahi has failed to die to order most of the political protests coming from the US are simply attempts to reassert the original 'cover story' by those who know that it is now unlikely ever to be challenged in open court. Unfortunately, the relatives of those who died on the Pan Am flight are simply being exploited by people with much more cynical motives.

[SydneyDundee]

5. Megrahi was released by the SCOTTISH government...

The British and US governmenments have no jurisdiction on this matter - it is a matter of public record from the Scottish Government that no pressure was exercised by the UK government to retain or release Megrahi. The US government exercised considerable "public" pressure on the Scottish government to ensuer Megrahi stayed in jail. It is interesting to note that the scottish gorvernment have offered and indeed ahve made public all documents realting to megrahi's release APART from thise that came from the US government - because the US government refuses to give permission to do soo....hmmmmm what does that say??? Chech BBC websit for the comments from Scottish Justice Minister and First Minister's comments yesterday on this......

[fedsron2us]

6. What governments and politicians say they want

and what they actually want are not necessarily the same thing. Meghrahi being in Libya is convenient for Scottish, British and US governments for a variety of reasons regardless of the twaddle being pumped out by the official channels. Expect a lot of sound and fury about his release but no real action. If they had not wanted him back in Libya he would still be in jail.

[SydneyDundee]

7. I agree with you on the main point you are making....the reasons for each would be different...

I note that the Scottish First Minister - Alex salmond - has called for all correspondence and papers between Washington and the UK (both governments) to be made public......he's a wily man is alex, he'll have done this knowing it's likely to support his side and not t'others - methinks a bit of squirming in Washington and London