al-Megrahi - the aftermath
So who is telling the fewest lies? Westminster or Holyrood?
This is turning into murky tale of claim and counter-claim and the 'angels on the head of a pin' argument between release under the Prisoner Transfer Agreement and compassionate release.
The whole situation is filthy, and no-one is emerging with any credit.
Let's start by destroying the straw man: if Kenny MacAskill thought that al-Megrahi was innocent, then he should have released him on those grounds, not some other spurious excuse. It seems that if not entirely and solely responsible, al-Megrahi was 'involved' to some extent, and may have been scape-goated for that reason.
We now have a very nasty oil-for-prisoner deal that has been approved by Westminster and pushed through by Holyrood.
Cui bono?* Big oil. Join the dots and draw the picture.
Did you know that al-Megrahi is actually on parole, and his parole officer is an employee of North Lanarkshire Council? His parole officer phones him (I think) weekly to check he is abiding by the terms of his release. Can you imagine the calls:
PO: Did you stay at home between the hours of 7pm and 7am?
al-M: Yes
PO: I heard you were drinking Buckie and hanging out with the young Tripoli Tong?
al-M: Not true.
PO: Have you been associating with any known criminals?
al-M: Well, Muammar al Gathafi is a cousin....
PO: Report back to the office next week, as you have broken your parole!
al-M: No.
What next?
This is turning into a mess that is only going to get worse, andI can already visualise the Scottish Labour Election Broadcast showing saltires fluttering in the Libyan wind.....
Such a parcel of rogues in two nations!
* Italian Gaelic - "Who benefits?"
This is turning into murky tale of claim and counter-claim and the 'angels on the head of a pin' argument between release under the Prisoner Transfer Agreement and compassionate release.
The whole situation is filthy, and no-one is emerging with any credit.
Let's start by destroying the straw man: if Kenny MacAskill thought that al-Megrahi was innocent, then he should have released him on those grounds, not some other spurious excuse. It seems that if not entirely and solely responsible, al-Megrahi was 'involved' to some extent, and may have been scape-goated for that reason.
We now have a very nasty oil-for-prisoner deal that has been approved by Westminster and pushed through by Holyrood.
Cui bono?* Big oil. Join the dots and draw the picture.
Did you know that al-Megrahi is actually on parole, and his parole officer is an employee of North Lanarkshire Council? His parole officer phones him (I think) weekly to check he is abiding by the terms of his release. Can you imagine the calls:
PO: Did you stay at home between the hours of 7pm and 7am?
al-M: Yes
PO: I heard you were drinking Buckie and hanging out with the young Tripoli Tong?
al-M: Not true.
PO: Have you been associating with any known criminals?
al-M: Well, Muammar al Gathafi is a cousin....
PO: Report back to the office next week, as you have broken your parole!
al-M: No.
What next?
This is turning into a mess that is only going to get worse, andI can already visualise the Scottish Labour Election Broadcast showing saltires fluttering in the Libyan wind.....
Such a parcel of rogues in two nations!
* Italian Gaelic - "Who benefits?"
11 comments:
Who benefits?
All Governments, the truth will not come out.
Who looses?
All the relatives
http://www.tomharris.org.uk/2009/08/28/was-al-megrahis-release-part-of-a-trade-deal/
Couldnt have said it better myself, so I wont!
Right now, the whole business is being used as a flame-war tool in the runup to a 2010 election.
The British public are being told that "shock-horror-outrage", the Labour government cut a deal. Apparently the British public are believed to be either naïve enough to think that governments (even in nice countries) don't do this sort of thing as a matter of course, or they are angry enough with the Labour administration not to really care.
In any event, all the terrorist-for-oil stuff is being vigorously front-loaded, while the shenanigans that went on to ensure that the Syrians and Iranians were kept safely out of this back in the early 90s is quietly downplayed.
After all, that was some other politicians, and some other political expediency.
For papers like The Times and The Economist to be peddling as they are the idea that diplomatic duplicity began with Lord Mandelson is not a very edifying spectacle.
As for the British public, now becoming so suitably outraged, one has the sense that they are like a madame who expresses shock and anguish that some of her working girls are not virgins.
"if Kenny MacAskill thought that al-Megrahi was innocent, then he should have released him on those grounds, not some other spurious excuse"
I recall Kenny MacAskill stressing that al Megrahi was a man convicted of a crime and that he was releasing this convicted man on compassionate grounds because he has 3 months to live.
But don't go letting the truth get in the way of your story!
What? Working girls are not virgins? I've been conned out of 50 quid!!! Typical.
4.55pm
50 quid! crikey, the price of everything has at least doubled since that ferry started running from Leverburgh. Thank goodness the Comhairle are putting the fares back up.
Don't want to encourage inter island business now do we.
fifty quid!!!!!
(where, please?)
I think you'll find its not exactly parole - the fact of the matter is that his health has to be monitered monthly by his officer - by video link.
His officer has the power to reconmend re-detaining him if he is not satisfied about his deteriorating health.
its unlikely this will happen.
Alas - he was released because he qualified for compassionate release - the same as all others before him - including the child murderer that Jim Wallace released back to Glasgow...
Ach, the ladies of the twilight hours spotted him as a rube balach from the western parts of lewis which is still waiting for the street lights to be installed.
Under the cover of darkness and all that...
Remember, in the twilight of a hebridean evening the new euro is remarably similar to the old white fiver of which your man still has a stache.
A-Mg is a poor soul who is going to die. And very soon. Angus i don't really care about the ins and outs of this case, but i do admire AS for sticking to his guns. I think it very strange that the self same Americans who six-nine months ago were praying for the scottish nation's salvation, should immediately turn against it when it does the right thing.LS
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/latest-news/?view=News&id=20779434
Further clarification
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