How many of you would have heard of the name of ‘Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi’. This is the person who is behind a scandal that is shaking Britain, and is causing a huge amount of negative publicity to Gordon Brown. Al Megrahi was convicted for involvement in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, that killed 270 people. The incident happened primarily over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, and hence Al Megrahi is also known as the Lockerbie bomber. In a complex deal when he was prosecuted, he was prosecuted in a city in the Netherlands under Scottish law and sentenced to life imprisonment in a Scottish prison in 2001, a good 13 years after the crime (and this after a lot of pressure on Libya, since he was a Libyan intelligence agent). As a part of the prosecution, any role of Gaddafi’s Government was glossed over, although Libya spent around $2.7 billion in compensation to the family of the victims (259 people on the plane, including 189 Americans; and 11 people on the ground).
And now suddenly, a huge amount of controversy. The Scottish Government, that is semi-independent, release Al Megrahi on compassionate grounds since he was suffering from prostrate cancer, and his condition was supposed to be terminal, with only months left to live. The decision was supposedly taken by the Scottish Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, since under Scottish judicial customs, a person with only months to live can be released on compassionate grounds. However, it would be naive to assume that such a decision could not be taken without due counsel by the British Government because of the raw emotions involved. The United States has protested vehemently over this decision, since it sees a person who had committed mass murder being released legally, and getting a hero’s welcome when he arrived back in Libya (apparently against an understanding that the Libyans would make this a low key event). Link to article:

continue reading "British Government in a bind over release of al Megrahi"

For a long time, Libya has remained on the edge of the global community because of its open support for terrorism. Libya was an open and acknowledged supporter of international terrorist groups (and earned a direct attack from the United States way back in 1986 for a bombing carried out by Libyan supported groups in a Berlin disco frequented by American servicemen). This was also followed by the explosion in a Pan Am fight over Lockerbie that killed all 270 on board and for which Libyan agents were blamed (and Libyan men were prosecuted and sentenced for the same crime. The consequence was a series of sanctions.
And then suddenly, a few years back, in 2003, Libya apparently and suddenly turned over a new leaf (suspicion was that it was done after the attack on Iraq under Saddam Hussein which showed the Libyan leader, Gaddafi, that his rule was under threat and could be attacked very easily; however, there were no apparent plans as such for any attack on Libya at that time). As a part of this, Libya stopped all efforts on developing nuclear weapons, and turned over all the plans and parts of its effort over to the US. And in a final effort, Libya agreed to pay compensation to the families of those who were killed in various terrorist activities such as flight bombings and the blast in the Berlin disco:

continue reading "Libya pays final compensation for terror"