Political Discussions
Pan Am 103 Bomber To Be Released
Posted by polybore • 8/17/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: bomb, lockerbie, pan am 103, terroris
Prisoners under the Scottish Legal System have the right to apply for compassionate release if the are terminally ill and have less than three months to live.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing of Pan Am 103 which killed 259 passengers and 11 residents of the Scottish town of Lockerbie. (21 December 1988)
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has applied for release (and it seems he is going to get it).
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8198603.stm
What do you think?
User Comments
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I hope they're right about the guy's prognosis. Be crazy if he got out and then lived a long, happy life in freedom. I suppose this is one more concrete result of Libya's improved relationship with the West. One thing's for sure: I wouldn't want to make this decision. Presumably, though, it's in the hands of an independent judiciary that doesn't have to consider popular opinion or politics?-
It is no longer for the court to decide as Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has dropped his appeal. Now it is a matter for the Justice Minister. Kind of like the way US Governors yay or nay the death sentence.
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Gottcha. So then it will be highly politicized. Kinda like our death sentences.
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Yep. Seven US senators have written to the Minister asking for
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to rot in jail. -
Presumably they are irrelevant. But there is that election on the horizon . . .
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BBC reported a couple of days ago that there is significant doubt in the intelligence community as to whether this guy actually had anything to do with the bombing. Anybody know if there's any truth to that?-
It seems split. Broadly US relatives of those who died think Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is guilty while most UK relatives think there is significant doubt about the conviction.
Not sure why there is this difference.
Most of the doubt seems to centre around the idea that Iran (rather than Libya) was responsible for the bombing in retaliation for the downing of an Iranian civillian airliner by a US warship.
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He was released today and flown back to Libya. The Obama administration not very pleased.
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It was an easy stance for the Obama administration to take. They can criticize while not actually being in a position to be able to do anything about it. I think any US administration would have acted about the same.
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I gotta say - presuming that he was/is actually guilty of the crime he's serving time for - no way should he have been released.
Why does a person who killed hundreds of people get to die in the arms of his family? He didn't grant that right to his victims....
Nope, serve the time for the crime. His family could have visited him in the prison hospital.-
Quote from the Justice Secretary.
"Having met the criteria, it therefore falls to me to decide whether Mr Al-Megrahi should be released on compassionate grounds. I am conscious that there are deeply held feelings, and that many will disagree whatever my decision. However a decision has to be made.
Scotland will forever remember the crime that has been perpetrated against our people and those from many other lands. The pain and suffering will remain forever. Some hurt can never heal. Some scars can never fade. Those who have been bereaved cannot be expected to forget, let alone forgive. Their pain runs deep and the wounds remain.
However, Mr Al-Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power. It is one that no court, in any jurisdiction, in any land, could revoke or overrule. It is terminal, final and irrevocable. He is going to die.
In Scotland, we are a people who pride ourselves on our humanity. It is viewed as a defining characteristic of Scotland and the Scottish people. The perpetration of an atrocity and outrage cannot and should not be a basis for losing sight of who we are, the values we seek to uphold, and the faith and beliefs by which we seek to live.
Mr Al-Megrahi did not show his victims any comfort or compassion. They were not allowed to return to the bosom of their families to see out their lives, let alone their dying days. No compassion was shown by him to them.
But, that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his final days.
Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion be available. Our beliefs dictate that justice be served, but mercy be shown. Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs that we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people. No matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated.
For these reasons - and these reasons alone - it is my decision that Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the Lockerbie bombing, now terminally ill with prostate cancer, be released on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya to die."
Full text www.scotland.gov.uk/News/This-Week/Speeches/Safer-and-stronger/lockerbiedec... -
@Anok...I totally agree with you. Quick!! Write it down!!
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I understand the compassionate aspect of the ruling - I just disagree with it.
He is in prison, not some inhumane place of torture - he is in prison due to his choice to take the lives of others. Just because he's terminally ill doesn't or shouldn't IMO excuse him of his punishment. He should be transferred to a proper hospital to await his death (it would be cruel to leave him in a cell while dying, I think) where his family could come and say their goodbyes.
Why should he die a free man?
@Antics - *quickly scribbles down date and time*
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He's already a heroified martyr in that crazy place, so why bother? -
I understand your question Agit8r, but you are thinking like a westerner. The middle east mind set is completely different than ours. Martyrs are useful tools to them.
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It would be interesting to know about any others who were released under these circumstances. Clearly no terrorist of this type, but perhaps some murderers? I'm just wondering what kind of precedents there were for the Scottish minister.
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23 prisoners released and seven refused in the last 9 years. Have not seen the details of any particular case yet.
The main points are the less than three months to live and the report from the parole officers. Essentially if the prisoner is soon to die (weeks) and is deemed to not be at risk of re offending then that would probably be all that is required.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8201213.stm
Apparently the US has a similar provision 18 USC § 3582(c) but it is very rarely used. www.abanet.org/crimjust/policy/federalsentence.pdf -
I wouldn't be at all surprised if this guy dies a martyr in some car bombing incident. He is the perfect candidate. -
Who is "this guy"? The judge or the terrorist? And you're advocating murder?!
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/facepalm
Don't even bother csi. One of two things is happening here.
One - Either mark is so stupid that he can't understand what you meant, when it is plainly obvious.
Two - Or mark understands, and is just trying to cast you as a far right extremist. Maybe he has hopes of emailing this to fishy@whitehouse. gov. Shhh, don't tell him you left out the words "health" and "care." -
LMAO,
I couldn't even figure out what the hell mark meant until I completely disconnected my brain, Then i got his point.
/facepalm is too mild, i'm finding it hard to breathe from the laughter.
And he is teaching people..... eeeeek! -
Steady on chaps.
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Hard to be "steady" when you are reeling from laughter.
Then again, if this is the level of cognition of the Obamaite following, we're in more trouble than I thought. -
You know, car bombs are often not suicide bombs, so I don't know why you would assume everyone would understand first time round.
Meanwhile, the role of hyena is an ugly one, but it suits you. -
Yeah, I had to read that several times, and I still don't necessarily get the "joke" so to speak. I know what Erik is referring to, but the punchline makes no sense.
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JOKE?
I shouldn't be surprised that this comes from an anarchist, but suicide bombers aren't funny in my book.
The fact that sickly terrorists are often picked or volunteer for this particular "honor" isn't that surprising either.
and yes, suicide car bombs are very common. google "suicide car bomb" in quotation marks and you get 341,000 hits. guess you're the only one that haven't heard of it Mark. You might have heard about the one in Kabul last saturday? Or do we not follow news that happened in this Decade? -
You used the phrase "car bombing" without the word "suicide" in it. Since Libya is not involved in any such activity, it never even crossed my mind that that's what you meant.
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Uhm...OK Erik. Just because you get 341,000 hits by typing the phrase in doesn't mean that 341,000 carbombs actually occur as a suicide mission. Since the judge and prison was in Scotland, the high number of carbombs by the IRA is the first to come to mind, and they do not use suicide car bombings.
Nor was this bomber a suicide/car bomber. He hijacked planes. *shakes head*
And, yes - your quip came across as a sarcastic joke. One that made little sense in context, but humor none the less.
What we're saying is that your comment made little sense. -
Now he hijacks planes? wow.. go read up before you tout your knowledge. That one was an Epic Fail.
And i'm not surprised is made little sense to you, apparently Antics got it fine. We can make some deductions about cognitive ability there. -
Sorry, I associated Pan Am bombing with a Pan Am hijacking from around the same time period.
Either way he was NOT a suicide bomber. Your comment was incoherent, as your comments increasingly are. -
I agree, if you know nothing about terrorists and their MO, it may seem incoherent. So i guess we established that you dont know anything about them.
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So you're saying you're intimately familiar with how terrorist bombers think and operate?
That's interesting... -
Absolutely, much more so than the average non-military, more so than the average military. Less than the terrorist specialists.
When you train to fight them, you have to study them... It's part of the curriculum.
At least I know that suicide car bombers are common. And I don't confuse the IRA which is Ireland, with Lockerbie in Scotland, and most certainly not with Libyans..
But that's just me. -
Uh-huh. Why don't you tell us more about your expertise, then? It's interesting all things considered.....
Oh, and your original comment (not that I should have to explain this) is incoherent because not one person has even talked about him returning to terrorist activities - but rather the debate is about him being released to his family to die. Your comment makes no sense in the debate. And it makes no sense in the context of even talking about him, period.
Tell me, how many times do you think he was a suicide bomber? (hint: He's still alive) -
What's he gonna do, roll up on his hospice gurney?
Not one person is talking about or debating his release in terms of whether or not he will bomb again. The debate is about the appropriateness - not the level of danger he obviously doesn't pose.
You don't need to be intimately involved with terrorists like you are to understand what the conversation is about. -
AS always, you are trying to start an argument, most of the time you actually have something to contribute. But in this case you obviously don't even understand the concept.
He's healthy enough to drive a car into a roadblock, i can guarrantee you that much.
And IF that were to happen, i guess you'll understand why releasing him wasn't "appropriate" in relation to this concept.
Then again, you apparently think that would be funny...
I am going to give the same advice to you that I gave Mark, leave this thread before you make a complete ass of yourself. -
LOL OK Erik
Like I said, you don't need all that much intelligence to follow the conversation at hand - which is about the appropriateness of his release, not the danger of it.
And you were the one who made the joke, not me! -
Okay, not all suicide bombers are voluntary.
"Michael Ledeen has a very good “interview” article at National Review arguing that the London “suicide bombers” actually were duped– they didn’t know the bombs would go off while they were carrying them. Apparently such cases have occurred in Iraq– maybe most of them are that way– and there was even one case where the bomber survived, and loudly complained about how he was used."
www.rasmusen.org/x/2005/07/19/involuntary-suicide-bombers-ledeen/
" Here is the evidence: They bought return railway tickets. Their bombs were not strapped to their bodies but carried in knapsacks as if to be left behind on the trains. None of them was heard to shout the customary ”Allah Akhbar” before the bombs exploded. Unusually for suicide bombers, they left identification on their bodies. And surveillance videotapes show them laughing and joking casually — rather than grimly determined or prayerful — as they caught the Underground train.
These little pieces of circumstantial evidence suggest the possibility the bombers were duped. Maybe they were told by their controllers that the bombs were timed to go off five minutes after being detonated rather than immediately. It would not be the first time that al-Qaida had deceived its devotees: Osama bin Laden revealed that not all the 9/11 hijackers were aware that the planes were to be flown into buildings. And the bombers’ ‘’suicide” would protect the terrorist network against the chance that they might be caught and persuaded to talk."
strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/358
So it would not be out of the realm of possibility for this Lockerbie bomber to be used by a terrorist organization in this manner to create a martyr. I believe that this is what csi was speaking to.
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It was bad enough that he was released. I don't even want to think about the reaction the families would have had seeing that he recieved a heroes welcome back in Libya.
ALthough I do understand the concept behind the process, I can't agree with it no matter how i turn it. Not for a guy of this caliber. Not someone who have denied the right to die in peace to others.
If they wanted to be mercyful, they should have put him out of his misory. -
It might be worth remembering that the US exacted a price in blood for this terrorist incident back in 1986. news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3975000/3975455.s...
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Usual far left propaganda, it was our fault.
*rolls eyes*
I guess you agree with Rev. Wright, then. "America's chickens...have come home...to roost." mark, if you hate your country so much, why not move to another country? -
You misread my statement and reverse the causality. Let me remind you of the sequence of events. First the terrorist act occurred. Then President Reagan exacted a price from Libya for its complicity in that act. Cause and effect.
I thought that those who feel the man is getting off scot-free might find some solace in the fact that Libya did pay a price. Whether or not people find solace in that fact is another matter. The fact is, though, that we have been talking about this with no mention of how Reagan handled the matter back in his day.
You would do yourself a favor to think before you react to everything I write as "usual far left propaganda." It undermines your credibility as a representative of conservatism. -
Criticizing America is unAmerican!
...oh wait...
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever." -- Thomas Jefferson; letter to George Washington (January 4, 1786) -
Hell, I wasn't even criticizing, but you make a fair point, Agit8r.
I remember reading about the bombing in the Stars & Stripes while stationed in Germany. I understood the attack, though I was a bit freaked out by fellow soldiers talking about wanting to go to Libya. (Course there was no chance of that actually happening.) -
[double post: oops]
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"I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: 'Our country, right or wrong!' They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: 'Our country — when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.' " -- Carl Schurz (U.S. Interior Secretary 1877–1881) Anti-Imperialistic Conference, Chicago, Illinois (17 October 1899)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schurz#Schurz_on_.22The_True_Americanism.22 -
It probably is worth putting some sort of historical context onto the events at the time around the bombing.
Shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher from Libyan Embassy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Fletcher
Shooting down of Iranian civilian Airliner by US Navy. 5 months before Lockerbie bombing.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 -
That's interesting, but do we know anything about direct linkages to the Lockerbie bombing? If we assume the direct involvement of the Libyan government, I suppose that would be good enough for linking Fletcher, but it seems we never have assumed that, at least not 100%. Although we bombed Libya, we settled for a single terrorist.
The Iranian incident is also interesting, but how friendly was Libya ever with Iran? Or are you suggesting that it offered a convenient precedent?
Just thinking out loud here. I've never studied the issue, and the paper to which I had access at the time, The Stars & Stripes, was not well known for covering anything in depth. -
Relations between Iran and Libya were at a cooperative level. Libya was the only Arab nation to support Iran during the Iran Iraq war.
The worst of this matter is that we are now unlikely to ever know what happened. It is certain that, if indeed his guilt is certain, al-Megrahi did not act alone and that he was carrying out orders.
As is often the way of these things only the little fish end up in the net. -
I didn't know about Iranian-Libyan relations at that time, Polybore. Interesting. I guess Qaddafi always was the odd man out, and not just in terms of giving a haven---or even orders---to the terrorists who brought down the plane.
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@mark..."You misread my statement and reverse the causality. Let me remind..."
Fair enough, I stand corrected. Let me apologize for reading you wrong and saying what I did. It was wrong to say and I was wrong for saying it.
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Interesting although, presumably, unconnected. Republican senators have just returned from a two day delegation to Libya. McCain, Lieberman, Graham, and Collins no less.
Wonder what they were up to. www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=3475-
Well, three RINO's and a DLC-style Independent...
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It's too hot out. Can someone remind me of the chronology? Did they go before or after the release?
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the article is dated the 14th of this month... so, before. maybe they are sorta like the Republican opposition's version of Bill Clinton in N. Korea...
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Man, talk about the heat. I only read "Thursday". The 14th makes so much more sense.
You know, the Libyans haven't had diplomats in DC for very long. Only a few years, if memory serves. (I had one in an English class last winter, but his English wasn't good enough yet for me to learn very much.) -
They must have oil in Libya....
DRILL, BABY, DRILL!
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They do.
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it all makes sense now.
if all else fails, McCain can dispatch dolphins... "with fricken' lasers on their heads"
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Wasn't that sharks?
*holds pinky finger up to corner of mouth* -
WOWW!!! did I call this or what!?!
www.silobreaker.com/lockerbie-bomber-released-for-oil-5_2262545318795018240
The AXIS OF OIL lives -
*bows to Agit8r's clairvoyance*
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Here's an interesting article about Oil Lobbyists and Libya:
www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/washington/22libya.html
and another interesting twist...
74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:c_8TwYAB4esJ:www.campaignmoney.com/political/...
Note the donations made by "Livingston, Robert L. the Hon"
www.livingstongroupdc.com/Livingston_Info_sheet.pdf
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Gaddafi in another rather provocative act:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8215554.stm -
It's all a big setup for our overthrow of Africa *toungue in cheek*
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Hey look an asshole website has sprung up. www.boycottscotland.com
lol Right at the end of their misinformed diatribe they state that the US is a secular nation which may be the case but so is UK.-
"secular nation"?
...if only
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The problem with boycotts is that they hurt business when governments are usually (as in this case) the focus of the anger.
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"Absolutely, much more so than the average non-military, more so than the average military. Less than the terrorist specialists.
When you train to fight them, you have to study them... It's part of the curriculum."
This is known as hubris. When you train to fight terrorists, one of the first things the training does is knock the chip off your shoulder. Hubris is dangerous in the field. It gets people killed.-
That's why people usually lose it after they get past the rank of lieutenant, if not much sooner. The person who wrote those words was once a lieutenant, nothing more, if memory serves.
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Polybore is starting to get sick of the comments from ranking US officials who should know better.
Director of the FBI has been at it:
"I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of ''compassion'"
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6076025/Lockerbie-bombe...
What a total ignoramus.
And Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
“was obviously a political decision which is out of my lane.”
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/23/mullen-i-was-appalled-by-release-o...
Really, what a bampot.
You know this is really galling considering Scotland has troops in battle right now and has done from the very outset of Iraq and Afghanistan operations. Polybore wants to puke.
What is more is that, in comparison, Scots law is the granddaddy while US law is the ankle biter.
It seems some in the US have been conditioned into a state where they are very comfortable with barbarity.-
While I agree to an extent, I do not understand why compassion should be given to a cold blooded killer beyond the basics?
Why should he die a free man? Why does he have that right? -
This best sums it up.
"There is no reason for us not to show compassion – apart from revenge, which isn't the sweetest of virtues."
Retired judge Lord McCluskey
He is dying not a free man but a convicted killer. -
There is also no reason he can't finish his sentence like he's supposed to do.
Although I can see plenty of reasons not to show that sort of compassion. (Only basic compassion I can understand - obviously the man should receive basic care and consideration while serving his time).
But he is free - free to die now in the arms of his family. -
"out of my lane" just means it is beyond his area of competence
Obama's own comments were pretty tactful I thought. His operative verb was "regret." -
What has his family done that means he should die without them.
Obama has also said that he thought the release was "highly objectionable" and his Secretary of State has said so in a longer and even more arrogant way.
In Scotland we are better than terrorists. If that is a weakness then polybore embraces it, to the death. -
"Scots law is the granddaddy while US law is the ankle biter."
This may be true, but a certain political sect here still hasn't let go of their romantic notion of Manrent -
His family can visit him in prison, no one is stopping them from doing that. However having a terrorist finish his prison sentence is not a terrorist act - it's not even torture. Nor is it barbaric. It's - well, finishing out the sentence he received for killing hundreds of people.
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Edit (cross over Anok previous was not a direct reply)
Scots law allows that any prisoner, who is not perceived as a threat, is entitled to release when they are diagnosed with a condition which means they have less than 3 months to live. US law has a similar provision but it is very rarely used. It is a cultural difference.
In Scots terms he has served his sentence because now he is going to die. The last years of his life have been spent in prison. The last weeks will be spent with his family.
When the US is the perpetrator of this kind of barbarity www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iOTk5mUIVTPTRGU5hoR5JJrr38BAD9A9...
One wonders if the criticising of compassion is nothing but the whimper of the morally bankrupt. -
I understand it's a cultural difference - but I still don't see how enforcing a murder's prison sentence - even if he's going to die - is barbaric.
Why bother serving up a life sentence, then? What's the point of that if they're just going to release them because they're dying? (It would stand to reason that all life sentence prisoners are going to die serving their sentence). -
The sentence was enforced and is being served under Scots Law.
In the US justice may be seen to be served by a person dying chained to a hospital bed with their family and prison officers around them. That is not the case in Scotland unless they are perceived as a threat even in their last days.
A life sentence in Scotland does not mean life except in exceptional circumstances. Perhaps it could be argued that these are exceptional circumstances however, think Shawshank Redemption, what chance that this man may re offend. -
Amusement circuits engaged.
Personal attacks on polybore are welcomed, they are so terribly amusing. Spiteful personal remarks aimed at other members of the community (against the TOS of this board), however, are not.
If it breaks the rules it is going to go. So clean up your (not necessarily your) acts read the TOS and abide by it. It is a free service and no one likes a freeloader who takes the piss. -
Somebody got their knickers in a twist. You constantly insult the United States of America and think that no one will say anything to you. Yet when you perceived supposed attacks on the NHS, you got all pissy. I guess you think that you are the only one who can defend your country.
Laughable that you talk about personal attacks. Just because you refer to yourself in the third person doesn't mean your personal attacks count less.
*shrug* -
If you think for one minute that polybore give's the slightest what you say about them then you are suffering from delusions of grandeur.
As far as polybore is concerned you might as well be the random creation of random html text generator.
Just because polybore's political thinking happens to disagree with yours more often than not does not mean that polybore is in any way anti US.
Polybore also does not like political discussion punctuated with personal attack. Is this so weird to you? Can't you reason an argument otherwise or are your arguments so feeble that you feel that you have to support them in some way?
Polybore does not do personal attack. If you can find evidence to the contrary post them here. Otherwise put up and shut up. -
I offer personal attacks in defense. When levied at me, I throw them back. When I am proven wrong about something, I admit it. If you don't believe me, ask Agit8r or Anok. We argued and found common ground. I was wrong about Agit8r and admitted it. I don't just go around insulting people right off the bat. In fact I went back and saw that to defend a typo, you mentioned a child. So I asked you about that child and mentioned my newborn daughter. Funny, you never responded. Like I said, you just like to find reason to hate the United States and then when called on it, you get all pissy.
"Polybore does not do personal attack. If you can find evidence to the contrary post them here. Otherwise put up and shut up."
Here you go -
"As far as polybore is concerned you might as well be the random creation of random html text generator."
And I took the liberty of reviewing your posts of the last few weeks. Seems you like to just insult the United States. You hate our health care, you hate our media and you hate our politicians.
I do hope that you don't get a nosebleed while you are up on your high horse. -
"As far as polybore is concerned you might as well be the random creation of random html text generator."
If you perceive that as a personal attack then polybore apologises it was not meant to be. Also did not see your response re your daughter, no intentional ignore meant.
Well it is unfortunate that this board is pretty much exclusively about US politics so that kind of skews what polybore's posts are about.
Hate seems to be a bit strong. Polybore does not hate the US. -
I accept your apology.
It just angered me that you continually denigrated my country. No more so than your anger at the perceived slurs against your NHS.
I apologize in return for the insults I aimed at you.
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Interesting piece about the bomber *not* receiving a heros welcome: www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/200908302456/Opinion/saif-al-islam-muamma.... Food for thought, although I would counter that the welcome was not exactly low-key either.
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Ah yes, the "global arab network" will be the place to go for truth about one of the most inflammatory events this year, standing the potential of souring peoples views of Arabs in general, and Libyans especially.
Good find, lets see if we can find A North Korean Paper to give us the truth about their missile tests next. -
What part of "although I would counter . . . " didn't you understand?
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A but according to you in regards to Glenn Beck, adding a caveat means nothing. So we have to assume that you mean nothing by yours.
Or is that just your way of ignoring that fact when it stands in your way of accusing someone of fear mongering and racism? -
?
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Also, what do you take "food for thought" to mean?
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at the expense of breaking up this little love-fest, I am noticing that even Al Jazeera makes note of a "hero's welcome":
english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/08/2009823114377795.html -
Thanks. One would think that they possess the cultural competence to read the situation in Libya.
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Col. Gadhafi is celebrating 40 years now. A Times (UK) reporter saw a video of the Lockerbie guy's return being played at the dress rehearsal. (The bomber himself is supposed to be in the hospital.) That's not going to play well over here. www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112428837
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A few other Libya stories from this morning: www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/09/lockerbie_bomber_libya_britain.html?ft...
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It is going to play just how Gadhafi wants it to play. It wil piss off a lot of Americans and make him look stronger in his own country's eyes. -
He's also going for that whole image as a great African leader thing.
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While polybore is anything but a Gadhafi fan it has to be said 40 years of relative stability is a precious thing in Africa.
With Libya effectively rejoining the international community after Ghadafi shook hands with Condelisa Rice last year it is now time for Libya to cash in its oil and make some serious cash. Hence the McCain, Leiberman et al visit last month.
The worlds oil companies are desperate to get into Libya and the West in general will see Libya as one oil resource clawed back from China.
China has been cleaning up on African oil resources partly due to it's "non interventionist foreign trade policy". Western Governments tend to have policies in place that restrict trade with "suspect" regimes.
From this perspective you could say that the West needs Libya's rehabilitation to enable free trade. So either one concludes that Libya is rehabilitated or that due to the impending world energy deficit the West is prepared to look the other way in order to secure vital resources.
Either way had Gadhafi really shoved the boat out on Megrahi's return and put on a really spectacular display of giving the US and UK the finger (and he is known for spectacular events), then apart from louder complaints than there have been nothing can stop the rehabilitation now. -
It's actually Condoleeza.
Yes it is.
I know, but still, it actually is.
yes. Crazy, I know
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