I Wonder What Scotland Was Thinking

[WillowTree]

Here's their paper.




The Scotsman - News

 

[Ernie S.]

Can you link the article?

 

[kaz]

Here's their paper.




The Scotsman - News

The link doesn't work. Is this another comment on the Kamikaze Scotsman? You're right, they are nuts.

 

[Grace]

What? This?

Lockerbie: Gaddafi was to blame all along

A fleeing justice minister confirmed Gaddafi, pictured, ordered the attack. Picture: Getty Images



Published Date: 24 February 2011
By Eddie Barnes
A SENIOR figure in the crumbling Gaddafi regime has claimed the Libyan dictator personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988.
Former justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who quit his job this week over the murder of anti-government protesters in Libya, says he has proof that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to carry out the attack.

He also claims Libyan efforts to get Megrahi back home in 2009 were motivated primarily by Col Gaddafi's desire to "hide" the truth, ahead of the bomber's appeal against his sentence.

Relatives of the British dead described the revelations as "shocking" and called for a fresh investigation into the bombing.

Families of the American victims said the claims looked set to vindicate their long-held belief that the Libyans carried out the attack.

But Scottish supporters of Megrahi still believe he has been a scapegoat for the atrocity.

Mr Abdel-Jalil's comments will further undermine the 68-year-old dictator, whose country tumbled further into anarchy yesterday, as protesters gained control of the east of the country. British nationals and other foreigners were continuing to flee, as pro-Gaddafi gunmen roamed the streets of Tripoli in an effort to maintain control.

Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, remains in Tripoli 18 months after being freed by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds.

The remarkable new claims were made by the former Libyan minister in an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen.

Mr Abdel-Jalil declares: "I have proof that Gaddafi gave the order about Lockerbie."

He did not provide the proof but went on to claim the Libyan regime was desperate to keep the facts out of the public domain. "To hide it, he (Gaddafi] did everything in his power to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland," the ex-minister said.

Col Gaddafi has never accepted personal responsibility for the blowing up of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. In 2002, Libya agreed to pay compensation to relatives on the grounds a state employee had been found guilty of the murders. But Libyan premier Dr Dhukri Ghanem insisted at the time that the payments did not represent an admission of guilt by the state itself.

The compensation payments, some of which have never been paid, were offered as part of a deal that led to UN sanctions on the country being lifted.

Any proof now of Libya's guilt would bring fresh scrutiny of the then Labour government's decision to assist the Libyan regime in getting Megrahi back. It emerged two weeks ago that, as trade talks with Libya progressed in 2008, the UK government, then led by Gordon Brown, had tried to do everything in its power to ensure Megrahi was returned home.