The British government freed the Lockerbie bomber in exchange for oil. We learn the news from the UK Times Online:
The British government decided it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom" to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.Gordon Brown's government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.
The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi's release.
The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.
This strategy is obviously foolish. It may have helped the British with their energy issues in the short term, but they have exposed their weakness to their enemies. Not that terrorists didn't already know how dependent the UK is on Middle Eastern oil, but now they have learned how far they are willing to go and who they are willing to sell out to get it.
The UK sold this transfer as an act of compassion by claiming that Megrahi had cancer and only had a few weeks left to live, but pictures of Megrahi as he got off the plane in Libya to a hero's welcome showed a man who looked like the picture of health.
Moe Lane at RedState notes the timing of Megrahi's transfer is pretty interesting as well:
The Libyans walked away from this one knowing that they could profitably push back on the Brown government on issues involving the Lockerbie bomber; and now the issue's closed, because Megrahi's back in Libya and Gadaffi doesn't particularly care what Brown thinks about things. And if you're wondering why they waited two years... well. Gadaffi cared a great deal about what George W. Bush thought about things.This new guy in the Oval Office? Eh. not so much.
Permalink | Linking Blogs | Sphere: Related Content | Digg this! | FARK It!
Filed under:
Middle East
Comments (23)
This is going to bring down... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Michael | August 29, 2009 10:48 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
This is going to bring down his government.
1. Posted by Michael | August 29, 2009 10:48 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 29, 2009 22:48
2. Posted by Gmac | August 29, 2009 10:57 PM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Meh, the country formerly known as Britain.
Screw them all, I hope their chains rest lightly.
2. Posted by Gmac | August 29, 2009 10:57 PM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on August 29, 2009 22:57
3. Posted by GarandFan | August 29, 2009 10:58 PM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Considering that Britannia's "strongest ally" has been pissing on them for the last 7 months, is it any wonder they've decided to strike out on their own?
All that "Smart Diplomacy" is coming home to roost!
3. Posted by GarandFan | August 29, 2009 10:58 PM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on August 29, 2009 22:58
4. Posted by GarandFan | August 29, 2009 11:02 PM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
EVERY country acts in it's own best self- interests unless it can be shown that there is an alternative action at least as palatable. The failure of leadership in the White House has repercussions beyond our own borders. But then, Barry never has had any foreign policy experience has he? Wasn't that what Joe Biden was hauled about for? HAhahahahahahahaha!!!!
4. Posted by GarandFan | August 29, 2009 11:02 PM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on August 29, 2009 23:02
5. Posted by JustRuss | August 29, 2009 11:05 PM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Despite any reaction from the Dems to the contrary they would all do the exact same thing if it was politically expedient. Nevermind the fact that we will have already free'd any prisoners of interest in Guantanamo.
Remember single lives, be they enemy or domestic...or rather be they living or...well anyway single lives mean nothing in the "big picture" as long as whatever act you are performing looks humanitarian. Nevermind the consequences. Its about image and control.
5. Posted by JustRuss | August 29, 2009 11:05 PM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on August 29, 2009 23:05
6. Posted by ODA315 | August 30, 2009 12:01 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
I'd love to have a seat along the back wall in parliment come monday morning. Brown will eviscerated for this.
Of course he might just stay home and watch his DVDs.
6. Posted by ODA315 | August 30, 2009 12:01 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 00:01
7. Posted by Staylor | August 30, 2009 12:26 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Just Great!
Now Obama now has a knew idea to get rid of the guys in Gitmo and pay for his healthcare program at the same time.
It is nice to know that men who killed hundreds can get traded like so many baseball cards if the price is right.
7. Posted by Staylor | August 30, 2009 12:26 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 00:26
8. Posted by Flu-Bird | August 30, 2009 12:35 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
If WINSTON CHURCHILL were alive that bomber would have gotten the firing squad after his trial and would return to tripoli in a long wooden box
8. Posted by Flu-Bird | August 30, 2009 12:35 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 00:35
9. Posted by jim m | August 30, 2009 12:49 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
If WINSTON CHURCHILL were alive that bomber would have gotten the firing squad after his trial and would return to Tripoli in a long wooden box
Soldiers are shot. Criminals are hanged. Churchill would never have given him the honor of a firing squad.
9. Posted by jim m | August 30, 2009 12:49 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 00:49
10. Posted by jim m | August 30, 2009 12:59 AM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
The Brits have shown absolutely no spine with regard to Islamic fascists. This comes as no surprise. The only question is if there are enough left in their country who give a damn.
10. Posted by jim m | August 30, 2009 12:59 AM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 00:59
11. Posted by ODA315 | August 30, 2009 1:31 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
The only question is if there are enough left in their country who give a damn.
Not as long as their still getting their check and "free" healthcare.
11. Posted by ODA315 | August 30, 2009 1:31 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 01:31
12. Posted by drjohn | August 30, 2009 8:59 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
I don't believe for one second that this could have come about without Obama's approval.
12. Posted by drjohn | August 30, 2009 8:59 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 08:59
13. Posted by CDR M | August 30, 2009 9:10 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
So am I to assume that the released terrorist DOES NOT HAVE CANCER??? So does this mean he can go back to his old job now? Heaven help the Brits if this guy pulls off a major terrorist act.
13. Posted by CDR M | August 30, 2009 9:10 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 09:10
14. Posted by Mac Lorry | August 30, 2009 9:44 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
I'm actually relieved to find out that al-Megrahi was released in exchange for access to oil. That's far better news than what we were being told before, that a major ally had become so loonified as to free a convicted terrorist on humanitarian grounds. When progressivism gets to that point the UK will be a lost cause.
14. Posted by Mac Lorry | August 30, 2009 9:44 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 09:44
15. Posted by Thingumbob | August 30, 2009 10:36 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Given the explicit admission by the British establishment that they were hushing up the Al-Yamamah BAE scandal on national security grounds, this sort of rottenness is merely par for the course. I believe there must be so many skeletons in the closet over in jolly olde England that the real issue when one among the many is exposed is qui bono.
15. Posted by Thingumbob | August 30, 2009 10:36 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 10:36
16. Posted by JustRuss | August 30, 2009 11:12 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
1) Terrorists such as he are known to become suicide bombers.
2) I would like to believe he probably has cancer, terminal or not.
3) Why die in bed when he can earn himself 72 virgins by blowing himself up?
16. Posted by JustRuss | August 30, 2009 11:12 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 11:12
17. Posted by Thingumbob | August 30, 2009 11:29 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
By the bye, it should come as no surprise that Colonel Muammar al-Ghaddafi attended the Royal Libyan Military Academy run by the Brits as an equivalent of their prestigious Sandhurst in Libya . He's a present day "Nostromo" without a doubt.
17. Posted by Thingumbob | August 30, 2009 11:29 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 11:29
18. Posted by epador | August 30, 2009 1:00 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Blood for Oil.
Oil for Blood.
Where's Cindy Sheehan?
Nantucket?
No Limericks, please.
18. Posted by epador | August 30, 2009 1:00 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 13:00
19. Posted by Brian Richard Allen | August 30, 2009 1:05 PM | Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
The pathologically hesperophobic and morbidly ingrate Euro-peons -- which description as aptly describes the average sorry subject of the Brussels-based Neo-Soviet's squalidly fasciSSocialist offshore satellite state as it does your common-garden cheese-eating surrender monkey -- will no more miss an opportunity to show us the superiority of their supercilious sanctimony than to aid and abet our enemies.
And they didn't this time, either.
Brian Richard Allen
Lost Angels - Califobambicated 90028
And the Far Abroad
19. Posted by Brian Richard Allen | August 30, 2009 1:05 PM |
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 13:05
20. Posted by Elrod | August 30, 2009 2:02 PM | Score: -4 (4 votes cast)
This has nothing to with the Obama White House. From all indications they opposed the freeing of al-Magrehi on "compassionate" or any other grounds. This is all about the stranglehold BP has on British politics and very likely on Scotland-England politics. Though Britain figured nobody would probe the "compassion" claim and discover the snake-like hold BP has over the Labour government. National honor (or honour)? Pfft.
I wonder if this is an internal Scottish matter. Scotland has a different legal system than the rest of Britain. There is a serious movement afoot for Scottish independence and the oil in the North Sea is a big driver of Scotland's claim. Perhaps the Scottish judge (not an independence advocate) was told to give up al-Magrehi for BP so that the Scottish National Party (almost dominant in Scotland already) will lose a big issue. After all, failure to secure oil from the Middle East encouraged Scottish independence advocates to argue for drilling at home - and not giving any of it away to bloody England. I lived in Scotland for a while and the politics of independence really are that weird.
20. Posted by Elrod | August 30, 2009 2:02 PM |
Score: -4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 14:02
21. Posted by Bruce Henry | August 30, 2009 10:05 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
RE Comment # 19:
I defy anyone here to diagram that first sentence. WTF did it even mean?
21. Posted by Bruce Henry | August 30, 2009 10:05 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on August 30, 2009 22:05
22. Posted by hyperbolist | August 31, 2009 12:07 AM | Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
It means "Brian Richard Allen is jealous of Europeans, and rightly so."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2009/06/liveable_vancouver.cfm
Judging by the style of "Brian"'s prose, it's obvious that John Derbyshire is trolling comment threads because, as anyone remotely familiar with the man and his clunky verbiage surely knows, he definitely doesn't get invited to any fun parties in New York.
22. Posted by hyperbolist | August 31, 2009 12:07 AM |
Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2009 00:07
23. Posted by hyperbolist | August 31, 2009 12:08 AM | Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
[And thus wouldn't have anything better to do. But hey, it's more fun than Sudoku!]
23. Posted by hyperbolist | August 31, 2009 12:08 AM |
Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2009 00:08