The Lockerbie Bomber

[RanchHQ]

The Convicted Lockerbie Bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was released almost one year ago.

At that time he had only "weeks" to live.

I'll be danged if the dewd ain't still walking around.

Free.

From "Down Under"@


White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi | The Australian
White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi
Jason Allardyce and Tony Allen-Mills
From: The Australian July 26, 2010 12:00AM

THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be "far preferable" to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.

Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison.

The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer.

The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama's claim last week that all Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry" to learn of Megrahi's release.

Scottish ministers viewed the level of US resistance to compassionate release as "half-hearted" and a sign it would be accepted.

The US has tried to keep the letter secret, refusing to give permission to the Scottish authorities to publish it on the grounds it would prevent future "frank and open communications" with other governments.

In the letter, sent on August 12 last year to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and justice officials, Mr LeBaron wrote that the US wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned in view of the nature of the crime.

The note added: "Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose."

Mr LeBaron added that freeing the bomber and making him live in Scotland "would mitigate a number of the strong concerns we have expressed with regard to Megrahi's release".

The US administration lobbied the Scottish government more strongly against sending Megrahi home, under a prisoner transfer agreement signed by the British and Libyan governments, in a deal now known to have been linked to a pound stg. 550 million oil contract for BP.

It claimed this would flout a decade-old agreement between Britain and the US that anyone convicted of the bombing would serve their sentence in a Scottish prison. Megrahi was released by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on the grounds that he had three months to live, making his sentence effectively spent.

The US Senate foreign relations committee launched a probe after The Sunday Times revealed this month that Megrahi's doctors thought he could live for another decade.

A source close to the Senate inquiry said: "The (LeBaron) letter is embarrassing for the US because it shows they were much less opposed to compassionate release than prisoner transfer."

Last week, a succession of British politicians - including Mr MacAskill, Mr Salmond and former justice secretary Jack Straw - delivered a diplomatic snub to the senators by refusing to fly across the Atlantic to answer questions at the Senate's hearing on Thursday (US time) about their role in Megrahi's release.

Despite the controversy over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and Megrahi's release, it emerged over the weekend that BP is planning deep-water drilling off Libya.

And BP boss Tony Hayward is poised to quit this week when the company announces its half-year results, London's Sunday Telegraph reported.

The Sunday Times, AFP

[2112]

See Ranch, this is the kind of crap you find and post as fact. Your minions get all excited and sing your praises as the true revealer of all that is good, true and wholesome from the right. Too bad it is bad, false and rotten.

But that is the point isn't it. Just post what is blatantly false and repeat enough times and hope something will stick. Do you work for Fox?

In fact, the Obama administration opposed Megrahi's release

"Sunday Times: "[T]he United States wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned." The Sunday Times article made clear that the administration supported keeping Megrahi imprisoned, but that in the event he was released, they preferred to release him in Scotland rather than send him to Libya. From the Sunday Times (accessed via Factiva):

In the letter, sent on August 12 last year to Alex Salmond, the first minister, and justice officials, [deputy head of the London US embassy Richard] LeBaron wrote that the United States wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned in view of the nature of the crime.

The note added: "Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose." LeBaron added that freeing the bomber and making him live in Scotland "would mitigate a number of the strong concerns we have expressed with regard to Megrahi's release".

The US administration lobbied the Scottish government more strongly against sending Megrahi home under a prisoner transfer agreement signed by the British and Libyan governments -- in a deal now known to have been linked to a £550m oil contract for BP.

It claimed this would flout a decade-old agreement reached by the UK and US governments that anyone convicted of the bombing would serve their sentence in a Scottish prison."

Right-wing media falsely claim White House "supported" release of Lockerbie bomber | Media Matters for America

[RanchHQ]

Posted via Mobile Device
Media Matters.

[RanchHQ]

Lockerbie Probe May Prove Uncomfortable for Obama Administration
Monday, July 26, 2010
By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor

Update: The Obama administration on Monday released the text of the LeBaron letter. It says Megrahi’s release on compassionate grounds would be “far preferable” than his return to Libya under a prisoner transfer agreement, but also sets two important conditions to this – he would have to remain in Scotland under supervision, and Scotland would have to release “the results of independent and comprehensive medical exams clearly establishing that Megrahi's life expectancy is less than three months.” The full text of the letter is here.)

(CNSNews.com) – The four Democratic U.S. senators probing the early release of the Libyan convicted in the Lockerbie bombing believe there were links to a BP oil deal, but their inquiry may have the unintended consequence of raising questions about just how strongly the Obama administration opposed the Libyan’s release.

Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was the only person convicted of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing in which 270 people were killed. Sentenced to life in prison, he was freed and sent home last summer “on compassionate grounds,” after medical experts said he was dying of prostate cancer.

Scottish government ministers, stung by accusations that they released Megrahi to ease a massive oil exploration contract in Libya, are pointing out that it is the U.S. government that is blocking the release of two documents relating to the decision.

One of the documents is a demarche and letter to Scottish First Minister Salmond from deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in London, Richard LeBaron, dated August 12, 2009, eight days before Megrahi was released.

Leaked to London’s Sunday Times this week, the letter reportedly argues that Megrahi should remain in custody – but goes on to say that if Scotland concludes he must be released, then doing so on compassionate grounds would be “far preferable” to his repatriation under a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) which Britain negotiated with Libya in 2007.

LeBaron reportedly wrote that freeing Megrahi from custody – remaining in Scotland, not returning to Libya – would mitigate some strong U.S. concerns.

The text, if corroborated, appears to call into question at least part of President Obama’s assertion last week that “all of us here in the United States were surprised, disappointed, and angry” about Megrahi’s release.

The U.S. Embassy in London issued a statement Sunday saying that the U.S. “strongly and consistently opposed in all its exchanges with Scottish and British officials the release or transfer under any scenario” of Megrahi.

“The August 12, 2009 letter to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond reiterated that unchanged position and underscored in particular our deep opposition to any outcome which permitted Megrahi’s return to Libya,” it said. “To our grave disappointment, the Scottish government’s decision to release Megrahi to Libya disregarded these clearly stated views.”

The second document which Scotland says the U.S. is withholding permission to make public is a note of a telephone conversation between Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill and Attorney General Eric Holder, apparently on June 26, 2009. The contents of that note remain secret.

Edinburgh says the two documents – the LeBaron letter and the MacAskill-Holder note – were both “part of the package of advice” MacAskill had before him when he made the decision to send Megrahi home last August.

At the height of last August’s controversy, Scotland made public its correspondence relating to the matter. On August 26, it asked the U.S. government for permission to include the two documents in those it was releasing – offering to do so in redacted form if necessary.

But in a written reply on Sept. 1, LeBaron declined. “Consistent with its standard and long-standing practice of holding in confidence government-to-government communications, so as to facilitate the ability of the United States to have frank and open communications with other governments, the United States Government is not prepared to authorize the release at this time of the details or contents of its diplomatic exchanges in this matter,” he wrote. “In accordance with this understanding, the United States Government does not grant permission for these documents to be published.”

CNSNews.com last Thursday asked the U.S. Embassy whether, with the administration pressing the British and Scottish authorities to review the Megrahi decision, it would now release the two documents, but received no reply.

CNSNews.com also asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee whether it would request that the administration make the two documents available for its hearing into the matter, scheduled for Thursday. In response, spokesman Frederick Jones merely said the committee did not have the documents in its possession.

Edinburgh law professor Robert Black, an expert on the Lockerbie case, opined on his blog that if the LeBaron letter effectively accepted Megrahi’s release on compassionate grounds as preferable to transfer under the prisoner transfer agreement, “it is unlikely – in a mid-term election year – that the U.S. government would consent to its release or that Democrat senators would seriously try to persuade it to do so.”

The four senators pushing for the Lockerbie inquiry are New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, and Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. A large number of the Lockerbie victims came from the two states.

Menendez is due to chair Thursday’s hearing.

Scotland’s ruling Scottish National Party called Sunday for the Obama administration to release the documents to the Senate inquiry. “The families of victims on both sides of the Atlantic deserve to know the full position of the U.S. government on this issue,” it said in a statement.

Invitations declined

Foreign Relations Committee spokesman Jones said the witness list for Thursday’s hearing had yet to be announced.

So far the committee has had little success in that area: Scotland has turned down its request to make MacAskill and Scottish Prison Service medical chief Dr. Andrew Fraser available; former British justice secretary Jack Straw has also declined to participate, saying the release had been a decision for Scotland’s devolved government, not the British government.

Salmond has, however, offered to send the committee copies of all correspondence relating to the Megrahi decision, and on Sunday repeated his call for the U.S. government to declassify documents including the LeBaron letter.

Salmond again denied that Scotland had come under any pressure from BP, telling Sky News there had been “absolutely no discussion, whatsoever, with BP.”

BP executives have acknowledged that, in late 2007, the company lobbied the British – not the Scottish – authorities about the PTA that was then being negotiated. It was concerned that delays in finalizing the agreement “might have negative consequences” for its exploration deal, which Libya had yet to ratify.

But Scotland, which opposed the PTA in the first place, says it turned down a Libyan application to transfer Megrahi to a Libyan prison under the terms of the PTA. Its subsequent decision to release him on compassionate grounds was not related to the PTA, it insists.

At the time MacAskill sent Megrahi home “to die,” medical specialists concluded that it was a “a reasonable estimate” that he would be dead within three months. To the government’s embarrassment, he remains alive almost a year later.

His unexpected longevity, and BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, prompted the four senators to launch their campaign.

Potential witnesses not called

Potential witnesses not known to have been called by the committee include:

-- Tony Blair, the former British prime minister whose 2007 visit to Libya included an agreement on a PTA and the signing of “the single largest exploration commitment in BP’s 100-year history.”

-- British Ambassador to the U.S. Nigel Sheinwald, who as a foreign policy advisor to Blair accompanied him on two key visits to Libya.

-- Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, who played a key role in Tripoli’s political and trade negotiations with Britain. (He has traveled to the U.S. before, and met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the State Department in late 2008.)

-- Graham Forbes, chairman of the independent Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which after a four-year investigation concluded in 2007 that there “may have been a miscarriage of justice” and recommended that Megrahi be allowed to an appeal.

-- Prof. Robert Black, the law expert who designed the unusual format under which the Lockerbie trial was held in the Netherlands under Scottish law. Black in 2005 called Megrahi’s conviction “the most disgraceful miscarriage of justice in Scotland for 100 years.”

-- Prof. Hans Kochler, an Austrian academic nominated by the U.N. to observe the 84-day trial, who also believes justice was not done.

-- Robert Baer, a retired Middle East CIA operative, who has claimed that Iran was behind the bombing.

[RanchHQ]

FROM: Barack Obama must also answer questions over the Lockerbie bomber's release – Telegraph Blogs
Barack Obama must also answer questions over the Lockerbie bomber's release

The Lockerbie scandal has just become even murkier. According to a Sunday Times report yesterday “the US government secretly advised Scottish ministers that it would be “far preferable” to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.”
The newspaper obtained a leaked document which reveals that Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, had written to Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister, ahead of the release of the Lockerbie bomber. The correspondence indicates that the Obama administration’s opposition to the “compassionate” release of the Lockerbie bomber may not have been as clear-cut as it has subsequently claimed. In the August 12, 2009 letter, the senior US official appeared to condone “a conditional release on compassionate grounds” of convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, if Scottish officials were determined to proceed with the release of al-Megrahi against the wishes of Washington. As The Sunday Times revealed:

The note added: “Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose.” LeBaron added that freeing the bomber and making him live in Scotland “would mitigate a number of the strong concerns we have expressed with regard to Megrahi’s release”.

As the piece points out, this clearly contradicts President Obama’s assertion at his joint White House press conference last week with the British Prime Minister that “all of us here in the United States were surprised, disappointed and angry” upon learning of Megrahi’s release. Here is what Barack Obama said when he appeared alongside David Cameron on July 20:

• I think all of us here in the United States were surprised, disappointed, and angry about the release of the Lockerbie bomber. And my administration expressed very clearly our objections prior to the decision being made and subsequent to the decision being made. So we welcome any additional information that will give us insights and a better understanding of why the decision was made.

This latest revelation in the Lockerbie debacle should not diminish the responsibility of Scottish authorities in the disgraceful release of a mass-murdering terrorist who killed 270 people. Nor should it alleviate the pressure on the Coalition government to hold a full inquiry into the role of British government officials in the bomber’s release. But it does raise serious questions over the Obama administration’s own role in the Lockerbie matter, and whether it did all in its power to try to prevent the release of a terrorist responsible for the killing of 189 Americans.
As I wrote nearly a year ago, President Obama was not as forceful as he might have been in speaking out before Megrahi’s release, and did not appear to make the fight against it a priority:

If returned to Libya he (Megrahi) will receive a hero’s welcome, and both Britain and the United States will be completely humiliated. He might also stage a dramatic recovery. As for the relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing, who have barely been consulted, they will be denied justice. Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, must show compassion for the families of those who were murdered, not for the terrorist who savagely killed their loved ones. A direct intervention by President Obama may be the only measure that will prevent Megrahi’s release – it’s time for him to speak out.

This Thursday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Lockerbie should focus not only on the role of Scottish and British authorities in the shameful release of the bomber, but also upon the messages being sent by the Obama White House and State Department to both the Scottish and British governments ahead of Megrahi’s release. This is a time for complete openness and transparency over Lockerbie on both sides of the Atlantic. David Cameron has pledged to make available some key British government documents dealing with the Lockerbie release. It is time for Barack Obama to do the same with regard to his administration’s Lockerbie correspondence.

[RanchHQ]

Barack Obama faces rising pressure to publish Lockerbie bomber release letter

Scottish officials say US memo giving grudging support to freeing Abdelbaset al-Megrahi undermines president's criticisms


Obama has so far refused to release a letter from the US embassy grudgingly supporting the release of Megrahi. Photograph: Getty Images

Barack Obama is under growing pressure to release a letter that reveals the US grudgingly supported freeing the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds.

The letter was sent to Scottish ministers by a senior diplomat at the US embassy in London last August, eight days before Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released from prison because he was dying from inoperable prostate cancer.

Obama's administration has refused to allow publication of the letter, in which the US says allowing Megrahi to live at home in Scotland would be "far preferable" to sending him back to Libya under the prisoner transfer deal brokered by former prime minister Tony Blair in 2007.

Although Megrahi was allowed to go home to die in Tripoli, Scottish officials believe this undermines Obama's vigorous criticisms of the decision to free Megrahi earlier this month, when he said he was left "surprised, disappointed and angry" by the Libyan's release. David Cameron said he and Obama were in "violent agreement" that freeing Megrahi was a bad decision.

The American ambassador to the UK, Louis Susman, said the US was examining whether its correspondence on the issue could be released, but he refused to be drawn on the reported memo.

Senators in Washington are now pressing for the release of all correspondence between Obama's administration and the Scottish government in their investigation into allegations that BP directly influenced the decision to release Megrahi to help its $800m oil deal with Libya.

The allegations have been rejected by Alex Salmond, the first minister. He has offered to send dozens of official documents on the Megrahi affair to the US Senate's foreign relations committee after refusing to allow his justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, to appear at the committee's hearing on Lockerbie this Thursday.

Salmond insists the documents, released last year, prove that MacAskill released Megrahi solely on compassionate grounds and had completely ruled out using the prisoner transfer agreement brokered by Blair. But his aides have told the committee that Obama's government refused to allow some material to be published – including the US embassy correspondence.

Meanwhile, William Hague, the foreign secretary, came to Salmond's aid. In a seven-page letter to the committee he confirmed that BP had heavily lobbied the UK government about the prisoner transfer agreement with Libya.

Hague said BP met the former Labour government five times in October and November 2007 over its concerns that disputes about the treaty might damage its oil exploration contracts with Libya. But Hague said: "This was a perfectly normal and legitimate practice for a British company … There is no evidence that corroborates in any way the allegation of BP's involvement in the Scottish executive's entirely separate decision to release him on compassionate grounds."

The existence and content of the US embassy note was first disclosed by the Guardian last August, at the height of the controversy over Megrahi's release, and its full text has now been leaked to the Sunday Times.

In it, the deputy head of the US embassy in London, Frank LeBaron, said the US believed Megrahi should remain in Greenock jail because of the seriousness of his conviction for killing 270 passengers and crew, and 11 Lockerbie townspeople, by bombing Pan Am flight 103 in 1988.

But he added: "Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities [conclude] that Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the US position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose."

LeBaron said releasing Megrahi but making him live in Scotland "would mitigate a number of strong concerns we have expressed with regards to Megrahi's release."

Scottish officials took that to mean that the US had only "half-hearted" opposition to Megrahi's release: the embassy comes under the direct control of the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who became the most vigorous critic of Megrahi's release

Allowing Megrahi to live outside prison in Scotland was one of the options considered by MacAskill. Megrahi's wife and sons had a family home paid for by the Libyan government in the prosperous Glasgow suburb of Newton Mearns. But that option was rejected after police advice that this would cause immense security and logistical problems, and cost £100,000 a week to protect him. The house would need a 24-hour armed guard, while Megrahi would need heavy security for his regular trips for medical treatment.

To Salmond and MacAskill's embarrassment, Megrahi is still alive after being allowed home to Tripoli. MacAskill had stated the Libyan had less than three months to live when he was released. They now concede that his life has probably been prolonged from being at home with his family and receiving better medical care.

[2112]

Again, keep posting the crap and hope something sticks. In your own words what are the facts that Obama is a Libyan terrorist sympathizer?

[RanchHQ]

"Obama's administration has refused to allow publication of the letter, in which the US says allowing Megrahi to live at home in Scotland would be "far preferable" to sending him back to Libya under the prisoner transfer deal brokered by former prime minister Tony Blair in 2007."

Says to me that The Obama Administration would have rather he be set free in Scottland than be jailed in Libya.

[RanchHQ]

Originally Posted by 2112

Obama is a Libyan terrorist sympathizer?

Point out where someone, other than you, has said that.

[2112]

Originally Posted by RanchHQ

Point out where someone, other than you, has said that.

I'm asking you that. Otherwise why are you posting essentially the same article numerous times?