Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Africa North

Will Libya Hand Over Lockerbie Suspect?

2021-11-05

[LIBYAREVIEW] Libyan Foreign Minister, Najla al-Mangoush said Libya could work with the US on extraditing a man wanted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Al-Mangoush told the BBC that "positive outcomes are coming" in the case of Abu Agila Mohammed Masud.

In the Rantburg archives as Abu Agila Mohammad Masud...

Masud is alleged to have been a top bomb-maker for former Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy
...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received for at least 42 years until his people get tired of him and kill him...
. He is a former Libyan intelligence official who is currently imprisoned on unrelated charges. He has been charged in the US with terrorism-related crimes, with officials claiming he helped build the bomb which downed the aircraft, and set the timer.

The FM said the Libyan government "understands the pain and sadness" of the victims’ families but "needs to respect the laws". She added that the US and Libya were collaborating on the case, and it was progressing.

The deadly attack on Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York killed 270 people, including 190 Americans. Of those who died, 35 were study-abroad students who were returning home for Christmas, while 11 were killed on the ground in the Scottish town.

Libya claimed the credit in 2003, and paid compensation to the families.

The current Libyan government wants to maintain good relations with the US, and Washington hopes to have Masud extradited. The BBC’s Orla Guerin in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
says the signs are that ultimately the suspect will be handed over.

US officials also say Masud conspired with another Libyan intelligence official, Abdel-Baset al-Megrahi who was the only man convicted for the attack.
Al-Megrahi maintained his innocence until his death in 2012. His family has vowed to clear his name in the UK courts.

Among bereaved relatives in the UK, there are questions and doubts. Some believe Iran
Iran

...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
was to blame for downing the plane not Libya, and the new charges are a smokescreen.

Link

Africa North

Will the US Charge a New Libyan Suspect over Lockerbie Bombing?

2020-12-18

[LIBYAREVIEW] The US is expected to bring new charges against a Libyan national suspected of being involved in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Monday will mark the 32nd anniversary of the incident.The suspect was identified by the Wall Street Journal as Abu Agila Mohammad Masud. He was an intelligence officer whom the Journal reported is in jug in Libya and is expected to be extradited to the United States to stand trial.

The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people, spurred global investigations, and resulted in sanctions against Libya. Two intelligence officers faced charges before a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands, after Libya refused to extradite the men to the US.

In 1992, the UN Security Council imposed air travel sanctions, and a ban on arms sales against Libya to pressure Colonel Muammar Qadaffy

...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
into surrendering the two suspects. The sanctions were later lifted after Libya agreed to a $2.7bn compensation deal with the victims’ families.

A former Libyan intelligence official, Abdel-Baset al-Megrahi,

...also in our archives as Abdelbaset Mohmet al-Megrahi...

was convicted of the bombing, and another Libyan suspect was acquitted of all charges. al-Megrahi was given a life sentence, but Scottish authorities released him on humanitarian grounds in 2009 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He later died in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
in 2012.

The Jerusalem Post adds:

The case, to be unveiled in the coming days, would mark the second time Attorney General William Barr has overseen charges in connection with the bombing.

During Barr's first stint as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, the Justice Department indicted two Libyan Intelligence Agency operatives - Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah - for building a plastic bomb with a timer, hiding it inside a suitcase and planting it on an Air Malta flight.

The suitcase was eventually transferred to Pan Am Flight 103.

"We will not rest until all those responsible are brought to justice. We have no higher priority," Barr said in 1991, at the time the indictment was unveiled. Parallel charges were also filed against the men in Scotland.

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Africa North

Libyan rebels won't turnover al-Megrahi

2011-08-28

TRIPOLI, Libya -- The Libyan rebel government will not deport the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, its justice minister said Sunday. New York senators on Aug. 22 asked the Libyan transitional government to hold Abdel-Baset al-Megrahi fully accountable for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.

Good thing we're giving the rebels money, giving them Qaddhafi's money, and giving them arms and assistance.

But the transitional government Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi told journalists in Tripoli that the request by American senators had "no meaning" because al-Megrahi had already been tried and convicted.

"We will not hand over any Libyan citizen. It was Gadhafi who handed over Libyan citizens," he said, referring to the government's decision to turn al-Megrahi over to a Scottish court for trial.

New York Senator Charles Schumer had encouraged the new Libyan leadership to hold al-Megrahi accountable.

"A new Libya can send a strong statement to the world by declaring it will no longer be a haven for this convicted terrorist," he said.

You mean Charlie the Mouth didn't persuade the rebels?

Link

Africa North

Lockerbie families angered as Megrahi survives

2010-08-16

[Al Arabiya Latest] The regrets of a cancer expert who assessed the only man ever convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie jetliner bombing have intensified the anger felt by victims' relatives over Scotland's decision to release the Libyan on compassionate grounds.

Professor Karol Sikora and other experts had said Abdel Baset al-Megrahi probably had only three months to live when he was freed from a Scottish jail last August and allowed to return home to Libya. But one year later, Al-Megrahi, who is being treated for prostate cancer, is still alive.

Sikora, one of three experts who assessed al-Megrahi's health for Libyan authorities, was quoted by Britain's Observer newspaper Sunday as saying he should have been more cautious about the chances of survival.

"If I could go back in time, I would have probably been more vague and tried to emphasize the statistical chances and not hard fact," Sikora was quoted as saying.

"In medicine we say 'Never say never and never say always,' because funny things happen. All you can do is give a statistical opinion," said Sikora, dean of the School of Medicine at Buckingham University, in central England.
Which is why we don't like to say that a man has but three months unless we're pretty darned (as in, 99.9%) sure. You sir, were not that sure, yet you proffered an opinion regardless. Hate to ask this of a brethren doc, but what were you offered?
Scottish authorities deny that the opinions of Sikora and the other experts who advised Libya entered into the decision to release al-Megrahi, though families contend that the advice must have played a role.
Did any of those 'authorities' lose their jobs yet? No?
"It's obvious the whole thing was flawed," said Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, an advocacy group that represents some of the families of those killed.

Link

Home Front: WoT

White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi

2010-07-25

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

Apparently just shooting Abdel never came up ...

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.

Certainly more 'compassionate' then the last seconds of the folks who died in the bomb attack ...

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.

Most of us were, but even back when it happened we figured there were some official Americans who weren't. And now we know.

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

Link

Africa North

Libya to resist payments to IRA victims

2009-09-07

Libya will resist compensating the families of people killed by Libyan explosives supplied to the Irish Republican Army, the son of the country's leader said Monday.

Victims' families believe Libya should take some responsibility for IRA attacks because the country once supplied weapons and explosives--including Semtex plastic explosive--to terrorists around the world. The explosive was used by the IRA during the 1980s and 1990s.

But Col. Moammar Gadhafi's son, Saif, told Sky News that Libya would fight the issue in court. "Anyone can knock on our door. You go to the court," he said. "They have their lawyers. We have our lawyers."

The compensation issue has grown heated in recent days amid an outburst of rage that followed the release of the Lockerbie bomber, who was serving a life sentence for the 1988 deaths of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

The issue of whether the government struck deals with the Libyans to further commercial ties in exchange for the release of the bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, has dominated headlines--and shows no sign of abating.

Scottish officials freed al-Megrahi, 57, Aug. 20 on compassionate grounds because he is dying of prostate cancer.

In his interview with Sky, Gadhafi's son attacked "disgusting" and "immoral" British politicians whom he accused of manipulating the issue for personal gain. "Politicians, both in the U.K. and America, are trying to use this human tragedy--both Mr. (al) Megrahi and the families--for their own political agenda," he said. "It's a tragedy. It's completely immoral."

Over the weekend, the Sunday Times issued new documents that suggested Britain failed to press the compensation issue because of fears that burgeoning ties with Tripoli might be jeopardized. The report added to questions about whether trade ties also influenced last month's decision to release al-Megrahi.

The news outraged British survivors of IRA bombings--particularly since U.S. victims of Libya-sponsored terrorist attacks have secured a separate compensation deal with Tripoli. Libya last year cut a deal with the Bush administration establishing a compensation fund worth $1.5 billion to cover all U.S. citizens (or if dead, their next of kin) victimized by Libyan-sponsored terror. This includes a handful who were killed or maimed in IRA attacks in London in mid-1970s to early 1980s.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Sunday he would offer diplomatic support to private efforts to secure compensation. But British officials have said they will not pursue the issue directly with Libya. "I desperately care about what has happened to the people who have been victims of IRA terrorism," Brown said.

Britain has been at the forefront of efforts to have Libya shed the image of pariah state. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Gadhafi renounced terrorism, dismantled his country's secret nuclear program, accepted his government's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the victims. Brown and other government officials stressed the need to keep Libya on that route when explaining why they did not press the Libyans for compensation for the IRA's attacks.

But documents released Sunday--including a letter sent from Middle East minister Bill Rammell to Jonathan Ganesh, a survivor of one of the IRA bombings--suggest that the government was also keeping Libya's vast oil wealth in mind.

Link

Africa North

Lockerbie bomber taken to intensive care

2009-09-02

The only man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing was taken to intensive care Wednesday after his illness from terminal prostate cancer worsened, family members said.

According to Libyan officials, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's health has swiftly deteriorated since he was released from a Scottish prison less than two weeks ago and returned home to Libya to die.
Welcome to state of the art Libyan health care. Try the pureed koran soup.

Link

Britain

US warned of hero's welcome for Lockerbie bomber

2009-09-02

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder warned his Scottish counterpart in June that the man convicted of blowing US-bound Pan Am Flight 103 out of the sky could get a hero's welcome if allowed to return to Libya, according to the head of a group representing the families of victims.

June, you say?

Holder's warning to Scotland's justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, came nearly two months before the bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was released from a Scottish prison and greeted by a cheering crowd on his arrival in Libya last week.

So Holder knew of the proposed pardon back in June. Wonder if Bambi knew ...

If not, he'd be under the bus about now. One does NOT do that to the big boss.

Notes prepared ahead of Holder's June 26 conversation with MacAskill were provided to the Associated Press by Frank Duggan, president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 Inc. Duggan said a Justice Department official read him notes that Holder used during the conversation.

When can we see them?

Duggan also provided notes of a July 9 teleconference between MacAskill and some victims' relatives, an emotional exchange in which family members told stories of their loved ones and implored MacAskill not to return Megrahi to Libya.

Scotland has faced unrelenting criticism from both the US government and the families of American victims of the airline bombing since the decision to free Megrahi on compassionate grounds. The Scots said he was dying of prostate cancer.

Perhaps they can release the medical chart while they're at it ...

Libya's leader, Moammar Khadafy, plans to visit the United States next month when he addresses the UN. US Representative Steve Rothman said yesterday that he's been assured that Khadafy won't stay in Englewood, N.J. The Libyan government has been renovating an estate there ahead of Khadafy first US visit. But Khadafy is unwelcome in New Jersey, which lost 38 residents in the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The attack killed 270 people.

Link

-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Suicide of the West?

2009-09-01

By Thomas Sowell

Britain's release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi-- the Libyan terrorist whose bomb blew up a plane over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people-- is galling enough in itself. But it is even more profoundly troubling as a sign of a larger mood that has been growing in the Western democracies in our time. In ways large and small, domestically and internationally, the West is surrendering on the installment plan to Islamic extremists.

The late Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put his finger on the problem when he said: "The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles." He wrote this long before Barack Obama became President of the United States. But this administration epitomizes the "concessions and smiles" approach to countries that are our implacable enemies. Western Europe has gone down that path before us but we now seem to be trying to catch up.

Still, the release of a mass-murdering terrorist, who went home to a hero's welcome in Libya, shows that President Obama is not the only one who wants to move away from the idea of a "war on terror"-- as if that will stop the terrorists' war on us. The ostensible reason for releasing al-Megrahi was compassion for a man terminally ill. It is ironic that this was said in Scotland, for exactly 250 years ago another Scotsman-- Adam Smith-- said, "Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."

That lesson seems to have been forgotten in America as well, where so many people seem to have been far more concerned about whether we have been nice enough to the mass-murdering terrorists in our custody than those critics have ever been about the innocent people beheaded or blown up by the terrorists themselves. Tragically, those with this strange inversion of values include the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder. Although President Obama has said that he does not want to revisit the past, this is only the latest example of how his administration's actions are the direct opposite of his lofty words.

It is not just a question of looking backward. The decision to second-guess CIA agents who extracted information to save American lives is even worse when you look forward. Years from now, long after Barack Obama is gone, CIA agents dealing with hardened terrorists will have to worry about whether what they do to get information out of them to save American lives will make these agents themselves liable to prosecution that can destroy their careers and ruin their lives. This is not simply an injustice to those who have tried to keep this country safe, it is a danger recklessly imposed on future Americans whose safety cannot always be guaranteed by sweet and gentle measures against hardened murderers.

Those who are pushing for legal action against CIA agents may talk about "upholding the law" but they are doing no such thing. Neither the Constitution of the United States nor the Geneva Convention gives rights to terrorists who operate outside the law. There was a time when everybody understood this. German soldiers who put on American military uniforms, in order to infiltrate American lines during the Battle of the Bulge were simply lined up against a wall and shot-- and nobody wrung their hands over it. Nor did the U.S. Army try to conceal what they had done. The executions were filmed and the film has been shown on the History Channel.

So many "rights" have been conjured up out of thin air that many people seem unaware that rights and obligations derive from explicit laws, not from politically correct pieties. If you don't meet the terms of the Geneva Convention, then the Geneva Convention doesn't protect you. If you are not an American citizen, then the rights guaranteed to American citizens do not apply to you. That should be especially obvious if you are part of an international network bent on killing Americans. But bending over backward to be nice to our enemies is one of the many self-indulgences of those who engage in moral preening.

[G]etting other people killed so that you can feel puffed up about yourself is profoundly immoral. So is betraying the country you took an oath to protect.

Link

Africa North

No camping for Qadaffy

2009-08-30

Oddball Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy has decided against pitching a tent in Englewood, N.J., on his much-protested first visit to the U.S. next month, a New Jersey congressman says. "I am very pleased that Moammar Khadafy will apparently not be coming to Englewood," said Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.).

Rothman said Khadafy's presence in an air-conditioned luxury tent on the grounds of the Libyan compound in Englewood "would have presented unnecessary safety and security issues for the residents of Englewood and the Libyan diplomats."

You know what they're like in Joisy when they don't like someone...

Khadafy's plan to come to the U.S. next month to address the United Nations General Assembly has triggered fierce outrage after the hero's welcome home he gave released Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi. Khadafy is expected to seek rooms for himself and his large entourage at one of New York's luxury hotels.

Lucky for him Mr. Guiliani is no longer in charge.

A spokesman for the State Department, which has approved visas for the Khadafy delegation, voiced confidence that the Libyans "will have suitable accommodations and that they will respect the earnest wishes of the people of the region" to keep a low profile.

Like they respected the earnest wishes of Prime Minister Brown that a low profile be kept?

Link

Home Front: WoT

FBI director outraged by Lockerbie bomber release

2009-08-23

FBI Director Robert Mueller sharply criticized Scotland's justice minister for releasing the Lockerbie bomber, an act that "gives comfort to terrorists" all over the world.

Mueller sent a letter to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who cited compassionate grounds in his decision to let Abdel Baset al-Megrahi return to Libya because he has prostate cancer and was given only months to live by British doctors.

The angry tone of the letter is out of character with the normally reserved Mueller, indicating his outrage is personal as well as professional. He also sent copies to the families of the Lockerbie victims.

"I have made it a practice not to comment on the actions of other prosecutors," Mueller wrote. "Your decision to release Megrahi causes me to abandon that practice in this case. I do so because I am familiar with the facts, and the law. ... And I do so because I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of 'compassion.'"

Before he became FBI director, Mueller spent years as a Justice Department lawyer leading the investigation into the 1988 airplane bombing that killed 270 people, most of them Americans.

Mueller said Thursday's release was "as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law."

His letter was dated Friday, and was made public Saturday.

Releasing the convicted bomber "gives comfort to terrorists around the world who now believe that regardless of the quality of the investigation ... the terrorist will be freed by one man's exercise of 'compassion.'"

A statement from Scotland's government on Saturday noted Mueller has "strong views" because of his involvement in the case. "But he should also be aware that while many families have opposed Mr. MacAskill's decision, many others have supported it,"the statement said.

Bert Ammerman of River Vale, N.J., who lost his brother Tom Ammerman in the bombing, praised Mueller for the "frankness and honesty" in his condemnation of the release.

Mueller recounted his own emotional experiences leading the investigation - seeing a teenage victim's single sneaker, a Syracuse University sweatshirt, toys in the suitcase of a businessman heading home to see his wife and children for Christmas.

"Your action," he wrote MacAskill, "makes a mockery of the grief of the families who lost their own on December 21, 1988. You could not have spent much time with the families, certainly not as much time as others involved in the investigation and prosecution."

He ended the Lockerbie letter with a frustrated question: "Where, I ask, is the justice?"

President Barack Obama on Friday called the elaborate homecoming in Libya for the freed bomber "highly objectionable."

Link

Britain

Scotland's shame

2009-08-21

"Four hundred parents lost a child, 46 parents lost their only child, 65 women were widowed, 11 men lost their wives, 140 [people] lost a parent, seven lost both parents."
-- Scottish prosecutor Colin Boyd at the 2001 trial of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi flew home Thursday to his wife and children in Libya. Scotland's justice secretary, Kenny Mac-Askill, freed al-Megrahi only eight years into his life sentence for murdering 270 people, 189 of them Americans. A flag-waving crowd greeted al-Megrahi when his Afriqiyah Airways jetliner landed at Tripoli. More warm welcomes may follow: When an al-Megrahi co-defendant was acquitted in 2001, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sacrificed a camel in his honor. MacAskill's stated excuse for freeing al-Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, is compassion. That, regrettably, was a gift al-Megrahi's victims didn't receive two decades ago.

Pan American Flight 103, a Boeing 747 christened Clipper Maid of the Seas, was cruising at 31,000 feet on its Frankfurt-London- New York route. Detonation of a bomb concealed in a cassette player sent tornado-force winds roaring through the fuselage. A Scottish air traffic controller watched from Prestwick Airport below as the plane's image on his screen disintegrated into dozens of bright green squares. Debris would scatter over 845 square miles -- but most of the 259 passengers and crew survived the 46.5 seconds until impact. A large section of the fuselage, including the plane's wings and 200,000 pounds of aviation fuel, screamed at more than 500 m.p.h. into the market town of Lockerbie. The resulting fireball vaporized several homes -- plus most of the 11 victims on the ground -- then turned to burn cars passing on a motorway.

MacAskill's self-praising paean to his own mercy -- "In Scotland, we are a people who pride ourselves on our humanity ..." -- mocked victims in the air and on the ground. Mocked what we know of those 46.5 seconds as living people and scorched plane parts rained down. From a Newsweek reconstruction based on testimony at al-Megrahi's trial and interviews in Scotland:

No one had more reason to remember the night of Dec. 21, 1988, than Steven Flannigan. Christmas was only four days away, so Steve, then 14, had slipped next door with a present for his 10-year-old sister, Joanne. It was a new bike, and he wanted to set it up for her. Steve was in the neighbor's garage when one of the jet engines and a chunk of wing from Pan Am Flight 103 slammed into his house on Sherwood Crescent in the Scottish village of Lockerbie. He ran out to see an orange fireball where his three-bedroom home had just been. Where Joanne and his parents, Katherine, 41, and Thomas, 43, had just been....

Halfway up a wee hill, the fuselage had landed in the backyards of Rosebank Crescent. Bob Edgar ... counted 18 bodies in his own backyard, many still in their seats. But the detail that will forever remain in his mind is how most of the passengers had crossed their fingers -- and died that way.

Nearly 21 years later, we're not sure which is more feckless -- Gaddafi's lobbying to secure the release of al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, or Scotland's surrender in the name of kindness.

Gaddafi has tried to please his critics since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, aggravated tensions between the West and regimes that tolerated terrorism. He dismantled his nuclear program, confessed his government's responsibility for Lockerbie and paid compensation to victims' survivors. None of which justifies MacAskill's decision to overrule a crucial provision of al-Megrahi's sentencing back in 2001: that the bomber serve at least 27 years in prison for Britain's deadliest terror attack. We find no footnote saying that sentence meant 27 years unless the convict is dying, in which case eight will do just fine. People serving life sentences do tend to die in prison. Al-Megrahi? He'll die with his family.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama called MacAskill's invocation of a Scottish compassion statute "a mistake." Obama might have added that appeasement doesn't deter terrorists and their enablers. It reminds them that many of their enemies are weak.

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