Was this an act of abject dhimmitude, not of compassion for a dying man?
"Medical advice on Libyan bomber 'in doubt,'" by David Maddox for The Scotsman, August 26 (thanks to Awake):
JUSTICE secretary Kenny MacAskill was last night under pressure to reveal more details of the medical evidence that led to the release of the Lockerbie bomber, after it emerged that only one doctor was willing to say Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi had less than three months to live.Labour and Conservative politicians have demanded the Scottish Government publish details of the doctor's expertise and qualifications, amid suggestions he or she may not have been a prostate cancer expert.
The parties have also raised questions over whether the doctor was employed by the Libyan government or Megrahi's legal team, which could have influenced the judgment.
The evidence provided by the doctor is crucial as compassionate release under Scots law requires that a prisoner has less than three months to live....
The simple truth was known from the very beginning, but the CIA suppressed it & replaced it with self-serving lies, not to avoid disrupting oil as Baer claims, but out of cowardice & to hide its own role:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6797773.ece
Oh, the truth on this ought to be interesting.
/dripping sarcasm
Oh dear, dear. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who saw this coming way before it became de facto news.
Yesterday, The Opinionator, a British blogger who cuts through the PC MC BS plaguing Sir Winston Churchill's great birthplace, published a column on the bomber's alleged book deal to tell "his side" of the story, and asked how a terminally-ill-with-cancer individual could possibly be gearing up for publishing his memoirs, or anything of the kind for that matter. That got me thinking if perhaps, sooner or later, we'll hear from Qaddafi or his press secretary that both the North-African desert air, plus that centuries-old mahoundian medicine, supposedly prescribed by Mahound itself (not himself) to its followers in Medina, somehow miraculously have helped Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi be restored to good health, and that this piece-of-shi'ite dirtbag bomber will survive for another couple of decades as a hero for the Umma in his native mahoundistani province of Libya...
Good thing Charlie Manson, that version of Mahound born too late to be worshipped by those that currently revere the original child-molesting bedouin savage, is not a convert to mahoundianism in a Scottish prison. Kenny MacAskill might find that being ridden with crabs would merit his release on compassionate grounds too...
This possible premise makes this evolving story more wretched by the minute.
Who cares about the feelings of the bereaved? Where is the compassion?
Couldn't some special forces help enforce the doctor's timeline? After all, if he lives past 3 months it would be compassionate to help end his suffering, wouldn't it.
Why am I not surprised? Knew this was the case.
after it emerged that only one doctor was willing to say Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi had less than three months to live.
As a moslem wouldn't he be within his rights to have only a moslem Doctor examine him?
Remember, moslems, you may win the little battles such as this with lies and deceit, but we will win the war.
oh surprise, surprise! Anyone with eyes could see that he didn't look like a typical cancer patient at death's door. Too bad the Scots didn't bother to have a look at him before they signed off on the deal.
I think al bbcera did give the doctors name in one bulletin. I was only half listening but if it was "the" doctor the accent was British but the name sounded foreign...............
I am hearing reports that the doctor who gave the prognosis may have been employed by the Libyan government notes on the case. It's rumored that a professor from Libya had been involved in Megrahi's care and the medical officer who wrote the report had been "working with clinicians from Libya over the past ten months".
From The Daily Telegraph:
Scottish Prison Service (SPS) guidelines suggest that inmates are only freed if they have less than three months to live.
However, Dr Simpson, who specialised in prostate disease research, said: “It is clear to me from the medical reports and the opinion of the specialists that Megrahi could live for many more months.
”Kenny MacAskill released him apparently on the advice of just one doctor whose status is not clear and who is not named.”
Dr Simpson, a former member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons' prostate cancer working group, said the minister should have sought a second opinion from a specialist in palliative care.
A health assessment compiled by a SPS medical officer for Mr MacAskill, states that last autumn Megrahi was given between 18 months and two years to live.
All in all a complete farce.
Are the Goons now running Scotland?
there was another story behind the curtains, where the Scotts doubted on the Lybian real guiltiness, but not on the Iranian's
http://www.iran-resist.org/article324.html
I imagine a Scottish accent on a public address system in a hospital, "Paging Dr. Dhimmi..."
What's with all the state medical care that we in the US are supposed to want to emulate? Don't the Scots have doctors assigned to the prisons? There are no objective physicians available? Who was treating Megrahi in the prison system? Is the doctor who gave them the prognosis licensed to practice in Scotland or anywhere else in the UK? If so, will his license be stripped from him if Megrahi is still alive in four months? Anyone check the doctor's bank account for any large transfers?
A lot of questions need answers. Too bad we don't do operations like the Israelis. Didn't they go after those who killed their Olympic athletes when the terrorists weren't prosecuted?
Phone home drone!
To repeat my first post days ago:
he was so heartened by his homecoming welcome
that he was inspired to live thirty more years.
There are many with prostrate cancer who live to ripe old ages.
Dying or not, they never should have released this devil.
Nationalized health care really isn't to blame, even in the states a dhimmi doctor could have been found to state a jihadi's case.
This is simply another symptom of Western authorities bowing down to Muslim "sensibilities".
I hope this case opens up a whole can of worms that slaps the dhimmi media in face, and that the average person sees the scam in this and begins to rebel at long last.
Assuming this is true, it goes to prove, once again, that we have the leaders we deserve:
We voted for them.
Lying bastards engaging in all kinds of shady deals deserve not our offices of government. A part in a mafia movie seems more appropriate - or simply a role in the real mafia.
We need transparent government based on honesty, truth and respect for public opinion. Mr. Brown and his shady staff have been avoiding one key subject on that account:
The Lisbon Treaty. If the British public was given the chance to express its opinion about this, it would by all likelihood be a strong 'No'. Thus, evasion is needed. Even Conservative leader Cameron, who plays every possible string to seize power from G. Brown, has not unconditionally come out to reject this piece of malware disguised as a Constitution, nor has he made an unconditional pledge for a referendum.
Transparent government, please. We have the technology to make all major decisions basically public. The secrecy that used to be a requirement for diplomacy and banking now seems merely shady and a cover for dishonesty.
With 'leaders' like this, we hardly need the Jihad to make our societies fall apart :(
dgene, "prostrate" is what Muslims do in mosques. "prostate" is the gland in men's bodies.
Don't feel bad, the WSJ made the same mistake in an editorial this week.
FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!
“Most of the greater evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.” Bertrand Russell
So, finally he is set free from bondage! Or is he?? Definitely yes, but not from the responsibility of proving his innocence. This is deserved and merited by all, but mostly by the alleged victim himself, Al-Megrehi and his family, as well as all the family members and friends of the victims of the fatal accident and all honest and decent people craving for proper and befitting justice to all concerned. The outrage at the release of Al-Megrahi should not overshadow the memory of the trial that condemned and sentenced him.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi has never stopped reiterating his innocence and non-involvement in the blowing up of the Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988 over Lockerbie.
A lot has been said about such release on ‘compassionate grounds’, but I understand that mercy and compassion are only bestowed on the repentant - that is, those who acknowledge their fault. Thus, a pardon requires the acknowledgement of the crime, a fact which Al-Megrahi never acknowledged.
As Ian Ferguson, author of the book “The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie”, points out: ‘From the start, there was a determination to try to prevent the appeal being heard. It opened but never got off the ground, with stall after stall, as each month Al-Megrahi weakened with the cancer that was killing him. There was rejoicing in the Crown Office in Edinburgh when he was released and the appeal abandoned.’
In this regard, it should be ensured that beyond any hindrance or censorship, all assistance and co-operation should be extended to Al-Megrahi to enable him to deservedly affirm his innocence.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) had already granted him a second appeal. His legal team has been trying to see the secret papers which they believe could help overturn his conviction. However, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has signed a public interest(?) immunity certificate, claiming that making the document public could cause “real harm” to national security and international relations. Of course, and stopping a convicted man from proving his innocence!! Is this intended to thwart any redress or amends by Al-Megrahi?
When only selected evidence is available and the defence does not even get to see parts of it, then the conviction becomes unsound.
Does anyone seriously believe that a Scottish Government would release a man convicted of murdering innocents, unless there was good reason for considering that conviction to be more than a manipulated conspiracy?
What Cheek!
It was more than nauseating to note how some dazed or perhaps swayed media played upon the trumped-up assumption of ‘worldwide condemnation’ for his release. Oh no; nothing of the sort! What we see here is just a cynical U.S. condemnation and filthy politics. Playing politics in this matter is the politics of the gutter!
The UK and the U.S. have their differences regarding the law and justice that they may not agree on. The elaborate and shadowy politics behind the Lockerbie trail, including these same American families that are complaining about Megrahi's release, also took blood money from Ghaddafi, as far as a $2 billion dollar settlement.
Do you not remember how the U.S. military personnel responsible for the shooting down of the Iranian flight Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 passengers including 66 children received a medal? What remuneration did the families of the victims receive?
Everybody seems to forget that the Cuban terrorist, Luis Posada Carrilles, who bombed a Cuban plane in 1976 killing 73 people, got paroled by Bush and is walking free in the US, although Venezuelan and Cuban authorities have requested his extradition. Where is the outcry about this? Are American lives worth more than others?
If I were to record all U.S. hypocrisy, I would never stop writing.
So, U.S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton reiterated her opposition and condemnation to the release of the alleged Lockerbie bomber in a strongly-worded message to the Scottish government. She stressed that it was “absolutely wrong” to release Megrahi. What is she afraid of? Could it be the absolute truth?
I would here dare to suggest two main reasons why the U.S. Administration is highlighting its disdainful opposition to this release.
Firstly, it is more than apparent to the world at large that America cannot accept a decision, not in line with its policy, made in another country and is prepared to spout its wrath against it.
Secondly, as according to the lawyer of Al-Megrahi, he was in a “very real risk” and could die before his appeal, after a judge’s illness caused further delay in the case, it was evident that his release would eliminate this immediate danger and raise all possibilities for a final honest outcome of this affair.
Perhaps in Europe we ought to ask if the USA is indeed our ally any more. It is not customary for allies to boycott each other when they disagree.
On the other hand, high profile supporters, including Nelson Mandela and Michael Mansfield QC among others, strongly maintain that Megrahi is innocent.
What did the Americans want? Perhaps that he should be let to die in prison and to have the dead body handed to the U.S. so that they could ‘execute’ it?
Against the judgement of a number of embassy officials, on the evening before the trial, the U.S. Embassy hosted a reception in Zeist for family members of the Lockerbie victims.
So, United States President Barack Obama and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday praised Senator Jim Webb for facilitating the release of American John William Yettaw but at the same time urged Burma’s ruling junta to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
So could the members from the USA Administration do us the favour of stepping down from their platform of moralising on world events?
The Malta connection
Although the political furore over the release of Al-Megrahi mainly centred around three countries, namely Britain, the U.S. and Libya, there may well have been covert dealings, until now kept secret, which had been hatched in other countries. New and compelling evidence has now been released which would may now well prove his innocence.
In a memo dated September 24, 1989, and reproduced in the appeal submission, the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) states: ‘The bombing of the Pan Am flight was conceived, authorised and financed by Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi-Pur, Iran’s former Interior Minister. The execution of the operation was contracted to Ahmad (Jibril), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) leader, for a sum of $1 million.’
The prosecution case was that Al-Megrahi took the bomb, wrapped in clothes bought from a shop in Malta, to the island's Luqa airport, where it was checked in and then transferred onto Pan Am flight 103.
A key witness against al-Megrahi was the Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, who owned Mary's House, where the police say the garments were bought.
Also, central to Al-Megrahi’s conviction was the evidence of this Maltese shopkeeper, who claimed that Al-Megrahi had bought clothes allegedly found in the suitcase bomb. Lawyers were due to claim that Gauci was paid over a $2 million reward by U.S. investigators for his evidence, which followed more than 20 police interviews, and that many of the often wildly conflicting statements taken on each occasion were withheld from the defence
But his police statements are inconsistent, and prosecutors failed to tell the defence that shortly before he attended an identity parade, Mr. Gauci had seen a magazine article showing a picture of Megrahi, and speculating he might have been involved. The BBC programme has discovered that the Scottish police knew Mr Gauci had looked at al-Megrahi's photograph just days before the line-up.
But contrary to police rules of disclosure, designed to ensure a fair trial, this crucial information was not passed on to the defence.
Besides that, if it were proven that he was rewarded, his testimony casts doubt on its value.
The SCCRC has thoroughly checked out the claims and found he received ‘a phenomenal sum of money’ from the U.S. It is reported that Gauci is understood to be planning to use his newfound wealth to fund a move to Australia with his brother, Paul, who was also on the witness list but was not called to give evidence.
Professor Emeritus Robert Black of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh, 'architect' of the Scottish court on Dutch soil (and himself from Lockerbie) said of the original conviction: "I thought this was a very, very weak circumstantial case. I am absolutely astounded, astonished. I was extremely reluctant to believe that any Scottish judge would convict anyone, even a Libyan, on the basis of such evidence."
He said in 2005 that Al-Megrahi's conviction was "the most disgraceful miscarriage of justice in Scotland for 100 years." "Every lawyer who has ... read the judgment says 'this is nonsense'. It is nonsense. It really distresses me; I won't let it go."
It is no wonder that some people were hoping that Al-Megrahi would die before certain witnesses were called. The release on compassionate grounds is a blessing for them, as much as it is for him.
The key lesson is that the human rights of all parties need to be at the centre of the legal process and decision making if the public interest is to be served, and if justice is to be done and be seen to be done.
The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them.
“Justice delayed is justice denied.” William Gladstone
Joseph M. Cachia August, 2009
jmcachia@maltanet.net
31, St. Lawrence Street,
Vittoriosa – MALTA
ID. 698736 (M)
Tel:21807566 - 99866151
Fax: 21332156
?
jmcachia:
What can be said about that? Every word is true. The whole truth must be spoken, starting with:
1) The acual perpetrators of the mass murder:
Iran, Syria, Jibril, PFLP-GC, Mohammed Abu Talb, Hafez Dalkomouni, Monzer al-Qassar;
2) Their "white American slaves" who played an evil role in the mass murder, and in the horrible torture murder of 2 Israeli spies who knew the whole truth and whom those American sociopaths betrayed to the terrorists for knowing too much:
James A. Baker 3rd and the entire US State Dept.;
The Defence Intelligence Agency, and especially its C.O.R.E.A. unit in Frankfurt, Germany;
The CIA and its then-director Robert Gates, now the Defense Secretary.
But what are the chances of ever hearing the full truth about this horrible crime in our supposedly "open" American society? What are the chances of ever obtaining justice?
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
If the cancer is contained within the prostate and hasn't spread to organs or the spine, then Al-Megrahi could live for many years and die with the cancer and not because of it.
I am disgusted beyond belief. I feel like if he doesn't die within the 3 months, could we kill him, compassionately of course. I know the parents of one of the students on that plane. Their daughter was not allowed to die surrounded by loving friends and relatives. Where is compassion for them.
All for the need for foreign oil imported from Libya.