As long suspected, on both counts. To allow Gadhafi to succeed at blackmail sets a disastrous precedent, and encourages more of the same. "U.K. Pressured Scots to Release Lockerbie Bomber Out of Concern for Oil Deal, Report Finds," from Fox News, November 21 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Fear of "commercial warfare" from Libya led the British government to pressure Scotland to free the convicted Lockerbie bomber last year, reads a report being released Tuesday by four U.S. senators.
The lengthy report, which calls on the British and Scottish governments to apologize for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's release, concludes that a $900 million oil deal with Libya ultimately paved the way for the Scottish justice system to free al-Megrahi in August 2009.
The report says that faulty medical analysis was used to justify his release on "compassionate" grounds, a decision described as a crass component of a complicated trade relationship between the United Kingdom and Libya.
"The U.K. government played a direct, critical role in al-Megrahi's release," the report states. "The U.K. knew that in order to maintain trade relations with Libya, it had to give into political demands."
The investigation was led by New Jersey Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg and New York Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. The report comes on the 22nd anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, an attack that killed 270 people, many of them American. [...]
Explanations about the release, challenged from the start by outraged U.S. officials, began to unravel within days after al-Megrahi was allowed to return to his country, where he was given a hero's welcome complete with a greeting on the tarmac by Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi.
Regardless, the senators' latest report claims there was "no medical justification" for his release.
According to the five month investigation, the Scottish government ignored expert opinions challenging the three-month time frame, instead relying on doctors "without the necessary medical training or experience with prostate cancer to provide an accurate prognosis."...
Adding insult to injury!
The voice of our brothers blood cries out from the ground.
Enough!
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/06/deserve-victory.html
On the other side of the world, a similar incident: trade-induced dhimmitude over lamb flaps (halal, of course)...
"The arrest and conviction in 2004 of two Israeli citizens who were caught using a false identity to apply for a New Zealand passport caused a serious rift between New Zealand and Israel. But U.S. officials in Wellington told their colleagues in Washington that New Zealand was merely trying to bolster its exports to Arab states.
A confidential cable written in July 2004, after New Zealand imposed diplomatic sanctions against Israel, comments: "The GoNZ [government of New Zealand] has little to lose by such stringent action, with limited contact and trade with Israel, and possibly something to gain in the Arab world, as the GoNZ is establishing an embassy in Egypt and actively pursuing trade with Arab states."
A cable two days later said: "Its overly strong reaction to Israel over this issue suggests the GNZ sees this flap as an opportunity to bolster its credibility with the Arab community, and by doing so, perhaps, help NZ lamb and other products gain greater access to a larger and more lucrative market."
[ http://www.dailyalert.org/ and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/21/wikileaks-cables-lamb-new-zealand-israel ]
Leftist Prime Minister Helen Clark's Labour Government had on at least one other occasion displayed similar trade dhimmitude, when it treated very lightly a massive passport fraud case relating to a Kuwaiti and an Iraqi accused.
NZ media have yet to comment on the latest leak.
As Marisol noted in the intro to the article, we've all known about it all along, haven't we? It's only "official" now to the rest of the world outside the UK.*
*The linked article is about Britain's latest move in dhimmitude, granting "diplomatic-mission" status to the representatives of the Arab squatters illegally occupying Judea and Samaria.
And wasn't it the Left, whose slogan was " No blood for oil " ?
Hey Paul, maybe they'll claim to have added a fine print to that, along the lines of "unless it's the blood of one of our own", which we all missed reading...
Too bad for those leftards that, though they see themselves and mahoundians as "birds of a feather" (and they sure regard Megrahi and Qaddafi as "bedouin commies"), there is no reciprocity from the other side; but those mahoundian-lovers would probably never really open their eyes to that, even if their own heads were on a chopping block... Just like the commies who supported Khomeini's efforts to topple the shah, only to see themselves stabbed in the back as soon as their useful idiocy could no longer be exploited by their "turbaned communist" buddies.
Right you are, Proud_Kaffir7908 - these leftists are so blinded by political correctness, that they can't see the forest for the trees !
David Horowitz and Peter Collier wrote about this strange,and unrealistic, leftist mentality ( I forget the name of the book, off hand - it was some years ago ), about the liberals and the Black Panther party, during the 1960's.
And of course, Whittaker Chambers gave us an even earlier insight into the minds of the communists, and their leftist dupes..
Some things never change, and the actions of the leftists and their mahoundian allies, are all too predictable.
"And wasn't it the Left, whose slogan was " No blood for oil " ?
yes indeed...if you google "blood for oil" you will find several old articles by lefty loonies as well as this anti-war song....
http://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?id=843&lang=en
However much you may destest the execrable Julian Assange, you must, however reluctantly, admit that the dark cloud of Wikileaks does indeed have a silver lining.