The Lockerbie Cover-Up Must Be Investigated

In Britain's Sunday Telegraph, the British reporter Andrew Alderson claims that Libya paid three doctors to give the Scottish government medical evidence that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, 57, the convicted Lockerbie killer, had only two or three months to live.

In fact, other doctors, according to Alderson's report, said in June that Megrahi, who suffers from prostate cancer, could have nine months -- or more -- to live. But the three doctors whom Libya allegedly paid had their diagnoses included in the sealed files that Scotland refuses to open to the public, citing "privacy concerns.'

Alderson reports:

"Professor Karol Sikora, one of the examining doctors and the medical director of CancerPartnersUK in London, told The Sunday Telegraph: "The figure of three months was suggested as being helpful [by the Libyans].

[Sikora said] "To start with I said it was impossible to do that [give a three-month life expectancy estimate] but, when I looked at it, it looked as though it could be done -- you could actually say that."

He said that he and a second doctor, a Libyan, had legitimately then estimated Megrahi's life expectancy as "about three months". A third doctor would say only that he had a short time to live."
 
The piece goes on to acknowledge what we already know -- that though Britain's government refuses to accept responsibility for Megrahi's release -- that Jack Straw, Britain's Justice Minister has now stated on the record that the British were keenly aware that if Megrahi was not released trade deals worth billions, including a massive one with BP, would be canceled.
 
Alderson writes: "British businessmen were also told that plans to open a London office of the Libyan Investment Authority, a sovereign fund with $136 billion (£83billion) to invest, would be jeopardized if Megrahi died in jail.

Britain provided aid for Libya, believed to be the first since the Lockerbie bombing, when the release of Megrahi was being discussed. The £146,000 grant -- which senior Tories suspect was a "sweetener" to Libya -- was provided by the British Embassy in 2007-08 at the behest of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
 
The piece continues:

"There were strong suggestions from Libya yesterday that it felt Britain had played a significant role in pressing for Megrahi's release."

Abdul Majeed al-Dursi, the regime's chief spokesman, said: "This is a brave and courageous decision by the British, which shows its understanding of Libyan culture by allowing a sick man to be at home when he dies.

"It showed the relations between Britain and Libya are strong and deep. We in Libya appreciate this and Britain will find it is rewarded."
 
All this makes Gordon Brown's denials of his government's involvement in Megrahi's release look deeply troubling. David Cameron, the young British Tory leader who looks likely to sweep Brown out of office by next May has called for an immediate inquiry. Understandably, Cameron wants to get to the bottom of this stinking business as fast as possible.
 
Meanwhile the US is still reeling from what it sees as outright betrayal from its oldest ally. When I spoke to the Justice Department last week I could almost hear the fury down the phone line. Was it true, I asked, that though the American government knew the Scots were making some sort of decision about moving Megrahi -- against strong protests from FBI director Mueller, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder -- they were only actually apprised of MacAskill's final decision ten minutes before he stood up to make the announcement on August 20th? The response I got was terse. "We won't deny that."
 
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D) of Maryland, from where eight people died in the bombing, has written to the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Nigel Sheinwald. She does not mince her words: "How dare any one official in the Scottish government substitute their judgment to award freedom to a murderer for the careful deliberation of their courts...?"
 
Of course, given the Sunday Telegraph's reports, and all the other leaks coming out of Whitehall about Britain's ties to Libyan oil, increasingly it doesn't look like "one official in the Scottish government" made this decision in isolation. Far from it. "We are going v. hard on this," someone wrote me from Cameron's office.

Frankly, David Cameron "can't go hard" enough in retrieving all the facts. Meanwhile the air hanging over Britain and Scotland stinks of something rotten.

 

Follow Vicky Ward on Twitter: www.twitter.com/VickyPJWard

Comments

[cosmo9]

I wonder when we will get an article in the Huff Post discussing this news in the Guardian?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/02/lockerbie-documents-witness-megrahi

[offred]

The UK went into Iraq because Blair thought he could control George W. Bush, who believed that Iraq was going to be the great battleground between Gog and Magog, the final battle before the New Age. I really don't think too many people in Great Britain's government or in the country really give a flying flip what the US says anymore. Our credibility is blown with the UK, and the UK couldn't care less about our interests.

The following article explains Bush's mission from God as he explained it to Jacques Chirac: http://www.alternet.org/politics/140221 . France was too smart to fall for it.

[Jocky]

The Telegraph story is adding 2 and 2 and making 5. Not for the first time. Their story is not about the truth, its about internal UK politics and building pressure on Gordon Brown.

The facts are that the three doctors they refer to were working for the Libyans.

This medical evidence was NOT what the Scottish Justice Secretary based his decision on, in fact he says he has not even seen the document.

Ask yourself if you really think the Scottish Justice Secretary would be basing his decision around medical evidence BOUGHT by the defense team for the man in prison. Really? The medical information was from UK doctors and experts, with a final recommendation from the director of health and care for the Scottish Prison Service. Not Libyans, or paid by Libyans.

We DO have real doctors and experts in Scotland and UK, you know.

The Telegraph are a disgrace.

[marshmallow]

This is a case of the Telegraph making up a story out of guesswork and innuendo. I listened to Karel Sikora being interviewed on the BBC on Sunday and he categorically denied that there was any truth in the story whatsoever. He said that he had based his initial assessment of the likely length of time Megrahi might live on his experience of patients with similar cancers. When he actually saw him and examined him Sikora said that he realised that the cancer was more aggressive and faster growing than he would have expected and he adjusted his prognosis accordingly. He absolutely denied that he had been influenced in his assessment by the Libyans.

[Billy Hell]

Thanks for a great article Vicky. I think there's a ton of additional information on the Lockerbie cover up that John Pilger points to too, in his article "Lockerbie: Megrahi Was Framed" at Information Clearing
House. Here are some excerpts:

"Of course there were oil and arms deals under way with Libya; but had Megrahi proceeded with his appeal, some 600 pages of new and deliberately suppressed evidence would have set the seal on his innocence and given us more than a glimpse of how and why he was stitched up for the benefit of "strategic interests."

"The new evidence would have shown that a fragment of a circuit board and bomb timer, "discovered" in the Scottish countryside and said to have been in Megrahi’s suitcase, was probably a plant. A forensic scientist found no trace of an explosion on it. The new evidence would demonstrate the impossibility of the bomb beginning its journey in Malta before it was "transferred" through two airports undetected to Flight 103."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23425.htm

[Firbolg]

Pilger's main point is that the release was to first and foremost to prempt Megrahi's appeal.
Another exerpt from his piece"
""The endgame came down to damage limitation," said the former CIA officer Robert Baer, who took part in the original investigation, "because the evidence amassed by [Megrahi's] appeal is explosive and extremely damning to the system of justice."
Having lived in Ireland I know that the UK has a habit of suppressing or concocting evidence when it suits the interests of the crown.

[dkallem]

Yet again, another so-called journalist appears more interested in protecting and furthering the aims of those in power than investigating the possibly true, quite damaging facts that contradict the "official narrative" about this dying man. Why let the mere truth stand in the way of a good story that supports those in power and keeps the "rabble" where it should be, firmly underfoot. Wake up people!

Ask yourself after reading this: http://tiny.cc/RJQ7w: how do I know that any of what passes for the official story is true? What if he was/is an innocent man wrongly convicted (on purpose?), released now perhaps because what his lawyers were seeking to uncover was a far less convenient truth for the corrupt powers-that-be?

If you think this so-called terrorist is the danger here, perhaps your trust is misplaced. Said founder John Adams, "There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."

[charlietuna11]

their should be an investigation why the cia paid two million dollars to the clothing store clerk in malta. they also put him on the protection list for the intirety of his life. the clerk testified at the trial that he remembered mr. megrahi from three years ago when he purchased a clothing item that was found in the crash debri. the over whelming majority of people who actually followed the case believe as i do that the person responsible for this tragedy is walking around a free man.the pressures to solve this case was intense. some one or nation is protecting the real killer. for your information, the great welcome mr. megrahis received on his arrival back to libya wasn't because he brought down a plane of innocent victims as the press inferred but because he is the victim of a conspiracy. a dear friend of mine lost her sister and brotherinlaw. she and her parents were at the trials,. there in a minority but totally believe they imprisoned the wrong man....

[punk]

You may be correct, but the Daily Telegraph should not be trusted. It is worse than Fox News. It told lies about Iraq's WMD for years and claimed Saddam was in bed with al-Qaeda. Check out its lying reporter, Con Coughlin. Don't trust the Daily Telegraph.

[secretarybird]

As a Brit, I'm sceptical of the Telegraph, but I wouldn't compare it to Fox News. Karol Sikora is a source I would never trust, however - well known as a very right-wing, highly politicised critic of the British health services. He seems to be the source of this story - I trust neither his motives nor the accuracy of what he says.

[lonesometx]

"The Daily Torrie a graph"
However, let's remember that since george bush the lesser allowed it, oil companies like Conocophillips are back in Lybia operating. Perhaps BP just needed access to "their" oil.

[aspiecelia]

Wow, what a revelation.. The difference in how long he has to live was estimated by some doctors to be 3-4 months and others 9 months this is a possible difference of 5-6 months? Different doctors are going to give different estimates depending on their own experiences and the research they have read. Some patients survive way beyond the predictions and some die way before. There is no way of knowing exactly, just educated guesses. It is dependent on a lot of factors. This does not indicate a big cover up to me.

[MarionWatts]

I live in the UK. One thing I've learned in 28 years here is that, for all their spiritual ties to the Democrats, the Labour Party can't be trusted. Gordon Brown was a desperately ambitious politician who didn't have the personality or charisma to win an election on his own and plotted against Blair to effect his early resignation. His appointees have all been young, careerist politicians or parvenues with less ability than he has. His last Home Secretary (read our Attorney General), four years ago, was a high school teacher. His present one is an ex-postman. Until recently, I was convinced that Britain was sinking under a no-win situation between dumb and dumber, as to the 2 parties. Cameron's grasped the mettle on this one. This is his moment.

http://emiliawahoo76.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/virginiadem

[jimrs6]

Such an investigation will likely include the White House.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211495/No-10-turns-Obama-Clinton-criticising-decision-release-Lockerbie-bomber.html

[TXfemmom]

This does not surprise me at all. When I heard that three physicians had verified that he had three months or less to live, the first thing that occurred to me was to check their financial records.

[cosmo9]

I fully agree that the Lockerbie cover-up should be investigated. Lets have a public inquiry! I am 100% behind that, maybe then we can see how and why Mr Megrahi was framed for this.

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=547

[Norge]

Cosmo9,

Terrific, I was just going to post Johns' insightfull article also and saw you had already done so.

Very very good Cosmo9
You just got fanned.-:)

[outnow]

Pilger's article can be published over there but not over here.

Calling the Brits out oldest ally is factually and historically incorrect. They were behind the overthrown in 1953 in Iran and tried to take over the Continent for centuries.

The Brits love nothing more than oil and cheap labor. Let them stand on their own. Their true colors are there for all to see. The war in Iraq found them sexing up the dossier. How that for democracy?

[abql]

Lockerbie just keeps unfolding to the shame of the Scots and now, we realize, the UK Labour govt. - 2 convictions upheld in Scottish courts and yet most of the comments are that he's innocent (!?) - the Scots apparently support their Justice Secretary when he releases, but not the juries, attornies and courts that convict. The other common complaint is that there's nothing clean about American hands - unfortunately, these comments generally go back to Viet Nam only - if we just go back to the Roundheads we might remember that every dirty trick we know, we learned at each other's knee. Such a profound betrayal and such international idiocy - to create a hero and a martyr and allow Ghaddafi such a coup at exactly the time he's supposed to be expressing remorse and a commitment to the international community. The Scots were played, the UK has received its 30 pieces of silver and I think a year or two sucking on Libya's teat will serve them all well - some allies!

[outnow]

There was no jury convicting the al-Magrahi. He was convicted by three Scottish judges in the Hague. Being convicted on a crime does not mean that someone is guilty. DNA evidence has freed hundreds of convicted defendants, for example. The quality of the evidence against al-Margrahi was very weak and it was being both appealed and quetioned as other evidence mounted aginst Iran. It was a political show that ended with oil being the most important issue, as usual.

[Firbolg]

You don't have to go back to the Roundheads to find convictions that survived appeals being finally overturned.
"On 9 February 2005, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair issued an apology to the families of the eleven people imprisoned for the bombings in Guildford and Woolwich, and those related to them who were still alive, by saying, in part: "I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice...they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated."
The "still alive" bit may have been meant for Patrick "Giuseppe" Conlon who died in prison in the UK while serving under a sentence later thrown out.

[dynadem]

Who cares? The air doesn't smell all that good here in the U.S. either.