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

Megrahi was Framed
By John Pilger

The American satirist Larry David once addressed a voluble crony as "a babbling brook of bullsh*t." Such eloquence summarizes the circus of Megrahi’s release.

No one in authority has had the guts to state the truth about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the Scottish village of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 in which 270 people were killed. The governments in England and Scotland in effect blackmailed Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his immediate release. 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."

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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

Evidence The US Bought The Megrahi Conviction

One of the filings disclosed yesterday on the website documents a blockbuster finding and allegation by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) on collusion of the Scottish Crown prosecution team and US authorities to effectively buy Shopkeeper Gauci’s testimony against Megrahi by paying Gauci two million dollars and Gauci’s brother, Paul Gauci, a million dollars:

The SCCRC has recovered undisclosed material which indicates that:

(a) The witness Tony Gauci had, at an early stage, expressed an interest in receiving payment or compensation for his co-operation in giving evidence, and that this interest persisted until after the trial

(b) that the witness Paul Gauci had " a clear desire to gain financial benefit" from his and his brothers co-operation and that Paul Gauci exercised considerable influence over his brother

(c) that the U.S. authorities offered to make substantial payments to the witness Tony Gauci from an early stage

(d) that an application for reward monies was made on behalf of the SIO of the investigation team of the Scottish police to the U.S. Department of Justice, after the trial, and that substantial payments were received by both Tony (in excess of $2m) and Paul Gauci (in excess of $1m) after the appeal.

The Scottish Crown prosecution team concealed both the early discussion prior to the trial of financial reward to Gauci for his testimony and the big payoff by the US Government after his testimony and the trial concluded. The prosecution did not reveal the clearly material and exculpatory (in that it gutted the credibility of the sole direct witness against Megrahi) evidence to either the defense or the court. In fact, the investigation and prosecution team put numerous entries into their reports and records that "Tony Gauci has never at any stage sought to benefit" from his testimony, statements that appear to have been designed to mislead.

There were already substantial questions regarding the credibility of Gauci’s identification of Megrahi as the purchaser of the clothes (detailed in the above linked document and summarized here). There further appears to have been a series of inconsistent statements by Gauci prior to trial, and several indications that he was not confident in his identification, many of which were also not disclosed to the defense for trial. Although these are allegations not yet proven up in court, the work and findings were done by the SCCRC and carry some serious weight; they are not self serving pablum from a desperate defendant.

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American politicians, including President Obama and AG Eric Holder, Secretary of State Clinton and many Congress members from across the spectrum howled with outrage at the Scottish Justice Ministry’s decision to release Megrahi in return for dismissal of his appeal out of concern that the convicted Megrahi was cut loose in a secret deal by the Brits for oil rights with Libya. Perhaps instead they should investigate whether the US colluded to buy dubious testimony from Gauci in order convict Megrahi in the first place.

One thing is certain, if the evidence uncovered by the SCCRC is accurate, instead of howling US authorities might want to thank Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill for killing Megrahi’s appeal, an appeal that very well may have led to a reversal of Megrahi’s conviction based on misconduct involving the Americans. While it is unlikely either the US government or Congress will touch this bit of stench, let’s hope the authorities in Scotland take a hard look into the matter.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/10/03/evidence-the-us-bought-the-megrahi-conviction/

Salmond offers to send all Lockerbie letters to US

MARK HENNESSY London Editor

SCOTTISH FIRST minister Alex Salmond has offered to send all copies of letters exchanged with the US and British governments about the release of convicted Libyan Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to the US Senate’s foreign relations committee – including one from the US embassy in London which allegedly offers reluctant support for his release on compassionate grounds.

The row over the Scottish government’s decision to send the Libyan home threatens to cause a major controversy for the Obama administration, which has strongly complained about the release – particularly since the US Senate upped the ante by beginning a full investigation into allegations that followed lobbying by BP.

In the key letter, the deputy head of the US embassy in London, Frank LeBaron, said the US believed al-Megrahi should remain in prison for his role in downing Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, but he continued: “Nevertheless, if Scottish authorities 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.”

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