Comment posted Scotttish Government statement following death of Ali Al-Megrahi by Dr Douglas McKenzie.
Impressive list of signatures to that letter.
Seeing Teddy Taylor on it made me smile (and is he still alive!!). Anytime my mother would complain about something my dad would say “write to Teddy Taylor about it”. To those not familiar with Scottish politics, Teddy Taylor was (arguably) the last successful Tory in Scotland (in Glasgow certainly).
I didn’t always agree with TT in the past but he is spot on the money here: we need an open enquiry into this and i8t will only be credible if it is the Scottish Government that instigates it.
Recent comments by Dr Douglas McKenzie
- Rustle with Russell
More utter rubbish from Lynda Henderson. Have you actually spoken to Bob Allen? Whoever told you the story sold you a pup and in your arrogance you cannot admit to be wrong so you make up this story that he was persuaded not to resign.Your position is completely untenable.
- Russell back in the bathtub, now trying to sink Keith Brown’s boat
I’m afraid you condemn yourself by your own words. I don’t think that anyone reading what you have written here and the language you have used would conclude anything other than that you have a deep dislike for Mr Russell and that dislike is leading you to basically lose all sense of either proportion or impartiality. It doesn’t matter how well (or otherwise) you know Mr Russell you are clearly exercised by your interpretation of his actions and it is leading you well beyond the pale in what I would consider fair comment.This vendetta against Mr Russell and the SNP is destroying FA’s credibility and I have to confess that I’m seriously considering whether or not to continue reading FA (which will cheer Malcolm up if nothing else). I for one am becoming increasingly disenchanted by the constant negativity and sheer nastiness that has crept into this blog. I say that with a lot more sorrow than anger because I think that FA could have been great and indeed still could but there has to be a degree of balance, civility and indeed humour. All we are getting here is bile and it is causing me heartburn.
- Russell back in the bathtub, now trying to sink Keith Brown’s boat
To be honest, this post clearly shows that you are speaking from your personal dislike of Mr Russell rather than an unbiased analysis of the man. Phrases such as “publicity hungry coward” are well beyond what is reasonable comment. - Russell back in the bathtub, now trying to sink Keith Brown’s boat
You don’t seem to understand the separation of a MSP’s duty to his or her constituency and their responsibilities as a Government Minister.Yet again, this is another instance where a member of the Government can do no right: speak up and be condemned as “desperate” or stay silent and be accused of not serving your constituents’ interests.
It is just as well that Mr Russell has broad shoulders!
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There’s a risk that all the political noise hides the clear opinion from Dr Jim Swire down the years that Megrahi did not murder his daughter and all the others.
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Absolutely. And JIm Swire’s opinion has been umatchably influential because of the depth of his own integrity following the scale of the loss he suffered.
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I shake my head in wonder that any of your readers can summon up a “dislike” thumbs down at such a life affirming and accurate remark.
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Ken – this website might be read in a far wider area of the world than I, for one, would have thought – and If I started on about the USS Vincennes, the death of everyone in the Iranian airliner it shot down while in Iranian territorial waters, and another such incident involving a different American ship and an Omani civilian aircraft that would have ended the same way but for a long chance, I might get the thumbs down.
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You are right, of course; and you did.
Personally I could not care a hoot when my remarks get the “zero Neroes” but I wonder at the mentalilty of those who dislke simple and sincere statements of fact.
I was reading about the Vincennes incident only earlier today and contrasting the reaction of our American cousins to that particular disaster.Although the commanding officer of the Vincennes had mistaken a civilian aircraft for a military craft and was responsible for many civilian deaths he was feted as a hero and promoted when he got home.
There is a heavy body of informed opinion that the Lockerbie bomb was retaliation for that disaster and that the source had nothing to do with Libya but was probably from Iran.
David Cameron seems determined to block any enquiry. We may wonder whose back he is protecting?
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The Skipper of the Vincennes (Captain Will Rogers III) reminded me of a character out of Apocalypse Now. After he’d decided that an Iran Air airbus climbing out of Bandar Abbas, on a regular scheduled flight to Dubai, was actually an F14 Tomcat fighter diving into attack his ship – and put two guided missiles into the airliner killing all 290 people on board – he wasn’t universally applauded. Either Time or Newsweek did a very effective expose of just how appalling the use of a highly sophisticated warship to annihilate a civilian airliner really was. Having said all that, the Lockerbie disaster might still have had a Libyan connection – like the French UTA DC10 airliner destroyed over the Sahara, and found to be the work of Libyans in the same way that Lockerbie was.
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We must hope that an appeal is made, following the death and the CCRC report.
While it may not establish the whole truth it may just deal with some of the questions that still remain.
So far, the only person who comes out of this whole case with reputation intact and enhanced is Dr Swire.
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I’m glad Megrahi is at peace now and I’m pleased to be part of the nation that treated him with compassion. Vengeance only creates new monsters and should be no part of the law.
It’s interesting to note that this man, whose suffering so many relished, was reported to have spent his time in Greenock prison teaching younger Scottish prisoners the basics of reading. That, more than any of the raging debate, caused me to read up on the court proceedings. I came to share Dr Swire’s convictions and hope he succeeds in his campaign to find the real truth.
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The “evidence” presented at Camp Zeist would not have passed muster at Dunoon Sheriff Court and when did a Scottish Court ever convene without a jury.
I know no intelligent person who has read up on this case who beleives Abdulbaset Ali al-Megrahi had anything to do with this bombing. I recommend the late Paul Foot’s examination of this affair and the latest publication by John Ashton, both of which can be sourced online to anybody who harbours doubt about this case.
As Anne Baird points out it is impossible to be well informed on the court case and conviction and believe he was anything other than an innocent scapegoat.
What concerns me deeply is the behaviour of much of our media.
There was time when we could look to our press to defend us from Government lies. No more
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The evidence was a joke, I too can’t believe any jury would have convicted on it. The central plank of the prosecution case was the Maltese shopkeeper who identified Mr Megrahi as the purchaser of a shirt after ten years had passed. I have been to Malta, including Sliema where the shop is located. The shops there are crowded with tourists buying postcards and sunglasses and T shirts and suchlike. I’d challenge any of the shopkeepers to identify a particular customer from the previous day, never mind one from ten years previously. And then it turns out that this particular shopkeeper was paid one million dollars by the FBI to testify! Give us a break.
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Just passing this on….
http://wingsland.podgamer.com/johann-lamont-does-not-speak-for-us-here-are-42-people-who-do/
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Impressive list of signatures to that letter.
Seeing Teddy Taylor on it made me smile (and is he still alive!!). Anytime my mother would complain about something my dad would say “write to Teddy Taylor about it”. To those not familiar with Scottish politics, Teddy Taylor was (arguably) the last successful Tory in Scotland (in Glasgow certainly).
I didn’t always agree with TT in the past but he is spot on the money here: we need an open enquiry into this and i8t will only be credible if it is the Scottish Government that instigates it.
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The list of signatories to the Megrahi letter is certainly wideranging……
Wait a minute though! If Teddy Taylor really has signed this letter I can just see our anonymous blogger from Islay demanding that he be stripped of his enoblement, deprived of his knighthood -if he has one- and drummed out of the ranks of the Conservative and Unionist Club in distant Southend never more to darken its portals.
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I’m wondering if the anonymous blogger is from Islay, or just taking its name in vain.
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Thanks for the article Morag, fascinating stuff.
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The reaction from Joanne Lamont to the news of Megrahi’s death was predictably following the official Labour Party line but must have caused grave offence to many decent Labour supporters.We may wonder on what authority she feels able to speak on behalf of Scotland on this or any other issue. Could it be that the vision of A L Blair embracing the mad Colonel and the “dirty deal in the desert” influenced her judgement? When will the details of this particular deal come to light?
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Everybody should read the article by Kenneth Roy in the Scottish review.
He says it all for me.
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Unfortunately the american public do not understand that an SNP administration in Edinburgh would not coerce with the british Labour party to achieve any outcome let alone jobs in part for the Lockerbie atrocity. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were far closer to the Libyan regime of Gaddafi than to the Scottish Government. Joanne Lamont should stop these cheap moves to try and gain political advantage. If any person should be ashamed it should be her in view of her party’s close association with a really brutal dictator. Come clean Labour and tell us what you know about this whole scenario
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