Warning possible seething sweary words ahead.

With BBC Scotland and just about every other Scottish media outlet more or less anointing Iain Gray as First Minister designate, following Alec Salmond's decision to drop the proposed Independence referendum from the forthcoming Parliamentary session. There seems to be a resigned inevitability that the SNP have no chance of forming the next Scottish government and that supporters of Independence had better just accept that the Tartan Overlord seems to favour a gradual, gradual approach to Independence and soon Labour will be back in charge leading us all to a socialist-lite Utopia.


There are a number of factors that have brought about this triumphalist way of thinking in our Unionist opponents. Long before May 2007, Labour and their Unionist sidekicks have used the 'when did you last beat your wife?' school of debate. Over the decades they've consistently spread the belief that the Scottish National Party are a mean spirited, Anglo-phobic minority party only interested in being insular and celebrating the more sinister side of patriotism. Naturally this is intended to, deter the electorate from voting for them, offend SNP supporters and minimise their argument, it does. We're constantly on the back foot, striving to be positive in the face of relentless negativity and having to tread warily in everything we say and do lest we be accused of fascism, racism or jingoism. Pointing out perceived historical injustices is branded the politics of whining. Trying to engage political opponents in debate, soon sees them resort to the usual repetitive dross, which equates to that of a scolded child, sticking their fingers in their ears and bawling 'I can't hear you'. 'We couldn't cope outside the Union', 'we're subsidy junkies', 'Scots will leave in their droves past the guard towers on the border', 'we're all face painted Mel Gibson acolytes' and so on. 

Personally, I've had enough of it, if ever there was a time for Salmond and his team to point out the normalcy and prospects of an Independent Scotland, and keep ramming it down the throats of the electorate and the opposition, then this is it. The wealthy New Labourite, Alastair Campbell once said, 'it's only when you're sick of saying the same thing over and over again, that people begin to hear you.' There's truth in that. The perfect example of this is David Maddox of the Scotsman's favourite phrase 'SNP Accused of', whenever this occurs, our government kicks into default position and politely and patiently tries to explain the rights of whatever malfeasance we've been accused of, we humbly offer our explanations and hope the feigned indignation will dribble away. It's become the mantra set by a narrow clique of happy clappy advisers. We need to speak, clearer, louder and more often again and again and again, till the hard of thinking start to listen. We need other voices to articulate what's going on, rather than the usual suspects. We need to demonstrate that the faith we put in the SNP  as a party of all the talents, is not wasted and left to fester.

I don't have all the answers on how we persuade our fellow voters that backing the biggest Independence party isn't the death defying risk our opponents say it is, but, as a keen history buff I do recognise the links of blame that will surface between now and next May.   

The following story in the Evening News gives the perfect insight to the tactics opponents of Independence will use. Prospective Labour Councillor Bill Cook, believes the path to defeating the SNP is the 'Megrahi effect'. We released him, we did it for BP oil, on Westminster orders, we've embarrassed the nation, the USA hates us, our name is muck, we pander to terrorists, in short we're utterly useless and sanity will only be restored when Richard Baker goes to Libya, grabs Megrahi by the scruff of his neck and throws him back into his Greenock cell to die of his pretendy cancer.

The 'Megrahi effect' will be dribbled out day-after-day until the poor bastard dies, and other than 'compassion' and 'higher authority' our Scottish Government have run out of excuses. The startling lack of clarity in defending the release or even proffering a nod to the possibility that Megrahi might possibly be a victim of injustice is left ignored and unsaid. Everyone and his dog knows that the pressure on the Scottish Justice System (not for the first time) by Westminster and Washington to achieve a conviction on either of the two Lockerbie accused was immense. It didn't matter which one, as long as the West had a hate figure to blame for the destruction, we could all go back to sleeping soundly in our beds.

The stakes have increased with the senators who are vainly attempting to conflate Megrahi's release with BP winning licenses to drill for oil in Libya. All the while ignoring the fact that US oil giant Occidental have an operation in Libya twenty times the size that of BP's, all the while ignoring that fact that non US citizen employees of Occidental were moved to the Libyan Oil agency when the UN sanctions kicked in, and conveniently moved back to Occidental when they were lifted. The shell companies that Occidental set up in Switzerland surprisingly continued operating in Libya during the sanction years are, guess what, back in Occidental hands. Some might say that the USA oil grab never really ceased during the sanction years. All the while trading in black oil with the man their government are convinced ordered the murder of everyone on board Pan Am 103.

Earlier today BP released the findings of their inquiry into the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. No doubt these excuses will be rubbished, the senators will continue to use BP, Megrahi and the Scottish government as a blunt tool with which to bludgeon their way to re-election at the US mid-term elections. All of this duplicity, hypocrisy and underhand dealing serves to remind me of another event that happened in Scotland a mere five months before Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie. 

Piper Alpha.




Piper Alpha was owned by Occidental, the fourth largest Oil company in the world. I remember their repugnant 92 year old American chairman, Armand Hammer flying into Aberdeen offering $1.7 million to a relief fund and flying out the next day with his hands firmly in his pockets, never to return. A close friend of Thatcher and Prince Charles, Piper Alpha was a godsend to his debt stretched company. His insurance claim almost bankrupted Lloyds of London. The Cullen Inquiry laid the blame fairly and squarely on Occidental and a culture of corner cutting and profit protection. 167 men died 200 kilometres from shore because Occidental were too cheap to maintain safety regulations. The first explosion would have burned out and lives saved, had Occidental not continued feeding oil from the Tartan and Claymore platforms, managers were denied permission to cut the pumps, they could see Piper Alpha in flames, but still they continued pumping until the fatal second explosion, because to have shut it off would have meant several days work to restore operations and cost Occidental a fortune. 

As ever our Scottish media thirled to Westminster and America did little in the way of condemning Occidental or America, nobody called for sanctions against the USA, none of the Occidental executives were ever brought to justice or prosecuted for the 106 health and safety offences they breached. In short we grieved our dead and put our faith in the Scottish Justice system, which wholeheartedly failed us, yet again. 

To conclude, and I apologise for the length of this post, but not the utter pissed off-ness I hope you detect in my writing. The 'Megrahi effect' is in the process of claiming another victim, a man that Scotland should regard more wisely. Professor Robert Black posted on his Lockerbie Case blog that an American film-maker had approached him asking for permission to do an interview and give him an opportunity to give his reasons as to why he believes Megrahi to be innocent. As Prof Black's post reveals this was at first a convivial interview for the first hour wherein he answered questions succinctly and patiently, only to see the knife twist and all the vehemence of the vested interests come to the fore, with a camera man chasing Prof Black screaming 'How can you sleep at night?' As he correctly surmises, guess which part of his interview this American film-maker will use? 

The 'Megrahi Effect', how do we counter it, when our own government doesn't appear to have the balls to consider that something might be wrong with the Scottish Justice system? 

Annie Hamilton a poundland Anne Coulter.

The following is a column by Annie Hamilton a rather delightful racist, bigot, islam-o-phobe, racist who writes for the San Jose Examiner. I suggest everyone have a read at it and if you feel inclined send her a little message in the comments section. I've already uncurled a three pounder into a jiffy bag.

Isn't it odd that there's a particular brand of septic nutjob commentator that always has Scottish surnames. Maybe the Clearances weren't a bad idea after all.

http://www.examiner.com/x-5740-San-Jose-Republican-Examiner~y2009m8d24-Where-are-all-the-men-letter-to-Secretary-Macaslin-regarding-dumb-decisionmaking

another image....
Dear Secretary MacAskill:

Although it pains me to witness the ridicule deservedly heaped upon your shoulders well as fellow apologist and twit, PM Gordon Brown, it simply illustrates how liberals are able to twist compassion into something nonsensical.

How you’ve managed to walk straight without bumping into walls, let alone keep your job, following your doltish decision to allow Al-Megrahi, to return to his native Libya, despite the conviction and life sentence handed down for his part in the biggest mass murder to take place in British legal history has triggered fury amongst Americans and most of the relatives of the 270 people killed in 1988. Frankly, I just have a few questions and observations as your decision hardly shocks me. Our 2008 Presidential election has opened America’s eyes to the numerous oafish decisions of its’ own Administration, so obviously fraught with mental and intellectual herpes.

It seems as though the rational strategy would be to immediately remove you from the Scottish government, on grounds that you are discernibly lacking the cognitive and moral aptitude to accomplish much more than dodging alcohol-related convictions or busying yourself with everyday nose-picking tasks. As such, perhaps we then we ought to start calling for your government to be dismantled until new elections can take place. In addition, our U.S. Justice Department ought to indict you for aiding and abetting the escape of a known convicted felon, with the UK/Scottish leadership waiving any sovereign immunity defense or other related privilege asserted. This would send the appropriate message to the weenies throughout Europe as well as Islam that when you blow up a plan carrying damn near 100 % Americans, there are consequences beyond a political circle jerk. In addition, you should then be extradited to the US for your trial prior to serving both your sentence as well as the remaining 19 years of al-Megrahi’s.

Now, THAT would be justice, rather than the dog and pony show you forced the world to witness the other day, complete with private plane and hero’s welcome. Short of execution, the only justifiable remedy for a turd like al-Megrahi is to cage him without the possibility of future freedom. While it’s understandable that Gordon Brown has been frantically searching for his testacles since Daniel Hannan called his stupidity out before the world, it's hardly escaped my notice that despite your gun ban, your crimes are not only through the roof but that 80 % of them go unsolved. And people wonder why Europe is being overrun by Radical Islam! Or perhaps it’s your naiveté? I mean, please, ‘Mad Dog’ denounces Islam although he’s been linked to a half-dozen attacks killing Americans, including the Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland and still you spineless imbeciles have chosen instead to bend over for Shariah law?

Your apparent excuse for letting this animal out of his cage was a ‘death sentence’ of three months for prostate cancer given by a British doctor? So what’s your point? Who cares that he’s ill? Now that he’s out of prison, and out of YOUR hair, he can always come on over to the US for free care. What the hell, we provide it to everyone else. We’re not naive; you easily could have released him to unburden your floundering economy from his prostate cancer treatments in a classic example of health care rationing. Why stick the Queen with the bill when Uncle Sam will do it? (Naturally we will, we're the same idiots that voted a radical Muslim into office…although I’m fairly certain many of his voters are either victims of fetal alcohol syndrome or should be wearing fitted helmets)

While it shocked me to hear that Kenya’s finest had taken the time away from his frantic schedule of wiping out our economy, cuddling with dictators and trying to kill America's elderly long enough to comment on how your decision to free fellow ass-clown Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was a mistake and that’ he should really be under house arrest’, a statement that got a chuckle out of al-Megrahi..The spineless teleprompter-dependent President de facto did manage to put terror into the hearts of Libyans, and al Qaeda everywhere, issuing a ‘stern’ warning that they had’ better not give him a hero's welcome!’

Patriots everywhere consider it a colossal mistake and missed opportunity to not have had a plainclothes sniper pop this worthless blow-up doll before he had the chance to board the private plane set for the pastures of pedophiles and alpha goat lovers.

Saif al Islam Gaddafi said that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi’s return was deemed a “victory” for all Libyans, Seif al-Islam announcing to Libyan TV that the potential release in the case had been raised 'as a point of negotiation' during talks over oil and gas, international news reported. The UK Foreign Office has strongly denied the claims, Secretary Miliband denouncing the allegations as ‘slurs’ “There is no such deal. All negotiations pertaining to this case have been exclusively in the hands of Scottish ministers, the Crown Office in Scotland and the Scottish judicial authorities.“ Right! That’s why in 2007 Tony Blair concluded a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya!

The public has been asking Brown for a statement although he’s remained silent. Perhaps a better question to pose to this Prime Minister is if all incarcerated mass murderers should be given freedom, as long as they’re 1) diagnosed with a terminal illness and 2) have killed fewer than 270 people? If so, what if the person was Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper or Jeffrey Dahmer? Their victims didn’t reach numbers anywhere near 270?

I’m curious, though, Mr. Secretary…Why did you really release this monster? Is it because you’re ignorant as to the true nature of Islam? Were you all involved in an international transaction, using a terrorist’s freedom as currency? Or something more personal, like your drinking? Obviously anyone capable of reading knows that in ’99 you were detained in London during a sporting event for being drunk and disorderly…and other whispering often follows you, although you weren’t formally charged with anything and you did manage to squeak through another election successfully. Or perhaps it’s your four –time failure to win a seat in Westminster? Or did you stick it to us because of Obama’s amateurish savoir-faire earlier this year germane to the Churchill bust as well as treating the diplomatic gift exchange like a white elephant raffle at the neighborhood trailer park?? I mean, we were mortified but you must have been privately amused by his inexperienced buffoonery and embarrassing stretch of confidence common to other wannabe leaders and ghetto thugs who clearly were raised by people without values or who tend to surround themselves with trashy, unsavory characters.

Your iniquitous decision heartens global terrorists everywhere who may now deduce that regardless of the quality of the investigation or conviction they can be freed by one heedless man's exercise of lunacy. Your dispassionate esteem for human life makes a mockery of the emotions and efforts of everyone affected by the Lockerbie tragedy and multi-decade ordeal that now shall have no closure, despite a financial settlement. This is not justice. And what else have you accomplished? Sending a murderer to a hero’s welcome, turning your country into the laughing stock of western Europe, teaching radicals everywhere that Shariah does, indeed, outrank anyone else’s legal system? If so, hooray for you! Perhaps you can get together with the boys in DC and discuss it over a beer at the white house.

Keep in mind, though, that we have your number. You and your flaccid regime that wouldn’t have defeated the Falklands without the aid of the US and then President Reagan (a real man, rather than a limp excuse for a commander such as currently plagues both the US/UK) After the stunt you pulled, it would be entertaining to see Argentina yank the Falklands back and watch you squirm waiting to see if we’re going to show up to aid you yet again.

My last point is this, Secretary MacAskill: Get it through your thick skull that Islamic terrorists don’t give a rat’s ass about compassion or kindness. These are not ‘positive’ attributes to this group. The only thing you’ve done is to beautifully set yourself up for another failure and attack, while taking others with you. It’s not your right to act with such disregard toward your fellow man.

And the next time there is such an attack, be it the IRA, al Qaeda or a random event, it may kill a family member….then how compassionate will you be? Or perhaps that’s precisely the point and why you’re in forever bondage to England? You’re incapacity of running a country unsupervised.

Regards,

Annie Hamilton

So whose pants are on fire, Westminster or the US government?

Below is the relevant part of Kenny MacAskill's statement on the Prison transfer agreement, covering MacAskill's visit to Megrahi at Greenock prison and his reasons for denying the Libyan Government's request for a Prisoner Transfer, which Blair agreed to in a memo of understanding in 2007 and Westminster ratified last year.

The outstanding question in this part of the whole stramash, is this. Why would the Westminster government deny there had been an agreement with the USA that any person sentenced for this crime would remain in a Scottish prison for the rest of his life and never be transferred to his homeland, particularly when the USA are so adamant that it had been agreed?

Prior to ratification of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement, it was scrutinised by the Westminster Joint Committee on Human Rights, to which Jack Straw, UK Secretary of State for Justice, gave a commitment that in cases where applications were not submitted personally by the prisoner, the prisoner must be given the opportunity to make representations. Mr Al-Megrahi had the opportunity to make representations, and he chose to do so in person. Therefore I was duty bound to receive his representations. I accordingly met him. It was clear that both the United States Government and the American families objected to a prisoner transfer. They did so on the basis of agreements they said had been made, prior to trial, regarding the place of imprisonment of anyone convicted.

The United States Attorney General, Eric Holder, was in fact deputy Attorney General to Janet Reno at the time of the pre-trial negotiations. He was adamant that assurances had been given to the United States Government that any person convicted would serve his sentence in Scotland. Many of the American families spoke of the comfort that they placed upon these assurances over the past ten years. That clear understanding was reiterated to me, by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I sought the views of the United Kingdom Government. I offered them the right to make representations or provide information. They declined to do so. They simply informed me that they saw no legal barrier to transfer and that they gave no assurances to the US Government at the time. They have declined to offer a full explanation as to what was discussed during this time, or to provide any information to substantiate their view. I find that highly regrettable. I therefore do not know what the exact nature of those discussions was, nor what may have been agreed between Governments.

However, I am certain of the clear understanding of the American families and the American Government. Therefore it appears to me that the American families and Government either had an expectation, or were led to believe, that there would be no prisoner transfer and the sentence would be served in Scotland. It is for that reason that the Libyan Government's application for prisoner transfer for Abdelbasit Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi I accordingly reject.


Why are there no written records of the 'agreements' that took place between the UK and US governments?

---------1988----------

Lockerbie supposedly predates the 'war on terror' by 13 years. 1988 was in many ways 'Year Ground Zero' for a lot of the shit we see around us now. A brief glimpse at the year is rather eye opening to what's going on with the world today.

January 1988 the Cold war was all but over as Gorbachev introduced pererstroika to the USSR.

February saw the US House of Representatives deny Reagan millions for his support of the Contras in Nicaragua

March was busy. Bush senior wins the Republican nomination for president. Ollie North and John Poindexter are indicted over the Iran Conta affair. Israel sentences Mordecai Vanuana to 18 years for spilling the beans on their nuclear programme to the Sunday Times

April saw the Israelis assassinate the PLO's Abu Jihad in Tunisia. The USS Sam Roberts struck a mine in the Persian Gulf and retaliated by blowing up several Iranian oil platforms and ships.

May. The Soviet Red Army withdraws from Afghanistan after eight yearsand 13,836 dead Soviet soldiers, an average of 1,537 men a year. The Soviets also lost 118 aircraft, 333 helicopters, 147 tanks, 1500 armoured vehicles, 450 artillery guns, 1200 radio sets, 510 engineering vehicles and 11,369 trucks and petrol tankers...

June was quiet Mandela turned 70 and MTV asked if he'd be appearing at his birthday party at Wembley.

July Iran Air flight 655 is shot down by a missile launched from the USS Vincennes. Two days later Piper Alpha explodes killing 1657 men

August President Haq of Pakistan killed in a plane crash, twelve days after Allam Arif Hussain Hussaini, leader of Pakistan's Shia Muslims is killed. On the 20th the Iran-Iraq war ends, one million dead over eight years. The world hails this as a chance for peace in the middle East.

September Seoul Olympics spoiled by Ben Johnson's eye bulging steroid abusing 100m fraud.

October BBC bans interviews with IRA, htey give them voice overs done by Shakespearian actors...

November An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed. Benazir Bhutto elected Prime minister of Pakistan. Super Mario 3 introduced in time for Christmas.

December. 32 die in Clapham junction rail disaster. Bangladesh cyclone leave five million homeless and thousands dead.

5th December a man with an Arabic accent telephones the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki and warns them that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the USA will be blown up within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organisation

The anonymous warning was taken seriously by the U.S. government. They cabled the bulletin to dozens of embassies. They sent it to all U.S. carriers, including Pan Am, which had charged each of the passengers a $5 security surcharge, promising a "program that will screen passengers, employees, airport facilities, baggage and aircraft with unrelenting thoroughness" (The Independent, 29 March 1990); the security team in Frankfurt found the warning hidden under a pile of papers on a desk the day after the bombing.

On 13 December, the warning was posted on bulletin boards in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and eventually distributed to the entire American community there, including journalists and businessmen. As a result, a number of people allegedly booked on carriers other than Pan Am, leaving empty seats on PA103 that were later sold cheaply in bucket shops.

21st December Clipper Maid of the Seas blows up over Lockerbie. John Peel reports just before Radio One closes down for the night, that a plane has crashed on the motorway in the south of Scotland.

MEGRAHI DECISION MADE.

MacASKILL INFORMS FAMILIES OF ANNOUNCEMENT OF DECISIONS ON ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL-MEGRAHI

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has informed families and other interested parties that he has reached his decisions on the applications for prisoner transfer and compassionate release in relation to Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, and will announce his decisions on Thursday August 20, 2009.

This fulfils the Justice Secretary's pledge to inform families on both sides of the Atlantic, in advance, of the timing of his public announcement.

The statement will take place at 1pm on Thursday (8am Eastern Standard Time).

Mr MacAskill's statement will be followed by an opportunity for questions and one-to-one broadcast interviews.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above release has been sent out worldwide. Media speculation will rage through the night. 'Insiders' will claim to know what decision Kenny MacAskill has taken. Perhaps family members or friends of victims will talk to the press before the 1pm press conference. Newsnight Scotland will go into meltdown, wee Glenn Campbell will possibly be elevated again to share a desk with Kirsty Wark or even Paxman!

Whichever way the Scottish Government decision goes, one fact remains and it is this. Kenny MacAskill has shown himself to be an honest, considered man, who has retained his dignity in the overwhelming maelstrom of shite caused by Bill Aitken, Conservative Justice spokesman, Paul McBride QC, Richard Baker Labour shadow Justice minister, Tavish Scott Lib Dem Leader and Jim Murphy Secretary for the State of Scotland.

The Scottish press has embarrassed itself yet again by pandering to anti SNP headlines and the quite frankly insulting piece by Magnus Linklater (a man who appears to live in shame of his SNP member mother) in the Times.

The imminent death of Megrahi, however, will not put an end to the questions asked about the bombing of PanAm 103 and it's fateful explosion over the Lockerbie skies. That unfortunately is an industry that has much currency to be wrung from it.