Published letters on Government and Libya / Lockerbie

Labour and Libya - Sept 2009

Regarding the Libya / al-Megrahi / Gaddafi affair, the most alarming aspect is the way in which the government appears incapable of defending its own actions. This is even more worrying than the decisions it makes. 

I see very little to celebrate in Gaddafi’s Libya and I am as horrified as everyone by the Lockerbie bombing. Like the rest of the public, I have only limited information as to the evidence against al-Megrahi.

I know that Lord Sutherland’s own judicial summation was very cautious about the evidence writing as he did  that ‘In selecting parts of the evidence which seem to fit together and ignoring parts which might not fit, it is possible to read into a mass of conflicting evidence a pattern or conclusion which is not really justified.’

I also know that earlier that year, 1988, a US warship shot down an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 Iranian citizens and that no-one was ever tried for that. I know that some people remain convinced that the Lockerbie outrage was carried out by Palestinian terrorists acting on behalf of Iran with the support of Syria. 

Who knows where the truth lies? There are a variety of opinions about the decision to release al-Megrahi. At least the Scottish government followed its own constitution and made public both its actions and the documents supporting them. 

Watching our ministers unable to admit or defend the decisions they make is deeply unsettling. Watching our Prime Minister hiding behind the cushions instead of having the courage to standing up and say ‘This is what I concluded and this is what I did’ suggests a boat without a rudder. A nation cannot be led by someone who will only say what he thinks after he has heard what people want him to think.

Published and promoted by Christian Vassie, 10 Blake Court, Wheldrake, York YO19 6BT