Lockerbie in Perspective: Retaliations and "Bribe, Britannia, and Rule the Trade"
Thus spoke The Economist a couple of years ago, after news broke that British Prime Minister Tony (Yo) Blair had ended further investigation by the Serious Frauds Office (SFO) into the bribery case of BEAS and Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan. The amount of the alleged bribe? GBP 1 billion (about US$2 billion). There were reports of royal Saudi threats to penalize British industry as well as the war against terrorism. At stake was a huge new arms contract. The war jets from that contract are being delivered.
Now Mr. A al-Miqrahi, the Libyan convict in the Lockerbie bombing has been released from a Scottish jail. Ostensibly for ‘humanitarian reasons’: he has only months to live (prostate cancer).
There was a series of incidents between Libya and the USA during the 1980s, starting with charges that Libya was responsible for a bombing in (West) Berlin, as I recall. Then the air raid on Libya under Mr. Reagan in 1986, then the shooting down by the USS Vincennes of an Iran Air civilian plane (IR 655) over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 passengers and crew: that was in July 1988 . The Lockerbie bombing of Pan-Am 103 happened on Dec 21, 1988.
Some argue that there are huge petroleum and arms deals at stake. They mention Libyan oil exports to Britain, and pending export deals.The bombing caused the death of 270 people, most of them Americans. If al-Miqrahi is a convict, what about whoever gave him the order??
Cheers and Ramadan Kareem
mhg
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