Rattlesnake Ridge      

 
      BFF

“Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is calling for a halt to U.S. aid to the new Libyan government if it refuses to re-arrest Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of planning the 1998(sic) bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Schumer sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today calling on the State Department not to help the National Transitional Council (NTC) — which is struggling to stand up a government in the wake of the fall of Muammar al-Qaddafi — with either direct aid or by giving them access to frozen Qaddafi funds, unless it jails Megrahi. “If the new Libyan government continues to shield this convicted terrorist from justice, then they should not get one more cent of support from the United States,” said Schumer. “We put American lives and money on the line to help the Libyan people secure their freedom. It’s time the Libyan government lives up to its commitment to create a free and accountable society by handing over al-Megrahi so that justice can finally be done.” Megrahi was released by the Scottish government in 2009 on compassionate grounds………….”
(Actually it was 1988 not 1998)

It is tempting to say that Chuck Schumer had chutzpah, but that would be an easy shot. He is well known for that in New York and Washington.
The Western deals were done with Qaddafi. Libya gave up its search for WMD, billions were paid to families of the victims, al-Meghrahi was released by the British government (which claimed it was the Scottish regime that released him), Qaddafi’s sons were feted at the U.S. State Department, etc, etc. That is not all: some Western, and pliant Arab, media even started a little campaign of rewriting history, reviving old reports of possible Syrian and/or Iranian and/or Hezbollah and/or al-Qaeda involvement. Woops, scratch out al-Qaeda: it did not exist in 1988.
Now, with the “compensation” blood money safely in the bank accounts, with Qaddafi on the run, with a new regime in London, there is talk of “repatriating” al-Megrahi back to his Scottish homeland. After all, the Western governments and their doctors were “duped” by the Libyan tin-horn dictator into believing that Megrahi was dying. They were promised that he would die within months! Can’t trust them Arabs, even after the billions of dollars you wheedle out of them in compensation (in Arabic it is called ‘diyya‘: blood money that the killer pays to avoid execution).

Which brings me to the curious case of Iran Air Flight 655, shot down over the Persian-American Gulf in August of 1988 by a U.S warship. It was flying from Iran to Dubai with 290 civilians on board, 66 of them children. All on board were killed. Not much compensation was paid for those civilian victims, nobody was jailed or even threatened with prison. The Iranians are not even whining nearly as much about it, or maybe they are but we don’t read about it or see in or CNN, Fox, etc. No interviews with teary relatives. Besides, they were all Middle Eastern people on Iran Air 655: mostly Iranians with a few Arabs and other expendables.
I bet nobody is willing to give back the money in exchange for sending Al Megrahi back to Britain.
Cheers
mhg


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