In a video-link speech broadcast to students and faculty of the London School of Economics, Libya’s Colonal Gaddafi said that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s (the Lockerbie Bomber) family was planning to sue the British government for false imprisonment and medical neglect after his death. The UK Telegraph tells us that Gaddafi said “His health was not looked after in prison, and he didn’t have any periodic examinations.”
The compensation claim could run into several million pounds, according to Libyan diplomatic officials who attended the talk.
Col Gaddafi alleged that the case against the former intelligence agent has “been fabricated and created by” former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher and former US President Ronald Reagan.
He even suggested that CIA agents had been behind the 1988 terrorist activity, in which 270 people were killed after a Pan Am airline blew up over Scotland.
Gaddafi claims that the charges against al-Megrahi and Libya were “based on unfounded evidence in an attempt to weaken the Libyan Revolution and limit its resources and abilities.”
Citing that al-Megrahi has only three months to live, the British government released the convicted terrorist on August 20, 2009. Since that time a number of improprieties have been discovered indicating that the true medical condition of al-Megrahi may have been exaggerated for political reasons
The families of the victims of Pan Am flight 103 are once again being traumatized by Colonal Gaddafi and his friend Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. The Scottish Sun reports that 72 year-old Susan Cohen who lost her only daughter Theo (then 20 years old) in the bombing called the threatened action “outrageous and insulting.”
Susan, of New Jersey, US, said: “If this legal action were to go ahead-and we have no reason to think that it will not-then it would be an absolute outrage.”
“Megrahi was found guilty at trial, and all this bluster from Gaddafi is designed to do one thing-to one day get a not guilty verdict for that man.”
“The families of those killed who live in the US will be horrified to learn of what he has said.”
Peter Lowenstein, 75, of New York, whose son Alexander, 21, was killed in the atrocity, claimed that Megrahi was “a lunatic.” He added: “There was a trial, the man was found guilty. The evidence, although circumstantial, was overwhelming.”
“I see no reason and no rationale for suing the British government for unlawful imprisonment-that is absurd.”
Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary who has borne the brunt of the media criticism for al-Megrahi’s release has claimed that he had consulted with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder prior to releasing the convicted bomber. Despite words of condemnation coming from the Obama White House and Senate leaders including John Kerry, no official investigation into the matter (as promised) has been launched.
The current lack of leadership and pathetically weak Obama-Clinton foreign policy only invites this sort of outrage brought by opportunistic individuals like Colonel Gaddafi. Elections have consequences and all around the world the cause of freedom is imperiled by aggressive nations who are rushing in to fill the vacuum created by Mr. Obama’s policy of appeasement.
December 4, 2010
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