‘The world is flat and the moon is made of cheese’. If the four US Senators had said this at the beginning of July it wouldn’t have been much more ridiculous than the claims they actually did make.
That they are now compounding their earlier misunderstandings and erroneous beliefs over the compassionate release of Abdulbaset Al Megrahi with completely ignorant remarks about Holyrood’s own inquiry into the release suggests that things have now gone far enough.
‘The world is flat and the moon is made of cheese’. If the four US Senators had said this at the beginning of July it wouldn’t have been much more ridiculous than the claims they actually did make.
That they are now compounding their earlier misunderstandings and erroneous beliefs over the compassionate release of Abdulbaset Al Megrahi with completely ignorant remarks about Holyrood’s own inquiry into the release suggests that things have now gone far enough.
First Minister Alex Salmond’s latest letter is evidence that the Scottish government are beginning to lose patience with Senator Menendez and his colleagues. The US Senate Committee’s refusal to follow the evidence trail and question Tony Blair over BP oil deals is indefensible and continued malicious insinuations over the compassionate release of Megrahi fully two years after the BP contract was signed is an insult to our intelligence – if not their own.
Just how has it come to this that such badly informed and politically illiterate accusations are forming the basis for apparently serious news items over here? Our media have taken every opportunity to headline each and any accusation these Senators make regardless of the facts.
If it hadn’t been for timely interventions by the First Minister there is every possibility that these ludicrous and malicious claims would have been accepted as truth by many people.
There has also been an amazing reluctance on the part of our media to pose any serious questions to the party at the centre of the 2007 dealings – Labour. Just where is Tony Blair? And for that matter where is ‘Scottish Labour’ leader Iain Gray?
Why haven’t our media commentators pursued everyone involved in this and held up the claims being made by these senators to real scrutiny; a cursory glance at their recent and original claims would surely leave them with credibility only marginally better than that of erstwhile sage David Icke.
For those who do not recall Mr Icke he was a former respected BBC sports presenter who gave up his lucrative career in order to campaign on green issues. However Mr Icke’s credibility disintegrated rapidly when he started to make increasingly bizarre and ludicrous claims. He very quickly became a figure of fun, regularly lampooned and ridiculed by comedians and journalists alike.
Eventually no-one took his utterances seriously.
The claims by the Senators aren’t quite in the same league as some of Mr Icke’s, but they are just as unbelievable.
Their original letter sent to the British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald contained so many inaccuracies and embarrassing gaffes that even the most basic journalistic ‘rigour’ test would have rendered the letter and subsequent outbursts unworthy of serious coverage. So bad was their understanding of the events leading up to the Megrahi release that the UK ambassador himself wrote in order to correct them saying that he was “troubled” by the “untrue” media reports that led to their erroneous beliefs.
Below is an excerpt from their letter to the UK ambassador:
“Close to one year ago, the Scottish court released Mr. Al-Megrahi on the basis of a doctor’s opinion that the Libyan attacker had only 3 months left to live…..
Mr. Al-Megrahi is still alive and reportedly living in luxury. Furthermore this week, the doctor responsible for the key medical opinion has told the media that not only could Mr. Al-Megrahi live another 10 years, but that the Libyan government had commissioned the doctor to make his assessment, expressly because the Libyan government hoped for a 3-month prognosis. This is outrageous. These newly revealed details threaten to undermine public trust in due process….”
These Senators actually believed that the medical evidence on which Kenny MacAskill based his decision had been paid for by the Libyan government. To have been duped by media reports is one thing but to have gone public with your gullibility without first checking the facts is unbelievable.
So, why hasn’t the ‘Icke test’ been applied in this case?
Why haven’t successive articles highlighted these credibility damaging facts, why haven’t TV presenters confronted the senators with their ignorance?
One reason could be that the reports that so misled the not so ‘Fantastic Four’ originated right here in the UK. Half-truths and misinformation that has been peddled by our own media for months were mixed in with the BP oil spill in the Gulf and served as the catalyst for what has now become the most hollow and contrived international ‘news’ story ever.
It is actually still going on with newspaper reports claiming that Al Megrahi was given “three months to live”, despite the announcement at the time clearly stating that three months was only a reasonable estimate and re-enforced by MacAskill who said clearly that he could die sooner or live longer.
We also have articles citing a letter from a Tory peer who tried to lobby MacAskill on behalf of a business consortium; however the letter by MacAskill rejecting this outrageous approach is not mentioned.
As every ridiculous demand and claim is headlined, the Scottish government is then required yet again to point out the facts. This of course is described by the media as the row ‘escalating’ or ‘intensifying’ when it is nothing more than ill informed, politically motivated grandstanding being exposed.
If the Senators were to accuse Kenny MacAskill of being on the Dallas grassy knoll in 1963 or of being behind the bigfoot hoax our media would respond by asking our Justice Minister if either were true – then run a headline ‘Row escalates as MacAskill denies being bigfoot’.
Instead of confronting these four with their own ignorance and at times blatant refusal to seek answers from the people involved in the ‘deal in the desert’ the UK media seem intent on encouraging them by reporting everything they say. Politically motivated drivel is being presented to the listener, reader and viewer as though it had merit.
We are also told that the Senators are to send officials over to Scotland in order to interview ….. wait for it ….. WITNESSES.
Interview witnesses? – witnesses to what exactly?
This subtle wordplay is of course intended to suggest to the general public that the compassionate release of Al Megrahi was a crime.
We have admissions from BP that they lobbied Labour in 2007, we have admissions from Straw that Megrahi was part of a PTA deal hatched by Blair in 2007 and we know that BP signed their oil contract … again in 2007.
If there was a crime, then the body lies buried in a Libyan desert and we all know whose fingerprints are on the shovel – Tony Blair’s.
And let’s not forget the clause inserted into the PTA that ensured that an application for repatriation could only progress if any outstanding appeal was dropped by Megrahi; remember in 2007 he had yet to be diagnosed with terminal cancer.
It is now reported that the Senate committee plans to widen the scope of their inquiry to look at the medical evidence. Well, the thrust of their original letter was always about the medical advice and never really about BP who were only ever targeted after the recent Gulf oil spill (The Senators said nothing in 2007).
So, will their ‘investigation’ centre on the ‘medical evidence’ their letter says was paid for by Libya or the actual medical evidence that Kenny MacAskill received from four Scottish NHS doctors and on which the decision was based?
Perhaps an inquiry into what these senators actually believe might be the first step, followed by one that seeks to clarify just where they are getting their (mis)information and why they seem so reluctant to speak to Mr Blair.
And David Icke?
Few people are aware but David Icke is actually on record as having accused Kenny MacAskill of releasing Al Megrahi as part of a conspiracy.
Will he also appear on Newsnight, everybody else has?
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