UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been dragged into the continuing controversy over the early release of the Lockerbie bomber after it emerged that a key decision that could have paved the way for the terrorist to serve his sentence in Libya was approved by Downing Street. A source close to government has said that the move to include Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi (pictured above) in a prisoner transfer agreement in 2007 was a government decision and was not made at the sole discretion of the then Justice Secretary Jack Straw. “It wasn’t just Jack who decided this. It was a Government decision. Jack did not act unilaterally.” And of course we’re expected to believe that the Scottish government took no notice of all this in coming to its decision.
The row over the early release of the Lockerbie bomber 2 weeks ago shows no sign of going away after the Ministry of Justice indicated over the weekend that the decision to include Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement had been made with the possibility of trade deals with Libya in mind. “The negotiations over a prisoner transfer agreement were part of a wider agreement for the normalisation of relations with Libya as part of bringing them into the international community,” the Ministry said. It is understood that the “wider agreement” included assurances on oil, trade and other issues such as nuclear non-proliferation So in other words, a shabby deal. What a surprise. And these are the same cynical politicians that send brave, ill-equipped soldiers to die in Afghanistan, ostensibly to fight terrorism, while at the same time in the interests of cowardly “normalisation” (a.k.a. craven surrender to terrorists for financial gain) they’re concocting obscene deals to release convicted mass murderers. Jack Straw ? - this pathetic Islam-appeasing pair of governments, both in Scotland and the wider UK, have been shown to be full of men of straw. They should all face criminal charges.
Binyam Mohamed (pictured above), the former Guantanamo detainee who the UK government spent a fortune on flying back to Britain when he should have been sent back to Ethiopia, has reversed a decision to stay out of the UK’s public eye by signalling his determination to campaign for justice for prisoners at the American detention camp and highlight the “lifelong effects” of torture he suffered at the hands of his alleged interrogators. Just 6 months after emerging as a frail figure from the plane which brought him to Britain from the US military prison in Cuba, Mr Mohamed over the weekend used his first public speech since his release to explain the legacy of his 7 years in detention, which he says included his “extraordinary rendition” to a prison in south Morocco.
The 31-year-old who was born in Ethiopia and came to Britain as a refugee at the age of 16, is one of 15 one-time terror suspects who have now made allegations that MI5 and MI6 colluded in their torture abroad. Mr Mohamed is suing the Government to prove that he was imprisoned and tortured with the full knowledge of the UK authorities and intelligence services. Scotland Yard is currently investigating whether there are grounds for prosecuting any British intelligence officers involved with the case after it was revealed that MI5 supplied lists of questions to be put to him while he was being held in Morocco and elsewhere. Now call me a party-pooper, but has anyone asked WHY he was in Afghanistan when he was first arrested ? And WHY has he not been deported back to Ethiopia where he belongs instead of using UK taxpayer’s money to doubtless further his case for compensation at yet more eventual expense for the taxpayer ? It’s amazing how the prospect of financial reward can inspire miracle health cures.
All the fun of the parade as revellers at the Notting Hill Carnival (pictured above) in London yesterday enjoyed a warm and sunny day as Europe’s biggest street carnival proceeded in a blaze of colour. More than 200,000 people descended on the west of the UK’s capital city to travel the annual event’s 3.5 mile route to sound of steel bands and a background of exotic dancers and imaginative floats. And what a stroke of luck for the lady in the photo above – if she’d been at the G20 protest or a climate change rally the chances are that same police force would have left her in a pool of blood at the roadside. Instead the officer being manhandled doesn’t appear to know where to put his truncheon.
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