Gordon Brown Admits Role in Terrorist Release

From the London Times:

Gordon Brown was dragged into the centre of the row over the early release of the Lockerbie bomber last night 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 Jack Straw told The Times that the move to include Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement in 2007 was a government decision and was not made at the sole discretion of the Justice Secretary. "It wasn't just Jack who decided this. It was a Government decision. Jack did not act unilaterally."

The row over the early release of the Lockerbie bomber ten days ago shows no sign of abating after the Ministry of Justice indicated yesterday that the decision to include al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement had been made with the possibility of trade deals with Libya in mind.

British Justice Secretary Jack Straw is sounding a bit like Harry Reid. From the London Telegraph:

Mr Straw said Britain forced Libya to give up its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, and "obviously, they had to have something for that."

"But the suggestion that at any stage there was some kind of backdoor deal done over Mr Megrahi's transfer because of trade is simply untrue," he continued.

"All this, however, is academic as Mr Megrahi was not released under the PTA treaty but quite separately by the Scottish Executive on compassionate grounds."

So Mr. Megrahi's release had nothing to do with trade negotiations between Britain and Libya? It was a "quite separate" event? Well, not exactly.

In a letter to [Scots Justice Minister Kenny] MacAskill, written in December 2007and leaked on Sunday, Mr Straw said: "The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and, in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed that in this instance the (PTA) should be in the standard form and not mention any individual."

Six weeks after the PTA was agreed, Libya ratified a £15billion oil and gas exploration deal with BP.

One wonders how much longer Gordon Brown can treat water. His government appears to be corrupt and incompetent beyond repair.

Comments

[Lisa]

I just pray he doesn't harm any more people.

[Miranda]

After this, I will be surprised if David Cameron has to fight to win the next election.

[KB]

Lisa: If you mean the bomber, I certainly join in your prayers. I don't know how sick that guy really is, but I am guessing that he is out of the action.

Miranda: an earlier Spectator article put it this way: it's not enough for Brown and Labor to be beaten. They have to be humiliated. At this point, nothing short of that will do. I concur. But I think that outcome is increasingly likely. What we need now is a great "in the name of God, go" speech.

[jreed]

Well, what do they want from us...simpathy? He caused so many people to die...well, we'll give him our "sorries" but not for what he did.

[Meliya]

The ignorance here is signgertag.Firstly, the Scottish Government were always opposed to the PTA deal negotiated by Labour.Second, the agreement reached with the Americans forbade the release under such a deal.So, the SNP both were against such a transfer and also elected to honour the agreement reached between the USA and the UK.The application for compassionate release is fundamentally different under Scots law than under English law. The default position in Scots law has always been that the prisoner is granted release if the conditions of the application are met.The conditions were indeed met, that is why the Scottish legal body supported the decision, they knew it upheld the fundamental tenets of Scots law; justice tempered with compassion.The decision was not political and that is why it was the correct decision. What would have been inappropriate would have been for the decision to have been taken for political reasons.Your ignorance is understandable, however the ignorance of Scottish politicians who ought to be aware of how their own legal system operates and of it's traditions is not.A child murderer had been freed by the previous Scottish justice minister, that too was the legally correct decision.The decision has enhanced Scotland's standing, there have been messages of support from around the world. The UK's standing has suffered due to Iraq, nothing to do with the compassionate release of Megrahi.It shuld be remembered of course that the USA were only too keen to see Megrahi back in Libya, that's why they sanctioned the UK Governments secret deals on PTA.The UK's standing was also damaged the day Pinochet was allowed to go back to Chile a mass murderer if ever there was one.Megrahi's guilt will technically remain, however the evidence that this was an unsafe verdict is now overwhelming.Finally, the Scottish Justice Minister has made all of his statements on the matter. He will appear before the justice committee soon in order to answer questions on the process even they are now realising that the decision was technically correct, although the Unionist majority on that committee will no doubt ensure a typical anti SNP verdict is reached.