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| 13 September 2002 | E-Mail this page to a friend |
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The town of Lockerbie is only 5 to 10 minutes flying time from Glasgow. Pan Am Flight 103, the Clipper Maid of the Seas was blown up over Lockerbie on the evening of 21st December 1988. There were no survivors.
Over the next days and weeks the real, real horror of what happened began to become clear. I am not ashamed to admit that that horror was tinged with guilty relief. If the bomb's barometric trigger had been set to detonate at a slightly higher altitude, that plane could have exploded over the West of Scotland. We learned the victims names, Ammermann, Swire, Carlsson, McQuarrie; that a party of American students from Syracuse University returning home from a goodwill visit had all been killed; we learned of the end of Sherwood Crescent, a wee row of houses in the countryside; we learned of the extermination of the Flanagan family, all of whom are now dead since Stephen, 14 at the time of the attack, took his own life; and we learned of Father Pat Keegans, a recovering alcoholic who was called upon to exercise his ministry in conditions he could never have imagined.
Who was responsible? Almost immediately, Ahmed Jibril and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (General Command) were touted as prime suspects. Soon, the mythology developed. What was the CIA hiding? Were they trying to smuggle diamonds? Heroin?
Time passed. In 1990, Peter Fraser QC, Scotland's Lord Advocate, announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for two Libyans, Abdelbaset el-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah. Both were suspected of being senior agents of Libyan intelligence.
A ten-year political, legal and diplomatic gavotte ensued. Finally, in 1999 the two suspects were surrendered for trial. The diplomatic quid pro quo had been the lifting of UN sanctions against Libya, imposed in light of Muammar Gaddafi's role as an international terror ubersponsor.
Scots criminal procedure was re-written to accommodate the diplomatic concessions that were made conditions of their surrender. Although Scots Law would be the law of trial, they could not be tried in Scotland. The Netherlands agreed to host the trial. USAF Camp Zeist became the High Court in the Netherlands. Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and Maclean, three of the most senior judges on the bench, would be the arbiters of both fact and law, another diplomatic concession. All administrative costs were paid by the UK. These were principally the conversion of the Zeist facility into a working Scottish court, the fabulously expensive police overtime involved in guarding the suspects, the overtime required to cover the domestic duties of the Scottish police working in the Netherlands, the inherent disruption caused by the loss of three judges, all the suspects' legal representation, their medical advice, their translators, family visits and the building of an entirely new block at Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow in the event of their conviction.
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After a very long trial process played out in front of the world's media, Megrahi was convicted of hundreds of counts of murder in January 2001. Fhimah was acquitted. An appeal against conviction was lodged immediately. The appeal was later heard by a panel of five judges, and was dismissed. Megrahi is now imprisoned in the new block at Barlinnie, and has the distinction of being Scotland's most expensive prisoner.
After the investment of such a degree of time, patience, expense and expertise one thought that might be that. However, the observer from the United Nations Commission for Human Rights, Dr. Hans Kochler, has declared the trial unfair. The UN believes Megrahi is a political prisoner. The prosecuting team were assisted by two state prosecutors from the US Department of Justice. The Clipper Maid of the Seas was the property of Pan Am, incorporated in the State of New York. The victims were overwhelmingly USA citizens. The chain of evidence was built by a massive policing operation in which the prime participants were Dumfries & Galloway Police (the UK's smallest police service, smaller even than City of London) and the FBI. Issues of US Federal law and New York state law may have been critical to the success of the prosecution. It is common practice for advisers from the Health & Safety Executive to advise Scottish prosecutors in Health & Safety prosecutions. Applying the same legal standard, Dr. Kochler would presumably wish to strike out every successful Health and Safety prosecution, on the ground of an "appearance of supervision".
Like all disaffected cons, Megrahi is playing the defective defence card. He did not give evidence on his own behalf. Some commentators feel free to impugn the professional competence of his senior counsel, William Taylor QC, and his solicitor Alistair Duff. Taylor and Duff are two of Scotland's foremost practitioners of criminal law. They acted for Megrahi for years. One has to doubt if all strategies, including whether or not he should give evidence, were not discussed with him and clear instructions taken. He's sacked Taylor & Duff and instructed Edward McKechnie, Fhimah's solicitor. On BBC Scotland of 12th September, it was reported that Megrahi has instructed McKechnie to apply to the European Commission for Human Rights. If they decide that Megrahi has a case based on a point of law that has not previously been tested before the European Court of Human Rights, they can direct a referral of the case to the Court, which has the power to direct that the UK rectify any defect in its laws or procedures if they are satisfied that Megrahi's rights were compromised. He seems to be adjusting rapidly to the traditions of Scottish prison life.
However, his new status as a long stay resident of the East End of Glasgow (in considerably better living conditions than the residents of the public housing that surrounds Barlinnie) has not curtailed his social life. He has been visited by Nelson Mandela, after whom one of the city's main squares was re-named in the 1980's. Mandela has urged the British Government to allow Megrahi to serve his sentence in a Muslim country. This has as much chance of success as the Kingdom of
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Now, the social conscience of Scotland's Old Etonian landowners, Tam Dalyell MP, has taken up the cudgels. In the 'Spectator' of 17th August, Dalyell reports that the three trial judges reached an "absurd conclusion", and that the appeal judges "cannot have been unmindful" that sustaining the appeal "would have made the Scottish legal process the laughing-stock of the world". The logical conclusion of Dalyell's argument is that eight Scottish judges actively conspired to deny justice to a defendant, an absolutely outrageous suggestion, in respect of which very little comment has been passed in the UK media. Whatever else you say about Dalyell, his record as a prophet of disaster is impeccably consistent. From The Gulf War to the War on Terror, he has always been wrong. Dalyell's late father in law, Lord Wheatley, was a Labour Lord Advocate who later became Lord Justice Clerk, the second highest judicial office in the country.
A legal system developed over a thousand years conducted its most controversial and expensive trial in the full glare of exposure. The accused were provided with every resource they needed to defend themselves. Over a hundred years of legal expertise heard and considered the evidence before reaching its verdict. One hundred and sixty years of legal expertise heard and dismissed the appeal. One of the accused was acquitted. It was obviously a showtrial.
Professor Victor Davis Hanson has recently published an excellent article "Our Enemies, the Saudis" in the July-August edition of "Commentary" magazine. His observations on Saudi attitudes towards America reflect perfectly Nelson Mandela's intervention, and I would wish to pay him the compliment of adopting his terminology. By going to see Megrahi and issuing his plea, Nelson Mandela is interfering in the internal affairs of the UK. If he thinks he can do so without comment, Nelson Mandela has too much confidence in his own clout with the British Government.
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In many respects, Mandela is a man truly to be admired. He was never a Martin Luther King. He was prepared to pick up the gun to achieve his goal. In my opinion as a European observer relying on European media, he was probably the only person capable of ensuring that the end of apartheid in South Africa did not degenerate into civil war. The failures of his presidency include failing to deal with HIV/AIDS, gang homicide and the consistent exclusion of South Africa's whites in the labour market, which is robbing that country of its skill base at an unsustainable rate. A meaningful critique of his record as President will only be possible in Europe after his death. To do so now is to be viewed as racist. Nothing is further from the truth. Whatever else, for good or ill Nelson Mandela is loyal. He does not forget those who expressed support for him during his imprisonment. That is why he has received Gerry Adams, exchanges communiqués with Saddam Hussein and meets with Megrahi. Gaddafi's expressions of support for him means that Mandela feels bound to repay the compliment.
That loyalty is also the reason why Mandela's silence over Mugabe's racist pogrom in Zimbabwe is deafening.
It must be very hurtful for one's former colleagues to hear themselves being branded as "unfair" by the UN. The UN, and indeed the whole legal concept of 'Human Rights' are political creations of the late 1940's. The European Convention on Human Rights was signed in 1949 by every non-Soviet bloc European country. Even the Finns, probably the most internationally disengaged nation in Europe at the time, signed it. Obviously no-one wanted the Third Reich again. However, there are three major misconceptions about all Human Rights Conventions, which require to be addressed. The first is that they are frameworks for Government in the mould of the US Constitution. They are not, they are statements of governmental "best practice", to guide governments on how not to mistreat the governed.
The second is that their signatories are bound by their terms at all times under all circumstances, like States to the Constitution. This is incorrect. Signatory countries can specifically defer from the terms of the European Convention "in time of war". This clause enabled the UK to police Northern Ireland without every terrorist arrest being invalidated by the European Court of Human Rights.
The third misconception is that the conventions will protect us from all threats to our security. This is the most dire of all. The theory and practice of 'Human Rights' in Europe began when the threat to European security comprised 80,000 Soviet tanks in East Germany, their guns pointing directly at us. The enemy was in our face. The conventions were drafted with that threat in mind. The end of the Cold War removed that threat. Lockerbie and later 9/11 showed what the new threat is. Every signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights must counsel the re-drafting of the Convention as a matter of urgency. Our governments are not prepared to breach it, and it is insufficient for our security.
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The UN Commission for Human Rights is led by Professor Mary Robinson, former President of the Republic of Ireland. She presided over the UN Conference in Racism in Durban in the first week of September 2001. This conference was characterised by a massive degree of anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli sentiment, culminating with a delegation from the Arab Lawyers Union trying to present her with a cartoon depicting the Star of David as a swastika, at the dinner on the final evening. One would have hoped that in that instant, Professor Robinson would have appreciated just how vile and nasty were the people with whom she was breaking bread. These were not 18 year olds to be tutored in notional concepts of legal theory. These people are committed racists and sectarians, determined to drive the Israelis and Judaism into the sea. One would have hoped that she would have got up and left the room. She did not. She declared, "I am a Jew". She may be able to declare one day that she has braved the bus service in Hebron or tried to go out for a coffee in Tel Aviv but somehow I doubt it.
And yet, after this uncharacteristic display of solidarity with the Israelis, things soon got back to normal at the UN Human Rights Commission. 'Spectator' columnist Mark Steyn, writing in Canada's 'National Post' on April 24th this year reports
"the extraordinary resolution this week by the UN Human Rights Commission which accuses Israel of many and varied human rights violations, makes no mention of suicide bombers, and endorses the movement for a Palestinian state by "all available means, including armed struggle" ---i.e. terrorism. The resolution could have been drafted by the Arab League or the PLO. Forty of the 53 nations on the Commission approved it, including six EU members: Austria, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Only five countries could summon the will to vote against: Britain, Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic and Guatemala. (The US is not a member of the HRC, having been kicked off by a coalition of Euro-Arab Schemers)"
The authorities in Colombia arrested three Irishmen in August 2001, on suspicion of arming and training FARC insurgents. One of the three, James Monaghan, is a twice-convicted IRA bomb-builder. Another, Niall Connolly, is/was Sinn Fein's official delegate to Cuba. FARC are hard left, and are heavily involved in the cocaine trade. They have adopted tactics only previously used by the IRA, and munitions that have been discovered contain technology developed by the IRA. In 2001, they massacred 100 people in a Catholic Church. Mitchell McLaughlin, President of Sinn Fein, has expressed his outrage at comments made by Colombia's Prosecutor General, saying that they may prejudice the three men's chances of a fair trial. The UN Commission for Human Rights may care to note that the office of Prosecutor General in Colombia may be analogous to that of the Lord Advocate in Scotland.
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The "Irish Examiner", Cork's daily broadsheet, carried a letter from the three men's families in its issue of 17th August. Amongst other headings, it conveyed the families' thanks to Commissioner Robinson and her staff for all their help and support over the previous difficult twelve months. The population of the Republic of Ireland is overwhelmingly Catholic, and able to pray undisturbed.
Mary Robinson is due to retire from her post next year. In the interests of good taste, she should be urged to do so quietly, without any proclamation of alleged successes, lucrative book deals or lecture tours. Her pension of approximately $59,000 p.a. will be paid by UN members including Israel and Colombia. Mark Steyn, in "The Spectator" of 7 September reports that Libya has been appointed to the chair of the Commission for Human Rights, which seems to have escaped the attention of all of the UK's broadcast media.
And Abdelbaset el-Megrahi, mass-murdering airline bomber, languishes in the hellhole of the most secure and comfortable prison facility ever built in Scotland. What he, the Libyans, Nelson, Mary and Tam cannot understand is why he was caught. He was caught because he was lazy.
In 1988, Megrahi was Libyan Intelligence Officer in Malta, using Valletta airport as cover. The Toshiba radio bomb used to destroy the Clipper Maid of The Seas may have been manufactured by the late and unlamented Marwan Khreesat, a Palestinian James Monaghan.
To further hide the device, Megrahi thought it would be a good idea to wrap the bomb in clothing. Valletta Airport has two clothing shops nearby. One is a department store that sells mass produced, untraceable clothing, the other is called "Mary's House". Mary's House sells very selective and easy to trace children's clothing. Mary's House is nearer the airport. Megrahi chose Mary's House. Its owner, Tony Gauci, identified Abdelbaset el-Megrahi as the purchaser of clothing found around the bomb to the satisfaction of three judges of first instance, and five judges on appeal. Tony Gauci has been subject to a disgraceful campaign of innuendo surrounding his capability as a witness and his motives for giving evidence, which will probably go on for the rest of his life.
Ultimately, Abdelbaset el-Megrahi was caught because he couldn't be bothered walking down the street. And Ahmed Jibril has just been named as another suspect.
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