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Lockerbie Part of a Bigger Story
Libya's Moammar Khadaffy, once branded "the mad dog of the Middle East" by Ronald Reagan, is celebrating 40 years in power in spite of a score of attempts by western powers and his Arab "brothers" to kill him.
In 1987, I was invited to interview Khadaffy. We spent an evening together in his Bedouin tent. He led me by the hand through the ruins of his personal quarters, bombed a year earlier by the U.S. in an attempt to assassinate him. Khadaffy showed me where his two-year old daughter had been killed by a 1,000-pound bomb.
"Why are the Americans trying to kill me, Mister Eric?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.
I told him because Libya was harbouring all sorts of anti-western revolutionary groups, from Palestinian firebrands to IRA bombers and Nelson Mandela's ANC. To the naive Libyans, they were all legitimate "freedom fighters."
Last week, a furor erupted over the release of a dying Libyan agent, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of the destruction of an American airliner over Scotland in 1988.
Hypocrisy on all sides abounded. Washington and London blasted Libya and Scotland's justice minister while denying claims al-Megrahi was released in exchange new oil deals with Libya.
The Pan Am 103 crime was part of a bigger, even more sordid story. What goes around comes around.
1986: Libya is accused of bombing a Berlin disco, killing two U.S. servicemen. A defector from Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, claims it framed Libya. Khadaffy demands Arabs increase oil prices.
1987: The U.S. tries to kill Khadaffy but fails. Eighty-eight Libyan civilians die.
1988: France wages a secret desert war with Libya over mineral-rich Chad. France's secret service, SDECE, is ordered to kill Khadaffy. A bomb is put on Khadaffy's private jet but, after Franco-Libyan relations abruptly improve, the bomb is removed before it explodes.
1988: The U.S. intervenes on Iraq's side in its eight-year war against Iran. A U.S. navy Aegis cruiser, Vincennes, violates Iranian waters and "mistakenly" shoots down an Iranian civilian Airbus airliner in Iran's air space. All 288 civilians aboard die. Then vice-president George H.W. Bush vows, "I'll never apologize ... I don't care what the facts are."
The Vincennes' trigger-happy captain is decorated with the Legion of Merit medal for this crime by Bush after he becomes president. Washington quietly pays Iran $131.8 million US in damages.
Five months later, Pan Am 103 with 270 aboard is destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland. The U.S. and Britain pressure Scotland to convict al-Megrahi, who insists he is innocent. Serious questions are raised about the trial, with claims CIA faked evidence to blame Libya.
Some intelligence experts believe the attack was revenge for the downing of the Iranian airliner, carried out by Mideast contract killers paid by Iran. Serious doubts about al-Megrahi's guilt were voiced by Scotland's legal authorities. An appeal was underway. Libyans believed he was a sacrificial lamb handed over to save Libya from a crushing U.S. and British-led oil export boycott.
1989: A French UTA airliner with 180 aboard is blown up over Chad. A Congolese and a Libyan agent are accused. French investigators indict Khadaffy's brother-in-law, Abdullah Senoussi, head of Libyan intelligence, with whom I dined in Tripoli. Libya blames the attack on rogue mid-level agents but pays French families $170 million US.
I believe al-Megrahi was probably innocent and framed. Scotland was right to release him. But Libya was guilty as hell of the UTA crime, which likely was revenge for France's attempt to kill Khadaffy.
Pan Am 103 probably was revenge for America's destruction of the Iranian Airbus. In 1998, Britain's MI6 spy agency tried to kill Khadaffy with a car bomb.
In the end, the West badly wanted Libya's high grade oil. So Libya bought its way out of sanctions with $2.7 billion US total in damages. The U.S., Britain, France and Italy then invested $8 billion US in Libya's oil industry and proclaimed Khadaffy an ally and new best friend.
Happy birthday, Moammar.
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Show AllIsn't secrecy grand? Good decisions can only be made based on the truth and knowledge of the facts. So long as secrecy is seen as imperative to national security, we will never, as a people, be able to participate in the decision making process. In fact, we have no say in how the majority of our tax money is spent. This revolution that is needed in the United States, is not just a revolution of the mind. It calls for the rapid dismantling of all secret organizations. Truth and transparency must permeate all governmental agencies, as well as, all corporate enterprises. What the FED is saying, regarding their need for secrecy, should be justification alone for abolishing this sham from our shores. These secret organizations think nothing of killing anyone in their way. How will this dismantling be accomplished? Our entire government and economy is now completely shrouded in secrecy. They have all the money and all the weapons. Isn't this called Checkmate?
Sioux Rose
WAYOUT: Good post. Interestingly enough I just used the check-make analogy on the Peter Dreier thread!
I'd like to add the spiritual ingredient of forgiveness to the mix. I remember Speilberg's film on the sabotage that occured at the Olympics (in Germany, if I recall correctly), and these types of things become farcical tit-for-tat dangerous games. And no one ever "wins." The violence escalates and generally takes down innocent citizens who are "standing in the way" of deadly games of retaliation.
The impulse to "get back at," and/or "even the score," is one that generates from the lowest of chakras, a/k/a "lower mind." All of the master teachers relate the importance of letting go, allowing for a higher justice to prevail, as opposed to getting ensnared in ego-based games that only succeed in maintaining a perpetual escalation of violent force. It never solves anything, and it always makes clear that "he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword." It is maddening to live on a planet where so many are left to die of illness or starvation, but there is always an open treasure chest when it comes to designing, implementing, or utilizing the tools of destruction. These are NOT sane priorities, and any who abide by them may be considered "normal" in a society that has deviated from the remotest pretense of the faintest respect for life. However insane is as insane does. And it poses quite a task for the rest of us to re-orient the vehicle that's driven by vengeance foremost onto a new ideological pathway.
Its not checkmate as its not chess where everything is above board and visible. More like an advanced stage of a Monopoly game.
Must agree though about dismantling secret organizatins.Would dismantling all secret organizations include the not exactly transparant Democrats and Republicans?
RandB
The main premise is that information is necessary to make sound decisions. Increase transparency in every facet of our society, and we can expect much improved outcomes. I'm sticking to my Checkmate analogy. Transparency, or not, I fail to see the next move. Enlighten me. It could be my lack of imagination.
I must agree with your main premise Wayout. Transparency is what is needed for improved outcomes as we are not short of the minds needed to work with the information. As Dee Hocks says "the most abundant, least expensive, most underutilized and constantly abused resource in the world is human ingenuity . . .".
When it comes to having the resource of human ingenuity we are far far wealthier than the accumulators and hoarders. When we figure out how how to organize and use that wealth it will not be difficult for us to dramatically reduce the power of the accumulators and hoarders.
A possible next move would be to figure out how to create democratically run and transparent political parties and organizations that are difficult to impossible for powerful interests to buy and corrupt. Then launch such parties and organizations and work to convince people that it is madness to expect that secrative, top-down parties will run democracies democratically and for the people.
Another possible move would be to work to emancipate the corporations so that corporations cannot own other corporations. So only humans can own corporations. This would reduce the power of the corperations, attack their argument that they are legal persons by recognizing that legal corporate persons should not be owned by other legal corporate persons. No slave corporations, just one level of ownership by human persons with the ownership and structure made public where we can see it.
Sorry RandB,
I remained unconvinced by "possible next moves." Here's how I see it. There are two sides here. One side has unlimited funding, most of the weaponry, all of the homeland security force, the tasers, the torture cells, the jails, the judicial system, the surveillance apparatus. The other side has the moral high ground, but no organization, no funding, few resources for self defense, and no promise of protection from any quarter whatsoever. In addition, the side with all the power has already illustrated that they are bound by no law, international or domestic, no treaty, no agreement. Our opponents have proven their willingness to operate above and outside the law. And, there have been no consequences for this behavior. I think it is extremely naive and defeatist to suggest that polite and civilized behavior alone will purge these dregs from positions of power. I can't speak anymore on this issue.
@ Wayout
Far be it from me "to suggest that polite and civilized behavior alone will purge these dregs from positions of power." However I will suggest that if we abandon polite and civilized behavour to pursue uncivilized behavior to purge these dregs from power we will soon end up with new dregs in the positions of power unless we have some civilized and difficult to corrupt organization ready to take the reigns of power. These organizations are best planned and built before the purge. Moreover I suggest that in brainpower and ingenuity we far outgun the dregs. They have been quite successful in convincing us that we are defeated and helpless and that they hold all the power. That is a myth. If you are suggesting that polite and civilized behaviour are useless tools in pressuring and constraining our opponents then you are acting as one of their tools helping them maintain that myth, (or perhaps you be playing the position of devil's advocate here?)
RandB,
I have a confession to make. I bailed on the U.S. over three years ago. Every day I live apart from the sociopathic insanity I feel better, and can more clearly see how dysfunctional a human enterprise the U.S. really is. I visit to see family and friends. The minute I leave the U.S. I feel better. I'm sort of sad admitting that, but that's the truth. One strategy that I learned about some time ago, was turning your back on the king. I have not found a better way to satisfy both my intellect and my soul. Besides, I've spent a better part of my life, thinking, reading, speaking and writing, believing that a handful of intelligent, honest, articulate people could help lead us all to a more just, compassionate and free society. I have found very few in the U.S. who really give enough of a shit to turn off the TV and read a few books on a particular subject. And, I have to keep asking myself why the people of the U.S. keep flocking to the idiots, like moths to a flame. I also feel much better knowing that I am not helping to subsidize the war machine. A real believer in peace must adopt some powerful and protective psychological excuses, to continue to pay taxes in the U.S. I don't believe in most myths because I was born skeptical, and believe less of what I hear most each and every passing day. I am mentally more healthy, so that when I do interact with others I am at my best and able to project a more positive and joyful message. Just because I've given up on the U.S., doesn't mean I've given up on life. My attitude improves with each sunrise. Laughter comes more easily. Everyone has their own way of dealing with this crap. I choose this way.
Sioux Rose
WAYOUT: A lot of us would like to follow your example. There could come a time when it becomes too late to get out, although so much of what passes for sound US governance today seems to be following elements from the Nazi playbook. I suppose every "occupied" people prays for a savior or a form of salvation. I certainly agree with you about the powers aimed against any semblance of an informed citizenry. Yet life can still surprise. Perhaps that's another drug that falls under the umbrella of hope.
Sioux Rose: Yes, life can still surprise. Maybe all hope isn't a drug. Any honest claims to hope must be backed up by a realistic and informed intellect. Therefore, some levels of hope can be not only possible, but also quite likely.
Thanks
Congratulations! I bailed out too--18 years ago.
Single best life decision I ever made.
The US is a big pile of steaming bellicose racist horseshit--which for a Native American like myself, was even tougher to swallow than it was or is for the average person of European origin.
I suppose we should start studying the fall of the Berlin wall and the events that led up to it. There might be something we can use here. It would be easier for us as Americans if we had an actual wall to focus our energies and action. As it is the metaphorical wall of the MSM and the cloud of government lies keep the populace fractured and unguided.
I'd love to crack open the files of our stasi and see what evil lurks.
yes, Mr KiNG: we already have the "Patriotic Curtain," as I like to call it; a more insidious and isolating curtain than the "Iron" one ever was. Using media spin and control to manipulate and cull real news and reporting, as well as, having almost total control of all forms of media in this country by seven or fewer corporate monopolies with the money, resources, talent, greed, and sociopathy to make certain Americans in the US never hear the real stories and/or misrepresent all political, social and religious presentations from the evening news to the evening movie.
It would certainly be better to live in a world dominated by compassion, not revenge. Not much hope of that though, not with the current lionisation of warriors and killers and corresponding contempt for healers and peacemakers which is the dominant tone of our global culture. One day our heroes may be life-savers: but currently the "good" guys are dark-souled and unloving superheroes whose main activity is blowing the "bad" guys to smithereens.
Sioux Rose
BRIAR: Your one-paragraph synopsis reflects the entire thesis of a book I just completed. Indeed the ONLY thing that will save our planet is a return to balance, one reinstated between the relative functions of Mars ("the current lionisation of warriors and killers") and those of Venus (the healers and peacemakers).
What you term the "lionisation of warriors" is what I refer to as MARS RULES. There is a plan for our world based on the circle and its 12 specific spiritual gateways, each one giving "birth" to a specific human archetype. Mars was presented dominion when Pantheism was forcibly converted into monotheism thanks to early church elites. Instead of truly reflecting the peaceful teachings of Jesus, the powers of earlier times elected to maintain the old warring ways of Rome, while ingeniously (if diabolically) adding Jesus' name as endorsement. Thus nearly 4000 years of Mars-based conditioning has led to an assymmetric worship of force first, the glorification of armies, the worship of ONLY the masculine side of the Divinity, and an impossible number of wars, each with its own legacy of loss. These ensure a contiuum of violence as "the sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons."
Too many take what history evidences for "proof" of unchanging human nature. I will always argue that history reflects a very specific form of conditioning, one that has effectively cut off our collective left hands, insisted on navigation through one ideological oar. Our boat as a result has circled and made no real spiritual progress, thus the same legacy of problems still confronts mankind. These conundrums cannot be solved by utilizing the "oar" that resonates with cold logic, and masculine force. The feminine oar must be drawn back into the Divine and mundane equation so that with both oars, real progress can be made. The legacy of demonizing women worldwide for centuries, while denigrating their unique form of intelligence, that of a more diffusive intuitive sentience, has cost us.
Moon Dance: The Feminine Dimensions of Time goes into this subject at depth, and is described on my website: www.siouxrose.com
Conundra--plural.
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Hehe Touché... She's just another failed writer/snake oil salesperson, albeit with more pretentious verbiage and references than the ones from the old West.
Those folks many years ago took over one town of the Old West--Santa Fe, New Mexico--very much like a plague of locusts.
Which may be why I am overly sensitive to reading New Age crap on a political commentary site.
I think it was the infamous Nazi Goebbels who said something to the effect of "When I hear the word culture, I want to take out my pistol" (now it would probably be updated to "go postal"?).
After living for ten years in Santa Fe, with so many pathetic lost souls bleating for a quick fleecing and a fix of New Age Spiritual Supermarket merchandise and working 3 jobs waitressing or waitering to pay the inflated costs of Santa Fe rent (admittedly the inflation was caused by all the Hollywood folks who bought or built weekend mansions there--not by the down and outers seeking spiritual solace) while they shopped for the Secret, my trigger finger is still a little itchy.
My intolerance coming to the fore--but also my outrage at the phonies and con artists who bled those poor lost souls dry with their astrospeak and past life pandering and rebirthing routines.
Just another way to keep folks whimpering and helpless so that they hand over their earnings and don't make trouble.
Exactly, Briar!
Reagan vs. Qadaffy wasn't good versus bad, but bad versus worse. You decide which is which.
always learn from eric margolis articles,thanks
"I believe al-Megrahi was probably innocent and framed."
Based on what? Nothing, the evidence was quite clear.
What an apologist.
The evidence was created by us agents. It was fake, false, not credible. Had the Libyan not had cancer his appeal would likely have overturned the verdict. How many times has the prosecution in the states rigged the trial to find an innocent man guilty in order to satisfy the bloodlust of a community? Why do you think the us gov't wouldn't have done the same to damn Libya, when it's far more likely that the Lockerbie bombing was revenge committed by the Iranians...
Hey, Henry, have you read any of the many articles that have flooded the press, particularly in the UK, following the release of al-Megrahi? More than a few of these have cited testimony by British police and retired spies, and others, to the effect that al-Megrahi was railroaded and was indeed innocent. The evidence was not at all "clear" as to any guilt on al-Megrahi's part. Next time, try to inform yourself before letting your instinctive anti-Arabism dictate your response--unless, of course, that is precisely the point you are trying to communicate.
Henry, you are blowing it out your Texas hornpipe again.
There was no evidence.
Airliner explosions occur when there is a high-level "target" on board whom somebody wants silenced. And that is ALWAYS--there are no exceptions.
Nor are they in the case of weird plane crashes and helicopterazos (singularly popular south of the Rio Bravo but more often than not rigged by the CIA.)
Lockerbie may indeed be part of a bigger story. On board that unfortunate flight was Major Charles McKie, who worked for the US Defense Intelligence Agency. He had discovered a CIA team working with Manzur El-Khasser, the Syrian drug dealer (and friend of Ollie North). Word was, he was going to be a whistleblower exposing this team's corruption. How convenient for certain people he was a casualty of a bomb...
I am so grateful for the peaceful, simple, mostly uncomplicated life I have. At times I feel sorry for soul's seemingly stuck in the horror of thirsting for power and money and control of others. If there is such a thing as karma, I would not want to be them.
Khadaffy use to be their thug, so he was demonized as a bad guy, but now that he is our thug he is a good guy.
Which just about sums up this whole sordid drama. Our 'ethics' are determined by the price of crude (currently $70 a barrel).
There may be many mad dogs in the Middle East but few are Arabs.
A lot of truth in those few words, Humbaba.
It seems this all started when we shot down a civilian airliner in '88. Daddy Bush wouldn't apologize??? He is a mass murderer and a piece of sh%t. So to keep the real story out of view they frame Libya...that way no one talks about Pan Am 103 being revenge hit by Iran which prevents a whole can of worms from being opened. The real story here is false-flag attacks and frame-ups. The Mossad figured this out long ago. Kill two US servicemen at a bar in Berlin, blame it on Libya and you get to have American firepower take out your enemy. This tactic culminated in 9-11 WTC attacks which were planned and carried out by Mossad/US interests and blamed on the Muslims. People to be put on trial for this NOW!
I agree, Harry.
But the perps of 9/11 were right about one thing: the ability of the gringos to swallow a whopper the size of the WTC!
Nativetongue, we are the MOST superficial, deaf and blind (by our own pride, greed, ignorance, pettiness, vehemence, viciousness and lack of passion or mercy for anyone or anything); we're too busy here worshipping the name-it-claim-it, thou-shalt-kill (everyone who doesn't believe in Pat's god and that 'mericker has the right to do whatever they want as long as they want to do it!), thou-shalt-not-speak-profane-words-but-it's-ok-to-watch-murder-&-killing-for-entertainment-god, and don't want to be disturbed within our comfort zones--and by golly if you do, look out! Because THEN we really find excuses to wield the wrath of "Mericker (as g.w. b. calls, America)!
YES, YOU'RE RIGHT, HUMBABA, I THINK THAT MOST OF THE REAL MAD DOGS IN THE MIDDLE EAST HAVE BEEN FROM THIS COUNTRY--GREEDY AND VICIOUSLY-EVIL MANIPULATORS INTERESTED ONLY IN MONEY AND POWER.
From the first time I heard about al-Megrahi's release on BBC, I had this feeling that there must be more to this story than what was being put out. The UK government was feigning helplessness over what was supposedly a "Scottish" decision. Yeah, right! My own suspicion is that they must have got some solid proof (or maybe they had it all along) that this was not the guy responsible for the bombing. And now releasing him would only help "relationship" with Libya. One can never have too many friends, right? Especially if the "friend" happens to have oil in his country. And especially if such friends are being actively courted by others such as China. You certainly don't want to be left out of the party. Same with all the arms exports to so-called "rogue states". If we don't, someone always will. So it's really a dilemma. Eric Margolis builds a nice timeline of events - you really don't need much else to understand the storyline.
From http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/hoax.html:
According to Victor Ostrovsky, a defector from Israel's secret service, Mossad, Israel decided to mount a false flag operation designed to further discredit Libya, and provoke the US to attack an Arab nation. A transmitter loaded with pre-recorded messages was planted in Tripoli, Libya, by a Mossad team.
The `Trojan Horse' beamed out fake messages about Libyan-authorized bombings and planned attacks that were immediately intercepted by US electronic monitoring. Convinced by this disinformation that Libya was behind the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco in which a US soldier died, President Ronald Reagan ordered massive air attacks on Libya, including an obvious- and illegal (under US law) attempt to assassinate Qadaffi himself. Some 100 Libyan civilians were killed, including Qadaffi's two year old daughter. Libyan officials had no idea why they were attacked.
It is worth remembering the motto of the Mossad is, "By way of deception, thou shalt do war."
And, don't forget, there were 5 Mossad agents dancing on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River as the towers came tumbling down......Yes, they were arrested by the police........but were sent home by the FBI.........And, how about those Mossad agents that were living two blocks from two of the alleged terrorists in Florida.
Success could have only happened with explosives. Sorry, there is scientific proof. And, "The Power Elite" claimed that the operation was cost effective when you have the taxpayers footing the costs with lives and money.
I always believed that the U.S. intentionally downed that Iranian Airliner to provoke an Iranian Attack on the U.S. ship....Instead, the Iranians sought a cease fire with Iraq........OIL IS THE ONLY REASON the United States is in Afghanistan and Iraq.........
GOD have mercy on us for the evil things we have done to other countries and to our own people !!!!!!!!
National security is code for none of your ......business. We the corrupt will do whatever , whenever, so shut up and pay your taxes. JFK spoke to this issue years ago and you know the rest of the story.
Energy, particilarly oil, has a huge role in this. Just as Britain's share of the the North Sea oil fields coming on line in the 70's allowed the nation to be a net exporter of oil beginning in 1981 (it was this plus the successful Falklands campaign which really allowed Maggie Thatcher to move ahead with her "free markets" reform) the reverse will also be true. British oil production in the North Sea peaked around 1999 and subsequently Britain is now a net oil importer once again. The ramifications of this are huge and troubling times are ahead for Great Britain due to their oil status.
This is why foreign oil deals need to made and is one huge reason why (of a few no doubt) the Lybian was released. Lybia, while not having massive reserves like the Saudis, Iranians and Iraqis, do have some of the lightest sweetest crude on the planet. Their oil, along with Nigeria (also some of the lightest sweetest crude) is extremely important. Also important is the geography, where these nations are located.
This is yet another article on the "Lockerbie bombing" to add to my set of bookmarks on this topic!
It's short, but still a very good article. We definitely know that the US, UK and France have been extremely guilty in all of this history against Libya or its government (and its population).
I also appreciate the article for what it adds about the US Vincennes shooting down the Iranian Airbus in 1988, five months before the "Lockerbie bombing", telling us of how GHW Bush treated the incident in a wholly rogue, undeniably criminal (extremely, totally) manner.
Interesting is the timing of the shooting down of the Iranian Airbus, right when the US was present in the Persian Gulf and aiding Iraq in the war with Iran. Perhaps that timing could've caused some members of the Vincennes to think the Airbus was actually an attack plane, but the crew officers should've nevertheless been able to distinguish between a commercial passenger plane and a military one that could attack; I think (?).
I see the suggestion that Lockerbie was an act of revenge. Nowhere do I see anyone saying whether or not it was a valid act of revenge. Knowlingly blowing up a civilian aircraft is different from accidently shooting one down.
Revenge is never a 'valid' act, it only fosters more of the same.
That being said, the shooting down of an Iranian Airbus that was in Iranian airspace at the time was not an 'accident'. At best it was gross incompetence, at worst a crime against humanity. There is/was no way for that act to have been justified in any way.