THE SPECTATOR: The Spectator on the release of Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi
So who to believe? Saif al-Gaddafi, son of the Libyan dictator, has said that the release of Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi was ‘on the table’ during trade talks with Britain. Lord Mandelson, who was holidaying with the young prince of Tripoli in Corfu a few weeks ago, says such a suggestion is not just wrong but ‘quite offensive’. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, insists it is a ‘slur’ even to suggest that the release of the only man convicted for the Lockerbie bombing would be raised.
As this squalid story has unfolded in the last few weeks, it is becoming all too clear that Megrahi was indeed ‘on the table’. The Libyans were told that Gordon Brown personally wished that Megrahi should not die in a Scottish prison. It is all too typical of the Prime Minister that he has not had the courage to share this view with the British public — we found out via an ambassador, a minister and a declassified document. And this is why the scandal is lasting so long: it offers wider insights into the nature of the government.
Officially, British policy is to encourage Libya to become a responsible actor on the world stage — this has been the case since Gaddafi’s decision six years ago to relinquish weapons of mass destruction that no one had known that he possessed. But the Megrahi affair demonstrates deep flaws in this strategy. If Libya was going to become a genuine partner in fighting terror it should not have been so keen for the return of a terrorist convicted on 270 counts of murder. Nor should the British government bend principles of foreign policy to suit the oil companies hungry for a slice of Libya’s offshore resources. >>> | Wednesday, September 02, 2009
