From Friday, 24 October 2008 SUBJECT: PAN AM 103 BOMBER HAS INCURABLE CANCER; LIBYANS SEEK HIS RELEASE
From Wednesday, 28 January 2009 SUBJECT: PAN AM BOMBER AL-MEGRAHI: THE VIEW FROM TRIPOLI
From Sunday, 23 August 2009 SUBJECT: QADHAFI PERSONALLY WELCOMES LOCKERBIE BOMBER
From Monday, 24 August 2009 SUBJECT: SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT HOLDS EMERGENCY SESSION AS DEBATE OVER MEGRAHI DECISION REACHES FEVER PITCH
From Wednesday, 28 October 2009 MFA OFFICIAL: QATAR'S INVOLVEMENT IN AL-MEGRAHI RELEASE STEMMED FROM ARAB LEAGUE REQUEST TO QATAR AS ARAB LEAGUE PRESIDENT
Thanks LPW. I've linked from my feeble Wikileaks posts to your (more nodal) information...
ReplyDeleteThis from LONDON 002673 (24th October 2008)
ReplyDelete"Although Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill would normally make the final decision, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond told Jack Straw that he will make the final decision in this case. Salmond told Straw that he would make the decision based on humanitarian grounds, not foreign policy grounds;"
This CLEARLY shows that the SNP Scottish Govt was saying the same in public as they were in private (unlike the UK and US govts).
This was almost a year prior to Al Megrahi's release and shows consistency and integrity.
Vo4Own
ReplyDeleteHas there been any corroboration of the statement coming from one Jack Straw that AS said that he alone would take the decision on Al Megrahi?
Corroboration is a fine Scottish legal term which may have slipped past an English legal mind like Straw?
On a side bet, sorry, is there any book on whether wee Tommy get get off Scot free?
ReplyDeleteOn the claim that Salmond told Straw that his would be the final say - little seems to have been made of it, whether it is truthful or not. Partly, I suspect this is due to the tack taken by opposition parties - which basically insisted at the time and since that Salmond was personally responsible. As such, it is a bit difficult to seize on this evidence and criticise him for it.
ReplyDeleteMekQuarrie,
ReplyDeleteIts one of the grand things about the intertexuality of the t'internet - we can overleap press mediation and compression of stories and examine texts like these cables ourselves.
LPW
ReplyDeleteI am not criticising Salmond. I ma saying that Straw's words may be at fault.
I could believe that Salmond said he would have the last word on the matter, which is not the same as saying he would take the decision.
"Salmond told Straw that he would make the decision based on humanitarian grounds, not foreign policy grounds"
the he here is MacAskill, not Salmond?
Weasly Straw, again?
Indeed Bugger,
ReplyDeleteI wasn't taking you to be criticising Eck - but my point is that others, I imagine, might have attempted to do so on the basis of that passage. You are bang on - that "he" is potentially exceedingly unclear.
The "Salmond's last word" thing hasn't really been played up - for good reason. The cable was a paraphrase of Straw's paraphrase, which wouldn't even pass for hearsay in a JP's court. Personally, I like to think of Salmond in the rôle of Louise XIV (alors!) where he was explaining that authority to make the decision lay with l'etat d'Scotland, and this was represented by him as head. 'Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteL'état est le grand guignol?
ReplyDeleteSalmond est Le Gros Poisson, n'est ce pas..?
ReplyDeleteIn law, of course, the Sturgeon is the Royal Fish - the Crown's prerogatives, as I recall, also extending to whales...
ReplyDeleteWhales, eh?
ReplyDeleteI suppose we have a beached pod of them on the opposition benches at Holyrood.
A Royal Sturgeon, eh? Just don't tell Nicola...
ReplyDeleteYou fear she'll turn into a fearful Regal tyrant MekQuarrie?
ReplyDelete