Who was responsible for the Lockerbie terrorist attack?

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi was found guilty of the atrocity but suspiciously released early. Meanwhile the finger of suspicion has often been pointed at Syria, The Australian  has resurrected this story with its report that:

'ALLEGATIONS that police plotted to mislead the original inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing, resulting in a wrongful conviction, have been passed to official investigators.

The file being considered by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission claims that evidence gathered at the scene of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people, was lost or destroyed.

False evidence, it is alleged, was then provided to incriminate Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan agent convicted of the atrocity at a trial in The Netherlands in 2001.

According to the file, the police investigation of Megrahi was "reverse-engineered" with evidence provided to match the thesis that he was guilty.
...
The surrender of suspects by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was a key element in British Prime Minister Tony Blair's dealings with Tripoli. This led to the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Libya in 1999, after a 15-year hiatus.

The commission's report is expected to include allegations by Megrahi's defence team that crucial statements made to police by Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper who sold the Lockerbie bomber clothing which was later found wrapped around the bomb, were withheld by the prosecution.

Mr Gauci's statements are believed to have implicated Mohammed Abo Talb, a terrorist with links to the Iranian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, one of the early suspects for the Lockerbie bombing.

The commission is also said to be in possession of a press statement, prepared by Dumfries and Galloway police in 1990, which named members of the PFLP-GC as its chief suspects but which was never released.
Talb is serving life in Sweden for bombing an airport in Denmark, but was a free man operating in Europe in 1988.
...
It adds weight to claims that it was "politically unacceptable" to pursue the PFLP-GC when the 1991 Gulf War made it necessary to maintain good relations with Iran and Syria.'

I remember Private Eye producing a special investigation report that fingered the true culprits of the Lockerbie atrocity, maybe I should dig that out... The involvement of Tony Blair and maybe Peter Mandelson in rehabilitating Libya and creating trade links with that country is something that needs investigation; to my mind something smells...

NotaSheep comes to the support of Bob Ainsworth

Private Eye have put Bob Ainsworth's slightly odd remark that "Let's not take our bridges before they've been erected." into Colemanballs. I can hardly believe that I am saying this but could it be that Bob Ainsworth was trying to recall an old REME saying that the army can't create a bridgehead until REME have built the bridge. I have jumped to the support of a Labour Minister, I feel somehow dirty.

Private Eye get it horribly wrong

Private Eye has been my friend and advisor for so many years now that I feel distraught to report a massive error in the current edition (Eye 1240 10 July - 23 July). The factual error appears in the normally authoritative "Poetry Corner" where E.J. Thribb (17.5) has been writing "In Memoriam" pieces for many years. The mistake, and it's a big one, is in this stanza

"Private Sponge
Had no catchphrase
And never spoke"

Of course the key think to know about Private Sponge was that he was the only one of the non main members of the platoon to have any lines. There were not many lines and they were not particularly funny. Even Wikipedia records that "the long-suffering Sponge had few lines, but was a recognisable member of the platoon for most episodes in the series."

I hope that this error will be rectified in the next issue of Private Eye or myself and Lord Gnome will be having words; I know his donkey...

Gordon Brown makes his first appearance in Private Eye in 1984

"Dr Gordon Brown

The new Labour member for Dunfermline East, Dr Gordon Brown, is typical of the brand of mediocre, middle-class careerists who make up an increasing proportion of the undistinguished lobby-fodder and whom Labour habitually returns from Scotland, though he has greater academic pretensions than most.

Brown shot to provincial fame on being elected as Edinburgh University’s first student Rector in the late 1960s and ever since his ambition has outstripped his ability. Although, in a tribute, his old history tutor Dr Paul Addison has stated that Brown was “always more than a swot”, it appears that he lacked certain essential social graces. He never fully recovered from his rejection as suitor by the lovely Princess Marguerita of Romania (who works as a computer programmer in the University’s Computer Department) and ever since has devoted himself obsessively to his political career.

Before becoming Labour’s Scottish Chairman (a meaningless appointment made on the “Buggins’ Turn” principle) Brown worked on a series of current affairs documentaries for Scottish TV which were so excruciatingly dull that he was mercifully taken off the air (he has two brothers in the Scots media).

Once again he has been exceeding his limitations in his new role as a Scots lackey in the outer limits of Kinnock’s kitchen cabinet. A recent Sunday Times article which he had ghosted for the new labour leader had to be withdrawn as “hopeless” by Kinnock’s press officer, Patricia “Harpie” Hewitt.

In June, Brown will enjoy a three-week CIA freebie trip to the USA (he will get $60 a day pocket money while out there.) Kinnock felt obliged to approve this unfashionable hostage to fortune because he himself had been on a similar trip some years ago."

Christopher Silvester proving to be very perceptive back in 1984. It is just a shame that the Labour party couldn't spot Gordon Brown's limitations throughout the rest of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It is also interesting that Gordon Brown has benefited from “Buggins’ Turn” much earlier than when he became Prime Minister.

Peter Hain

Private Eye has some worthwhile pieces on Peter Hain, I suggest you get hold of Lord Gnome's organ and have a read. One item that I will repeat is a quote from Peter Hain whilst he was Leader of the House of Commons, he sad this on 26 June 2003 "It is of the greatest importance that the conduct of Members of the House meets, and is seen to meet, the high standards expected by the Wicks committee [on standards in public life], and also by our constituents. Lapses, however rare, are very damaging to public confidence in the House and in our parliamentary democracy. If lapses occur, and are not seen to be tackled with sufficient rigour, the effect is many times worse."

I'll repeat that last sentence "If lapses occur, and are not seen to be tackled with sufficient rigour, the effect is many times worse." Come on then, authorities, Peter wants you to investigate with "sufficient rigour", don't let him down.

Satire?

Private Eye have always satirised the Prime Minister of the day. I have been reading Private Eye since the late 1970s and so remember "Dear Bill" (the letters allegedly written by Dennis Thatcher to Bill Deedes, "The Secret Diary of John Major (aged 47¾)" (the alleged diary of John Major) and "St. Albion Parish News" (the parish newspaper writings of Tony Blair and his team). All very funny but surpassed in terms of believability by "Prime Ministerial Decree" - a weekly "alleged" mock Stalinist decree by the "supreme leader" (Gordon Brown). The dictator hails the "Age of Change" and often attempts to revise history, making harsh attacks on the "discredited regime" of "former Comrade Blair". The current issue's entry is spectacular "Let us remember the immortal words of wisdom enshrined in the Little Brown Book: “When is a Constitution not a Constitution? It is when the Supreme Leader has decreed it to be so, in accordance with the wishes of the People which only he can know... Since I have now been chosen unanimously to express the will of the entire British people, such exercises in pseudo-democratic populism are mere futile charades unworthy of the age of change."

Satire works best when it is believable and this is oh so believable. This issue includes the denunciation of the "Blairite Running Dog Gang of Four" ("the hated, corpulent aristocrat, the self-styled 'Lord Falconer', "the snivelling lickspittle Byers", the "one-time Trotskyite renegade Milburn" and the "obese former Party functionary Clarke". This is a required read.