Watching Newsnight right now from London and it has the rare opportunity for me to see Alex Salmond in action.
The reason is due to Lockerbie being the top UK story for the evening as Senator Robert Menendez, the Senator in charge of the review into BP's involvement (if any) in the release of Al-Megrahi, is suggesting that he may come to the UK to find answers to his questions.
It really has been maddeningly unclear what questions the US has left to ask as they have received quite substantial answers from both the Scottish Government and Ministers from the last Government. Thankfully those questions were put forward by Senator Menendez:
What were the circumstances regarding Megrahi's release?
What involvement did BP play in his release?
How did the doctors get it so wrong?
All of the above have been answered many times before so the madness continues it seems.
The point was made to Senator Menendez by Newsnight's Gavin Esslier that he should perhaps just believe First Minister Alex Salmond when he says there was no BP involvement in the decision to release Megrahi and leave it at that. This was dismissed with the suggestion that the Scottish Government was lobbied by those acting directly or indirectly on behalf of BP.
Alex Salmond then appeared in person and stressed the point many times that he and his officials are not answerable to the US Senate so will not be travelling out there to answer questions that have already been answered. Furthermore, if Senators visit Scotland then they will be extended the courtesy of a meeting but an American hearing will not be being held in London or in Edinburgh.
Moving on to the representations made on behalf of BP, Salmond was clear that any such request, apparently made by a Tory peer, was one of a thousand representations and was rebuffed immediately with official responses from Kenny MacAskill and the decision was taken on judicial grounds.
Over the course of the segment the decision to free Al-Megrahi was shown to be, as has always been clearly the case, a clear cut decision and one made following Scots Law and the Justice Secretary's judgement.
Barack Obama and numerous Senators may not like it, but they are going to have to learn to lump it. That lesson looks likely to be some way off yet if they are preparing to fly out here for answers to unnecessary questions.
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5 comments:
The problem the senators have got is that what they want "explained" appears to be the following - a) what is the nature of the link between BP and Megrahi's release, b) why was tainted medical evidence used, and c) who is the guilty party that allowed all this to happen. Unfortunately, the answers are - a) there is no link, b) the medical evidence wasn't tainted, and c) there is no "guilty" party because the decision to release Megrahi was absolutely proper and followed due process to the letter. Those answers Do-Not-Compute, so they just keep repeating the same moronic questions over and over again - it's a "when did you stop beating your wife, Mr Scotchman?" type of inquiry they've got in mind.
im planning the welcoming committe now
I'm no sycophant, but I thought Salmond gave Gavin Esler a bit of a going over last night.
Otherwise I really thought the programme was dreadful, quite dreadful. It did not ask the questions it should have done (which fortunately Salmond posed, i.e. if you really want to find out what was offered, why not ask Blair and and Gaddafi to come; after all, it was their 'deal').
It's sad day when the national BBC comes to this.
I like the specificity of the senator's questions. "What were the circumstances regarding Megrahi's release?", indeed.
This may continue right up until the US elections in November. Then magically disappear.
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