WHO says the UK Royal Family do nothing? President Muammar al Ghadaffi has personally thanked the Queen and Prince Andrew for releasing Ali al Megrahi the Lockerbie Bomber. I emphasise the word bomber because many convictions have doubts, like his, but until a verdict is overturned he remains a convicted mass murderer.
The British Government are trying to shift the blame for his release onto the Scots and claim no money changed hands. Pull the other one! The precedence was set in 2002 when Libya offered money to compensate for the murders. This was accepted by the US and UK Governments and sanctions lifted. This time only the UK is to get the blood money (in the form of oil Contracts?).
Britain had asked for a quiet repatriation. Some chance! News media say the Government should not have trusted Ghadaffi. Who in his right mind would? He has been a loose cannon all his life. Anyone who sees himself on a rearing steed is to say the least loopy.
This poster was all over Tripoli when I was working there but could I get one. No chance. I got some queer looks when asking for the poster as perhaps the Libyans were not sure I could match the undying adoration (as we were repeatedly told on radio and TV) the whole Libyan Population felt for him. I had to take this photo in secret.
That Megrahi returns a hero and is embraced by the very man who traded him in 2000 for 9 years prison and whose hand he kissed as if the Pope is typical of the tortuous maneuverings of Colonel Ghadaffi and the subservience of his subjects.
The Lockerbie Bomber was met at Tripoli Airport by more than a thousand cheering countrymen waving Libyan and Scottish flags. Where did all these saltires suddenly come from? No doubt the same place as all the posters of Muammar the Lionheart mentioned above. Where did the thousand rapturous welcome committee come from? The same place as the Scottish flags and posters the State Security Apparatus.
The celebrations aren't finished yet. Next week is the 40th anniversary of the Al Fatah revolution and the establishment of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Republic of the Masses). Doesn't anyone in the Foreign Office have a calendar? Ghadaffi discovered the Third International Theory I could never get past page 10 of his turgid work The Green Book (nothing to do Global Warming). Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came to power proselytising The Third Way. Perhaps this was the real purpose of their meetings, three leaders comparing notes on three political ideas? They deserve each other.
Mike Lillico
Playa de Palma