Clinton
repeats Lockerbie stance - 19 August
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has reiterated her opposition
to the possible release of the Lockerbie bomber from prison in
Scotland. - BBC News website
Strong
words from the FBI - 22 August
The FBI director has mounted a scathing attack on the Scottish
justice secretary over the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber
Abdulbaset al-Megrahi. - BBC News
website
Minister
defends Lockerbie advice - 31 August
Scotland's justice secretary has defended the quality and range of
medical advice he received before his decision to free the Lockerbie
bomber. Kenny MacAskill released Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who has
terminal cancer, on compassionate grounds - a move criticised by
some victims' families. Opposition MSPs have questioned whether he
consulted appropriate specialists. But Mr MacAskill told BBC
Scotland that numerous prostate cancer specialists and
consultants were involved. - BBC
News website
Lockerbie
papers to be published - 1 September
The Scottish Government is due to publish documents it says justify
the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate
grounds. - BBC News website
Compassionate
release in Scotland : the actual policy and the law - 2
September
The Scottish Government today released a fair amount of background
documentation on the decision to grant compassionate release to
Megrahi (better indexed, I think, here on BBC Scotland).
There are still a number of documents which for one reason or
another haven’t been published, such as the representations made
by the US government, for which the US Embassy refused permission.
The full text of Scottish Government policy on compassionate release
has not however, I think, been made public. Thanks to a
correspondent who sent me a copy of this, it is now published on
this site. It is much fuller than the summary of the policy in the
Justice Secretary's statement, though I emphasise that the summary
was fair and accurate. - Jonathan
Mitchell SC on his blog
Inconvenient
truths - 21 June 2007
On 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was 38 minutes into its
journey when it was blown up at 31,000 feet. The explosion was so
powerful that the nose of the aircraft was torn clean off. Within
three seconds of the bomb detonating, the cockpit, fuselage and No.
3 engine were falling separately out of the sky. It happened so
quickly that no distress call was sent out and no oxygen masks
deployed. With the cockpit gone, the fuselage depressurised
instantly and the passengers in the rear section of the aircraft
found themselves staring out into the Scottish night air. Anyone or
anything not strapped down was whipped out of the plane; the change
in air pressure made the passengers’ lungs expand to four times
their normal volume and everyone lost consciousness. As the fuselage
plummeted and the air pressure began to return to normal, some
passengers came round, including the captain. A few survived all the
way down, until they hit the ground. Rescuers found them clutching
crucifixes, or holding hands, still strapped into their seats. The
fuselage of the plane landed on a row of family houses in the small
Scottish town of Lockerbie. The impact was so powerful that the
British Geological Survey registered a seismic event measuring 1.6
on the Richter scale. - Essay by Hugh Miles on the London
Review of Books website