Libyan Rebels Refuse To Extradite Any Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Suspects
Any hope that a change in government in Tripoli would bring the people responsible for the bombing for Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland has gone out the window:
TRIPOLI, Libya – The Libyan rebels’ interim government says it will not deport the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
The rebel Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi told journalists in Tripoli Sunday that no Libyan citizen would be deported, even Abdel-Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted in a Scottish court and imprisoned for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.
This comes on top of reports that al-Megrahi himself has disappeared from Tripoli and believed to have gone into hiding with Gaddafi.
So much for the theory that we have any friends among the Libyan rebels.
Even if a new government wanted to extradite a high profile figure, it would presumably consolidate power first.
Extradite him for what? Scotland released him. Sentence done.
Alex,
Conviction in Scotland would not bar his trial in an American court. And there are specific statutes that were in effect in 1985 that would cover this.
Also, if there are other suspects apprehended there would be no bar to trying them anywhere.
Doug,
Has the U.S. sought extradition?
This is an amazingly stupid post. They haven’t even taken power yet and already Mataconis is proclaiming any hope for good relations to be dead?
Just straight up dumb.
So far Michael, these rebels are proving themselves to be untrustworthy. But, I suppose it will be fine since we really only got involved in this thing because the effete Europeans were too weak to defend their own interests
@Alex Knapp:
We don’t have an extradition treaty with Libya. And they surely would not have extradited the leader of their country.
@Doug Mataconis:
So far they haven’t proven themselves to be anything. They’re still fighting. We don’t even know who is in charge yet.
You know, Doug, you’ve been wrong about every part of this from the very start. Remember telling us Obama would never get UN support? Remember when you were telling us the rebels were hopeless and couldn’t win? Remember when you were telling us they were Al Qaeda? Remember how it would be a quagmire, and we’d have to send in troops, and all the rest of your fact-free “analysis?”
You haven’t been right yet. And now — without even knowing who these guys are, or what kind of government they’ll form, or a single thing about them — you’re throwing up your hands and saying, “See? I told you so: they’re bad, bad people.”
They may be bad people. But given your record to date on Libya don’t you think you might want to hold off for a few weeks at least? Or are you hoping to hold onto your record for being 100% wrong?
Michael,
I believe the American intervention in Libya to be unjustified regardless of the results because our national interests were not implicated and we have no right to intervene in the affairs of sovereign nations just because we don’t like their government. The fact that Gaddafi was removed does not change that one bit.
My “record on Libya” is opposing a war that we had no right to be involved in to begin with, begun by a President who arrogantly refused to seek Congressional approval for his decision, instead believing that effete diplomats at the United Nations were the only people he needed to convince.
@michael reynolds:
We probably won’t know much until after the dust settles. “They” are probably far from being a unified force, except in opposition to the leader-in-hiding, and who knows what will happen once he is dead or vanquished?
That hasn’t stopped him yet, so why start now? IMO, this tendency to say something/ anything even when it adds nothing to the sum of knowledge has become more pronounced in recent months. That’s too bad, because Doug used to be far more interesting.
Perhaps useless posts like this are a side-effect of Palin Derangement Syndrome.
@Doug Mataconis:
In other words you’re justified in writing nonsense so long as it supports your position? You’re not interested in the truth, just restating your opposition? Should we assume this is your standard across-the-board?
You’ve written a fair number of posts on Libya. In those posts you’ve made various claims and predictions, and those claims and predictions have thus far been wrong. They don’t get less wrong just because you restate your opinion that we never should have gone in. It’s like saying you opposed WW2 therefore we must have lost. It’s ideology ahead of fact.
No one denies that you have a right to your position. But you don’t have a right to make up “facts” to support your position. That’s not analysis, it’s just propaganda. At that point your writing becomes worthless.
I think you are a very confused guy. You need to step back and ask yourself what you’re doing, what you’re writing and why. You need to ask yourself whether the truth matters to you, or whether you’re just a hack. You have the intelligence, you have the talent, you certainly have the work ethic and energy. You don’t have to reduce yourself to shilling for untenable ideology, or justifying your own errors in analysis. Truth first, everything else second.
@michael reynolds:
Your condescension isn’t appreciated. I find it interesting that your response didn’t even bother to address what I wrote in my response to you. It just attacked me.
What part of “I don’t think American intervention in Libya was justified regardless of the result” don’t you understand?
As for my previous posts about Libya, all of those were based upon the available facts. Not all of us have your apparent gift for prescience
I disagree with your analysis and conclusion on this one.
They say he was “welcomed as a hero”, but they failed to mention that he was welcomed not as a “hero” who did Lockerbie, but as someone who was framed.
I tend to think it quite likely they got the wrong guy too. The Hezb’allah connection looks much more plausible to me. However, that’s not the key point, which is that the Libyans from day one have been told he was framed and convicted on bad evidence and they sincerely believe it.
Michael,
Here’s some more about those friendly Libyan rebels:
Animals, nothing but animals
@Doug Mataconis:
This is a really bizarre line:
They are shaking out the end-game of a bloody civil war. They unlikely have control of the whole country, or even of groups nominally on their own side. In the midst of that, what is this “trust” of which you speak?
Did you trust them? Why? Or what commitment (to you?) do you think they failed, to make them “untrustworthy?”
@Doug Mataconis:” Yeah, Michael, it’s an article of my Libertarian faith and not to be challenged. It is metaphysically true even if it is false–because I believe it and will not be persuaded otherwise.
Hope that helps you resolve the argument, Doug. Sometimes a simple statement of one’s faith is all that is necessary.
Anyone using the word “effete” multiple times in one thread is, in my opinion, trying to overcome something Doug.
But there is help available, and you’ve obviously got the time so avail yourself.
@Doug Mataconis:
I didn’t respond to argument because you didn’t make one. You often don’t.
You start with They’re completely untrustworthy because they won’y give up al-Megrahi.
And when challenged you defend this by saying, I never did like this war.
The two statements are not connected. No argument was made. On the contrary it was embarrassing. What did you think I was going to say? “Well then, case closed by your non sequitur!”
Nor does a single atrocity prove your point. You want to do some big boy analysis? I’ll give you something to watch for. The guys in Sirte — Gaddafi’s home town — are negotiating with the rebels. If anyone, anywhere has reason not to trust the rebels, it’ll be them. If a negotiated surrender occurs that will tell us something. If revenge killing is going to take place on a wide scale, we’ll most likely see it there.
Meanwhile, it turns out al-Megrahi is all-but-dead and no one would extradite him — not even us.
By the way, if anyone should have sent him to the US it’s the Scots. Are they on the list of people who have proven themselves untrustworthy?
@michael reynolds:
It’s the naive people who think that these rebels are Libyan freedom fighters and that the future of Libya will be some grand democracy that really crack me up, Michael. You’re hoping for something that hasn’t happened anywhere in the Arab world yet.
As for the future of Libya, as long as they don’t threaten our interests, I really have no concern about it and I don’t want my country involved in deciding it.
@A voice from another precinct:
Please, enlighten me. How is my opinion wrong? You may disagree with it, that’s your right. But, unlike you apparently, I don’t want my country going around the world fighting wars for other people’s freedom.