From: Charlie Stross (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Wed Apr 19 2000 - 02:49:39 MDT
On Tue, Apr 18, 2000 at 12:12:40PM -0400, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> > That Omar -- such a naughty boy! Omar Quadaffi? Oh well, whoever he
> > is, he probably has a good block kicking coming, right? Or else why
> > would the U.S. be kicking his blocks? Must be his fault.
>
> Anyone who orders the bombing of a plane carrying hundreds of innocent people
> deserves to get his own house targeted by laser guided bombs...
Question: did he?
I don't believe we have enough evidence to draw that conclusion.
We can be reasonably certain that the Libyan government made lots of loud
declarations in the early seventies about hosting liberation movements,
some of them of an extremely dodgy nature (and some of them rather
less so). And we _know_ that members of some of those organisations
did atrocious things.
We are a little less certain that the Libyan government's own agencies
planted bombs/committed acts of terrorism abroad. Note also that a number
of US proxy states -- notably Israel and the UK -- have gone in for
this sort of action, too, up to and including assassination of foreign
nationals on foreign territory.
But confirmation that Ghadaffi personally ordered foreign planes to be
blown up in flight would be something of a bombshell. It's a bit like
blaming Ronald Reagan, personally, for the shooting down of that Iranian
Airlines DC-10 with nearly 300 passengers on board round about 1986.
And, if you're thinking about Lockerbie, it's worth bearing the alternative
theories in mind. (You know exactly who was _supposed_ to be on board
Pan Am 109, but cancelled his party's reservation an hour before takeoff
and caught the next flight?)
Clue: here in Scotland, 90% of the informed opinion is that the Lockerbie
trial will deliver one of two verdicts -- "not guilty" or "not proven".
-- Charlie
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